Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Fri Sep 20 10:04:54 2002

During one of the Rangers games last week one of the announcers did a segment with A-Rod regarding his swing. According to A-Rod, he has reduced the degree to which he weight shifts over the years. When he first came up he got a lot more of his weight onto his front foot. I can't remember whether he said he ended up 70-30 or 60-40 on the front foot when he first came up. He says he now starts with his weight back at 70-30 back to front, and shifts to the point that he is roughly 50-50 when he swings. He credits his increase in power to this change. He gives a lot of credit to the Ranger's hitting coach and his emphasis on "staying back."
>
> Where this leaves him in terms of the linear vs. rotational debate is up to the "experts" to decide.

Funny that striding to 50-50 is 'staying back'. I've more often heard coaches talk about staying back and stepping softly on the front foot. That sounds like weight is mostly back. However words and deeds often don't match.
50-50 seems very in-line with Jack's idea of rotation around a stationary axis to me. So if what ARod says is accurate, he's become more rotational and his power numbers have gone up accordingly.