How Do You Resist Shoulder Rotation?.....

[Teacherman]

......by not allowing your rear scap to unload until after the swing is over. (over defined as when force generation is over and autopilot begins) Go ahead and load it......I call this move 'loading around'.......because to me a load must unload. Since we don't unload the scap, I'm hesistant to call it a load.....but I just did.........in any case.....whatever we want to call it.....do not let it unload.

When you load your scap back you are taking slack out of the system. You feel a tightness in the scap near the spine. When the rear hip begins to turn forward.....if your scap is loaded and held.....you will feel that tightness increase.....a stretch.....and from that solid immovable platform.....that solid stationery scap platform.....turn the barrel rearward with your hands.....your hip will release suddenly if you've loaded the hip properly around the ball of the femur.....if you have the tug of war going on.....and you will whip.

Now.....lets consider the effect of 'up and under' versus 'up and over' on that scap action. In the 'up and under' action.....no external rotation of the humerus.....the up is a scap loading action. The under happens while the scap remains loaded. The elbow turns down as the scap remains loaded. The body is fused.....there is turning in the rear hip....there is more and more tightness at the scap.....the hands turn the barrel as the scap remains tight. You will whip.

Compare that to the 'up and over' external rotation. What MUST happen when your hand goes up as a result of that 'up and over' move? Two choices.....you either keep the scap loaded or you don't. If you do.....the swing is impossible to use. When you keep the scap loaded and go 'up and over'....the resulting swing arc is ridiculously unusable. It is like a cowboy lasso....it is mostly horizontal and up behind/over your head. So....since you can't do that.....to get the barrel arc anywhere near the ball.....you have to unload the scap. You get army. You give up fusion. Unloading the scap introduces slack/slop into the system. The rear hip no longer drives through that load. When you unload the scap you 'release' the good stretch....that good tightness that you felt in that scap area is gone. When you release that good tightness/stretch....there is no resistance to the hip.....you get turned forward too soon.....to early....you bleed the corner....and you push the bat forward.

What do you do with your rear scap? Are you 'loading around'?

[Teacherman]

The clamping down of the rear scap......clamping down is probably a better word/phrase than loading.....is the point of gear engagement. It is the point of syncage. It is the point of 'gear alignment'.....the point where the two gears work together, simultaneously to turn the barrel.....without slippage.

It is the difference between swinging 'out from' and 'around'.

[Tewks]

I didn't read what you wrote... Just scrolled down to hit reply. Shoulder rotation - from a power generation standpoint - would indicate the middle isn't working well, isn't fused. I guess you could say the shoulders become the bottom of the top. The shoulders are attempting to pull the hands... And it can't support it and it isn't a good feel... Especially if you are trying to drive a ball oppo.

Next, load around helps, but if they aren't getting active with the scap... It won't support the necessary attack oppo, swing out from, pinched bicep swing.

Just had a thought regarding my bike analogy and the axis line that would be parallel to the spine but through the rear hip... Maybe it would go through the RHPP and the pinched scap "until the swing is over."


Please ignore any iPhone-based typos.

[YHF]

I think I might be doing this wrong.

I've been using the poke to load the rear scap.

Is that too late? Are you guys pre-loading the scap?

When I first started with this segment of the swing, I used two thoughts: one, poke to feel the pinch/load of the scap, and two, take my front shoulder straight up to the sky. That may not work for everyone but seemed to work for me in the beginning.

Jon

[Teacherman]

The poke is the equivalent of the clamped down scap. The point is.....the scap can not go forward until after the swing is over. A poke usually provides enough force to equal clamp down....to force the hip to do the work. A rearward poke against a forward turning hip is good.

The real issue is not letting the arms or shoulders take you forward. The hip must do the work.

The hands turn the barrel. The rear hip turns you forward. If the scap is active it will take you forward....and you will push.

Poke is good.

But.....it must be well timed. You can poke...hold....unpoke to unload the swing....that is a push. You want the hip to do the work. If the scap is unloading your hip will at best push. And the poke must be followed by a rearward barrel.

[Teacherman]

The rear scap is where rearward meets forward.

[Tewks]

I love this clip... the ball went something like 468 ft.



You can see the poke, you can see the rear hip turning forward, you can see the barrel turning.

[YHF]

I think the reason I wait to load the scap until the poke is that I prefer little to no tension in my shoulders and arms pre-load.

I think it goes back to my golfing days (before the knee surgeries and shoulder surgeries). I used to be a 5-6 handicap golfer, probably not quite as good as BM, lol.

I wasn't a 'hitter' of the golf ball. I was a 'swinger'. I was a 2-planer as Tom would say. I didn't really use my hips as well as I could have but could still hit the ball pretty well. I rarely used a driver cause I could hit my 3-wood 280 with a soft draw pretty much every time. Being a 'swinger' of the golf club requires little to no tension in the shoulders and arms. Tension defeats the smooth, timely release of the club head.

My thought or cue from the top of the back swing was this: let the hands fall until they get to about 9 o'clock and then rip my hands through the ball.

So it was relax, relax, relax, explode.

I think that carries over to my baseball swing, pathetic as it is. I prefer a relaxed shoulder complex, then poke/explode.

Jon

[mightylakers]

This is a good angle to see the scap action.

[tom.guerry]

lincecum and his dad decided he had lost his release point by turning the shoulders too much and he needed to tilt the shoulders more. so now (last 3 starts) his release point is more out front and his velocity and command are back up

[Tewks]

lincecum and his dad decided he had lost his release point by turning the shoulders too much and he needed to tilt the shoulders more. so now (last 3 starts) his release point is more out front and his velocity and command are back up

Any links to articles or video on this?

[tom.guerry]

this came from Mike Krukow's radio show after he talked to lincecum over the past few weeks/this weekend.

see Mike Krukow, 9/13, near end of podcast:

http://www.knbr.com/Podcasts/tabid/1065/Default.aspx

release point needs to be out in front not behind your vision/opposite of the deep whoosh in the swing