My Swing

Hey Ben,

It is quite apparent you have "passion" for the game or you wouldn't be seeking to improve. You have talent and willingness to go the extra distance which will eventually get you to where you want to be. Work on body posture by adding slight forward tilt. You're swing is very advanced and the batspeed is apparent in the sound and blurr your bat creates in the acceleration phase at the top of swing, By adding the slight tilt, you will send rockets oppo field and strengthen your core in rotation just by repeating the same swing over time with tilt. As usual, just one hitters opinion to another hitter, and Ben, you are a hitter!
peace shep

MLB players have minus 28 degrees hip coil carried in their stride

Rapid fire swings with no loading will make you pull side dominant

Your very athletic. get some live arm work as often as you can .

Coil your hips and stride and hit. Your spinning now with no segmentation. Narrow up, coil your hips , stride ( estabish the new balance center) and hit.release your back side some to get that feel

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Rapid fire swings with no loading will make you pull side dominant

Rapid fire will develop bad mechanics. Swing for a purpose and focus on quality not quantity.

Have a good day everybody! peace shep

Young man(Ben?), shepster and swingbuster seem to know their baseball swing. I have even learned from them. The body posture is the key to success in the professional players I have played against, with, and even instructed. You have a lot of desire and determination. Good Luck!

Longtime Player and Now Observer

To echo Swingbusters comments, incorporating some hip coil & weight shift momentum into that swing should add some serious pop. Good Luck

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Originally posted by Ben_08:
I'm just looking for some feedback on my swing so if anyone could tell me what they like or don't like I would appreciate it. Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUqiu4o_fPw

As with a guy who posted last week, your hip rotation isn't quite right.

You are in the squish the bug position at the point of contact.

What should happen is that your weight should be off of your back foot at the point of contact.

Pay particular attention to how he uses his middle i.e. hip coil/uncoil and weight shift. Also notice his position at POC that Thepainguy refers to:

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Originally posted by NYdad:
Pay particular attention to how he uses his middle i.e. hip coil/uncoil and weight shift. Also notice his position at POC that Thepainguy refers to:

Pujols IS squishing the bug after he swings, but at the Point Of Contact (which is what really matters), his back toe is up in the air.

This is because his back leg is being pulled around by the powerful rotation of his hips, which is driven in part by the stiffening of his front leg.

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Pujols IS squishing the bug after he swings, but at the Point Of Contact (which is what really matters), his back toe is up in the air.

I'm not sure what your point is...the clip was posted to demonstrate hip coil/uncoil/weight shift and noted position at POC...

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Originally posted by NYdad:

quote:

Pujols IS squishing the bug after he swings, but at the Point Of Contact (which is what really matters), his back toe is up in the air.

I'm not sure what your point is...the clip was posted to demonstrate hip coil/uncoil/weight shift and noted position at POC...

The point is that some people are taught that they should squish the bug throughout the swing.

While this may give you some hip rotation, it isn't what top level hitters do. They get much more hip rotation and as a result their back toe is often pulled entirely up into the air.

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Pujols IS squishing the bug after he swings

Can you explain this?

Squishing the bug is essentially rotating with weight on the ball of your back foot as you swing and not something he does. How does one squish the bug AFTER the swing?

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Originally posted by NYdad:

quote:

Pujols IS squishing the bug after he swings

Can you explain this?

Squishing the bug is essentially rotating with weight on the ball of your back foot as you swing and not something he does. How does one squish the bug AFTER the swing?

Pujols ends up in a position that looks like squishing the bug after he swings, but Pujols certainly doesn't squish the bug as he swings.

Just to be clear, I'm not a fan of the idea of squishing the bug.

However, the guy who started the thread looks like he may have been taught that concept, and I'm trying to speak his language.

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Pujols ends up in a position that looks like squishing the bug after he swings,

Pain, the way Puljos ends up is quite common.

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Originally posted by NYdad:

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Pujols ends up in a position that looks like squishing the bug after he swings,

Pain, the way Pujols ends up is quite common.

I know that.

But, as you pointed out, he doesn't maintain this weight-on-the-back-toe position during the swing. However, advocates of squish the bug seem to believe that he does.

I think we're in violent agreement here...

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advocates of squish the bug seem to believe that he does.

Well if that's the case then I can certainly understand your concern for pointing it out

Thanks to all who posted. So if i'm getting this right as a left-hander my hips should swing slightly towards the shortstop during the load?

quote:

Originally posted by Ben_08:
Thanks to all who posted. So if i'm getting this right as a left-hander my hips should swing slightly towards the shortstop during the load?

I don't think this is the key point.

Instead, I think it's more important that you focus on starting your swing more from your hips. That will pull your shoulders around and pull you up onto your back toe at the Point Of Contact.

quote:

Originally posted by Ben_08:
Thanks to all who posted. So if i'm getting this right as a left-hander my hips should swing slightly towards the shortstop during the load?

Yes.

I think some confusion comes into play when one talks of having your weight on the front side and off the back foot at the point of contact versus the urgings of many coaches to not hit with your weight forward and therefore too committed and incapable of hitting off-speed pitches.

Can anyone make some distinctions here.

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Thanks to all who posted. So if i'm getting this right as a left-hander my hips should swing slightly towards the shortstop during the load?

Yes, even though slightly toward ss during load, squared up to ball at contact.

Longtime Player now Longtime Observer

quote:

Originally posted by SpikeIllinois:
I think some confusion comes into play when one talks of having your weight on the front side and off the back foot at the point of contact versus the urgings of many coaches to not hit with your weight forward and therefore too committed and incapable of hitting off-speed pitches. Can anyone make some distinctions here.

If you look at the best hitters, in many cases at the point of contact their weight is entirely on their front foot (e.g. their back foot is up in the air). However, their center of mass is well behind their front foot. Usually that means that it's roughly halfway between their feet.

This is possible because the weight of the rapidly rotating bat counterbalances the hitter's mass (since the bat and the hitter's mass are on the opposite sides of their front foot).

It may be a little easier to understand to think in terms of weight being "suspended" or "hinged" against the front side. JMO

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So if i'm getting this right as a left-hander my hips should swing slightly towards the shortstop during the load?

And you may wish to experiment a little with tipping your bat head slightly towards the SS as well

NYdad,

How's your son doing? Any changes? I forget his age/level?

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Yes, even though slightly toward ss during load, squared up to ball at contact.

i got ya