- Apr 11, 2015
- 877
- 63
I think it should be determined/stated if we're talking about simply theory, or what's teachable or not.Excellent post MB. If I understand you correctly the 'load' prior to 'swing launch' is a stretch along the torso. I can respect that. I wouldn't refer to it as a maximum 'stretch' ... more I describe it as a mini stretch ... I want the maximum stretch to occur as a result of swing launch ... and I want looseness to 'fire/twitch' quickly. I care about the speed of that twitch, and hence the focus on looseness.
That said, wrt "stretch along the torso", it all depends on what you mean by "torso", and why I simply use "body" instead. Yes, there is a "stretch along the torso", but I know others who say/believe that stretch works its way down to the inner thigh, and I agree that also happens with some hitters (remember there are numerous "styles" in play here as well).
So for me I don't try to just limit it to the torso when teaching, although I will point out to my hitters that they should be feeling the stretch along their rear "torso", and down into their rear hip socket...which one might define as part of the torso also, and I'm OK with that as well, I just separate them because with my "hip-centric" teaching I like them to have a true definition of what the "hip" (acetabulum, and femoral head) are all about.
Wrt "mini" or "maximum" stretches...again, I don't teach "results" or "effects"...so while I have no qualm that the stretch might increase as a "result of swing launch"...I can only teach my hitters to get as much or their "maximum" stretch that's the "cause" leading to the, shall we say, "additional" stretch that happens after they've launched the swing, and can't consciously control or increase on their own with some other intentional or deliberate movement(s).
Doesn't Kent in the above example "walk away from his hands" in essence? Yet he's still "separating/stretching" at the same time, no? I may sound like a broken record but in these kinds of conversations, I think "theory", and actual teaching get jumbled together to make more of a mess of things helping folks learn to teach their kids who to swing a bat.While the ball is in flight I am not trying to ‘load’ my upper body. Instead I am preparing my torso to pull. That ‘preparation to pull’ is what Hosmer refers to as ‘separation’ … what some folks refer to as ‘walking away from the hands’.
No offense, but I'm getting more of a mumbo-jumbo of words trying to discuss some minutia "feel" than what we're actually going to be teaching our players. Well I hate to introduce another internet hitting term, but I think understanding the idea of "late load" or now I'm making up one, "late stretch" would better explain what I'm talking about, and not that I'm saying a player gets to some maximum stretch, and attempts to hold it for some extended period of time...which yes, then I could see how the "looseness" would be negated from their swing.To me, the ‘feel’ of the torso ‘preparing to pull’ is more of a ‘hollow’ feel than a ‘loading’ feel. It is a feel of looseness … of a lack of a high tension muscling. It is not a feel of ‘loading up the arms’, but a feel of having the torso prepared to pull … it feels like a semi-low-tension state to what quickly becomes defined structure (loaded) once the torso/hip-engine begins to pull … twitch … a spiral torso twitch.
So rather than ‘load’ … to me it is a feel of low-tension.
All I'm talking about is just one more of the many timing elements that go into hitting a baseball/softball, and the "loose" flow that one needs throughout it to do it effectively...and what we can, and cannot teach players in order to accomplish it.
Once more, I think we're in the hitting terms Twilight Zone when we start redefining what it is to "launch" your swing. Ask any hitter young, old, experienced, or not what "swing launch" is, and w/o a doubt I'm going to say they're all going to respond with, "when I start swinging the bat". None are going to start talking about "twitching", "short-hands", or any of the other terms made up at these hitting forums...IMO.Swing launch to me is more of a twitch (torso-hip/engine), along with the act of having ‘short-hands’ (described earlier), which causes structure and loading.
Let me just ask you this. Once a player starts swinging the bat (heck with "launch" defining anymore)...can you tell him/her to not load it, or decrease it's loading w/o them simply trying to stop their swing? I don't believe they can, and that a "check swing" is not a player attempting to stop or decrease his/her "loading" but rather them just trying to stop the swing (unloading process) that they've already begun.That loading is ‘released’ into and through impact … and from the perspective that a ‘load’ needs to occur prior to a ‘launch’, then this ‘release’ could be referred to as a ‘launch’.
I'm not either, I'm just sharing information, and let it fall where it may.I am not trying to convince people one-way or the other. I am saying that when 1CA began speaking in this manner that I immediately was able to comprehend his perspective. To me 1CA’s description had a feel of someone that was paying close attention to their swing … it had a feel based description to me.
But what I am in disagreement with, is taking super slo-mo video, and trying to reinvent the wheel pretending it's been square for all these years, and that someone has just figured out how to round it out. As they say, "There's many ways to skin a cat", but all I'm getting at, is don't hold up a snake that's been skinned, and try to tell me it's a new, and better way to skin that poor old cat.
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