Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Jun 3 11:55:36 2010

>>> On countless slo-motion captures of MLB home run hitters swings, the front foot plants, the hips and hands come whipping through, and there is so much torque coming from the back to the locked out front leg that the rear foot is off the ground for a millisecond almost like if you were to ride a bike fast, then jam on the front brake you'd see the back come off the ground. This to me indicates that all of the weight has transferred off the back side into that front foot. Pujols, Arod, Manny, Miguel Cabrera all do this. When I see videos of kids who have learned the rotational system, it "appears" that most or all of the weight is on the back leg still at contact.

I see rotational sites advertising to eliminate front-foot hitting and my questions are as follows:

1. Am I seeing something that looks different than it actually is? Rotational hitting seems to be big on advertising what they do is what the pro's do. Does this rear foot issue contradict rotational instruction?
2. How do you teach a kid to torque himself to get that back foot off the ground for that millisecond naturally? <<<

Hi Eichler

Some coaches believe that the batter's length of stride or weight shift determines if he is a "linear" or "rotational" hitter. However, that is not my opinion. I believe that regardless of the length of stride, all forward (linear) movement of the body ceases before rotation is initiated. In other words, there is no forward movement of the body during the swing. It only occurs in the preparation phase.

Whether the batter is a 'no-strider' or a 'long-strider' has no bearing on whether he is a 'linear' or 'rotational' hitter. That depends on the "transfer mechanics" he employs to convert his body's rotational energy into bat speed. -- Below are a couple posts that may address your questions on 'foot-drag' and lower-body mechanics that generates rotation.

Momentum = Weight-Shift??

Weight Shift - Truism or Fallacy

Jack Mankin