Very interesting thread.
And while I use different words and may not agree with every detail of Quincy's description, I believe I "feel" what he feels.
Here is a great example of two of the best ever...."swinging before the foot gets down".
I wouldn't go as far to say contact is at touchdown.....but I know what he means. There is a large difference between "feel" and "looks". What a hitter feels compared to how it looks on video.
I would say....the launch of their swing puts their foot down. The foot isn't down first...then swing. And, the swing is so quick that "feel" wise it feels almost simutaneous.
And....if you want to be successful....you better be teaching feel....because that is what the hitter must deal with "in the box".
Notice neither of these two hitters use the Epstein "toe touch to heel drop" to launch their hips. Their hips launch as soon as they pick up their stride foot. Rotation begins at that moment. It is NOT a "firing" of the hip. There is NOT a defined moment of aggressive hip turn. There IS a stretching that occurs as they open the hips. There is a crescendo of the hip turn....that stretches and stretches and stretches...until it's so tight that the hitter must release. This stretching is countered by the upper body which has a "hold" on the system. A hold that in fact is going rearward as they turn the barrel rearward. While the "hold" is in effect...the stretching gets tighter and tighter. And when the hitter finally says "go"...the stretch is released and the bat is whipped through the zone. This IS the mechanical advantage that the highest level swingers use.
A great example would be if a hitter had a bungee cord on his wrists and someone was behind him holding the other bungee cord end. At the moment just BEFORE "go"...if the "holder" released the cord you would have two different results depending on the mechanics they use. In the toe touch/heel droppers...the don't swing until the front foot is down hitters....the cord would simply drop toward the ground with a slight forward movement. That hitter has tightened the bungee cord just to remove slack and he's waiting for "go" to accelerate the bat and thereby create a large pull on the cord.....he's waiting to "fire" the hips....he's waiting to apply his brute force rotation. The extent of his "slack removal prior to swinging" is limited to just making the bungee cord taught...tight. He doesn't keep stretching it beyond that.
In the highest level swingers....when the holder releases the bungee cord....remember I'm speaking of the moment BEFORE "go"....the cord would be aggressively yanked forward because of the stretch that the highest level hitters have going on BEFORE launch.
Their launch more resembles a release (although there is a WAY to do that optimally) than it does a sudden application of force to move the barrel.
Now...what does the video show? It will show what appears to be the "sudden application of force" as if brute strength rotation is being applied. I maintain that is nonsense. It is WAY too slow developing. What is happening is a sudden speed up of the body but only because the hold has been released.
And Quincy's experience of taking a young hitter and teaching this process and seeing an immediate difference mirrors my experience. The kid is not suddenly stronger. His vision didn't suddenly get better. But, he did suddenly get a mechanical advantage. The "stretch and fire" mechanics and their differences (to what most believe occurs) was first taught to me by Donny Buster....Swingbuster.....an often misunderstood hitting genius.
All other attempts to swing with what I call "brute force rotation" are suboptimal. You can find mlb players that do that. Several of them. Some of them quite good. But that speaks to their athletic ability....not their mechanics.
The very best use the highest level mechanics. And I believe Quincy is doing a fairly good job of describing them.
And he is absolutely right when he says...."get in the box and try it".
Most of you have never experienced what he's describing. And, until you do, you're short changing yourself.
P.S. PGStaff......have your sons been taught to put their stride foot down first when pitching and then drop the heel and rotate? I think not. There is a definite rotation into footplant. The hitting move is identical........and the upper body's control over it.....over the release of it....at precisely the right moment....is how the great hitters deal with all the different pitch speeds, directions, and locations. Their swing launch is instantaneous. It simply has to be. And this hips opening creating stretch that is controlled by the upper body until release is the ONLY way to do it optimally.
Waiting for touchdown to drop the heel so as to do all that has to be done in .2 seconds AND cover the zone is what all you nay sayers are asking.
And it is simply impossible to do.
