Action Sequence

Page 5

 
By release; stride lands.
Visual pickup of pitch.
With pickup; knob-to-ball.
Knob-to tracks, bat lowers, cracks open.
Weightshift onto soft front knee and shoulder follows knob down, in, or out
(knob upward = alarm! "Ball!") Learn the feel of pitch location in your body.
Legs/knees (now) like wobbly old table legs, can comply with knob-to, to help.
Hands/knob-to start at visual pickup, track pitch in. With a strike on the way, so is a good swing.

Knob-to-Pitch Location/Action, Through Decision.

High pitch, middle: stance setting unchanged.
Inside pitch: knob-in opens front shoulder early, soft knee complies.
Outside pitch; knob-out closes front shoulder early, soft knee helps.
Low pitch; knob-down, front shoulder follows, soft knee helps.
Back shoulder never drops. Front shoulder never pulls on its own til contact, answers only to knob.
Knob commands as it tracks the pitch down, in, or out.
Torso sinks, opens, closes to prep for location; per knob/knee action.
Pitch arriving; body/head moving to front foot, back leg straightening, heel raising.
At contact weight 90-100% on front leg, front leg vertical, back toe down, maybe dragging or aloft.

As Pitch Arrives...

Weight on front foot.
Reaching for it.
Bat opens/wrists crank, arms extend (straighten), rear toe driving, front heel settling.
Shoulders and hips follow hands.
Front knee bent but now tense.
Wrists open bat into contact, rear toe pumping weight into front foot.
Front leg vertical.
Weight 90+% on front foot.
Shoulders & wrists force bat around center of planted rigid front leg.
Shoulders follow hands, hips follow shoulders around.
Hips last, not first.
Front leg acts upward through, across to rear shoulder and to arm and bat.
Rear heel is up, toe may drag or lift.
Bat reaching for pitch.

Wrist-Hip Finale

Full weight shift, full extension, opening, wristcrank, and contact follow each other so quickly they seem to coincide.

All of it merges then peaks at contact.
Body-turn, at last!
Full shift results in the sharp, short new hip.
Weight feeding onto front leg to the limit of shift and balance.
As forward shift crowds the edge, torso must turn: Inward bump of the rear hip from extended back foot.

Late short, quick, hard turn is the automatic, natural outcome of a well timed and executed sequence, not to be forced. [Don't call it-it calls you].

Don't expect great violence: It's short, quick, natural, into contact, exerts a sharp jolt when needed most. No heavy effort or explosion, except for the hands and wrists.

Hip action Demo

Hip action demo: dry-run it to know it when you get it.
Short stance, knees kinked, fists on hips. Stride 2-3", shift to the limit.
Control balance at the forward limit by swerving 'around' that leg. That's pivot; our way.
As back hip pops forward: pelvis swivels on front leg.
It's an offset pivot; axis is front hip. Back hip turns very short but hard into contact.
Full shift, extension, wristcrank, hip, and shoulder turn coincide into contact. No waste.
As rear hip pops, shoulders turn, spine arches.
All of it acts through shoulders to arms and bat.
Bat stroke is a few degrees downward, follow through is high.

This hip action is the natural result of a physical sequence, like follow through. As a natural outcome, it can't steer or shape what leads to it. It is described for you here as the climax of a Wrist sequence.

Mirror Work

If you're "not seeing the ball well", maybe you're not looking at it. Might not be making clean visual pickup of release, due to disturbed eyes. Mirror Work shows how form, motion, and tension affect visibility, could help correct it.

You'll need a:

  • vertical dressing mirror,
  • bit of chalk,
  • dark felt tip marker,
  • short piece of broomstick [for a dummy bat handle] and
  • a helper for a minute.

Do mirror work in your sox.

Take your stance with your head about 4 feet from the mirror, as if the pitcher's facing you there. Match-mark your big toes and the floor with chalk (dots on and by big toes), so you can repeat that position exactly.

Sink into your stance, face the "pitcher", and guide your helper with the felt-tip marker to put a dot precisely where you see your front eye's pupil in the mirror.

Watch the eye and dot as you swing. See the pupil jiggle off the dot as you cock, stride, and launch? Repeat it a few times: see how the pupil dances around the spot the same way every time? (Make sure your feet are at the matchmarks.) This disturbs your eye-hand coordination. But, there's good news, too.

As consistent as the eye motion is, it can work for, not against you. The eye can be controlled (that I know of) to within 1/8" of the dot (at 4' from mirror), from cocking to stride to launch.

Work through the cock-stride-launch sequence in steps. Relate eye-spot error to coinciding body moves. Eliminate them.

Lateral spot error can be caused by imbalanced stance;

Vertical error, by footwork or dipping the back shoulder,

Then, there's a rough stride. Those are the easy ones, but this should be enough. If not, test against the swing tension list. Precise, smooth moves are essential to making instant visual pickup of a pitch at release and tracking its flight. Either you make visual pickup at the pitcher's hand or waste time searching, and find it late. Late isn't good enough.

The mirror is a useful tool when learning the new stance, stride, swing.

The key to this is; just what you're doing as a pitch is released. In our swing, it's your stride and maybe early weight shift. Making clear, clean visual pickup of release is the reason footwork must be smooth at that moment. And it's why all the nagging here, about eliminating "away" and cocking moves. They're destructive complications possibly interfering with visibility, and unnecessary in our swing.

So-called 'rotational' swings are said to depend on such pre-pitch cocking motions: If you're one of those batters, make sure all is smooth. Mirror work can help you polish them.