Posted by: Bart () on Sat Oct 26 15:45:37 2002

The swing should obviously be initiated by the body and not the arms or hands. But, what part of the body should the batter think about moving first? Should it be the pulling back of the lead shoulder or the driving through of the back side?
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The bad news is that it is virtually impossible to make the lower body "think" it should start first. You don't hit the ball with your hips, you hit the ball with the bat, which is being held by the hands.Therefore any "thinking" is done with the hands.

The good news is that if everything is done right, everything will be done automatically, in the right sequence and without having to "think" about it. I won't rehash my prior posts in detail, but here is a brief summary:

If the bat is cocked sufficiently, when the time comes that the hitter "thinks" swing, his hands will start the swing and the rest of the body will follow suit. Once the hitter "thinks" swing, the bat will start uncocking because the bat can not go anywhere except in the uncocking motion in order to ultimately head toward the target. The natural uncocking motion is causing the hands to head toward the catcher, while simultaneously the hips are starting to open.

It would be futile and unnecessary to try to make a conscious attempt for the hips to start opening first. They WILL open as I described and without thinking about it if there is suficient bat cock.