- Oct 25, 2009
- 3,335
- 48
Did you do what I asked you to try with the pencil? You may or may not have an ah ha moment.
Do you understand that if I am moving in an arc, that I am only headed in one direction? If I was driving a car in drive around in a circle. I am driving in one direction. Lets put a pitcher on one side of the circle and a catcher on the other side. As I come around the circle I am headed towards the pitcher and at some point in the circle I will be headed towards the catcher but I am still driving in the same direction.
What coil to uncoil is like, would be putting the car in drive and driving part way around the circle and then placing it in reverse to go back around the corner.
Why would I want to stop the hip and then restart it in the opposite direction? Why not just keep it driving in the same direction?
You see the front leg POP at contact and automatically think that means the hitter is automatically timing a push back. It would have to be a timed push back to do it at the correct time every time. So, the hitter not only has to time the barrel, the rear hip, and the hands, he has to time the lead leg push back too? Ever notice that Pro hitters very rarely miss time the lead leg push back? Notice that it always seems to be on time? There is a reason for that, and it is because they are not pushing back to straighten the front leg. The front leg gets straightened because of something else.
The rear femur moving down and forward does in fact open the pelvis. As the rear femur is working under the rear hip it is moving as linear as possible from the inside. This is causing the front hip to continue to move back and around. The lead leg is firm keeping the torso from drifting forward. The lead hip is moving away from the front foot. The rear hip/rear femur has created max stretch against the hands. The barrel is completing it's arc and the stretch is then released. The rear hip/rear femur then pops forward because the resistance of the hands and barrel have been overcome. This makes the lead hip suddenly move back a little more with suddenness, which snaps/POPS the lead leg straight. That is why it POPS straight on time every time. It is not a timing move of the front leg.
Notice how in some amateurs that the lead leg will never firm up or will lock out to early? Because they are trying to time a push back.
Let me try a spring analogy. Take a spring and twist it tight. Now, let out a little of the bottom tightness (rear hip uncoil) Then let it all go at once. Some of the energy will be lost through the bottom and some through the top (rear hip rotation)
Now, if I take the spring and twist it tight and maintain a firm grip on the bottom (rear hip coil) and just let go of the top. All of the energy is released through the top (coil and coil some more).
The top of the spring is the hands/barrel. The bottom is the rear hip/rear femur. I want the energy to be released through the barrel. I don't want any of it to be released out of the hips.
Let me ask you a question. How does a hitter maintain a tightness/connection in the rear hip when it is uncoiled?
If I drive North, then circle toward the East, then circle toward the South, the circle toward the West, then circle toward the North, I may think I'm moving in the same direction (forward) but I certainly am not.
I coil my hip backward while loading; I hold that coil (load) until I'm ready to unload (uncoil).
One can imagine a feeling anyway they wish but to communicate it to a player you have to at least maintain some logic. I understand this is the Technical thread but this falls outside of Technical.