locking the front leg prior to contact

[ssarge]

Off topic and not germaine to this thread but that is the exact phrase I was looking for in response to a pitching related thread. As with almost any complex athletic motion, when the action is viewed segmentally it is fairly easy to see a flaw in micro and offer advice for correction but IMHO the manifestation of the flaw appears far earlier in the athletic sequence.

My description may have been more pithy, but yours is better stated. Exactly right.

Best regards,

Scott

 

[RayR]

So I have them doing a drill to practice this movement of planting the heel, Flexing the knees inward, not downward, (Sitting on the commode) Tilting and then starting rotation of the hip. All at the same time. It has helped my young hitters develop that fluid motion your talking about. Dana.

The bolded part is right on. Boardmember uses crack the walnut. Both cues energize the muscles in the pelvis and turbo boost the rotation...while making the action of the front leg a no teach.

 

[ssarge]

The bolded part is right on. Boardmember uses crack the walnut. Both cues energize the muscles in the pelvis and turbo boost the rotation...while making the action of the front leg a no teach.

An Englishbey emphasis point as well. Most hitters do little to involve the pelvis muscles, so it is a huge upside possibility. And it is the kind of thing that is totally under the covers, doesn't show up on video, but is absolutely a stress point for most athletic trainers orking with any kind of athlete who needs to generate power. The kind of thing you DON'T learn through purely focusing on mechanics. The kind of thing gifted athletes do naturally, but typical athletes don't normally do well.


John (Boardmember) is very knowledgable, and has a great track record of success (he's put 70 kids or more into college on schollies). I have competed against him in Gold ball, and he absolutely knows what he is doing.

Best regards,

Scott

 

[joof]

Great Discussion

To All

This may be the best discussion I have read online in a long time. By that I mean the focus in general on the load-unload sequence. It's so exciting to see the focus on what science(complex systems, chaos theory and ballistic movement) says must be so and that is the start of the kinetic sequence (ballistic movement ) must be started correctly and in reproducible fashion in order to minimize error(chaos) downstream in the sequential process.

I would really like to see this discussion cover the effects of the "pelvic load" on reconfiguring body posture and most importantly how everyone teaches the loading pattern. I have learned that all "pelvic loads" are not equally efficient in producing the desired unload pattern which IMO is very close to the movement pattern produced in "Steve's #1 drill" .

Thanks to all for some really good information. I need all the help I can garner since I am coming out of retirement to teach and most importantly to me coach girls softball at a small public school near Tyler,Tx.

joof

 

[RayR]

Agree - if you threw all the mechanics out the window and focused solely on 2 things:

Pelvic ignition and keeping the hands/bat "up" until toe touch you would see nice improvements in most hitters.

An Englishbey emphasis point as well. Most hitters do little to involve the pelvis muscles, so it is a huge upside possibility. And it is the kind of thing that is totally under the covers, doesn't show up on video, but is absolutely a stress point for most athletic trainers orking with any kind of athlete who needs to generate power. The kind of thing you DON'T learn through purely focusing on mechanics. The kind of thing gifted athletes do naturally, but typical athletes don't normally do well.


John (Boardmember) is very knowledgable, and has a great track record of success (he's put 70 kids or more into college on schollies). I have competed against him in Gold ball, and he absolutely knows what he is doing.

Best regards,

Scott

 

[jimginas]

John (Boardmember) is very knowledgable, and has a great track record of success (he's put 70 kids or more into college on schollies). I have competed against him in Gold ball, and he absolutely knows what he is doing.

Best regards,

Scott

Scott - is there a link or means to see what Boardmember's "Crack the Walnut" drill looks like? I didn't find it on Google searches.

Thanks

 

[ssarge]

Scott - is there a link or means to see what Boardmember's "Crack the Walnut" drill looks like? I didn't find it on Google searches.

John hangs out some at the following site. Perhaps you can PM him there?

Baseball Fever

Or just run a search there - I believe he posted a description of the drill on that site.

If you don't reach him, PM me here (or anywhere else), and I will try to get you direct contact info.

Regards,

Scott