Posted by: tom.guerry () on Mon Sep 24 10:55:05 2007

rql -

good stuff.

First I would say that as far as location/pitch/recognition is concerned, the first thing you pick up is in vs out, then up/down and finally velocity/movement (offspeed or not, spin/curveslider,etc).

If the pitcher is not dominating, you can cover the whole plate, but even then you might want to look fast OR slow rather than swing at anything near the strike zone.

As pitcher gets more dominant, it is better to look in OR out and adjst up/down on fly if you get a pitch in the strike zone on the half of the plate you are looking for.

Two strike situation where you need to cover all speeds/entire zone requires shortening up, getting axis more upright, keeping back shoulder up and looking for velocity that is a little less than maximum heater so you can still catch up to heater if necessary. That is more look middle for dominating speed pitcher.

Most kids in high school will face nondominant pitching most of the time, so they can look fast or slow and try to cover whole plate as I described by starting the swing as if you are going to get down for a low/outside pitch which requires a deep sit to drive the swing/unloading. IF you recognize inside, you stop the knob turning action of the back arm/top hand earlier/bottom hand lead arm takes over sooner, forward weight shift stops,axis stays leaned back more/does not proceed to get more upright as you dropped the back shoulder sooner and have a shorter swing radius with a more looping swing that matches inside low location.

For outside low, the top hand back arm stays active longer/stretches the lead arm more as you "let the ball get deeper", then make the same backshoulder drop adjustment. In this case you continued to sit more as you let the ball get deeper.

In the case of looking in OR out, the reason this works is that the timing is about the same for low vs high. You turn on low ball sooner and axis shifts forward/upright longer to make more level swing for high ball or you drop back shoulder and stop axis when it's more leaned back and launch a longer swing that loops down and up and lines up better, but DEPTH of contact is same as for up ball (timing is same for in and up vs in and down).

The dominant pitcher with great velocity can break you down here because you have to stay short to get inside high heater, so short that you can't power the low ball. more like being a 2 strike/singles hitter unless you get just what you are looking for (in AND up or in AND down).

In general whe you swing, the top hand/back arm needs to be dominant for the early load, then the lead arm/bottom hand needs to take over such that the handle is torqued without interrupting loading or pushing the handpath.

The sequence in my opinion is always:

1-inward turn - need to turn body back enough to have enough potential for "early batspeed" which will be necessary to hit outside ball with power without either cutting across it or hitting around it too much. this requires a more inside to out swing path, more forward weight shift, longer swing radius, higher load/resistance to rotatuion, more THT/more rapid depletion of torso coil/load. The inward turn is made best with both hands in near the bellybutton just as in the windup of the overhand throw/pitching which is why some hitters prefer the hitching /lowering move of the hands. They are bringing the hands in/down toward the middle which makes the inward/backward rotation of the body easier.

2-hip cock/cock hands - this requires synched internal rotation of back arm and legs then lifting back arm as stride leg goes out. This internal rotation arm action is what prevents too much turning back or too much early separation/coil of torso. This is when top hand/back arm becomes dominant in leading the loading, analagous to how you break the hands in the overhand throw after the windup - you break the hands by internal rotation and lifting (aBduction) of the arms. This is a much better description than the mysteries of "scap loading". The scaps do need to support this arm action appropriately, but the controller here is the back arm action which makes the back scap pinch/elevate. At the same time, the front scap needs to go down and in so the front shoulder is tilted down, Then the shoulders have to stay this way so they can later UNtilt to resist opening with the hps and torso to get the late stretch and fire adjustment of timing and swing matching.

So up to this point you have to have turned back without coiling and you have to have loaded the shoulders front down, back up and you have to have lifted the back arm and cocked the hips and made a negative and positive move with the weight.

You are starting to read the pitch and you have to time the rubberbandwinding which is going to start BEFORE the front toe touches in most cases. This is when the lead arm starts to take over and the handle torque starts which will then get interrupted sooner for inside/later for outside deep contact by lead arm internal rotation and more or less elevation followed by shoulder TILT, NOT TURN to finish the front side stretch which you then connect to to finish the swing.

The ruberbandwinding or "rotation into toe touch" starts as the weight is going forward and this gives you a window of time during where you have to launch a decent swing before your center of gravity gets over the weight bearing part of the front foot. You can buy more time by sitting on the back leg/flexing the back knee if you have to.

For high ball, you will interrupt sit and stretch torso up/out more which gives you plenty of load to power a more level swing.

For low ball, you continued to sit which gives you the leg drive to power a more looping swing.

The trouble with PCR type rotation only (shoulders turn rather than tilt/resist/connect/turn) is you can't use the handle torque and shoulder tilt to develop the quick stretch and fire type load which unloads more quickly with a better matched swing plane.

Without this tht and shoulder tilt, you have drag at the front shoulder where you can see the front arm get left behind when you try to power the launch by just turning the shoulders without handle torque or shoulder tilt.

When the shoulders pull in this PCR case, the bat drags no matter how much tension you try to put there and you can't use the smaller/more distal/more mobile body parts to adjust the swing, you have to do it too much with the middle/"posture"/bend at waidt and you have to do it too early.

It can work fine if you guess right, but you don't get either the adjustability or the early batspweed (acceleration back behind you in the swing plane) that lets you line the swing up to square things.

Finally, "direction of pull of top hand" will vary depending on when the bottom hand starts to take over/ interrupts to work with the top hand to torque the handle as you start coiling/winding the rubber band as you approach toe touch.

When the top hand is more active early, the botom hand is more like the oar lock, then the hands need to stay back and the bend needs to stay in the back elbow without uncocking the lead wrist when the lead arm/bottom hand get more active.