How important are the shoulders?

Tough to tell on the Teddy angle, but they both look to start with their shoulder "loaded" (turned anyway) than their hips.

We've been trying to get away from that amount of counter-rotation.

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:
I question the importance of the shoulder load in the swing........Doesn't seem to be much of a load in these shoulders, IMO...

I agree that huge amounts of shoulder reverse-rotation (or loading) doesn't seem to be a universal when it comes to hitting (or pitching). Instead, IMO what matters more is getting the hips rotating before the shoulders so that they stretch the muscles of the torso and pull the shoulders around (aka Middle-Out rather than Top-Down or Bottom-Up).

Coordination of the entire body is the key to success in ptiching and hitting---I am not into the scientific aspect but I can see it when working with a player---there has to be coordination of all body parts

And when you don't see it in a particular player, how do you help him coordinate all of his body parts so that he can improve? Magic pixie dust?

They are very important for me, especially when I pull my front shoulder, expose my hips too early, and give the third basemen and left fielder a nice fly ball practice for three at bats. I'm very interested to see where this topic goes.

Segmentation is key with respect to hip & shoulder rotation which is accomplished by the shoulders resisting rotation i.e. pull forces of initial hip rotation. Such also creates the X factor.

Example:

Bluedog is right.

many MLB players have a unique ability to relax the upper body at the instant the hips pop. That can yield segmentation.

I personally cannot and need some measure of BHUT loading to create the relaxation and segmentation