Posted by: RQL () on Thu Sep 6 13:02:39 2001

Excuse me, I don't want to be rude, but I am frustrated. Rql, Tom, Grc, Joe, Jack to name a few always seem to have an opinion when it comes to hitting, so whay can I not get more responses than I got on my post below? Again, I don't want to sound rude. Afterall, I am the one seeking some advice.But, is any question that does not have to do with top hand torque out-of-bounds? I really would appreciate some feedback to my question below regarding my son's back foot spinning. Thank you
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> Parent-
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> You might be interested in Jack's previous info about rotating around a stationary axis and using both legs for rotation.Another good reference is Mike Epstein's tape.Mike makes the point that good rotation(rotation around a stationary axis) requires separation of the upper and lower half,striding to "balance", and keeping the hands in(circular handpath).If you violate thess rules,it is impossible to rotate around a stationary axis and send energy efficiently into the torso to be sequentially transferred to the bat to create excellent batspeed.If you are not doing all theses things together,you must either "lunge"-shift weight from back past center to front which inhibits rotation and energy transfer to torso or do what your son and all bug squishers do which is keep the weight back and spin on the ball of the back foot.Mike's solution is a series of drills that keep the hanpath controlled by resting the bat on the back upper arm while learning how to stride and rotate the body.Perhaps Jack can give more detail about his approach to "spinning" or what golfers call the "reverse pivot".I just reviewed the classic Bobby Jones golf instruction tapes.He shows that in the absence of good ground up rotation,the body instead sways back and forth instead of rotating(the dreaded linear mechanics),often resulting in the reverse pivot(less often in lunging in golf).The "fix" requires doing a lot of things together the right way(balance,tempo,sequential body rotation,circular handpath,etc)so it's hard to focus on a single cue/quick fix without seeing the big picture.

>>Parent,sorry I missed your post.My best guess is that your son learned squash the bug idea,this spinning only does not allow for proper weight transfer necessary for proper rotation.I think squash the bug was either taken out of context or used as a bad cue.To me the lower body hip action starts when the front heel comes down driving the front hip back right at the same time approx.the rear knee drives forward pulling the rear hip forward so both hips turn as one.This driving of the rear knee is what is important because it will put your balance point right in the middle where it belongs and adds to the torque of the hips,it should also actually bring the rear foot up on the toe instead of the ball of the foot.Your sons spinning and staying on ball of foot and keeping the weight over his rear leg is classic of what I see so often fron instructors teaching squash the bug and don't really know how it relates to the swing.