Posted by: grc () on Fri May 7 07:02:46 2004

regarding the inward turn.... coaches often teach that the initial leg lift and inward turn happen simultaneously....but some hitters (e.g., bonds and bernie)are halfway through their stride (halfway being defined as the midpoint between starting point of stride foot and landing point of stride foot)before you start seeing a pronounced inward turn....and for the hitters in this category, maximum inward turn is achieved no more than 2 or so frames before lead foot plant..............
> >
> > have either of you made any similar observations?....any observations in general regarding at what point in the stride the inward turn begins?....thanks, bart....
> grc,I have lost mmy tape of Bernie from the side but what I recall that both of them seem to do is drop their hands down at the beginning of their stride before loading up and back.This may be the cause of their inward turn happening later.What I consider more important is their loaded position at toe touch.Great hitters get to that point in different ways but at that point they all seem to be in a similar position loaded and ready to hit.

hey rql, i think you are right, both of them clearly delaying their inward turn because of the time it takes for them to drop/lift back up their hands...but i have noticed other hitters who in a less dramatic fashion are also not immediately synchronizing the inward turn with the stride.....and it reminds me of Epstein's rubberband/counter rotation thing...i misplaced his tape, but do you suppose that hitters who delay the inward turn are actually possibly doing it with the intent of achieving the rubberband thing?....it does seem that by doing this the shoulder is getting a "rebound"/momemtum effect....
there is not any particular direction i am wanting to go with this, just exploring possible ideas....

p.s tom guery, where are you?.....ray porco, bhl and of course, as always, jack, comments from you all would be appreciated as well....