My plan for this winter.

When we start hitting this winter, this is our goal, is it correct?

Start by bringing the bat back to the lock position ,loading the hips and shoulders , little step just to get started , strong legs to support everything else, then short to the ball , long through the ball -- rotation from the ground up (hips then arms than shoulders), hands back as long as possible then explosively to the ball , followed by arm extension into contact and arm roll/shoulder rotation through contact , and a strong follow through.

And when its your turn at the plate -- see the ball, hit the ball.



Fowler clip gone because of bandwidth issue,,,

 

bug

the girl in the picture picked up her back foot slightly; don't they still teach to squash the bug?

 

The young lady in the video in my opinion has a very good swing with maybe one or two things to improve on. The back foot comming off the ground doesn't bother me at all just as long as it is re-planted quickly and in the same spot. Many major league power hitters do the same thing with the back foot. As long as the body stays in line (look at the pin stripe on her pants, it stay perfectly straight in line with her ear) the back foot coming off the ground indicates excellent weight transfer to the front side at contact.

As for teaching "squishing the bug", that concept works well for the really young players, but for the older ones, in my opinion that causes more problems than it helps. The reason being is the older girls will tend to over rotate on the back foot causing the front side to fly open. I tell the girls I teach just to be sure to drive the back knee inward and let the back foot rotate naturally.

 

Bug

"Squash the bug" is an excellent way to get an eight year old to understand the concept of rotating the lower body. Its also a good way to ruin a correct rotational swing! Don't mess with this girl's swing!

 

"squishing the bug" is the result of PROPER hip rotation!!!.. it a goal of the swing not an end in and of itself.

If you could slow this down you would see the bad head TRAILING the hands at point of impact... a NECESSITY for top bat speed! You will not see "hands to the ball" UGGGHHHHHH!... Knob maybe... not hands. Does the end of a whip when it "cracks" (because it is breaking the sound barrier) trail the hands?... you bet... so should the sweet spot of the barrel.

The danger is making sure that batters don't collapse on the back leg during the swing.. this is accomplished by making sure the top half remains closed at impact while the hips have already opened up creating seperation between the big muscles of the CORE... THIS is what creats bat speed.. NOT hands or arms! The core rotates up and to the ball in a proper swing to avoid the aforementioned collapse. Arm extension???? AFTER contact... as a result of the top half remaining closed. This is a basic principle of physics (the law of conservation of angular momentum) ... the farther the arms get away from the body the slower they move and therefore the slower the bat spead. Why do figure skaters tuck their arms to go into a fast spin and extend their arms out to slow it down? And YES.. when you get to plate it is see it and hit it... NOTHING else!

Betterbatter has it right... do NOT mess with this girls' swing! Its a wonder she has developed it with what is being taught out there... she's obviously a natural.

 

one thing I forgot.... what happens AFTER contact is basically irrelevent!!!... It is important ONLY in the context of what you are trying to accomplish during the swing itself. Do not be concerened, especially, with rolling over the wrists... any focus on this will result in decreased bat speed. The top hand is irrelevent to bat speed.. why do you think great hitters in baseball like Manny Ramirez and George Brett let go with the top hand? Whatever is comfortable for the individual player is the guiding force concerning the finish.

 

Maybe I am misinformed as to what “squash the bug” means. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe it refers to what the back foot looks like during a “weight back” type of rotation when batter spins on the back foot with a slightly raised heel. There is no way that weight can be transferred to the front side by squashing the bug. That is why the experts no longer teach it. In fact most strongly advise that it not be taught at all.

The above batter exhibits very good weight transfer. One can easily see how at bat lag (when the bat is pointed backward), the back heel is lifted to the point that the foot is vertical on the toes. As contact is made, the back foot actually leaves the ground. This is a direct result of very strong rotation.

I disagree with the bat head “trailing the hands” at the contact point. High bat speed is created by the angular acceleration associated with rotation combined with opposing torque placed on the bat by the top and bottom hands. That is, the top hand pushes while the bottom hand pulls.

Try this: save the above clip to your hard drive and then open it in your computer’s media player. You can then pause the clip and click through it one frame at a time. If you do this, you’ll plainly see that the bat head definitely has accelerated much faster than the hands at the contact point which is a sign of good rotational swing mechanics. You can also detect the hand torque.

It’s hard to tell in this clip, but it appears that this was a batter’s pitch and was hit a long way into (or beyond) center or left field. If the pitch was down the middle or an inside strike, it was a perfect hit. It would be interesting to see this batter’s swing on an outside strike. If she’s able to hit it “where it’s pitched”, I don’t want to face her!

What school does she play for?

 

What school does she play for?

I think it is #33 Kristina Fowler from U of North Texas, a pitcher/if bio, she had 5 HR and batted .269 with 175 AB in 2006 , not a big power hitter , but I just like the clip of her swing.

 

push?

I respectfully disagree about the hands comment betterbatter. A push with the top hand adds nothing to bat speed. Its simple.. take a bat put in your RH (if you are right handed) and push it towards a ball placed on a tee. How much batspeed is generated? If this simple exercise isnt enough pick up a little book by Robert Adair: The Physics of Baseball and read the chapter on hitting. The author is a physics professor at Yale. He has no axe to grind. He doesn't come from a ball playing background... his approach is pure science... nothing subjective about it. To quote him "the hands and arms by themselves add nothing to the swing". They purely and simply work as transfer agents for the torque generated by rotation and seperation.. this is why the sweet spot SHOULD trail the hands. Otherwise batspeed is diminished. Can you hit and not do it this way?... of course.

Also, there is no difference between hitting a softball and a baseball if your goal is power. If its slapping etc then OK.. just thought I would add that before someone says: well softball is different... no.