My daughters swing..

[Buttermaker]

pctrips - here is a good explanation

Why Everyone needs Core Training by Stuart McGill

 

[Eric F]

I'm trying to learn the details of hitting to help my DD. I feel like I'm miles ahead of where I was before I got here but I am far from where I'd like to get. This quote stands out to me because I cannot process it functionally. How can the core affect the position of the elbow/forearm?

Stand in a ready-to-hit position with your rear elbow up at about shoulder height. Pull your rear elbow rearward (away from the opposite batter's box, not toward the catcher) so the muscles at your rear shoulder blade (scap) tighten. Hold that tension, and start rotating your hips forward as your shoulders stay square. You should feel the tension start increasing down your back. At a certain point, that tension will start tugging on your rear arm, trying to pull it downward. The tension in your back is the critical link between the hip drive and the shoulders.

 

[Buttermaker]

Eric - you are very close.

IMO it is not necessary to intentionally retract the scapula towards the spine. You are misplacing the feeling. The scapula is a gliding joint of the shoulder and must to free to move as needed. The core sheath of muscles act to stabilize the spine but still allow movement. Once the pelvis starts to turn open (not rotate) some of the contracted sheath of muscles are lengthened and act on the distal parts of the body

Stand in a ready-to-hit position with your rear elbow up at about shoulder height. Pull your rear elbow rearward (away from the opposite batter's box, not toward the catcher) so the muscles at your rear shoulder blade (scap) tighten. Hold that tension, and start rotating your hips forward as your shoulders stay square. You should feel the tension start increasing down your back. At a certain point, that tension will start tugging on your rear arm, trying to pull it downward. The tension in your back is the critical link between the hip drive and the shoulders.

 

[Buttermaker]

PCtrips - do a side plank. Feel what muscles are being called upon. Stand up and try and isolate those same muscles. Hold a bat up and start turning your pelvis open as you are engaging those same muscles. What happens to your rear arm?

Retracting the scap intentionally is not the same as doing what I just described. To engage the core sheath recruits all of the larger proximal muscles which then flow to the distal muscles.

If you windmill - the act of adducting the arms upon the down swing using the core sheath is very similar and will increase the velocity of your arm speed without trying to throw harder.

 

[pctrips]

I think I get what you are trying to say, by the muscles contracting over scapula it wants to pull the arm in. I can kind of feel that and can see how that is definitely a factor. It definitely engages the shoulder muscles and nudges the arm the come in. When I see the swing of Cabrera, there is a drastic move of the back elbow though and I guess that is what I cannot see happening without something more than a nudge from the core muscles contracting.

I'm about to go out and do a tee session with DD so I'll mess around and take some swings.

 

[Buttermaker]

If you rely on just the core to move things - you will be disappointed. I am saying moves originate from the core and the distal ends have degrees of freedom to accomplish the task at hand while the core protects and stabilizes the spine.

 

[rdbass]

If you rely on just the core to move things - you will be disappointed. I am saying moves originate from the core and the distal ends have degrees of freedom to accomplish the task at hand while the core protects and stabilizes the spine.

This to me looks like 'just the core moving things':

Correct me if I am wrong.
This doesn't :

Again correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Buttermaker]

the female hitter does indeed look like she merely contracts the core and turns.

Dr McGill speaks extensively about the ability of some to contract/relax and contract again when preforming ballistic moves or strikes. Posey looks like he does just that.

 

[tom.guerry]

more on stiffness/elasticity, (bones and fascia important too):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtfy6Km3kvY

 

[Buttermaker]

Good video.

Important to note that you need to lock in the spine with your core muscles to move the spine and not think you just twist the spine or restrict hip turn and twist the upper torso as far as you can go for X factor stretch.

more on stiffness/elasticity, (bones and fascia important too):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtfy6Km3kvY