I made this side by side clip and posted it in the thread about the college hitters.
After making it and looking at it over and over I have a new take on the cue "snap the pole".
This weekend I posted about how the one-legged hitting involves the proper weight shift (at 'go'....not before) which leads to the 'sit' and the lowering of the center of gravity. And Tom added how the resistance of the upper body assists that process.
In the past we've used the pole to talk about the proper hand action. And we talked about how the lower body 'preps' for the upcoming task.
Here is a clip of the pole drill I'm speaking of.
But we didn't really speak much about using the pole to develop the 'feel' of arresting the forward momentum and turning it into the separation process which leads to the 'sit'. The part Tom has been talking about. The part of the upper body resistance and how it works.
Well.....see if this makes sense to you.
However you hold the bat (tipped, vertical, 45, whatever) imagine that the bat is 'staked' into the ground from below the knob. Or, said another way, imagine the bat is the pole that I've referred to above. Basically, imagine that as you start your forward momentum, the hands will not come with it, because they are essentially 'stationery' due to the imaginery 'stake' in the ground. Resistance is offered.
What would happen? If you actually were holding onto a pole and you attempted to create some forward momentum by pushing off the ground with your rear foot, from a one-legged weighted position, and with this stationery pole thought, your body will feel the resistance, the forward momentum will slow/stop, and the hips will begin to turn open. And you will sit.
So.....how do you create that resistance in real life? Without a pole?
See Bonds above. If the 'body walks away from the hands' AS you push with the rear foot....you should feel some stretch. Some resistance. Let the leg continue to push and your forward momentum is arrested and your hips will naturally open. AND...you sit. AND....at least with me....I get that torsion spring feeling in my body....that overlap feeling....AND the barrel seems to float into a launch position from which it is easily turned with the hands.
AND.....what I feel is a different stretch that in the past. I feel a direct connection of my hands to my lead hip. Like there is a string or a rope connecting them and I don't feel it across my chest or lower torso as much as through my lead arm to the hands......the bypass.
Compare Bonds and Wallace above. That is what got me going down this path. While Wallace is 'close to the pattern'....he is not quite right. He is not the same as Bonds. He doesn't get the overlap that Bonds gets. And the large difference I see is that he doesn't get that tug from the string that connects the hands directly to the lead hip. He doesn't get that 'forward momentum turned into separation because of the upper body resistance' that I see in Bonds.
Notice Wallace's barrel is stationery until 'go'. Bonds' is already in motion long before 'go'....in the rearward arc. Bonds' 'forward momentum turned into separation because of the upper body resistance' is doing that. His hip opening...sitting...barrel float...is all one movement...the running start...the overlap...the torsion spring (spine) working.
Maybe.....just maybe.....maybe Yonder uses resistance better than Wallace. Their advancement through the minors will be interesting.
After making it and looking at it over and over I have a new take on the cue "snap the pole".
This weekend I posted about how the one-legged hitting involves the proper weight shift (at 'go'....not before) which leads to the 'sit' and the lowering of the center of gravity. And Tom added how the resistance of the upper body assists that process.
In the past we've used the pole to talk about the proper hand action. And we talked about how the lower body 'preps' for the upcoming task.
Here is a clip of the pole drill I'm speaking of.
But we didn't really speak much about using the pole to develop the 'feel' of arresting the forward momentum and turning it into the separation process which leads to the 'sit'. The part Tom has been talking about. The part of the upper body resistance and how it works.
Well.....see if this makes sense to you.
However you hold the bat (tipped, vertical, 45, whatever) imagine that the bat is 'staked' into the ground from below the knob. Or, said another way, imagine the bat is the pole that I've referred to above. Basically, imagine that as you start your forward momentum, the hands will not come with it, because they are essentially 'stationery' due to the imaginery 'stake' in the ground. Resistance is offered.
What would happen? If you actually were holding onto a pole and you attempted to create some forward momentum by pushing off the ground with your rear foot, from a one-legged weighted position, and with this stationery pole thought, your body will feel the resistance, the forward momentum will slow/stop, and the hips will begin to turn open. And you will sit.
So.....how do you create that resistance in real life? Without a pole?
See Bonds above. If the 'body walks away from the hands' AS you push with the rear foot....you should feel some stretch. Some resistance. Let the leg continue to push and your forward momentum is arrested and your hips will naturally open. AND...you sit. AND....at least with me....I get that torsion spring feeling in my body....that overlap feeling....AND the barrel seems to float into a launch position from which it is easily turned with the hands.
AND.....what I feel is a different stretch that in the past. I feel a direct connection of my hands to my lead hip. Like there is a string or a rope connecting them and I don't feel it across my chest or lower torso as much as through my lead arm to the hands......the bypass.
Compare Bonds and Wallace above. That is what got me going down this path. While Wallace is 'close to the pattern'....he is not quite right. He is not the same as Bonds. He doesn't get the overlap that Bonds gets. And the large difference I see is that he doesn't get that tug from the string that connects the hands directly to the lead hip. He doesn't get that 'forward momentum turned into separation because of the upper body resistance' that I see in Bonds.
Notice Wallace's barrel is stationery until 'go'. Bonds' is already in motion long before 'go'....in the rearward arc. Bonds' 'forward momentum turned into separation because of the upper body resistance' is doing that. His hip opening...sitting...barrel float...is all one movement...the running start...the overlap...the torsion spring (spine) working.
Maybe.....just maybe.....maybe Yonder uses resistance better than Wallace. Their advancement through the minors will be interesting.
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