Stance question

[JC heir]

I have a stance question, especially concerning a softball swing vs. a baseball swing... While watching the LL boys world series I noticed all of the boys on the Cal. team which won were great hitters & they all seemed to have a stance in the box which was wider than I have normally taught my girls. The wide stance led to very little or no stride during the swing. It seemed obvious to me that they all had the same hitting instructor & it was working well for them. Then in my feeble mind, I remember watching Albert Pujols swing & thinking exactly the same thing. I cant imaging modeling your swing after Pujols being a bad thing. Now without getting to technical for a stupid logger, is there any reason not to teach girls softball the same wide stance, no stride swing??

 

[Mark H]

No reason. But don't take a stride away from a hitter it's working for. Going to no stride is a good place to start with a hitter who is a mess. Some stay there. You don't have to have much momentum for good rotation but you have to have some. You can do that without a stride.

 

[Darrick Brown]

Strongly believe in a wide stance with little to no stride. Just be careful getting too wide because we still want a active hip to the contact point.

 

[Mark H]

I'm fine with no stride but strongly believe in not taking away the stride from someone it's working for. Photo 5 of 16, Fastpitch

 

[FJRGerry]

Most of what I've read recommends either a small stride or a slight lift & drop of the front foot. I recently bought Mike Epstein's hitting DVDs and he teaches no stride and using a wider stance with weight evenly balanced instead (from my understanding of his teaching). My daughter naturally takes a small stride and she hits OK, but I got the DVDs to learn more about rotational hitting so I'm not sure I'll have her switch to a no stride method (I'll have her try it but let her decide).

If you click the following link it will take you to some video clips of some of his softball students demonstrating his method:

Softball

 

[Mark H]

Many/most of the best hitters in the world stride. Sometimes rather large. The reason instructors take away the stride, if they know why, is it usually makes changing bad habits easier. That's it. It would be hitting malpractice to tell Rivera or Mantle or Dot or any other successful, effective, efficient hitter to get rid of the stride.

Mickey Mantle - That Classic Swing

http://home.mindspring.com/~rmk/dotair.gif

 

[Mark H]

Most of what I've read recommends either a small stride or a slight lift & drop of the front foot. I recently bought Mike Epstein's hitting DVDs and he teaches no stride and using a wider stance with weight evenly balanced instead (from my understanding of his teaching). My daughter naturally takes a small stride and she hits OK, but I got the DVDs to learn more about rotational hitting so I'm not sure I'll have her switch to a no stride method (I'll have her try it but let her decide).

If you click the following link it will take you to some video clips of some of his softball students demonstrating his method:

Softball

Can't learn more about "rotational" hitting. You can learn more about what Epstein or Right View or Mankin and so on call rotational hitting. There is no one version of "rotational" hitting. It's been a marketing term forever.

Epstein is where many/most including me started studying. Went through Mankin too. Reviewed Right View early on. Learned more from setpro and Englishbey. Recommend Setpro's ebooks and anything by Englishbey. Ought to read Ted Williams and Jim Dixon too.

 

[Mike]

Mark H
The reason instructors take away the stride, if they know why, is it usually makes changing bad habits easier.

Very true.
The original question was stance. The stance enables the player to see the pitch with both eyes and it is unique to each hitter. What matters is toe touch to contact. Every player has a maximum stride length. The length of the stride depends on the stance. My daughters were no stride for the last year or so and are just know learning to take a small stride to help with timing. Not sure how to find there stride length, feel I guess, I leave that up to there instructor.

Mike

 

[JC heir]

Mark- I have no doubt the hitter in the pic you posted (rivera ) is a great hitter, but if you watch her eyes in the video in relation to the railing behind her, she is dropping her head a good foot or more during stride. Wouldnt a no stride swing tend to take some of that eye movement/head drop away?? Just asking here, dont have any video to back up my thoughts.

 

[Mark H]

A lot of great hitters do the same. Not what I'd teach but obviously it's not a problem. I've read that about the problem with eyes dropping forever and I've watched some elite hitters do just that forever. Is it an added complexity? Yes. Do I take away complexity from struggling hitters at least temporarily? Yes. Do I think a long stride with a head drop is necessarily a problem? I can't say that when I see elite hitters doing it successfully against elite pitching. And yeah, Rivera was very very good against the best college pitching on the planet.