Posted by: Chris O'Leary (chris@chrisoleary.com) on Wed Nov 1 14:13:38 2006

"I see the back leg shape now. But I still cannot Pujols spinning. Pujols PUSHES off his back leg to get the back hip around the front. The front HIP IS PLANTED--it resists--it DOES NOT MOVE."

When I look at this clip of Pujols hitting his home run in Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS, I don't see him pushing off of the back foot.

http://photos.imageevent.com/siggy/hitting/pro/APujols2005STL_G5HR_FView.gif

Instead, I see his back foot being pulled off the ground by the rotation of his body.

Watch his back foot and you will see that there is no flex in his shoe like you would see if he is pushing off. The front 3 inches of his shoe aren't on the ground while the back 10 inches of shoe are off the ground, which is what you would expect to see if he pushed off of his back foot. Instead, his whole foot pivots at the toe of the shoe, which suggests that his heel is being pulled up.