What is scapula loading?
An over rated word that tries to describe what happens with upper body mechanics in a baseball swing
Why is scapula loading important?
Its not as a term important when to teach hitting to kids. When you throw a ball your hands is going back as your hips rotating open. He belly gets stretched and you throw harder. The same is true for hitting. The problem is the pitcher is not afraid of getting hit by a pitch and his mechanism works. Batters freeze their natural upper body move when their eyes pick up a danger situation developing. So when you tell a kid to take the bat back while he strides he will not do it properly most of the time. SO....scap loading ...really is about rotating the upper body around the spinal axis without counter-rotating the whole body. The problem is the "how to falls short"
How do you do it correctly? depends on the kid. Lh batters that throw RH have better arm hand action IMO because the dominant hand leads and they get hit less growing up as a LH hitter
RH/RH have more problems. Some kids put the bat in the 45 slot and rotate the shoulders find but many do not.
To feel scap load put the bat tipping to the pitcher in front of the helmet with the top hand pointing down and a high rear elbow then just hit. WHen your rght forarm points down as you stride to hit then your rear elbow will internally rotate and you bat will flatten to get on plane and you have the SAME mechanism as pitching going. YOu can hit well from this position if you start early and get in time with the pitcher. See image and notice two things..bat position and then rear shoulder action. The bat position causes the later and makes it easier to teach than teling them to load the scap.... If Guerrero was playing 2B and had just crossed the bag taking a flip from the SS to turn a double play then top hand/ rear shoulder action would be identical to his top hand bat action/ rear shoulder action batting. We make this too hard...the mechanism is already in these kids URL=http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/Guerrero01.mpeg]http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/Guerrero01.mpeg[/URL]