Posted by: Chris O'Leary (chris@chrisoleary.com) on Mon Mar 13 13:34:25 2006

> Though Jack Mankin has made it clear to me that linear movement has no effect on distance hitting, I cannot help but notice the linear movement of Ichiro Suzuki. It appears Ichiro uses a dramatic weight shift combined with a rotational swing in order to pull pitches for homeruns.

I couldn't find any video of Ichiro hitting, but did find this document...

http://www.pitchsmarter.com/101/baseballbiomechanics_ichiroswinginrecordyear.pdf

Ala Jack, I think that Ichiro at most indirectly benefits from his stride (via pres-stretching of muscles) rather than directly benefiting from it.

To a large degree, I say this because his front leg stays closed when he is striding (and he lands with his heel up). That means his stride simply can't be that powerful.

While striding, he does close his shoulders which will stretch the muscles of his lower body and torso and let them then be pulled around (but he doesn't have to stride to do this).

It's interesting to note that his hands move backwards (more than would be due to inertia) during his stride.