Posted by: Parent () on Mon Sep 10 12:06:25 2001

My 16 year old son hits well for power and average. However he has one flaw that is especially evident on slow motion videotape. He spins on the back foot. I have noticed that big leaguers sort of pivot on the instep portion of the ball of the foot. As a matter of fact many seem to almost pivot on the outside part of the big toe. My son can't seem to duplicate this. When his stride foot lands, he immediately brings weight on the ball of the back foot, but instead of pivoting near the big toe are he keeps the weight on the ball of the foot and simply spins. Any cues, advice, drills taht could help? He seems to do a proper weight shift, that is, when stride foot lands his weight looks 50-50 and he says he feels 50-50. But yet it seems like he's letting his foot drive the hips rather than let the hips pull the pivot foot around. It just doesn't look right. Please help.
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> > Hi Parent
> >
> > I agree with RQL's assessment. --- The batter should not have weight (axis of rotation) moving forward during body rotation. He should rotate around a stationary axis (the spine) and there is no problem with having the axis slightly tilted back toward the catcher. But spinning on the back-leg (instead of rotating around the spine) can occur when the batter tries to keep his weight back while striding to a straight lead-leg. This leads to the "squash the bug" action RQL mentioned.
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> > I would have him stride to a balanced position with plenty of flex in the lead-leg and the lead toe and knee pointing at first base. I would then have him concentrate on driving hip rotation by the rotation and extension of the lead-knee. By using the lead-leg to drive the lead-hip back as the back-leg drives the back-hip forward, the body will then rotate around the spine instead of the back-leg. If the batter concentrates on using the front leg for driving rotation the back leg and foot will normally bring the back-hip forward.
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> > How much weight is left on the back-foot or how far the toe drags forward depends mainly on the length of the batter's stride (need for a back to center shift) and how vertical his axis of rotation was. --- But, if your son takes a small or no-stride approach with his axis leaning slightly away from the pitcher, there very well may be weight left on the back-foot. Many of the good hitters have varying amounts of pressure remaining - remember Reggie Jackson - would we call him a back-foot spinner?
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> > Question: What is the difference between "spinning" and "rotating?" I know there are different connotations associated with the terms, but what is the real difference?
> >
> > Jack Mankin
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> Parent,
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> You have now learned the meaning of the saying "Be careful what you want, you might get it."
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> You have your answer. What are you going to do with it?
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> Joe A.
> > Thank you, Joe for your concern. In response to your question of what I am going to do with the advice, the answer is: my son followed the advice given to me at this board and now everything is good.