What is weight shift?

Eric F said:

Us dumb guys call that "unweighted". Kids tend to understand that term better, too. "Reduce the reaction force of your rear foot" is going to get a lot of puzzled stares.

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pattar said:

Until they take physics...

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Eric F said:

My kid's middle school doesn't offer that class. I don't think we covered that in HS physics, either, but then again, that was over 30 years ago.

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pattar said:

They probably taught you the definition of weight and while you're pretty old, Newton's laws were probably around (for at least a couple of years ) back then so they probably taught you those as well.
Don't worry, I remember very little from HS other than what I actually use now

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pattar said:

Basically a foot has the same weight (mass * magnitude of gravitational acceleration) regardless of whether it is on the ground or in the air. The reaction force
of the foot is the force exerted on the foot by the ground which is equal and opposite in direction to force exerted by the foot on the ground, e.g. Newton's third law. This
is what would be measured when force plates are used (there has been some twitter posts about this lately regarding hitting).
When the foot is in the air there is no interaction with the ground and hence no reaction force.

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rdbass said:

The swing shifts/transfers the weight from the rear side to the front side. Some will say shift/transfer the weight from the rear side to the middle.

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FiveFrameSwing said:

Do you differentiate between weight-shift and weight-transfer?

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For many, the word 'transfer' is a synonym for the word 'shift'.
Shift: To transfer from one place, position, person, etc., to another.

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Shawn said:

5frames and Rdbass,

The weight doesn't transfer until after you reach the launch position. The weight is still back at toe touch. Although there can be weight shift prior to toe touch during the FBC.

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"My weight is my left (rear) foot, as I start swinging, my weight shifts to my right (lead) foot at the time of contact with the ball." - Babe Ruth

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The weight doesn't transfer until after you reach the launch position.

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FP26 said:

Very good post...
When discussing weight shift or weight transfer, I don't consider the ground. Reaction forces are important for certain things but not necessarily with this. At least not the way I view it.

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