I would like to hear just exactly what keeping the front shoulder _IN_ means.What is not keeping the front shoulder in?
I'd say that it means rotating the shoulders too soon.
On pages 7-8-9 you see that Pujols begins driving with the back knee and rotating the hips slightly ahead of the hands and shoulders.
Although I've heard arguments that the hips and shoulders fire at the same time.
He doesn't drive with the back knee. The knee bends to keep the head in place while he drives from the rear hip.
Note how long he keeps the front shoulder in, and the hands back.
jbooth, what are some bad results when you swing from top down? Hands first, iow. Or shoulders first to stay on thread subject. Or gate swing, when the shoulders and hips go at the same time.
You lose huge amounts of potential power.
A good bottom up swing creates force through a kinetic chain that has a cumulative action on forces. The force from the shoulders is added to the force from the hips if you start the hips first and hold the shoulder in. If you start the shoulders first you're essentially only getting the force that you can generate from the moving shoulders.
Can there be an extreme with the hip lead? Not talking spin.
I had some dissenting opinions that the hips opening too early is not good.
I worked with a HS junior this afternoon on the field doing front toss. She is a hands-first batter who has the bat in her ear. She's a good-size athlete.
I had her get her bat back out of her ear during her stride and focus on firing the hips first. She started lighting it up. I then had her start with a narrow stance (Babe Ruth style). Within 20 minutes she had hit two over a 210' fence. Never had hit the fence before.
It's days like this that make it worth it. Now, hopefully, I can use her as an example of what hips first can do.
Thank you, jbooth, I just needed a little confidence boost in what I'm teaching.