How Does the Hitter’s Front Side Effect His Swing?
In baseball, we talk a lot about the backside. We insure our students keep their weight back, turn their back hip, and thrust their hips from the back side. Whether it is hitting or pitching, I would say 90% of power conversations are all back side induced movements.
What happened to the front side?
Sometimes as instructors we have to catch ourselves and remind our students we need to use our front leg, or “side,” and not be afraid of it. That being said, trouble occurs when our body mass is pushed up onto our front side. If you have read anything on this blog, you know this is a BIG no no.
We know that where a hitter starts his swing can mean everything. Most People get caught up in what Mike Epstien calls ‘Style’ or the stance of a hitter. Kevin Youkilis stands in the box flinching and twitching with a huge gap in his hands. Then, just before his forward swing starts, his hands come together, his stride foot hits, and he’s in perfect Double Inside Load Position.
Once the hitter has loaded his or her weight to the “double inside load,” it’s vital the hitter then begins to transfer some weight back to the front side or hip, much like a pitcher with a good hip set to the front. Now in these moments of shifting, we’ll have slight head movement forward towards the pitcher, but remember this is NOT a push. I like to refer to this as “riding out” the back leg. Think of it as leaning into a steal of third base.
You start your body momentum in a forward direction, but the majority of your power will remain back and coiled. The hitter’s head, shoulders, and hands will remain back. Any forward hand press at this moment will cause a serious loss in power because the hip thrust has not started yet.
This is illustrated very well here in Robinson Cano, who I believe is one of the best at this on a consistent basis. He combines timing, momentum, and coiled power all at once.
The important thing to remember here is once the front foot is down and the shift to the front hip is done, there is a back angle created and there is ZERO head movement into the swing. This allows a few very crucial points in a great swing.
- The backward body angle is created to keep the deep parts of the swing.
- We now have stored energy to help slightly turn the front hip back ensuring a power back hip thrust inward towards home plate and around the pelvis.
An important thought here is the front hip does go back a little but is more used to turn against or around.
Here is when we have the powerful back hip thrust, pulling the back knee and foot forward. Lastly, the strong front “hip set” allows the hitter to make the last split second adjustments to off speed pitches. Think of it as a tap of the pause button while the hands and shoulders stay back in the stretched position and then violently explode into the turn. We see this clearly here with Ken Griffey Jr. on a curveball.
You can see Griffey’s front knee bend as the weight shifts to the font hip and he uses that energy to help pause and then thrust the back hip inwards towards home plate. This reinstates we do not want to sit and spin on the back side. Hitters that use the “sit and spin” method will be hard pressed to advance once the word is out they can’t hit off speed pitches.
When your player is working on his power hip turn, be sure to include the front side. Now, when we see players with extreme push OVER the front foot through the swing, we have to fix that immediately. Remember, once the correct spine angle is created from the front foot to the head, the player is back and should proceed into the turn of the hips, then the shoulders. Sometimes we see players continue to go back as they go into the turn. Teaching the player to get back to the front side will help adjust this move. Just like we do not want players pushing forward as they try to swing, we also don’t want a player falling back. Losing ground to the pitcher is also head movement and will result in a swing using all arms and wrists.
Learning how to get weight shift back to the front hip will ensure that the player continues to have a power hip thrust and stability. Along with more power, the hitter will have the “pause button” ready in case of unexpected off speed pitches.
—JK Whited is a full time hitting instructor at I.T.S. Baseball in Hillsborough NC. He has taught over 4000 lessons in the I.T.S. Baseball Hitting System and is the only other I.T.S. Baseball Certified Instructor in the country.
Joey Myers from SwingSmarter.com’s 2-cents: “I love this JK! I agree, people get obsessed with not hitting over the front leg, but then proceed to “over-do” the backwards spine angle towards the catcher. The body is always looking for balance, and if we’re NOT balanced, then our locomotion cannot work effectively or efficiently around the spine. Great thoughts amigo!”
18 Responses to “How Does the Hitter’s Front Side Effect His Swing?”
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Antonio Belmonte
Hey Jobin… great job
Sometimes you see hitters with their front knee slightly bent and then it firms up at contact but I see a lot of hitters rise up when they try to firm up which causes some problems. Would it be better to keep the front knee slightly bent yet still a firm front side so the hitter doesn’t pop up out of his legs? Also then be able to adjust to offspeed better?
Thanks
Great work!
Dan, Not speaking for the guys here, but this is my opinion. I believe this goes back to whether the big muscles are moving the small ones or vice versa. The point is to land the front leg with a bent knee that is facing @ 1st base as a right hander. If your mass is centered between the feet, this will allow your front thigh (big muscle) to assist in hip rotation. This is how the knee gets strait. It is, however, important for the student to understand what the front leg is supposed to do with all the weight that has been pushed into it. If they are standing up, they need to be shown how to push the front hip out of the way with the front thigh, so the back side is uninhibited in its natural rotation to the ball. Anything else leaves the front hip in the way too long, usually causing a hip slide instead of rotation and/or rolling the hands at contact because they are trying to create the power up top. Not every great hitter accomplishes this every time, but ideally the front leg should completely straiten for a moment to get the full effect of the transferred weight combined with the strength of the front leg to create rotation. Chas may have a slightly different take, but when this is done with proper timing and a properly loaded top half, it can create scary power.
Dan,
Thanks for the question!
If your player is rising up out of their swing, try to see if that player is favoring one side or the other. Sometimes if the hitter is on their back side or on their front side, they will use their legs to generate power but in an upward direction. This causes obvious problems with explosive power and more importantly vision.
If the hitter maintains his/her backward spine angle like we want and is still rising upward, the hitter may be using the wrong muscles groups first when starting their turn. This may be happening unknowingly to the hitter because they feel the body turning. Remember, when the stride foot hits and both knees are bent, the core muscles will start the turn first. This will begin the turning motion and lead to the thrusting motion of the hips. Then the same muscles that hitter uses to push up will then be used at the very end of the thrust to finish the move completely. We want the straightness of the front leg to ensure maximum hip thrust and power. Be sure to watch the belt line of the hitter after the stride foot has landed and the knee is bent. We always want the belly/core to start us. When the hip is finishing, the player should have already recognized the type of pitch. To answer your question, no. We want the front leg straight. If not, more issues may arise due to the “weak” front side.
We will often tell our students to tuck their shirts in and watch the ripple effect on video. This will show us if the player is using his or her core the correct way. Hope this helps!
J.K. Whited
Hi JK love this type is awesome information!, Can you explain what you mean by “hip set”? Also, do you think rolling the back ankle in and keeping the front knee bending while staying square to plate before the turning of the hips & straigtning of front knee for an off speed pitch explains the “pause button”?. Or am I missing the boat?
Andy,
“Hip Set” is a term we use to describe the action taking place during the stride or whatever the hitter may be doing with their front side. Our pitching coach Justin Orenduff, is a big hip set guy which is where I learned the term. Can not take the credit with that one. Much like when you watch a big league pitcher set the hip inward and allow gravity to pull them down the slope of the mound before exploding over it, a hitter does a similar move. Obviously a hitter is reacting to the pitcher and can not have a long exaggerated hip set like a pitcher can. Again I go back to Robinson Cano because his is really easy to see. In the article, I mention “riding out” the back leg. While this is happening, the front hip is set for Cano. His front hip is set inward(coiled), showing his right back pocket while he lets gravity build up with his stride. While pitchers explode around and then over their “hip set”, hitters will explode around and behind theirs. A guy like Cano is easily seen because it is so drastic, while others may be very minimal.
The “pause button” I believe is just the strength and stability of the front side to keep the body back for the split second change in speed. You see a lot of players lunge over their front leg on off speed pitches because they extend their quad muscle and push with their calf over their front side. Also players will throw their arm and hands at the ball because they are on their front heel with too much weight back. Remember, if the hitter commits to a pitch they are fooled on, odds are they will not be in a perfect and powerful hitting position. It is the hitters ability to maintain barrel speed and vision during these moments that will allow success. Neither of these will be able to happen without the firm front side.
Thank You Very Much! Now I got it!
Hope you don’t mind me asking another question. When answering Dan’s question you said that the core starts the turn, now does the hips turn next in squence, then the shoulders correct? This is obvious to me but want to make sure. Thanks!
Andy,
Yes the hips will follow the initial move by the core. There will also be some quad muscles in play here right at the end of the hip turn like I stated in the article. It is that last little bit of thrust and to ensure a firm front side. Shoulders will follow soon after. Thank you for your questions!
I want to understand the proper way the push back from the front foot should be executed. Just as you explain the double-load of the inside ball of back foot…. does the front foot push mostly come from the inside ball of foot? Jaime Cevellos gets into 60/40 heel/toe thing but it seems that snapping straight of front leg should initially and primarily come from ball of front foot…. is that correct?
Bill,
I try not to get to much into the percentages. For me at least, too much thought into that can do more harm than good. Yes, I believe the push will be on the inside ball of the foot. If the ball or toe comes up off the ground, you will most likely get a sit and spinner. I don’t think this happens perfectly the same every time, but ideally the inner ball of the foot is the most stable in the power turn position.
Remember that the core and hips should start the turn and this should be the last bit of thrust to complete the move. Thanks for your question!
J.K. Whited
Can you please go over the proper mechanics of the double inside load? Thanks
Rob,
Thank you for the question.
Just to let you know, Chas wrote a fantastic article on lower half mechanics on this blog where he goes over the double inside load and its function. I will still fill you in here. I highly suggest looking over his article as well.
Here is part of the article Chas wrote,
During a double inside load, ” the hitter must keep the rear knee inside the instep of the rear foot and the top of the kneecap inside the shoe line. The double inside load drives the rear foot big toe and ball into the ground, creating your anchor.”
What this will allow us to do is build up power with timing into our super thrust. You see a lot of young players with straight legs and their knee caps directly over their feet. This is a very weak un-athletic position. The first thing we do with player like this is put them in a position to be explosive and balanced. Will they be right away? Of course not, but in order to be there one day, they need a place to start. Just be sure that when they do load their weight back into their hip that they don’t over load by drifting to far over their back foot.
Hope this helps!
J.K. Whited
You guys should do an Albert pujols,Adrian Gonzalez, and Jose bautista swing analysis. That would get so many people to know about this website.
I meant to say on youtube
Can you write an article on how to perform the leg raise like a pitcher?
I’m not sure the ‘leg kick’ is article worthy, we think it’s pretty self explanatory. Just lift and go.
Chas–
Robert,
If you look at the line from the hitters front foot, through their spine, and up to the back of their head you will see a backward line. This creates a back angle from the ground keeping the head still and the hips in position to move. Some are much more prominent than others but we believe this is a key to a hitter’s success. This angle also allows us to get the ball off the ground more often.
Most young hitters will push their spine angle forward to straight up and down or sometime further over their front foot. We try and show kids the opposite angle and the benefits of keeping it through the entire swing.
Thank for the questions!
-J.K. Whited
Robert,
During the “stride” or “hip set” as we like to call it, it is important to shift weight back to the front leg with a slightly bent front knee. This will allow some power for the front quad to push the front hip backward at the last moment. This will generate the last bit but a very powerful amount of hip thrust.
If the hitter simply reaches their front foot out at the pitcher, with no weight shift, there will not be a powerful hip turn.
You should not be falling back ward as the hips rotate. Some players who have advanced core and hip movements will come off of their back foot as the back hip rotates around. This may cause a player to fall back after the ball has been hit. The hitter should never be falling back during a swing.
Thanks Robert
- JK Whited