Posted by: George () on Sat Aug 11 12:29:35 2007

> hello...
>
> i was watching clips of bonds and many other players who hit numerous homeruns. I noticed that many of them have very long strides. The player i noticed most was Barry Bonds. He does the toe tap then long stride. Why does he do this? My coach encourages pick up and put down but I would think the homerun king would know better than my coach...right? Thanks for any responses.


Michael. A lot of a person's stance is personal preference. But Bonds had the chance to work with his father, Willie Mays, Reggie Jackson (his cousin) and other great hitters. So he had a wealth of information from which to draw. In addition, Bonds was a student of the game and did his own research. His original leg work and upper body dynamics (as a Pittsburgh Pirate) was somewhat like Ted Williams.

The toe tap is part of a triggering mechanism. The pick up an put down serves the same purpose. Slow pitch softball players believe the put up and down aids in power. Mel Ott used to use the leg lift and he was only 5ft 9in 170 something lbs and hit over 500 homeruns. Sadaharu O hit over 800 homeruns with the leg lift. But when it is all said and done its about results whether the stride is long or short.