4 Key Principles To Good Mechanics
Author: Todd Thomas
Principle #One – Weight Transfer
First of all, weight transfer is NOT a hitting technique, but rather an element of hitting. There is back to front movement in a players swing process as part of hitting with any kind of consistency and power. Sitting, squishing the bug is simply poor mechanics.
Watch the back foot – players are either on the tip of their back foot, or the foot is completely off the ground at contact. This is what good weight transfer looks like and there has to be back to front motion in the swing. There is no sitting, there is no squishing.
Principle #2 Hips & Core
Principle #3 Leveling
The greatest difference between a linear and rotational hitter is their approach to the ball. Leveling is the technique that gets the bat into the path of the ball and is irrefutable as to whether it is really happening, because it is. Dipping the back shoulder, dropping the barrel of the bat level to the ball and swinging slightly up through the oncoming pitch. Yes, dipping the back shoulder is part of good hitting. In fact, done properly it is ESSENTIAL. The next time you hear someone say “don’t dip your back shoulder” or “he is dipping”, this is a clear sign that they have no clue of the real proper principles of good hitting. They’ve just heard it and are repeating is because they think it sounds good.
The process of the elbow working up and around the body is an essential part of leveling and the only way a player can ever get the barrel where it needs to be. Whether it is Pujols on a pitch up in the zone or Big Poppy dropping down on a low one, one thing remains the same – they get “level to the ball” and they are “swinging up” through it.
Principle #4 Ideal Impact
Ted Williams wrote that the ultimate contact point is made when the barrel of the bat and ball meet at a 90 degree angle. Another term that is used to describe ideal impact is hitting with your hands “inside” the ball and squaring the barrel up on the ball. A couple things have to happen to make ideal impact; one, you have to let the ball travel deep enough into the hitting zone and two, your front elbow has to move up and around your body.
Transfer the weight
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Dip in the back shoulder(forward & down)
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Front elbow goes up
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Swing is going up
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Hands are inside the ball
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MLB players and the top college softball players use rotational mechanics whether they know it or not. Most don’t even know it. The very same mechanics that Ted Williams used and the great hitters before and after him. The best hitters in baseball are doing exactly the opposite of what a large majority of coaches in this country are teaching. They don’t swing down. They are not trying to hit grounders. Do you think for a second that Pujols ever goes up to the plate looking to hit the ball into the ground?
Little League Player, Big League Swing!
Coach Todd
