Coiling

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Jan 6, 2009
6,590
113
Chehalis, Wa
This is from Hank Aaron's book,

The reason you pivot your hips, shoulders, arms and hands backwards as you prepare to swing is based on the same principle as that of a coiled spring. Wind it up correctly and it can be released with lightning power,

The pitch is on it's way. You've made your stride and coiled your power rearward. It looks as if the pitch is in your strike zone and you've decided to swing at it. You uncoil your power. You hips begin opening toward the pitcher, as you push off your rear foot, your shoulders open and your arms and hands spring forward. drawn by your hips. Your bat, flattening out a level arc toward the pitch, follows your hands. with the speed increasing as you get closer to the hitting area. Your weight shifts to your front foot, and you whip the bat into the ball.

How much power you bring to the swing will depend in great measure on how well and quickly your hips and arms rotate. Maximum power depends on their quick action, so they've got to swing free. On inside pitches, it's advisable to bring them around particularly quickly.

The quicker you are with the bat, the longer you can wait on a pitch and the less likely you are to be fooled. Bat speed is especially important when you're swinging at a slowball. Some people recommend swinging at the last possible instant. I've done it a lot of times. Ted Williams was a master at it.
 
Jan 6, 2009
6,590
113
Chehalis, Wa
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May 16, 2016
1,024
113
Illinois
I would like to hear someone breakdown coiling further. Do you guys refer to coiling and hand separation as the same thing or is hand separation just one part of coiling? I have heard others say to show the pitcher your numbers on the back of the jersey or show the pitcher the pockets on the back of your pants. Are those also parts of coiling. Trying to get some correct terminology down on coiling.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
I want to add something to Bob's question: Is coiling commonly called anything else (either here or elsewhere)? Are coiling and loading the same thing? Related?
 

Chris Delorit

Member
Apr 24, 2016
343
28
Green Bay, WI
Bob & JD,

Coiling is just a relative term to the upper body turning in toward the plate, generally about the same time around backside loading and pitch release and just prior to the front foot plan, where the torso uncoiling will begin. Your focus is toeing in the front shoulder which will increase the torso tension. This should lead to increased torso "unwinding" torque with a bit more bat travel. Ideally, everything in the upper body "coils" together without individual seperation of the hands. An advantage of a slight coil is keeping the front shoulder tucked in relative to the chin (head/eyes) and promotes keeping the front shoulder (and head/eyes) on the path of the pitch a little bit longer prior to rotation. Think driving hand path, versus slicing hand path.

Bob, showing #'s or pockets is maybe more association terminology and may be a bit of a stretch athletically. The toeing in or coiling should eventually become an unconscious effort which is a slight, natural & smooth movement.

Remember, because there is mostly less comparable reaction time in fastpitch (vs baseball) at comparable age groups, the softball players have less time to create too many pre-swing habits. It's best to keep it simple, relaxed and smooth. Like pitching, don't overcomplicate something that should be natural and easy.

Chris
 
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May 3, 2014
2,149
83
Different view

You want to coil around the rear leg. And you don't ever want intentionally uncoil. The suddenness you are striving for comes from increasing the coil/resistance as you start to turn the barrel rearwards as your rear leg turns you forward. There is a moment during this action that the resistance disappears and you feel a suddenness that you never felt before.
 
Jan 6, 2009
6,590
113
Chehalis, Wa
Different view

You want to coil around the rear leg. And you don't ever want intentionally uncoil. The suddenness you are striving for comes from increasing the coil/resistance as you start to turn the barrel rearwards as your rear leg turns you forward. There is a moment during this action that the resistance disappears and you feel a suddenness that you never felt before.

I would add that you don't want to forget vertical loading with the loading around the back leg. Vertical loading helps to create a stable back hip/leg. So when you load against the back side there is immediate loading happening. There isn't much swaying happening with a good vertical load.
 
Apr 11, 2015
877
63
Different view

You want to coil around the rear leg. And you don't ever want intentionally uncoil. The suddenness you are striving for comes from increasing the coil/resistance as you start to turn the barrel rearwards as your rear leg turns you forward. There is a moment during this action that the resistance disappears and you feel a suddenness that you never felt before.
So would that then be the "uncoil" part, and if so, what does the hitter do to make that resistance "disappear"?
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
An advantage of a slight coil is keeping the front shoulder tucked in relative to the chin (head/eyes) and promotes keeping the front shoulder (and head/eyes) on the path of the pitch a little bit longer prior to rotation. Think driving hand path, versus slicing hand path.

This totally reminded me of something a Little League coach of mine would preach (mostly to his son, who was kind of an awful hitter). He would basically make his kid tuck his chin into his shoulder. It was the weirdest thing, but I think this is what he was trying to achieve in his own way. (He also was all about "back elbow up" to an absurd degree)


I would add that you don't want to forget vertical loading with the loading around the back leg. Vertical loading helps to create a stable back hip/leg. So when you load against the back side there is immediate loading happening. There isn't much swaying happening with a good vertical load.

Wait wait, Shawn you just (I think) used loading and coiling as synonyms, but I think Chris in post 5 uses coiling/loading as two different terms (but happening at the same time?).

It's times like these where I'm pretty sure I understand what I'm seeing in a swing, but I don't have a clue about the terms.
 

Chris Delorit

Member
Apr 24, 2016
343
28
Green Bay, WI
JD,

The idea is to train both mental and physical memory in young players so that their head remains relatively level and still while tracking through the point of contact, rather than rotating (or pulling out) along with the front shoulder before contact. "Keep the chin tucked into the front shoulder" may be more of an imaginitive way for that coach to explain it, as the toeing in of the front shoulder in the coiling process brings both into close proximity.

Shawn's clip shows both pretty nicely.

Back elbow up absolutely isn't an issue, but anything above the shoulder is and becomes a non-natural athletic movement which could promote less than optimal performance potential, as well as increasing the chance of an injury.

You may notice a little more accentuated coiling from baseball clips, because they'll have slightly more reaction time to fastpitch hitters. A 90-ish mph pitch at 60ft = in the neighborhood of 115 or so at 43-46ft. In a fraction of a second, there's such a small window of reaction time.

Chris
 
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