Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Tue Dec 3 14:24:10 2002

>>> At foot plant? Do you mean toe touch or heel drop?
>
> Mark H. <<<
>
> Hi Mark
>
> Please excuse the delay in my reply, I have been very busy the past couple days. --- By “foot plant,” I was referring to the foot landing on the ball of the lead-foot. At this point, many batters have their lead-foot, knee and hips in a fairly closed position. The lead-heel then starts to rotate back toward the catcher as it lowers. As the heel rotates back, the lead-knee starts to rotate around toward the pitcher, which initiates hip rotation around a stationary axis.
>
> A number of students retain the tendency to stride to a closed flat-foot plant and drive the back-side forward. This type of foot-plant can restrict rotation. But, after 2 or 3 sessions of stressing the need for lead-shoulder pull at contact, they begin to land on the ball of the foot and use the rotation of the heel and extension of the lead-side to generate most of the rotation.
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> Jack Mankin
>
Mark et al( warning-you may be better off ignoring this)-

Ultimately you need to teach not just good mechanics,but the feel of good mechanincs-the internal workings you would like to understand/teach from looking at the visual aspect of things.It's hard to convey this in words,even with pictures.But here goes.

This may be too much conjecture or over generalized,but perhaps worth thinking about.These hypotheses come mainly out of the ideas(I may be misinterpreting or distorting them so beware) of Paul Nyman and Jeff Hodge(in addition to Jack) and also depend on there being some similarity between the body motions in throwing and hitting.I believe two key moments in the throw and hitting are "cocking the hip" and what Jack calls "launch" this being when the torso starts rotating as a result of being driven by/hooking up with hip turn.I believe this should be when the hip "uncocks".

"Hip cock"-what is it? I believe I know the "feel" of it,but I can't describe the exact muscle and skeletal motions.It might be visible on video as maximum pinching at the waist/front hip.It happens using the big muscles so that you can secondarily see it by the associated positioning of the front leg and foot.This is one reason the "front knee turns in".In throwing it happens ideally as you do what Hodge considers an absolute which is "break the hands with internal rotation"(of the arms).Nyman has used the term "mapping" to describe how the various body parts work together.I would describe hip cock(in throwing) as the virtually simultaneous internal rotation of both arms at handbreak while the front hip elevates causing an inward turn of the front knee(feel of making knock knees).It will feel like all four limbs are making a simultaneous/symmetric sort of motion together.You will feel the muscles pinch/tighten in the front lower back.In hitting,you can sometimes see evidence of this same action,but it can be masked by other motions.

As an example,with Bonds,you see him first drop the hands slightly away from the body as he flexes at the waist,usually associated with a small step back/in with the front foot(small "click back").The next move is the "hip cock" as the back arm internally rotates(hands go up and in behind body a little,back elbow goes slightly up and out) as stride foot lifts slightly,some inward turn of front knee,slight lifting of front side of foot.(If you are doing "no-stride" this would be what you accomplish when you lift the front heel and turn the front knee back).

All just a lot of words to describe a fairly simple,but important motion in the throw/swing.For hitting,this "hip cock" or whatever you call it needs to be maintained until the energy stored in it is used to initiate launch.In throwing,the effect of this hip "uncocking" can be seen as it turns the front leg.Hodge calls this "turning over the front thigh" in throwing/pitching.This is when the torso "hooks up" and is driven/rotated by hip rotation BEFORE front foot plant.Good rotation is started by the hip uncocking,then maintained by ongoing arching of the back.

Nyman points out that for good body rotation the hip turn should be at maximum velocity when it "hooks up"/starts turning the torso.This should be when the hip "uncocks",so "launch" would occur as or fractions of a second after the hip "uncocks".This is fairly easy to see in throwing,but more difficult in hitting,because the body is also making adjustments in posture/degree of bend at the waist between the time the hip cocks and uncocks.Once the hip is cocked,the body "stretches"/"coils","loads",whatever you call it as the stride foot goes out and lands on the toe.Posture adjustment can be made during this time,even after the front foot/toe touches.In Bonds you can sometimes see ongoing posture correction after toe touch with some lowering of the heel,but no final heel drop until the hip "uncocks".Admittedly,even with 30 frames per second running one frame at a time forward and backward,it is difficult to see this and could well be the result of imagination/seeing what we want to see.However,there may be some benefit if the way the feel relates to the video is better understood,so it's worth looking for how the desired feel might be seen.

As Jack points out,the front heel rotating back and the front knee rotating around(toward pitcher) are important for good rotation instead of swaying.I think these leg/foot actions are secondary to the hip uncocking which is necessary for a good rotational launch.It may be that focussing on lead shoulder pull is a good way to "KEY" this motion that starts in the middle with hip action.Another description is to think of front toe touch as a "trigger" for hip turn,with hip turn thought of as uncocking the hip/using the hip to make the front thigh turnover or make the front knee rotate toward the pitcher.The foot seems too far down/away from the hip (which is actually initiating the action) to work as a good cue for rotation,but it's a good timing mechanism to know when the toe touches.

If the hip is well cocked and maintained adequately,the front leg/foot will be positioned so it is natural to land on the front ball of the foot(weight on inside of foot).This will give orienting info to the body to assist in final adjustment of posture and timing of launch with "uncocking" producing the last bit of heel drop.I would think that this last bit of heel drop is probably the time of maximum separation.Amount of separation can certainly be overdone as mantioned by Jack.

If you are still here at this point,the next question is what happens between hip cock and uncock/launch.If we use Ted Williams descriptions,after you cock the hip,then you "cock the hands"."Cocking the hands" in this context would mean that the muscles are "loaded" or put on stretch(after hip cock) as the hands load up and in behind the body(accomplished with big muscles/scap loading per Nyman)with stretching of the lead arm across the chest while the stride foot is going out and down.Posture adjustment is underway as the pitch is recognized to match up/down location of pitch.Timing of "launch"/hip uncock will set handpath radius to adjust for inside out location.The stride/timing of toe touch is about the same for each swing,but for the outside pitch,the hip will uncock slightly later after there has been some degree of heel drop.For inside pitch,launch/uncock is earlier with less lead arm stress/less load/less handpath radius.

While this variable period of "stretch" is going on after the hip cocks and the back arm internally rotates,the back elbow goes up with external rotation of the back arm,then starts to drop as the back arm comes down to the side(ADducts).The longer this proceeds/the longer the delay before launch/uncock the more the stretch and the more the direction of THT changes as described by Jack.Disconnection is caused(pushing the swing just like pushing the throw)if the back arm is allowed to "FLEX"-same flaw as dropping the throwing elbow for pitching.It's OK for the back arm to internally rotate with hip cock,then externally rotate and "EXTEND" during handcock/loading,but it can not flex before launch or you get the "top hand dominant flaw".

Now all this sounds horrible because these things are difficult to put into words.But,as you develop and implement simple drills to teach kids without too much confusion while still making progress,it is important to teach how and when to cock and uncock the hip and how this relates to good rotation and hand action.

Summary:

1-some degree of bending at the waist with lift of stride foot/slight inward turn/lowering of lead shoulder,ending with:

2-hip cock:top of stride lift,front knee turned in,showing back pocket to pitcher,internal rotation back arm,bat cock(toward pitcher)

3-variable stretch-maintain hip cock,stride foot out and down,back scap load,back elbow up then down,bat uncocking,beginning of posture adjustment,fairly consistent timing of toe touch,back elbow starts down about same time as toe touch

4-launch:uncock hip,front heel down,front knee rotation toward pitcher,good rotation initiated,no lunging/drifting of axis forward as hip uncocks

Sorry for the lack of clarity,but I thought I might as well put this out there for comments if anyone is willing to wade throug it.