Posted by: grc () on Sat Mar 2 06:57:56 2002

My video of Bonds shows his head moving back 8-12 inches from intiation of swing to contact. I believe his leaning back body angle helps produce an uppercut swing plane to hit home runs.
> > He plants his front leg and rotates his right shoulder forward while the left shoulder and head are pulling back toward the catcher.
> > A very powerful move.
>
> >>Tom I have been swinging trying to start my swing with explosion of the hips and keeping my hands back.In doing so I feel like my shoulders are getting snatched around.In doing this I feel like I'm not leaning back but being driven backby the hiptorque of the front leg being pushed back.Now I know that we should be some what equal with front and rear leg working against each other but the rear leg seems to be just going sideways using less power of the leg than the front leg which catches the weight with the whole thigh and calf bent in a move that is like an angled squat backward.My point is I think more is going on with the front leg drive than the rear and the backward lean comes from the drive back of the lead leg pushing back.

i'm not sure where this stuff about bonds being on his back foot got started, but i do know what i see....by the time bonds is in his launch position his back heel is already 45 degrees (ground = 0, sky = 90)...most hitters at launch position still have their back heel near the ground....in fact, bonds seems to get off that back foot quicker than any hitter i have ever seen......