Posted by: Corey (coreycrowleyhall@gmail.com) on Thu Apr 16 10:20:39 2009

> IT appears to me when most major league hitter take there stride and when there front heel goes down most foward movement has stopped>
> There swings then become rotational.
> Maybe this guy parker wants you to push hard with the back foot creating much force into the front foot, firm up the front leg.and push the weight back hard into the middle with the front foot and leg with the front foot and back foot pushing equally hard the hips have no where to go but in a circle

Parker seems to be advocating throwing your weight onto a firm front leg tilted back, forming your axis around that front leg, then pushing your body's rotation against that such that you fall back towards the catcher. After much effort, I think I finally figured out how physically to do what he's talking about, the question as I see it is whether you maximize rotation and batspeed by putting all your weight on that front leg as Parker advocates, or by keeping a significant portion of your weight (like 40%) back and forming a slightly more vertical axis up through the middle of your body. The ultimate question is whether that back toe elevation Parker focuses on is a result of a large amount of batspeed already generated carrying the body forward effectively post contact, or whether the hitter needs to actively send his weight entirely to the front foot to form a physical axis point with the leg.

I was working with a hitter yesterday who was lifting his toe like that, maybe I only noticed it because I had been thinking about it to begin with, but until yesterday I would have told him he needs to keep his weight back more, instead I'm leaving it alone since thus far I'm coming towards the conclusion that one of two things is right here, either Parker is right, or it doesn't amount to a hill of beans and you can create good rotation both ways. What does seem to be clear is that a lot of the great hitters seem to be using the Parker weight transfer mechanic.