(Thread moved to new Hitting forum by moderator.)
I know this is a coaches topic forum but I need some help from someone who knows what there doing on Hitting.When Im in the cages hitting somedays I will be hitting amazing then the next day I will hit like ****.On those days that Im doing bad I get a pi**ed off and Im wanting to break my bat and change my stance.And on those days since I have a semi-crouched stance he tells me to stand straight up to see the ball better and so I can get my hips open faster.What do you guys think I should do when this happens?Should I keep my stance the way it is or move up.Should I just get out of the cage if I get mad like that....I just need some help on the hitting,I really dont know its confusing.Thanks alot...

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...he tells me to stand straight up to see the ball better and so I can get my hips open faster....

Who is he?

And I assume you play for Fort Zumwalt West?

I don't really see how standing up more or crouching more can help open the hips quicker,unless it's too the extreme. Hip rotation comes from driving the front knee and extending the front leg and/or driving the rear knee inward and pivoting around and/or up on the toes of the rear foot.

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Originally posted by Mr3000:
Hip rotation comes from driving the front knee and extending the front leg and/or driving the rear knee inward and pivoting around and/or up on the toes of the rear foot.

No it doesn't.

FzW
Some days you hit well. You are obviously doing it right at that time. I don't see why you would want to change things a day later. It sounds to me like you get a little to easily flustered and then cannot relax and put a good swing on the ball. You may indeed have a mechanical flaw in your swing, but you absolutely will have a problem if you are angry and out of focus at the plate. Step out regain your composure and stay calm. Hitting requires relaxation and concentration at the plate, when you are p*****-off, you have neither. Pay attention to what you are doing when things go well.

Standing straight up will allow for more horizontal movement of the front shoulder away from the plate/ball. You need to have good posture to allow you to be able to rotate into the baseball. From a more bent position, your shoulders will have more tilt and will rotate on an axis that doesn't allow the front shoulder to move as much in a horizontal component, allowing you to rotate into the ball and not away from it.

Also, standing up more will create more of a spinning action, and will decrease the efficiency of rotation.

Just my opinion!

Lets see if I can answer your question FZW. When working in the cage, it should be just that, working. Hitting the ball well is the result of putting together your mechanics in order to optimize your swing to hit the ball well. There is much more detail to the mechanics that have been wrtten about on this post and been beaten to death here. The cage should be a place where you work on consistency, rythym and approach. Think of the things you did the day before, then take a breath and think about your mechanics, work each area of your swing while hitting. Don't worry about how you hit until you have a consistent approach and you have saved your mechanics to muscle memory. Muscle memory will occur when you repeat certain functions over and over again. Now, if you aren't sure about your mechanics, get someone who teaches hitting or a coach to watch you, then work on adjusting your mechanics and building muscle memory as a hitter. Then you can worry about how you hit the ball. There are no quick fixes if you are not mechnically sound and most of us would not know how to help you without seeing you. Good luck and continue to work hard.

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by Mr3000:
Hip rotation comes from driving the front knee and extending the front leg and/or driving the rear knee inward and pivoting around and/or up on the toes of the rear foot.


No it doesn't.

Then how do they rotate?

The legs provide a stable base from which the hips rotate. It starts in your center....not in your legs.

Your lead leg will stiffen. But, it is being stiffened by rotation......not the other way around.

Linear that was a very good post.

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The legs provide a stable base from which the hips rotate. It starts in your center....not in your legs.

Your lead leg will stiffen. But, it is being stiffened by rotation......not the other way around.

I see. By centre, do you mean that you twist your entire upper body around, or do you just turn the hips, or the shoulders? In other words does one movement follow the other?

"Your lead leg will stiffen. But it is being stiffened by rotation......not the other way around"

Good Stuff>Keep it coming!

This validates the old saying, hitting against a firm rigid frontside before hands whip through swing-plane with bat.

Shep

The firm rigid frontside of course meaning the lead stiff leg

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Your lead leg will stiffen. But, it is being stiffened by rotation......not the other way around.

Maybe as a teaching cue that statement is not bad.... I feel the rotation into toe touch. I feel my lead thigh open slightly before heel plant. The core is primed and everything else is pretty fast from there. You land with a bent knee. To say the quads don't work to clear the hips with elongation of the lead leg is a stretch. Or at best a no teach if your rotation is good. I get your point of view that rotation trumps leg work ...i guess thats your point

I still believe that the legs drive the hip rotation, simply because by using the legs, you're using the big muscles such as the quads and hamstrings to drive the hips, which gives you a bit more power. The leg muscles are some of the biggest muscles in the body-if not THE biggest.

And you can call red, blue. But, it's still red.

Not if you are colorblind!!!!

Ummmm.......yes it is.

You Keep stiffening the front leg and opening the front foot and I'll get you out everytime low and away.

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You Keep stiffening the front leg and opening the front foot and I'll get you out everytime low and away.

Every hitter has there weakness after all! But good hitters can make adjustments depending on pitch location and velocity-say for an outside pitch a good hitter wouldn't rotate his hips around as much and wouldn't stiffen the front leg as much, enabling him to reach that outside pitch better.