Posted by: () on Wed Oct 30 04:46:07 2002

> Im a student of the game, hitting good in highschool, could say advanced hitter trying to exceed. I've done many camps and read your great site but still get mixed opinions of shoulder position after tourque collision of bat + ball. Should your shoulders be squared to the pitcher, where the front of both shoulders are visible by the pitcher? I've heard this is an open swing that generates more power but is hard to control. Or, should my lead shoulder stay in line with my back shoulder as in the begging of the swing. This would mean there would be less movement in the swing. I'm confused please help if u can


Absolutely, the front of the shoulders should not only be open to the pitcher but should be rotated even further. Barry Bonds talks about his shoulder replacement where he means his front shoulder takes the place of his rear shoulder and his rear shoulder takes the place of his front shoulder. In other words, he goes from facing the third baseman to facing the first baseman. He's very talented and very experienced so that may be easier for him than most. He can do this and still mainain control to hit the ball. But even if you don't rotate quite this far you should definately be rotated farther than facing the pitcher. The lead shoulder should pull back toward the catcher helping to create the fishhook in the hand path.