Walking away from the hands: Style or absolute?

Coogansbluff, I personally consider the concept of "hips forward, while hands load rearward" to be an absolute. Many ways to view it ... stretch ... the setup for stretch-and-fire ... forward-by-coiling ... etc, etc, etc. The clip below happened to be the one I was viewing when I responded to your question. You could view it as a simplistic "hips forward, hands rearward", or "forward-by-coiling", or many other ways ... but IMO it demonstrates a powerful loading 'sequence'.

Had this EXACT conversation with a coach this weekend. She played College Softball 15 years ago, and is teaching her VERY TALENTED daughter a very old approach, and a very old swing. Now, her daughter absolutely destroyed the ball twice this weekend. But, I couldn't help but thing if she was being taught to "walk away from her hands" that both balls would've went over the fence. Mom has her hands right by her ears, and that's where the bat comes from every single time. Also a bit of a "back slapper." I tried to shower her through several different demonstrations what I was talking about, but she has simply dismissed me as a "baseball guy" trying to teach softball girls the wrong thing. I have directed her to several different websites, but have yet to hear from her.

My favorite demonstration is to ask someone what would hurt more. I then act like I'm going to slap them across the face. First with my left hand staying by my ear, and then using seperation. The answer is always the same. "Well, obviously the second one is going to hurt more." Of course it is. Now apply that to hitting. It's really not THAT difficult, but some of these "softball purists" are just won't listen. I've told many of them, just turn on ESPN and slow the girls swings down, and you'll see what I'm talking about. I don't even bother using videos like the one above. It's a MAN playing BASEBALL. That would be like throwing gasoline on a fire.

Josh

The reality is that these 'men' get paid millions of dollars to swing a bat. They are pretty good at it. Studying the baseball swing works for softball coaches like Mike Candrea, Sue Enquist, and many many others.

Totally agree with you FFS. Check out the thread on the Baden AXE handled bat. Needing some info, and you'd probably have some good feedback on it.

Josh

My dd has a negtive move or walks away from the hands what ever you want to call it.If you start out early in thier lessons with teaching it.It becomes second nature,I can see your point ,screwball ,in someone that has had the same mech. for years that it might not work.If you start them with the negative move then it doesnt matter if it is 70mph pitch.They just start early,my dd will start her negative move with the stride.I cant tell you when to start,I heard when the pitcher is at 12oclock but I feel that is more of a starting point.The batter will need to find that themselves,for good timing.You leave to much power on the table IMO not to have a negative move with the hands.I feel having your hands static , or allready back is to much of a lose of power or energy that could go into the ball.Thats just my 2 cents.

Here's my teaching take: if a hitter doesn't have stretch, coil, hand cock, etc BUT is still hitting pretty well, I use that old psychology on them : >

....hey, you're doing great (appeal to ego), but if you want to add 10-20 feet more (appeal to ego again), and start turning gappers into home runs, it's NOT about swinging harder but using your body better. Here's how you can add that power: a little better coil, a little better use of hands, a little more stretch. None of these are BIG moves but add up a lot...so let's start working on it in practice and slowly you'll move it into your game swing.

I normally don't like gimmicks, but that basebalance contraption is great for teaching a negative move. It's pretty easy to put a kid on it in a good balanced position, and then simply move their hands back and up a bit (the board will rock backwards with just this simple movement) , then go to toe touch (stretching and loading is necessary to keep the board back), then at heel plant the board moves forward and they engage their swing. The rocking of the board as the weight shifts means they cannot "not" load and coil during the process. I'm not endorsing the thing or saying it can do anything else, but usually 1-2 sessions on this thing and the kids "get it". I've seen it taught this way several times by NPF players and their students.

-W