Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Mon Jul 3 10:44:29 2006

>>> Hi Jack

I will give you an drill to measure and identify what I am trying to explain. First take a stride and have your front hip against a table and put an imaginary or drawn line down from the middle of your body on the floor (rotational point)and rotate so that your front hip comes back to that point. Now try to get our weight off your back foot (most major leaguers are seen with their back heel pointing to the sky and their back foot toes either completely off the ground or at least barely touching the ground prior to contact with the ball) while maintaining this rotation around that middle point.

You will SQUISH THE BUG with your back foot. This is not the action that you see in the top hitters.

Now instead of going backward to the middle with your spine rotate your back hip forward towards the table more then what the front hip goes back and you will replicate the heel to the sky and toes up senario. <<<

Hi Dave

I experimented with your drill. With my lead-hip touching the table, I did note that if my lead-leg was straighter under the table, the lead-hip would stay closer to the table during rotation and the back-hip needs to rotate farther forward (like a gate swinging). This caused the back-foot to be more up on the toe.

However, with the launch position I teach, my lead-leg is well flexed under the table. As I initiate rotation, the extension of my lead-leg drives my lead-hip away from the table at the same rate the back-hip rotates forward (like a revolving door).

This clip of a Bonds’ swing -- http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/bonds600.mpeg – closely resembles the lower-body mechanics I use. My back-foot winds up in about the same position as Bonds’ foot. – Study the clip, frame by-frame, and let me know if our back-foot action is what you refer to as “SQUISH THE BUG?”

Jack Mankin