Thread by @SteveEnglishbey

I have seen over the last 10 or so yrs. a high degree of focus on the back leg and/or the back hip action as being THE KEY to creating very good hip rotation. This [of course] typically entails NOT any kind of rigorous argument of biomechanics or physiology.

No. It's simply an assertion along the lines of....."see...see this...THIS clip PROVES my assertion!!"

Well, yes. I do see the clip. And I do hear your assertion. But. You have not really convinced me.

I'm not at all convinced that ONE leg or ONE hip is THE causal link to high level hip rotation.

Such assertions bring to mind a number of things said by Mel Siff about complex motor activities. He wrote quite a bit about the fallacy of isolated muscle testing in the context of understanding dynamic sporting movement.

AND I have often stated, his description of a seemingly simple act of reaching for a cup of coffee involves about 7 joints and 27 muscles.

AND I recently wrote here about his analogy of complex ballistic sporting activities as ..."a symphony of muscle actions."

As regards the specifics of hip rotation in the context of swinging a bat, yrs. ago Paul Nyman made reference to hip rotation as a "coupling" of the hips.

When I first heard this phrase I intuitively interpreted this as involving muscular contributions from BOTH hips. Meaning that the ENTIRE pelvic musculature was involved in rotation.

This more holistic construct, so to speak, fits with Mel's symphony analogy. As well as much actual research on how the body works in dynamic sports settings.

Later, I ran across physics types talking about the concept of a "couple."

Here's one I recently ran across:

He uses 3 real world simple ex. of how to understand the concept of a couple. Take a few minutes to watch and listen to this pretty simple but accurate/relevant explanation.

Bottom line---in the context of hip rotation when swinging a bat [or anything really]: One needs to utilize muscle actions on BOTH sides of the axis of rotation!!

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