Toe Touch-Heel Plant Sequence

[Mark H]

OK jumped over to Epstein's site. He has a video up on the right side where he describes "linear" as "continuing to slide the rotational axis (I'd talk about the front hip joint/hip slide) after heel plant". Then he says he doesn't have video of such a hitter. Here's one Photo 20 of 31, Analysis but I'm unaware of ANYONE teaching this slappers excepted. Probably is though. I don't think it's common.

I don't see the before and after clips on Mike's site anymore. I used to use those as criticism. I suspect he's getting tired of getting worn out on the net and I bet he's getting better. Be interesting to see his new dvd's and see if he's managed to finesse moving to address those criticisms. He had it all to himself in terms of volume for years but there's no doubt Right View is cutting into his market share in both bb and fp. I think the big driver is the ready access to a volume of elite hitting clips on the net available to EVERYONE to use as comparisons against what people teach. When I criticize Epstien's teaching or Slaught's or Mankin's vs video of elite hitters, that's recognition that they are far ahead of so many teaching really goofy stuff. Case in point Quick Hands Product 1 Photo 18 of 31, Analysis

Like I alluded to earlier, picking any of these approaches, execute it with focused energy, and you are going to get much better assuming you are an average youth hitter. It happens, after much study and comparison, that I think Englishbey offers the best stuff. But it's really not for everyone. You need to really want to understand and become the best you can become. Epstein is much easier to understand and "get" quickly. I do like Right View MLB comparison clips and the software.

 

[Greenmonsters]

Thoughts re Chris O'Leary? Who's he most similar to? Epstein?

 

[Mark H]

He's new and learning. He's come far. I would say he's his own guy and has his own take on the swing.

 

[jimginas]

Mark H: I knew a coach (previous player) at U of MD that teaches hip slide before rotation. Her rationale is she wants the batter moving her energy towards the pitcher/middle of the field so she would NOT over-rotate. Went from heel plant to front hip slide towards pitcher, to rotation....... I think she's a GREAT coach, but I've never heard anyone else teach this and to try and convince a player that's never heard that, especially when coaches never heard that would be awfully tough.

 

[Mark H]

Well this very good hitter pulled off something like that, though you can see when she really fully weights her heel, but it's definitely non-standard. Photo 1 of 16, Fastpitch

Why not do it like this. Photo 5 of 16, Fastpitch or this Photo 9 of 16, Fastpitch so yeah, I wouldn't teach it either-unless a kid was already doing it-though I've played around personally with Smith's pelvic load unload style and it's kind of fun.

 

[jimginas]

ref Caitlin Benyi - UCLA. many of the UCLA batters had similar swings (pretty sure Andrea Duran's swing is similar)............I asked Sue Enquist once if she was committed to teaching the RVP that Don Slaught was teaching. (I asked her because my thought was Sue was a .401 college career BA from 40'. Being she hit so well, why would she change what she was successful at? She said she believed in it and offered to buy back my RVP if I didn't agree! (as you know she and Mike C did the RVP for Don Slaught.)

 

[Mark H]

Yeah, kudos to Don for getting them on board with the thinking that the fp swing is the MLB swing.

 

[ifubuildit]

Good thread.

Its nice to see civil conversation on a softball web site.

 

[Wellphyt]

Someone want to try to walk me through the front foot sequence? Seeing a lot of my U14s not able to rotate because they're landing on their heel which affects their balance and limits the hip turn. By "heel plant" are we talking about landing balanced (more on the ball of the foot i.e. "toe touch"?) and then the weight shifts to the heel after rotation begins?

Please enlighten me, don't know if I misunderstand or if its just a matter of semantics!

Thanks - Greenmonsters

The hitter strides to a balanced position onto the toe. Many hitters land with the front foot open at a 45 degree angle +/-, to increase seperation and clear the front hips out of the way to allow the back hip to thrust forward.

As the front heel begins to drop the hips are triggered and the back heel gets pulled up by the thrust of the rear hip. IOW, on a properly timed pitch, the hips are triggered into heel plant.

All this happens in fractions of a second.

A hitter's balance is also helped out, by having their feet laterally seperated approximately 4". As long as the hitter moves their back foot an equivalent distance towards the plate as the lateral seperation (in this case 4") then they will have the same plate coverage as being square to the plate.

IMO Epstein is one of the best at teaching the relationship between the front heel drop, hips and rear shoulder. All of which can be verified by studying slow motion video clips of what the best do.

Also, Epstein's before and after clips are still available on his website. Kudos to Mike for having enough confidence in his material to post before and after clips of students sent in by parents who have self taught their kids using his material, or, students who have been to a three day camp. Which isn't a lot of time to revamp a kid's swing.

Mike also has a "rising stars" area that highlights some of the players having success with what he teaches.

 

[Wellphyt]

Mark H: I knew a coach (previous player) at U of MD that teaches hip slide before rotation. Her rationale is she wants the batter moving her energy towards the pitcher/middle of the field so she would NOT over-rotate. Went from heel plant to front hip slide towards pitcher, to rotation....... I think she's a GREAT coach, but I've never heard anyone else teach this and to try and convince a player that's never heard that, especially when coaches never heard that would be awfully tough.

If your hips are sliding forward, the odds are your hands are also sliding forward. Anytime a hitter moves their hands towards the pitcher during the stride, they decrease the amount of distance between their hands and the pitcher. Some hitters are gifted enough to get away with it. Most are not.

Many of the best hitters in MLB keep their hands back during the stride. This is what is meant by the phrase "walk away from the hands".