Posted by: Coach Ab (coachab2@hotmail.com) on Fri Feb 20 08:47:39 2009

Absolutely correct, the momentum from rotation, but what direction is that rotation going? And where does your weight end up???? ZERO WEIGHT IS ON THE BACK LEG! It has to be if the foot is in the air. WHere did the weight start??? ON THE BACK LEG! Break it down. Use RightView Pro or another video analysis software (which I am sure you have) and you can see. You have a degree of forward head movement AFTER footplant in a LOT of good hitters. I am not arguing that rotation doesn't have a big part in that, but I am against these rotational instructors that promote that you actually have some type of negative move or no forward movement at all. That promotes the type of "squish the bug" "spin off" swing that leads to .220 hitters.

Let me try to explain it this way. Where are your hands at foot plant? In the power/launch position with your hands a few inches from your rear shoulder, right? In order to get to the contact point and invariably extension the bat HAS to travel in a circular AND linear/fashion or the term I prefer "ROTATIONAL TRANSFER." That's the ONLY way the bat head can stay in the hitting zone.

Try this:

Get in your best launch position WITH NO STRIDE WHAT SO EVER. Now, initiate the swing with rotation. What do you do? You lead with the front hip, elbow and shoulder. Now, look at your back foot. Is your back foot off the ground? Of course it isn't. It's squishing the bug. I think we all agree that is no good. In order for the rotation to be effective there has to be an initial TRANSFER of some sort--hence rotational transfer. They complement one another!

I guess in my 30 years of playing and coaching, along with extensive video analysis of my teams on the high school and collegiate summer teams I have seen that both true linear and true rotation are both ineffective.

Love the debates though! Ain't talking baseball a blast?


Coach Ab