Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Wed Feb 5 12:15:11 2003

i watch alot of slo pitch softball and see a lot of hitters walk up on the ball, kind of swing,does that make them a linear swing,or would they have more power if they remained stationary,and rotated like jack teaches, the ones i see hit the ball farthest are the ones who walk up on the ball why is that?
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> > The "walk-up" or "three step" is a traditional way of teaching body action/separation in throwing and hitting.Nyman has a nice old clip of Babe Ruth hitting this style.Usually you are facing forward and step with the lead foot,then step behind the lead foot with the back foot as you turn back/get sideways,the step again with the lead foot resembling the typical stride.When you do it this way,the upper body stays in synch with the lower body the way you need it to to generate power for the swing/throw.
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> > In hitting,Hudgens is a proponrnt of the "walk up drll".Dave has lots of good drills.He knows a good swing when he sees one and prescribes good drill/fixes in the hands on situation.His info is limited in providing a rationale,so it is hard to apply if Dave's not there to supervise.A lot of his cues and pictures will be interpreted suboptimally by those who try to go it alone.
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> Tom, I got the Hudgens "stuff" about 2 years ago and could never use it as a system probably because of what you say. Can you tell us or "provide us with the rationale" or help us "apply" some of Hudgens drills and cues in the context or language of this forum. My final conclusion on Hudgens was that a lot of his cues and drills come from the LINEAR world, especially his stuff on "short stroke training". What do you think?

See the biomechanic poster below who found that Hitters unfortunately do what coaches tell them.There is some really interesting stuff going on now in pitching(see pitchingcentral.com ultimate pitching coaches boot camp)where the sense is that pitching coaches have over regimented/overcloned students taking the athleticism out of pitching(main presenters Nyman,Brent Strom(House follower),and Ron Wolforth.They are trying to improve the situation(and seem to be making progress-Wolforth now has 17 pitchers over 90 mph,far more than in the past).Basically they are trying to figure out an ubderstandable way of figuring out what to teach and what not to teach.Lots of old cues are a "bad teach".Lots of things are taught but not essential,they are a "no teach".Some old and new things are still "a teach".The question is what do you put in and what do you take out of instruction to get the best overall(whole motion) results.Remember as far as the body/motor machine is concerned,it will learn to do whatever your coach and you intend(knowingly or not-most are in the latter category) as your goal,or as Nyman says "if you don't have a goal,any path will get you there."

So Hudgens knows a pretty good swing when he sees one and he can spot flaws and recommend specific drills to improve/move the player toward that swing,but I doubt anyone can take his stuff and figure out how it works.Last time I looked,he thought of the swing as a mix of linear and rotational in an inaccurate way(linear and rotational altogether as opposed to partly linear then almost all rotational once you launch which is Jack's position,I believe).This is confusing.He teaches weight shift AGAINST a firm front side which I think of as a "bad teach".His illustration of himself at freeze frame on his site shows the arms extended before the bat has turned to line up with the lead arm-this is a fictitious visual if it is supposed to be part of a quick swing.

His program succeeds with his hands on supervision or if you also know it when you see it or because you are just working on something harder than you used to,but it doesn't offer fine tuning of a quick rotational swing.

The walk up drill can often give the feel of cocking the hips,stretching,then separating the body as you do in both throwing and hitting,so it can be a useful part of a program if it gets experienced and interpreted compatibly.