Thread by @SteveEnglishbey

A few yrs. back I was working with a young hitting instructor in the context of trying to help him become a more effective instructor. He was working with a hitter and he kept saying to this hitter..."you need to sit more."

I stopped the instruction and ask the hitter: "Do you actually know what he means?" And the hitter said: "No, I really don't." I then ask the instructor to SHOW the player what he meant.

And what the instructor showed him--from my vantage point of someone who was THE guy who originally defined this term yrs. ago in detail [based on empirical observation AND thousands of hrs. of personally practicing movements],was NOT an accurate description of "sitting."

Furthermore, I cite this as an ex. of an instructor neither really understanding a concept, nor being able to really convey the concept well to the hitter.

The bottom line here is that neither the hitter nor the instructor REALLY understood this concept of..."sitting."

With all due respect to instructors, I see this kind of thing alot. They will take a term for ex. like the "The Spinal Engine" by Serge Gracovetsky and wildly extrapolate his argument in the specific context of throwing/swinging.

[And I should note here that I was writing about the "spinal engine" on my website in detail around 2008--long before guys like Joey Myers et. al. were talking this concept].

From my vantage point, I say this as someone who has spent yrs. in a VERY concentrated effort on looking at info and trying to understand how it MIGHT SPECIFICALLY apply to swinging/throwing.

I find these attempts to use what could/should be considered as general or theoretical concepts, as being very superficial and basically MISAPPLIED in the specific context of high level throwing/swinging.

In this context, one concept that I see quite a bit is that of "riding the back leg" in the context of hitting

Honestly, I have no idea as to what this ACTUALY means in the context of analyzing high level hitters.

Think of a dad hearing that from an instructor about his son: "You're son is not 'riding the back leg' enough."

How does the dad understand/interpret this assessment? If I were the dad I would ask: "Show me a hitter "riding the back leg" vs. a hitter NOT doing this.

Here's a clip of Ken Griffey:



Is this an example of this concept of "riding the back leg?"

Well, let's consider what the stride to rotate process actually entails. First off ,from a biomechanical perspective, as soon as he lifts the lead foot, ALL of the body mass is now being SUPPORTED by the BACK leg.

Meaning that when the lead foot leaves the ground HALF of the base of support was removed. NOW the BACK leg is THE segment that is supporting the entire mass of the body as it starts to be displaced forwardly.

If you put the curser at the center mass [navel approx.] you can see the center mass [trunk] moving forwardly.

From lead foot lift to solid foot plant what is the function of the BACK leg?

Well, simply put, it's function is to both create STABILITY as the shift occurs. AND, as the shift starts[linear action] to change direction into angular motion, the back leg knee starts to flex [prior to this the back leg was relatively "stiff" via isometric tension].

Does the cue "riding the back leg" even remotely describe what I described above?
Well, simply put, I don't think so.

And I can say with "metaphysical certainty" that if I were with a dad my demos and descriptions of elite level movement would be MUCH clearer to him than saying "ride the back hip."

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