Saying to swing at first pitch strikes is a bit broad.
Are we defining a strike as...
a fatty- right down the middle?
in the strike zone?
anything the umpire might happen to call a strike...
I have them sit into a squat and then push hard/lock out with the front leg to initiate the swing. Otherwise it becomes ABAF swing and loses the secondary timing aspect.
The idea is the same as jumping....go down first to load the muscles, then jump when the time is right. Getting hard against...
I'm using his head and the folks in the crowd behind him to gauge his movement. Trout shifts his COM to his right allowing him to lift the left leg and stay "back." If he stayed balanced and lifted his left leg, he would become unsupported and move to his left.
He also doesn't move his COM...
That's where landing on the soft bent knee comes in.
In rebounding a basketball, a player loads into a squat, times the ball, and then jumps....using the stretch-shortening cycle to keep the muscles loaded. The SSC is best when perfectly timed, but doesn't diminish very much for nearly a 1/2...
Ok, so let's load into or coil into the back leg. ...the knee would turn inward toward the center line. I see that some, but mostly I see Trout's forward move being caused by the rear knee turning outward away from the center line...pushing his torso forward and rotating his pelvis...
She keeps her head very much over her back hip joint....some might say she's loaded/coiled, but she never really moves the mass forward with any purpose. So my "fix" is that she get hard into/against the front leg to transfer the stored energy.
In order to lift the front foot, the weight or COM gets shifted rearward. The forward movement is initiated when the COM moves forward. Otherwise, you can't lift the front leg.
Then try this.....walk forward while keeping your head over your butt.....can't do it! COM stays back and so walking...
When I hold my cursor at the brim of each of the players hats, Trout moves rearward initially and forward only about half the distance between his ears....back 3" and then forward 6" ? (although he may move more after foot plant)
Hitter #2 moves forward the distance of the width of his...
Locking out the front leg happens because the leg is extended , driving the front hip rearward. This is how good hitters rotate their pelvis and create power from the ground up.
The hitter strides into the front leg, loading the muscles of the leg (Stretch Shortening Cycle), extends the front...