BBSCOUT
Great Ruth clip..thanks very much.
again...hitch or movement for purpose?
Watch him flip the bat tip away from his body with his hands / forearms and then load the back scap. What does it do to his hands. It works the bottom hand under the top and gets the bat out of plane to the swing. The bat goes out of the 45 slot and back to the 45 slot. By the time the bat gets pulled back into the same path of momentum of the shoulders; the hips are ahead of the shoulders creating torque. The bottom hand locks into the rotation. IT promotes the alternate loading of the rear then the lead scap and an inside out swing. IT slows the hands (or depending on how you want to look at it) allows more time for the front foot to get down. Torque could be predicted by the the relative position tip of the rear elbow and the open from foot. Put you lead elbow that far back and stride to an open foot and tell me there is no torque in that swing.
This is an example of the "action" in a swing that promotes upper lower body synchronization.
The modern day Pujols shortened that swing but kept the essentials. He
1starts out of the 45 slot with a vertical bat
2. starts bottom hand under top
3. internally rotates elbow in set up
4 coils somewhat in the setup
5. elevates the heel and no stides with rotation
6. reduces the need for forward movement
7. Gets batspeed and quickness with the same motor action
Similarly..he uses bat plane transtion to get inside the ball, load the scaps and slow the hands to get the hips ahead a few frames. Both access torque ..one abbreviates the others key points.
It would be safe to say Pujols strikes out less. THe reason might be the reduction of stride momentum to a slight efficient shift. OBTW...agree that is not a lunge.
Pujols probably drinks less beer before his at bats too.