Sunday, November 8, 2015
#1 Biggest Lie In Hitting
http://hittingperformancelab.com/1-biggest-lie-in-hitting/
Share this:
This is Part-3 of a 3-part video series coming straight out of the Catapult Loading System online video mini-course…
Sick of struggling with getting your hitters to hit the ball hard with more consistency? This is a simple 7-module online video mini-course that will help hitters weighing less than 100-pounds, hit the ball consistently over 300-feet in 60 days. You’ll be able to dramatically increase power without sacrificing swing quality.
To celebrate the launch, I’m doing a $17 Flash Sale that’s for 4-days ONLY. CLICK the Link below to…
In this video post, we’re going to answer one of my reader’s questions…
“Ways to use your hips to create bat speed?”
Before I get to the #1 Biggest Lie In Hitting, we’ll cover:
- Inward hip turn towards catcher to load?
- Springy ‘X’ Pattern, and
- Landing open with the front foot.
Inward Hip Turn Towards Catcher To Load?
I picked up on this in High School after reading Ted Williams’s book The Science Of Hitting
.
But is this really necessary?
After reading Thomas Myers’s book Anatomy Trains
, I don’t believe that it is.
To me, ‘Loading the hips’ by turning the pelvis inward towards the catcher creates more challenges, than benefits.
The biggest challenge is that if the timing isn’t right, the hitter will get stuck landing with a closed front leg at landing (front toe less than a 45-degree angle).
CLICK HERE for a Zepp swing experiment I did on landing closed versus open, and the affect on average bat speed.
Olympic Javelin Throwers, Boxers, and Sprinters do just fine without using an inward turn of the pelvis, away from their target, before throwing, punching, or running.
Springy ‘X’ Pattern
I don’t want to beat a dead horse, so here are two great video blog posts I did talking about the Springy ‘X’ Pattern:
Landing Open with the Front Foot
The guys at ZenoLink are awesome! They find the truth behind human movement science. This video discusses how the lower body position or stride setup will dictate how well you create and utilized ground reaction force to initiate the swing process and develop power and bat speed.
They found the optimal degree that the stride foot must be open at landing to be around 65-degrees (watch around the 2:00 mark)…
So WHY are we teaching our young hitters to stride closed?!!
To summarize…
‘Loading and exploding the hips’ by inwardly turning the pelvis towards the catcher can cause the hitter to land closed. If the hitter lands closed, then bat speed WILL go down, according to the results of my Zepp swing experiment, and to the guys at ZenoLink. As a result of bat speed going down, so will Ball Exit Speed.
‘Firing the hips’ is an over-coached cue, if anything, let’s ‘load and explode the shoulders’, not the hips. Us hitting coaches MUST shift our focus above the pelvis, into the shoulders by way of the Springy ‘X’ Pattern.
So, what is the #1 Biggest Lie In Hitting?
That we MUST ‘load and explode the hips’.
You see,
We have to get away from learning inside baseball and softball hitting circles. We must first learn human movement science, then break away, and begin thinking creatively about how to apply these human movement “rules”, that are validated by science, to hitting a ball.
I’m the founder of the Hitting Performance Lab. I’m a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), the International Youth and Conditioning Association (IYCA), and the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).I’m also partnered with the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA).
I’ve spent 10 years in the corrective fitness field, and have too many certifications to bore you with.I also played four years of Division One baseball at Fresno State (2000-2003).
It’s NOT how you study, but what you study that counts.I apply proven human movement science to hitting a ball.
Latest posts by Joey Myers (see all)
Share this:
Related
My name is Joey Myers and I'm the founder of HittingPerformanceLab.com.
I'm a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), the International Youth & Conditioning Association (IYCA), and Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). I'm also partnered with the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA).
I played four years of Division-1 college baseball at Fresno State, I've spent the last decade in corrective fitness, and have a passionate curiosity to help baseball and softball players follow human movement rules validated by science.