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Closed Hip Bump
Baseball pitchers and some very good hitters possess a move that I call the closed hip bump. For a brief moment, while the hips are laterally moving forward, there is actually a little bit of clockwise hip rotation. In other words, these athletes are still turning to complete the backswing while the lateral motion has started. Thus, there is movement in two directions at the same time.
Perry Husband, baseball hitting and pitching expert who appeared in the Fox Sports Network “Sport Science Show,” calls it “turning in.” Notice his hip position as he gets ready to stride forward. He doesn’t have a lot of hip turn at the start. Notice as he starts to pick up the left heel, his hips turn a little more. Then as the foot leaves the ground a little quicker hip turn occurs. It is now that he has ended his move right and will begin to move left on the next frame.
Look at the chair in the background on the side of his left hip for perspective. His hips might be turned say 30 degrees? He’s definitely started forward while still moving back We can see less of the chair behind his left hip yet his hips continue to turn in or clockwise. Hips are still moving forward as evidenced by the chair being completely hidden from view. But his hips have turned even more. Perhaps he’s turned his hips about 40-45 degrees now?
I use to call it a hip bump and still do at times. Dependent on who I am teaching and what makes sense to them. Basically for me it is a constant loading/coiling of the rear hip. For a right hand hitter. The rear hip is moving clockwise. It never reverses it's direction. That would be coil then uncoil. IMO, once you start to uncoil, you are losing any suddenness. So, the rear hip just keeps moving clockwise. At some point it will be headed back towards the ball but it will be from the inside of the ball. It will be more directional. If you coil to uncoil the rear hip moves back and then out towards the plate and around.
Confusing to explain but just keep sucking the rear hip in/back, around and through.
Posey has a high level swing (not talking about him kneeing himself in the chin). His hips only come slightly forward and only because he extends his front leg out little and gravity takes him down onto it. His drives his rear leg internally rotating it, which brings his back hip around, rotating on his front femur pivot point. He stays back as long as possible. His weight is back until contacting with the ball.
He scrunches his side lat area, he works his elbow under, all while keeping his hands at his back shoulder and without bumping his hips forward.
IMO a hip bump...especially a hip bump with a foot check (sounds a lot like pushing forward, blocking weight with a front foot, and pushing back with the front leg to swing) takes a lot of the adjustability out of a swing. Think about doing all that, then realizing it is an off speed pitch.
Not trying to derail or be obnoxious.
His back hip doesn't come around it comes through and he pivots on the rear hip, not the front. The only way he could rotate on his front femur pivot point would be to have it weighted.
His weight is always back, even at contact. His force is "into" his front foot.
His side lat area gets scrunched because the rear hip his getting out from under it and the hands are applying resistance.
In about '92 or '93, I use to train at a facility where a lot of Pro's from the area would come in and hit. Some of them would talk about a hip bump. At first, I thought they were talking about hip slide. Which I didn't like but they were the ones getting the big money. After watching them hit and hearing their words, they were talking about a deeper coil. For a right hand hitter, they would say to bump the front hip towards the 2nd baseman. not back towards the pitcher. If your front hip is facing the 2nd baseman then your pelvis is offset. The bump towards the 2nd baseman would bring the rear hip/butt cheek towards the SS. Which would be the coil with the rear hip clockwise.
I hope I didn't just confuse the heck out of everyone.
redhotcoach
Out on good behavior
- May 8, 2009
- 4,698
- 38
That last move at the very end? This clip doesn't show it the best, but on my rvp pitcher view of Hami, you see him come forward with coil and right swing start you can see the most of his left back pocket... the coil increased at the end.
I had in my head earlier that MTS had a different term for a hip slide, I think I am catching it now....though if I am thinking correctly...I can imagine it is a beech to teach it.
R
RayR
Guest
I teach it as a progression....I get too many hitters that just rotate the front hip back....first step is to get them to laterally shift their hips and learn how to weight the front leg and release off the back foot....then we add in more of what Hyp is talking about if the player can handle it (and that is a big if)....a blended move like Hamilton is almost impossible for a teenage girl to pull off...
Anything that resembles this is good by me....
Anything that resembles this is good by me....
That last move at the very end? This clip doesn't show it the best, but on my rvp pitcher view of Hami, you see him come forward with coil and right swing start you can see the most of his left back pocket... the coil increased at the end.
I had in my head earlier that MTS had a different term for a hip slide, I think I am catching it now....though if I am thinking correctly...I can imagine it is a beech to teach it.
R
RayR
Guest
I just wanted to add one more thing - in my model the back leg action is huge to this....but you can't use the back leg properly if it is carrying all the weight....that is why I teach the progression of more linear/lateral hip bump to start...this teaches a hitter to move more weight to the front leg so the back leg drive directionally
- Oct 25, 2009
- 3,331
- 48
That's why I like the Babe Ruth stance. He started narrow, so the weight is going to naturally move towards the front leg instead of staying on the back leg during the stride.
