Hitting lots of lazy fly balls

quote:

Originally posted by JDsDad:
Micmeister, I agree my son does move his head a lot and he is working to minimize it. I just thought it seemed like a lot of hitters in times past had some controlled forward movement. Another couple guys that seem to do pretty well are Ichiro and Vlad but I don't think you'd want to teach anybody to mimic their styles.

The thing to notice is that in the case of most good, modern hitters, their forward movement stops at the moment their front heel plants. From that point on, their hips and shoulders rotate.

This is true even for Ichiro when he's trying to hit for power (and not trying to do one of his drag bunt/slap hit things). I have photos of him exhibiting a classic rotational swing.

quote:

Originally posted by thepainguy:

quote:

Originally posted by JDsDad:
Micmeister, I agree my son does move his head a lot and he is working to minimize it. I just thought it seemed like a lot of hitters in times past had some controlled forward movement. Another couple guys that seem to do pretty well are Ichiro and Vlad but I don't think you'd want to teach anybody to mimic their styles.

The thing to notice is that in the case of most good, modern hitters, their forward movement stops at the moment their front heel plants. From that point on, their hips and shoulders rotate.

This is true even for Ichiro when he's trying to hit for power (and not trying to do one of his drag bunt/slap hit things). I have photos of him exhibiting a classic rotational swing.

I agree with this also and have also noticed Ichiro using two distinct styles. I know Cal Ripkin still teaches the big foreward movement too, but for the life of me, I can't see how that movement does any good since as you say, at foot plant their forward movement stops. As I said earlier, if you could time it perfectly it may help hit the ball harder or farther, but in my opinion, you would have to know what pitch was coming or guess right.