Lower Body (no stride)

[FiveFrameSwing]

I received a text message seeking clarification regarding information earlier in this thread.

When one speaks of movement within the sagittal plane, that motion is in a direction back-to-front/front-to-back … think in terms of a hitter in their normal stance in the batter’s box … the sagittal plane direction of movement at that time/orientation would be between the left/right batter’s boxes.

When speaking of movement in the frontal plane, that motion is in the direction across the body. For a hitter in the batter’s box in a normal stance orientation, the direction of movement at that time/orientation would be catcher-to-pitcher/pitcher-to-catcher (i.e., across the batter’s body).

When speaking of ‘loading’ … and let’s be a bit more specific and give a time/orientation within the swing … and speak of the ‘loading’ that occurs during the ‘reading-of-the-pitch’/’walking-away-from-the-hands’/’preparation-to-launch-the-swing’ … that ‘loading’ is not a muscling up of the muscles in the upper body, but more a preparation of the torso to launch the swing. That preparation of the torso is not strictly refined to a movement in the frontal plane, or a movement in the sagittal plane, but is more a mini winding/coiling of the torso … it is not simply a winding/coiling in the transverse/horizontal plane … but a mini-coil that often has the distance between the ‘rear hip to rear armpit’ increased relative to the distance between the ‘front hip to front armpit’ (i.e., attack angle). That resulting increase in the distance between the rear hip to rear armpit can be thought of as the building/establishment of the corner/rear-edge and helps a hitter lead to consistency by not having excess slack in their core at ‘swing launch’. The ‘loading’ is in essence a slack removal process that prepares the torso in the launching of the swing.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I am not overcomplicating anything..I know what being balanced FEELS like from an athletic perspective. What is overcomplicating things
imo, and this happens a lot in hitting discussion, is using words that can be described using concrete concepts in physics/mathematics when a mathematical
model of the system is available, to a system where no such models exist, e.g. a human being hitting. Sure, in some cases you can probably
say a hitter is "unbalanced" and it would likely satisfy the mathematical description of such a system state. However in many circumstances whether
a hitter is truly unbalanced or not is irrelevant as it is more important to know whether the hitter FEELS like he or she is unbalanced.

I believe it was Moe Norman that said something to the effect of ... nothing at the sake of balance.

Perhaps Moe was confused and needed a mathematical model.

By the way ... I earn my living creating mathematical models to describe complex physical events .

 

[_MIA_]

I believe it was Moe Norman that said something to the effect of ... nothing at the sake of balance.

Perhaps Moe was confused and needed a mathematical model.

By the way ... I earn my living creating mathematical models to describe complex physical events .

Congrats on the job description, applied mathematics is fun..

Did Moe say you could look at a swing and determined just from looking at it whether or not a golf swing was "dynamically balanced"???? That was my
point....you might as well say that during the swing that 90% of the strain energy was converted to kinetic energy while the other 10% was converted to heat..
both would be guesses..

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Congrats on the job description, applied mathematics is fun..

Did Moe say you could look at a swing and determined just from looking at it whether or not a golf swing was "dynamically balanced"???? That was my
point....you might as well say that during the swing that 90% of the strain energy was converted to kinetic energy while the other 10% was converted to heat..
both would be guesses..

Pattar ... if you have ever dealt with a hitter that was initially dynamically unbalanced, then you likely learned that the first thing they needed to do was seek dynamic balance. You may have thought they were ignoring your instruction ... but try as they might, they had to first seek dynamic balance.

The human body puts a high priority on the seeking of dynamic balance.

Assume for a moment that you are walking across a pool area. You see a child in the deep end of the pool drowning. You rush across the pool deck towards the deep end of the pool ... but on your way you step on a softball and lose your balance. Instinctively, despite being mentally consumed with the act of saving the life of a young child, your arms being flailing out as you find yourself attempting to seek dynamic balance.

Bottom line here ... the brain places a high priority on seeking dynamic balance. If you have a kid initially dynamically unbalanced (even if they are statically balanced) ... then when it comes time to perform a specific movement, they will first seek dynamic balance. It isn't that the kid is being disrespectful of your coaching ... they simply haven't been coached well enough to follow your coaching.

 

[_MIA_]

Pattar ... if you have ever dealt with a hitter that was initially dynamically unbalanced, then you likely learned that the first thing they needed to do was seek dynamic balance. You may have thought they were ignoring your instruction ... but try as they might, they had to first seek dynamic balance.

The human body puts a high priority on the seeking of dynamic balance.

Assume for a moment that you are walking across a pool area. You see a child in the deep end of the pool drowning. You rush across the pool deck towards the deep end of the pool ... but on your way you step on a softball and lose your balance. Instinctively, despite being mentally consumed with the act of saving the life of a young child, your arms being flailing out as you find yourself attempting to seek dynamic balance.

Bottom line here ... the brain places a high priority on seeking dynamic balance. If you have a kid initially dynamically unbalanced (even if they are statically balanced) ... then when it comes time to perform a specific movement, they will first seek dynamic balance. It isn't that the kid is being disrespectful of your coaching ... they simply haven't been coached well enough to follow your coaching.

Lol..either I am not making myself clear or you are pulling a "Who's on First" routine with me. In either case it isn't that important, just sort a pet peeve of mine, so I am going to let it go.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Lol..either I am not making myself clear or you are pulling a "Who's on First" routine with me. In either case it isn't that important, just sort a pet peeve of mine, so I am going to let it go.

For my part, I hope I made myself clear.

By the way ... there is no guessing about the kid's swing that was being discussed ... she was dynamically balanced.

 

[_MIA_]

For my part, I hope I made myself clear.

By the way ... there is no guessing about the kid's swing that was being discussed ... she was dynamically balanced.

You were clear, obviously I wasn't.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

You're good Pattar.

One of the reasons that I promote rhythm as being the most important aspect of the swing is so that hitters start off dynamically balanced. This avoids the sudden need to seek dynamic balance and tends to keep a batter dynamically balanced throughout their swing.

 

[BadMonkeys]

I received a text message seeking clarification regarding information earlier in this thread.

I admit it was me and I do appreciate the response. BTW, your inbox is full!