Posted by: Swing-It () on Fri Sep 20 17:48:48 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."
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> > Where this leaves him in terms of the linear vs. rotational debate is up to the "experts" to decide.
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> 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.
Guys,

I agree Alex has less weight shift.

"Is ARod using a circular or straight-line hand path?"

Depends on the pitch.

"Does he pull the knob straight to the pitcher or do his hands stay back as he turns into the ball?"

For the most part his swing starts from 'his' coiled position. He switched to keeping his hands at the back shoulder, compared to behind/over his back foot (rookie year). Yes he does pull the bat forward to prevent bat, and hand drag.

"Does he shift his weight into contact or does his weightshift stop before rotation starts?"

He shifts his weight into rotation, even with his no somewhat reaching stride (trying to keep the weight back), he still strides (is stride the correct term?), steps, or simple opens the hips during the stride. (Ted Williams, Hank Aaron).

What part of ARod's swing is linear? Please explain.

It depends on what you call linear since everything else you mentioned shows little evidence (knowledge) of A-Rods swing.

And please, Alex has a slight bat dip problem (hand/bat drag). There's no lead shoulder pulling the bat around, he pulls the bat forward lead arm extension away from his body.

Everything that BHT is, it's explanation on how it works, is everything Alex Rodrigeuz is not.

Swing-It