Thread: stride or no stride

Originally Posted by Wellphyt

Many instructors who try and teach Pujols' style don't teach what he actual does. They teach what they think he does. Notice in this clip how Pujols' hips/torso moves forward as he coils.




IMO the kids are better off being taught that the reason the front foot gets lifted is to cock/coil the hips; rather than to stride. Any forward movement after the front foot is lifted is for balance purposes. When taught in this context the kids will be better equipped to wrap their own batting stance style around the "forward by coiling" absolute found in most good hitters.

Here you have a young lady caught in between her hitting instructor and travel coach over her style, rather than the focus being on "forward by coiling", which is the art of coiling to a balanced position to launch the swing from.

Good post Wellphyt ... with some important points. I personally don't believe the focus should be on the stride ... but more the loading mechanics ... and yes, the forward-by-coiling action is well demonstrated in the clip you've shown, which is where I'd much rather see the focus placed instead of stride.

p.s.
If you paste the URL into the "Insert Image" box, and un-check the "Retrieve remote file and reference locally" box, then the video clip will show up in your post as it does in this post.

Originally Posted by FiveFrameSwing

p.s.
If you paste the URL into the "Insert Image" box, and un-check the "Retrieve remote file and reference locally" box, then the video clip will show up in your post as it does in this post.

I've been wondering how you guys do that. I didn't know I was suppose to un-check the box. Much appreciated.

Agree 100%

I agree that no-stride can work. What does the Hanson Principle say? I forget exactly but aren't we supposed to look at what the best do? But they don't all do the same thing.

According to Justin Stone, about 85% of MLBers use a 'standard' stride. 10% use a big kick. The remaining 5% use other strides like Pujols, or a backwards toe-touch, etc..

So, shouldn't there be a corollary to the HP that says we better be careful when teaching something that can work, but isn't used by the majority of high level batters?

What would use say if an instructor wanted your DD to be extremely bent over because his favorite player was Ricky Henderson, or Don Mattingly, bot HOFers, and he likes to try to turn every hitter into them?

I would ask why the instructor wants to do this. Does he do this with every hitter? And if so, is it because he can't effectively teach other stride mechanics? Does he think girls can't handle other stride mechanics? Or is there something specific with my DD that he thinks that this approach will really help her?

The Hanson Principle isn't about comparing a hitter's batting style. It's about comparing the absolutes of the swing.

I don't use the Hanson Principle to compare how high my DD lifts her front foot to coil her hips. I use it to determine if my daughter coils her hips back when she lifts her front foot.

I don't use the HP to compare her stride length. I use it to determine if she keeps her head centered between her feet/over her belly button after she picks up her front foot to coil her hips.

I don't use the HP to compare how she holds her bat in her stance. I use it to determine if she is getting her back elbow down like the pros.

Which isn't to say I don't offer guidance on her stance. I definitely have my preferences that I feel make it easier for a 15 year old to manage the absolutes in the swing. However they're "more like guidelines than actual rules".

I agree Well. I already said why take a style and turn it into an absolute in my initial response.

OK, it's completely unrelated to the HP, but for me there the concept that I better be careful when having kids try styles that have worked for other successful batters, but only a small percentage of the batters overall.

One important thing to consider is the distance between the feet at toe touch (launch position). Notice that Pujols' feet are where they would be had he taken a stride from a narrower stance. Even so, he seems to stride a few inches.

The point is that many kids who are not taught (or not allowed) to stride have a stance that is too narrow for hitting the ball as effectively. Normally, I stay away from female differences when teaching softball but females do have a tendency to not stride as far as boys. This shows up in other areas, also; such as throwing, i.e.

Think about it; what if you had boys take little short steps when they walked? They would look more like girls walking. Point is we need to teach the girls a good, athletic stride when batting. Much the same theory as when throwing.

Originally Posted by Cannonball

I taught my daughter to no stride as she grew up and used Pujols as the example. In doing so, I found for her that it helped with her load, ability to sit on a pitch and connection issues. "Connection" as it pertains to toe-touch - heel drop through finish and not just a relationship of hands to shoulder complex. In other words, she was "on time" a lot better this way. Her power did not suffer imo. However, we'll never know. She hit her first home run out of a 200 fence when she was 12 and so, that was a significant blast. She has most of the power hitting records for our school including doubles, triples, homeruns, ... She also leads in intentional walks getting double diget intentional walks her senior year.

Tim, your point of view is shared by many and so, for the sake of disclosure, most of the colleges recruiting my daughter wanted her to add stride. In her recruitment video, she was just then trying to add stride in to the equation. Now, she does stride.

Per having any MLB player or pro softball player as a model for the swing is a great goal. Is it doable? I just don't know. In no way would anyone mistake my dd's swing for Pujols. Still, certain portions of the swing including loading the hips was accomplished in degrees. I think that this is all we can ask of a lower level player as they attempt to copy or duplicate any other person's swing. In this quest, it is very important that the hitter understand that they aren't to mimic the swing but rather understand what is lacking in their swing that progression toward the model will help. JMHO!

Take care,

Darrell

Thanks for sharing this. This makes me cringe about the same as when I run into all these coaches that try to get everyone to be a no-stride hitter. Why not just let your daughter use her highly successful swing? Shouldn't 'If it aint broke don't fix it' be one of every coaches 10 commandments?

I could see if your daughter had trouble hitting in college for a prolonged time then maybe she should be open to trying to change but it surprises me that this is mentioned in recruitment.

Why this obsession with turning every hitter into cookie cutter duplicates? Someone mentioned Tchida's kids all hitting the same. I am wondering if there is some ego going on here with coaches who want all of their players hitting "their way".