Weight Transfer...Part of the Swing or Preparation?

It seems nearly all agree that weight transfer is part of a proper swing. Here is the question.

Is weight transfer a part of the swing? In other words do the hands and back elbow start to move forward with the transfer to the front.

or

Is weight transfer more a part of the prep process and the hitter initiates the swing upon near full completion of the transfer (kind of a read the pitch to weight transfers as the torso loads back and then upon transfer completion rip it!) Perhaps a two part explanation would be READ IT (transfer) and RIP IT (rotate off firm front side).

Thinking of different ways to communicate to 9 and 10 year olds so they hit a disproportionate amount of bombs, line drives and smoking grounders this year.

My thoughts are that the weight starts to shift at about the same time as the hands start to move & the hips start to rotate, but there are sure a lot more accomplished hitting coaches here than me- looking foreword to some other thoughts.

Its Both

The batter should start out with the weight centered until they lift the toe of the front foot to stride. When the toe lifts the weight will shift back to the inside of the back leg and the back hip will load. This would be the preparation your talking about.

As the batter strides forward and the foot plants the weight will shift from the back leg to the front leg. So at the finish the hitter is rotating around the front leg. This would be the part of the swing aspect of hitting.

Dana.

ifubuildit said:

As the batter strides forward and the foot plants the weight will shift from the back leg to the front leg. So at the finish the hitter is rotating around the front leg. This would be the part of the swing aspect of hitting.

Dana.

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YUPPER! Dana is dead on. that should also keep it simple for the young girls

"Shift as you swing" is the high level swing. "Shift then swing" is the more amateur swing.

Another way to think of it is, in the high level swing, "the swing weights the front foot". The front leg in the high level swing is used for balance and used to block the momentum coming from the backside during the swing. In the high level swing the hitter stays "dynamically balanced". Meaning they keep the center of their mass "in space" over their rear thigh all the way through contact. They do not shift their weight onto the front foot, and then swing. The difference between the two is huge, and a hitter will never duplicate the high level swing if they "shift then swing".

When it comes to the front foot, don't be fooled by slow motion video. In the high level swing, when the front foot lands, their is no meaningful weight on it. The hitter's weight and energy is maintained in the backside. When the hitter makes the decision to launch the energy from the backside towards the ball, the front leg begins to straighten in order to brace the body so that the energy developed from the backside is sent into the ball, and not in a straight line forward...or worse, takes a hard left turn towards the 3rd base dugout (RH batter).

In the high level swing, the hips do not rotate around a posted front leg, like a gate on a hinge. The front hip is actually pushed backwards as the front leg is straightened. The result is that the hips function more like a revolving door, once the front foot plants.

Another way to look at it is from a pure logic standpoint. Why would a hitter bother to load their back hip, if they are going to shift their weight to the front leg before they swing? Since it's impossibly for a hitter to shift to the front leg and maintain any meaningful load in the back hip, why even bother to load the back hip?

A more reasonable explanation would be that hitters load the back hip with the intent of keeping it loaded until the swing is launched. There is a great clip of Bonds floating around, which shows him making an on-the-fly adjustment to an offspeed pitch. He performs the "sit" as described by Epstein, to perfection. In this particular clip, Bonds is early with his stride. So in order to by time he "sits" for a fraction of a second. Even though his front foot is clearly down, the "sit" allows him to maintain the load in his back hip and his weight over his rear thigh. Hitters that "shift then swing", typically lunge when they are fooled by an offspeed pitch.

Wellphyt said:

When it comes to the front foot, don't be fooled by slow motion video. In the high level swing, when the front foot lands, their is no meaningful weight on it. The hitter's weight and energy is maintained in the backside. When the hitter makes the decision to launch the energy from the backside towards the ball, the front leg begins to straighten in order to brace the body so that the energy developed from the backside is sent into the ball, and not in a straight line forward...or worse, takes a hard left turn towards the 3rd base dugout (RH batter).

In the high level swing, the hips do not rotate around a posted front leg, like a gate on a hinge. The front hip is actually pushed backwards as the front leg is straightened. The result is that the hips function more like a revolving door, once the front foot plants.

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This is an important, but often overlooked element of toe touch and why some hitting instructors take away a hitter's stride. When striding a high level hitter like Crystl loads then strides to toe touch keeping the weight on the inside edge of the ball of the foot. If you stride and land on all five toes you've shifted weight to the front side of your body and are going to limit the amount of lower body momentum in your swing.

The problem with coaches who take away the stride, is that many of them don't teach the no-stride correctly. My advice to parents who want their daughters to use a no-stride approach, is to study and duplicate Pujols' pre-swing movements. In order to teach the no-stride, the instructor needs to be able to do it themselves first, so that they can correctly communicate to the student how to do it.

A correctly performed no-stride, includes a back and forth weight shift. Again, study a clip of Pujols. When Pujols picks up his front foot, he turns his front hip inwards. At the same time, he slightly straightens his back leg. These three movements (pick up front foot, turn front hip inwards, straighten back leg) are combined into one seamless move.

The result is he creates a bind in the back hip, giving him a rigid (not straight as in having a locked knee) back leg/hip platform, which he then uses to push off of to get some forward momentum going.

There is more to a no-stride, than just picking up the front foot and putting it back down.

I know some of you already know this stuff. I just wanted to throw it out there to emphasize that the no-stride approach must incorporate the same weight shift elements as a stride approach.

Wellpht

There is no way I would even attempt to teach that movement to a player in the 8-10 year old range. Very few of them would have the strength and stability to maintain the position Albert is in at the start of his swing.

Let alone trying to duplicate those mechanics you just described in the post above. Which I do agree with, but even Albert isnt no stride. His front foot will move forward 3 inches to start his momentum transfer.

Dana.

ifubuildit said:

There is no way I would even attempt to teach that movement to a player in the 8-10 year old range. Very few of them would have the strength and stability to maintain the position Albert is in at the start of his swing.

Let alone trying to duplicate those mechanics you just described in the post above. Which I do agree with, but even Albert isnt no stride. His front foot will move forward 3 inches to start his momentum transfer.

Dana.

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You are correct that Pujols' front foot lands a few inches forward. I also agree that 8 - 10 year olds don't have the motor skills to learn a lot of the stuff that is discussed on here. Kids at that age need to just play and have fun.

I agree with one thing, that most 8-10 year olds do not need to hear what as been said.

Your question depends on a number of factors. Although, it's usually not good to think of the weight shift happening "during the swing".

If we are looking at a swing with no adjustments, then what most consider weight shift happens prior to foot plant.

The question is much broader then what as been said. And this is one area that hitters adjust the most, most consider the stride as the problem and the thing to be adjusted.

They just showed Nick Swisher in a more narrow stance, and a wider stance as an adjusment to being fooled to often through the playoffs. This implies that a shorter "stride" as helped him in the last two games.