Rotation

PEPPERS said:

I like the walk up drill and face the fire drill, both give good feel for pushing off the back leg.

Another drill I’ve had success with, is what I call the stork drill.

Take your batting stance, bring your front ankle to your back ankle very short pause then push with your back leg into the swing (rotation). Then take you front ankle to your thigh pause then swing, Then take you front ankle to you back knee (look like a stork) pause then swing. Then take your front foot tap on the ground in front of the back foot (old baseball drill) then swing. I do it on command; stance, back, stride and swing

Do each drill a few times to get the feel of pushing off with the back leg.

I also have them swing and bring the back knee through past the front knee pointing at the pitcher and pause, you can also combine this along with the first part of the drill.

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Peppers,
This drill?

RDB? What the heck....I just sat down to look for that gif.

Peppers has listed about all we are doing for the lower half also...Good drills.
P2001, my only input is that you have a great set of drills here, use them, but don't get too dependent on drills. IMO in a bp session you should spend about the first 1/3 on drills and the rest hitting...tee and front toss. Now if there is something lacking in the hitting, then revisit a drill that can help that. I just say that because I think a lot of people will do just drills almost exclusively.

The only other thing on the subject I would caution against is pushing really hard forward into the front leg THEN swinging. Jen Yee in the vid clip that RDB posted has one of the best models a girl could use. Plus she doesn't just swing well, she studies and even blogs about it. Dave Paetkau's Brain in a Blog

Focus a second on Jen's weight shift, it is very important, if you slowed it down frame by frame you would see that her lower half does go forward a little before her swing (upper half), but very very important...most of her weight is shifting forward WITH her swing. Her weight shift and energy is going into the ball. A lot of people believe and teach all the weight shifts to the front THEN swing. I say to the girls when they are drifting off the goal "shift AND swing, not shift THEN swing!"

Trying to keep it simple.

RHC,
I gues I should have told you I have this :Eidetic memory (pron.: /aɪˈdɛtɪk/), commonly referred to as photographic memory, is a psychological or medical term, popularly defined as the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme precision. The word eidetic, referring to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall not limited to, but especially of, visual images, comes from the Greek word εἶδος (pronounced [êːdos], eidos, "seen").
Untill now never really came in handy.

redhotcoach said:

RDB? What the heck....I just sat down to look for that gif.

Peppers has listed about all we are doing for the lower half also...Good drills.
P2001, my only input is that you have a great set of drills here, use them, but don't get too dependent on drills. IMO in a bp session you should spend about the first 1/3 on drills and the rest hitting...tee and front toss. Now if there is something lacking in the hitting, then revisit a drill that can help that. I just say that because I think a lot of people will do just drills almost exclusively.

The only other thing on the subject I would caution against is pushing really hard forward into the front leg THEN swinging. Jen Yee in the vid clip that RDB posted has one of the best models a girl could use. Plus she doesn't just swing well, she studies and even blogs about it. Dave Paetkau's Brain in a Blog

Focus a second on Jen's weight shift, it is very important, if you slowed it down frame by frame you would see that her lower half does go forward a little before her swing (upper half), but very very important...most of her weight is shifting forward WITH her swing. Her weight shift and energy is going into the ball. A lot of people believe and teach all the weight shifts to the front THEN swing. I say to the girls when they are drifting off the goal "shift AND swing, not shift THEN swing!"
Trying to keep it simple.

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Alot to learn from this from RHC.

rdbass said:

Peppers,
This drill?

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That is not how I have them do the drill they bring the front ankle back to the back ankle and touch ankle to ankle, then ankle to thigh and ankle to knee each one is a seperate drill. When bringing the back knee through the back knee pushes through past the front knee and points to the pitcher hitter is on her front leg.

Good morning red hot. I have looked at the yen yee clip a million times, because i have short term memerory loss(just kidding) and try as i may, i cannot see the the shift and swing. She swings against her front side. to me the movement you see, is rotation, and the arms fly out from the rotation.
for me shift and swing reminds me of my old lineal swing, where i blast of my back foot,swinging.
Shift then swing brings to mind, stretch.
I would not use either term, its not simple enough.

mann said:

Good morning red hot. I have looked at the yen yee clip a million times, because i have short term memerory loss(just kidding) and try as i may, i cannot see the the shift and swing. She swings against her front side. to me the movement you see, is rotation, and the arms fly out from the rotation.
for me shift and swing reminds me of my old lineal swing, where i blast of my back foot,swinging.
Shift then swing brings to mind, stretch.
I would not use either term, its not simple enough.

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Good morning Mann. Guess you do have short term memory since we debated the exact thing on another site yesterday. You can do what you like, but I think the sooner you get de-brain washed off of the rotational vs linear argument that people used a dozen years ago to sell vcr tapes, the quicker you will pick up on the "high level swing". There are concepts of both linear and rotational in a high level swing...ask any of the people you have been debating with. I don't know if you are trying to trap me into your old thoughts of "linear swing", but I think what I am saying is pretty simple to see and understand. You have seen all this already, but if anyone isn't clear:

Hitter A

Her weight is shifting with her swing. SHIFT AND SWING.

Hitter B (line was on the vid, I didn't put it there)

His weight has mostly all shifted to the front, then he swings. SHIFT THEN SWING.

If it helps anyone else, here is the Mud's answer to Mann yesterday about me using the words "stay back":

Mann,

Sometimes it's just easier comparing a hitter who's hitting from a weight "back" position.....

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....to one who's hitting from a weight "forward" one.....

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While Cabrera may stride forward, he maintains his center of gravity (weight) "back", compared to the other hitter, who not only strides forward, but also "shifts" his center of gravity (weight) forward at the same time.

Hence the "Shift AND Swing" of Cabrera vs. the "Shift THEN Swing" of the other hitter.

Maybe one could argue that it's a matter of degrees as to how much "forward" is forward, as it does appear that Cabrera does move forward slightly as he strides, but I do believe that by comparison.....

It should be apparent that most of his forward weight shift is as he swings, when compared to the large amount of forward weight shift that the other hitter has before he swings.

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I just post Mud's words also, just in case someone looking doesn't understand what I am saying. Though I believe it is pretty clear.

I think you might have misunderstood me, i no longer get into the rotational, lineal clash either, i was talking about movement and weight shift.
Cabrera's mass has moved foward before he swings. Then its all pressing against the front side.

Again, My old swing was Weight shift AND swing. My swing was gone before frontside whatsover.
Can you really look at Cabrera's giff right there, and say his weight is going foward as he swings?

mann said:

I think you might have misunderstood me, i no longer get into the rotational, lineal clash either, i was talking about movement and weight shift.
Cabrera's mass has moved foward before he swings. Then its all pressing against the front side.

Again, My old swing was Weight shift AND swing. My swing was gone before frontside whatsover.
Can you really look at Cabrera's giff right there, and say his weight is going foward as he swings?

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Your correct I do misunderstand you...

Cabrera's mass has moved foward before he swings. Then its all pressing against the front side

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How does his mass press against the front side, if it has already moved there before he swings?

Can you really look at Cabrera's giff right there, and say his weight is going foward as he swings?

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UH....YES!

Here is another gif I used yesterday that I think shows it better with someone who strides less.