Back Foot

[garyt]

My daughter (14) just started working with a hitting instructor. He is teaching something with the back foot and I wanted to get everyones opinion on this method.

The method is that the back foot comes up on the toe during the swing and then the back leg comes toward the front leg.

He was doing some drills and the movement seemed to be a lot but perhaps when he puts everything together it will be minimal but either way....is this a good thing?

I looked at some of the model swings on here and saw very little of this.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Example Game Swings

 

[softballphreak]

Yes, sounds good. Anything like this clip?

‪John Mallee 6 Steps of a Major League Swing Hitting Tips‬‏ - YouTube

 

[garyt]

@FiveFrameSwing - I've looked at the model swings as I stated in my initial post. I saw very little of those batters dragging the back foot toward the front.

@softballphreak - It does somewhat look like that except he doesn't drag the back foot toward the front leg and that is what I'm concerned about.

 

[Jim]

The back foot should not finish on the "tippy toe". The back foot briefly comes to the toe and sometimes completely off the ground for a split second due to the transfer of energy through the swing at that brief moment. Focusing on the back foot and that toe position at contact is not a good idea because it happens naturally as a result of other forces in the swing.

Develop consistency with the core fundamentals first and the small details will begin to naturally fall into place. Keep it simple.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Howard calls this action the Elvis Move. The back knee will go towards the second baseman.
If the back knee folds underneath then they are bugsquishing and not getting a good weight transfer.

Straightleg posted a very good video of this action with a MLB player on another site.

 

[softballphreak]

Howard calls this action the Elvis Move. The back knee will go towards the second baseman.
If the back knee folds underneath then they are bugsquishing and not getting a good weight transfer.

Straightleg posted a very good video of this action with a MLB player on another site.

Wonder if we could get that video on here?

 

[Jim]

When the front heal travels toward the ground the back heal then begins to rise. Kind of like pistons in a car. The front and back heal action is a big key to the start of the swing sequence. Being athletic in the box, having the weight more toward the balls of your feet vs. on the heals is a key to allow this action to happen.

 

[Wellphyt]

My daughter (14) just started working with a hitting instructor. He is teaching something with the back foot and I wanted to get everyones opinion on this method.

The method is that the back foot comes up on the toe during the swing and then the back leg comes toward the front leg.

He was doing some drills and the movement seemed to be a lot but perhaps when he puts everything together it will be minimal but either way....is this a good thing?

I looked at some of the model swings on here and saw very little of this.

It sounds like the instructor is trying to get her to weight shift. I've tried the same approach he is using and the results weren't great. Perhaps he has figured out how to make it work with his system of teaching.

The danger in trying to teach the weight shift this way is that the student will almost certainly have to get a lot more weight over the front foot than is ideal. Hopefully he has figured out a way to get around this issue. You do not want your daughter to be upright like a golfer when she swings.

If the instructor hasn't talked in depth about the importance of the hip coil, then that is a red flag and he is overlooking a key part of how good hitters use their hips.

You probably should give him some more time to see how things progress. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Hitting instructors should love talking about hitting to anything that moves.

 

[softballphreak]

Hitting instructors should love talking about hitting to anything that moves.

That might answer the question of where FFS came up with "the train always leaves the station." He must have been talking to trains about hitting.