what do you think about this swing

[NumeroUno]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5ydZqvy ... e=youtu.be

[Sam]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5ydZqvyzpY&feature=youtu.be

Whole lotta wasted motions and head movement which is overcome by exceptional hand/eye coordination.

[DonnieS]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5ydZqvyzpY&feature=youtu.be

Whole lotta wasted motions and head movement which is overcome by exceptional hand/eye coordination.

I must be looking at a different video than you are, Sam. I see a still head, and very little other than loading motions.

[Pale Rider]

reminds me...of me

[DonnieS]

reminds me...of me

Yea, thats what i was going to say !

[hit4power]

If you put your cursor on his front foot position at the start and see where his foot ends up after he loads and reaches impact it hasn't changed position by more than a few inches. Same with his head which maybe moves forward about "half a head". What's amazing when you step through the video frame by frame is how much bat speed he generates and how long he can "lag" before impact.

Around here, we'd get kids imitating Craig Biggio who, back in the day, had a similar habit of really lifting his front leg up during his load. When you watched film you realized he put that front foot right back down where it started, but we always had kids lifting their front legs as high as they could and then lunging forward in a big stride when they swung.

[Sam]

And how would the head not move during the phases of load and transition to landing?
Other than the linear movement, since the head is attached to the body, the head is perfectly still.
Also, exactly what would you consider "wasted motions"?

I consider the load essentially wasted motion, as it moves his head backwards 8-12 inches only to be places just a little forward of that same position at impact. That moves the eyes and requires the hand/eye coordination to compensate for the movement......IMO

[jtat32]

Here are a couple of videos from the same guy that I think illustrate Sam's point (ie - they have less head movement).

Miguel Cabrera

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fFJVFPX ... A9ArwIl315

Adrian Beltre:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idfMim_J ... -ongKMfpnP

There are certainly many things to emulate in Chipper Jones' swing, but one thing he does that I'm not a big fan of is dropping his hands low to reach low pitches. He stays fairly upright regardless of the pitch location. Take my criticism for what it's worth, though - I've certainly never produced a hitter as successful as him.

[Ed Hill]

Classic rotational swing. Just perfect from the load phase through the point of contact. The head never moves and the whole body rotates on that point of axis.

[jonriv]

There are many great hitters with real unorthodox swings. Ty Cobb kept his hands apart. Hitting coaches get too much credit and blame.

IMO. Good hitters are born, not made. Good hitting coaches can tweak a good hitter into a great one, but real difficult to make a bad hitter a good one. I have always been weary coaches looking to make wholesale changes to good hitters, have much preferred those that make minor adjustments.