Thread by @SteveEnglishbey

On my website [as well as actually physically demonstrating this]I have written about the hips being..."the bottom of the swing plane." What does this actually mean? Well, here's a clip from the well known golf instructor Jim McClean who shows this pretty well:

englishbeyhitting.com/videoclips/XFa…

In looking at the annotated rods that have been included you can easily see the orientation [relative to the ground] of the hip line.

In the first clip the eccentric loading [counter-rotation] of the hips shows the lead hip more angled downwardly. But, as he rotates [unloads/second clip], this angle changes substantially to a more upward orientation.

And the back hip orients more downwardly [relative to the ground] and relative to the loading seen in the first clip.

Now, note the orientation of the shoulder line in both clips. Similar to the hip line, the shoulders move in accordance to the hip action.

Meaning. of course, that the back shoulder [focusing just on that segment] goes from being above the lead shoulder [relative to the ground] to below the lead shoulder in the second clip.

This orientation of the shoulder line ---in both clips --is ENTIRELY a function of the hip action.

In the context of a high level baseball swing, and being able to create a good swing plane, the ability to quickly change the orientation of the shoulder line is critical.

Jim's demo, is VERY illustrative as to how this can/should happen. Simply put, the ability to rotate the hips well very much facilitates the kind of upper trunk movement that the arms/bat are actually linked to.

Now, here's but one clip [I have many], that is a very similar example of Jim's demo:

englishbeyhitting.com/videoclips/Vid…

[Hattip Chris O'leary for the great clip!] Note that at about 15 the hips are level. But starting at about 20 look at the change [upwardly orientation of the lead hip/downwardly orientation of the back shoulder].

I would only add here that the hip flexion [hip hinge/hip pivot are synonymous terms] IS very much helping to facilitate this hip action [and shoulder action].

Some yrs. back I was working with some hitters, [and demonstrating alot of movements] and the coach picked up on this pelvic action. He said:

"I noticed that when you swing your lead hip looks like it kinda lifts up....but the girls don't do that...their hips are kinda flat or level."

And I said: "Well, yea, you're right. The difference is that I have LEARNED how to create very good hip flexion and have practiced--ALOT--how to rotate the hips."

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