Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Thu Jul 12 07:18:36 2001

IMO
> > > > >
> > > > > When you stride, you need to feel like your front foot/leg is stepping out slightly ahead of the top half. Leading with the bottom half as in pitching. Should feel at landing like you have come to a balanced-athletic position.
> > > > >
> > > > > But I agree, weight should not be left on the back side and many kids when instructed constantly to keep their weight back will end up "leaning back" making it difficult to handle low pitches and promoting a very upward path.
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> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > I agree with Tim, though I've started thinking and explaining that forward movement as 'leading with the hips'.
> > > > I mostly teach no-stride. For striders, I like an early stride. From what I've learned from Mike Epstein, I want the hitters to get some weight on to the front foot (after stride or 'internal stride' if no stride) before the front heel drops/ front leg pivots. For me, front heel drop is the trigger AND must be used to drive the front hip back around with the front leg as it straightens. To do this effectively, you must shift some weight onto the front foot before front heel drop. As Tim said, this is done with hip shift.
> > > > Keeping all the weight back turns into squish the bug/back foot spinning all too easily.
> > > > Best results are with a central axis of rotation (the spine). To do this, the front leg drives the front hip back while the back foot turns over and drives the back hip forward - spine is in the center of the turn.
> > > > Any cues about where the weight is, should result in this action.
> > >
> > > I would like to jump on the Tim/Dan bandwagon and in addition mention a couple of points from Nyman and Epstein.
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> > > 1-Don't break the action into discrete parts.The step needs to continue right into the turn.The body has some ability to adjust timing,but this is done automatically after taking many practice cuts.Step AND turn,Don't step THEN turn.-Nyman
> > >
> > > 2-You have to stride to balance and keep the hands in to rotate around a stationary axis(no lunging).Of course,you can't get too much weight forward then rotate(lunging impedes rotation).However,you can't keep weight back either.If you have weight back when you rotate,it either has to then go forward(the amount that is back when rotation begins goes forward with rotation-it can't stay in the middle) or it stays back(never get off backside/reverse pivot/back side collapse).-Epstein
> >
> > >>"Don't break the action into discrete parts.The step needs to continue right into the turn.The body has some ability to adjust timing,but this is done automatically after taking many practice cuts.Step AND turn,Don't step THEN turn.-Nyman"
> > Tom -
> > I'm not clear on what you are saying here. If you step and turn, aren't you a stride-swinger?
> > Every hitter I've seen who turns into their stride can't adjust to off speed pitches. Stride swinging starts in lower age groups where the pitching is so slow the ball is timed before the hitter does anything. At faster speeds this is very dysfunctional.
> > I teach that the front foot catches the weight on the front half of the foot, then heel down triggers the swing. If you stride and turn, most players end up landing flat footed losing the timing mechanism. And since the turn is already happening, you are committing your timing to the release of the ball, not the read.
> > Or am I mistaking what you mean?
>
> Dan-
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> At present,I teach striding onto the toe,but as part of a what feels like a continuous action that goes on into heel drop and turning.I think you still learn to make "automatic" adjustments for timing as long as the front knee is flexed and firm(doesn't give after landing).This "automatic" lower body adjustment may be controlled by what the hands are doing-staying back/adjusting to matching radius.I am not sure how good this thinking is,but I think it is better than teaching a pause at toe touch.How do you conceptualize it?

The kids on my U13 AAU team who stride all seem to fall back into the same bad habit. The stride gets later and later until they are plunking their foot down as they start the swing (and I suspect, striding when it looks like a good pitch @#*%&@#* ).
I keep sending them back to getting the front foot to land and catch their weight BEFORE they decide to swing, then heel drop to initiate the swing.
I think you and I agree on what should be happening. I just see this constant backsliding by my players and I fear that your idea of letting the adjustments happen naturally doesn't always lead to the intended results - at least with my players.
There is a fine line between stride swinging and just-in-time-doing-it-right. I guess I'm erring on the do-it-early-so-you-know-you-did-it side.
Of course U13 boys, even good athletes, are pretty 'dumb' sometimes. They don't remember corrections from atbat to at-bat. They don't remember what we worked on for, oh, the last six months or so as in:
Coach: "What are we working on?"
Player: "uh, ... I don't know"
Coach: "Remember getting the stride done in time to read the pitch?"
Player: "oh, yeah, I remember something about that. But that doesn't feel natural."
etc. [Coach then heads for the Advil....]
This after two hitting sessions per week for months and games on weekends with prep before each at-bat, etc.
So I do teach a pause at toe (ball of foot) touch. To me it is: catch the weight, read, trigger. It should look a lot like what you describe if done right. Not a long pause or wait, but some element of land, read, trigger.