Was that Harper in High School?
Shoulder flying off - what does it mean.
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I think so.
Yes this is tricky though. The shoulders rotate around the spine but the spine also moves rearward via hip extension. This causes the rear shoulder to stay almost in the same spot but the front one moves a long ways. I think this is how TM comes about his rotation around the rear hip because that is how it appears.
Watch the distance the front shoulder moves vs rear shoulder TO CONTACT. If it was rotation around the spine they would move equal distances.
Edit:it may be angle of the spine and not totally spine moving rearward. I'm not sure yet! I know if you get in a batting stance with a lot of hip flexion and then extend hips your front shoulder moves like that in combo with rotation.
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The hip extension you are talking about happens at contact right? I’m not too worried about posture after contact. Posture is altered depending on pitch location as well.. Just something keep in mind. I don’t really care how far the shoulder travels unless it travels in the right direction. Shoulders aren’t something I think about a lot .. but yes you can still identify problems by looking at the Shoulders
I think posture=hip flexion. Without hip flexion you can't have extension. Without extension you just have rotation. Which ends up as spinning out. There is a previous instructor post demonstrating it.
For some reason my phone is not letting me backspace which makes it hard to explain it.
Sorry Im getting fed up with the technicalitlies difficulties and can't do a full response until tomorrow.
If you look at Rizzo here his back foot is still perpendicular to the plate. He crowds the plate with his back foot right on the batter's-box line.
His front foot is almost pointed at the pitcher. Why? Notice the front hip is flying open. His back foot allows him to hook every pitch into RF and the shifted defense because he can reach the outside corner and still pull the ball with an open frontside.
Rizzo is the antithesis of what I teach, and what Mookie Betts does. He is very rotational; couldn't be anything else! I teach that the front hip is displaced by the back hip. it is a neutral element on the axis of rotation, and doesn't pull the body and arms to contact. I never felt my front hip acting as an agent for my swing. Just the opposite, and I teach as much to my girls.
Secondly: If this is true for the front hip, shouldn't it be true for the front shoulder? If you watch that video of Betts from behind, it appears his back shoulder is more active and engaged than the front shoulder. I teach that the front shoulder is not an agent of the swing, but like the hip simply rolls out of the way to allow the arms and hands to drive to the ball.
Also, the hips vacate or change posture due to shoulder tilt which would result in impeding the back elbow and a normal arm frame from creating an efficient angle and path to the pitch. That increased hip tilt, or vacating the hips and waist out of the way is nothing more than that. Creating or allowing a steeper path to the pitch lest the elbow be impinged at the waist. I hear some theories here that make no sense to me about hip-tilt.
There are some really great swings in MLB. This is not one to be copied.
His front foot is almost pointed at the pitcher. Why? Notice the front hip is flying open. His back foot allows him to hook every pitch into RF and the shifted defense because he can reach the outside corner and still pull the ball with an open frontside.
Rizzo is the antithesis of what I teach, and what Mookie Betts does. He is very rotational; couldn't be anything else! I teach that the front hip is displaced by the back hip. it is a neutral element on the axis of rotation, and doesn't pull the body and arms to contact. I never felt my front hip acting as an agent for my swing. Just the opposite, and I teach as much to my girls.
Secondly: If this is true for the front hip, shouldn't it be true for the front shoulder? If you watch that video of Betts from behind, it appears his back shoulder is more active and engaged than the front shoulder. I teach that the front shoulder is not an agent of the swing, but like the hip simply rolls out of the way to allow the arms and hands to drive to the ball.
Also, the hips vacate or change posture due to shoulder tilt which would result in impeding the back elbow and a normal arm frame from creating an efficient angle and path to the pitch. That increased hip tilt, or vacating the hips and waist out of the way is nothing more than that. Creating or allowing a steeper path to the pitch lest the elbow be impinged at the waist. I hear some theories here that make no sense to me about hip-tilt.
There are some really great swings in MLB. This is not one to be copied.
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The hands wants an unobstructed path to the ball. Looks to me like Rizzo is simply making space to allow the hands a clear path. I think sometimes younger players will move the front shoulder off to allow for unobstructed path. I also believe that’s why some players scissor. Lots of closed striders scissor. I think the scissoring is an attempt to clear room for the hands
Rizzo was not about hand path or back elbow, but front hip opening up. Rizzo swings like that, preps like that, steps like that on every pitch regardless of location or height. Sometimes he will start a season hitting some balls up the middle, but eventually he will get into the old habit and hook every pitch. Last year they said "the shift" is used on Rizzo more than any other hitter. But if I were the opposition I would do the same with Heyward who does essentially the same thing, but sits down in the batter's box a little more. The last two photos, Donaldson and Russel show the hip tilt accommodating the strong shoulder tilt. The back upper arm/elbow, unless fooled by a pitch, will best serve the swing perpendicular to the shoulders and their angle. Straight down to maintain the power-box. In Donaldson you can see the angle of the femur and the hips vacating to allow the proper bat path.
This is a homerun swing on an inside pitch, 8/30/2020. Notice how he does not, get his hips into the swing because his front hip is already rolled off the plate and his backside rotation is almost NONE!
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Look at Rendon’s back knee. It comes forward before the hips start to turn. The back hip is still coiled as the back knee starts to turn. Of course he starts with the back knee positioned close to the starting position.
The back knee extends slightly and then flexes as the back leg starts to turn. As the hips remain coiled.
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