Posted by: Dave P (pzone@telus.net) on Sun Dec 18 16:56:05 2005

Coach Tom

What video clips are you watching. I have twenty clips (including SOSA) from the homerun derbies and in most of the top hitters the back foot and knee is driving towards the pitcher. Now I would like to know if there knee and foot are going towards the pitcher then how is it possible for the hips not to be moving 'against the front leg'. This hip drive is what is responsible for the bat maintaining its acceleration through the hitting zone. For example if you throw a ball and keep the back foot planted and fall back on it you loose velocity because at the time that you want to release the ball your weight in going backward and your arm is going forward and slowing down in the process. Hence, 'bug squishing' is decelerating your bat after you have gone past the middle of your body.

I have measured bathead speeds of 'bug squishers' and then changed them to hip drivers and I have yet to find one player who goes down in speed and most have a higher bathead speed after BUT the bonus is that they do not pull off pitches as easily and are now consistantly hitting the ball harder.

Just an observation and from now on I will keep numbers of the exact change in speeds.

Dave P