For ESPN2

[swingbuilder]

I wonder about A-Rod.  Maybe the best player we will ever see in our lifetime.  Is this because he has a great swing.  Or do we say he has a great swing because he is the greatest player we may ever see.  And being such a great player can get away with a very comlicated swing.

ESPN...Nothing complicated about ARODS swing. Here he was in high school

enjoy

http://www.builder.hittingillustrated.com/Pro/Arodhs.mov

[jgibbs01]

there is a lot of differences about arod's swing between then and now.  for one there is a greater knee lift and stride.  not to mention the hip slide that creates.

[swingbuilder]

JGibbs...Based on what I see in all the big league hitters. Hip slide would be defined as the hips moving forward while the hitter is rotating after his stride foot heel plants. I don't see that ARod has any hip slide, something I would consider bad. I do however see him tansfering against his frontside as he plants his foot but don't see the hips continue forward once he has established heel plant.

[jgibbs01]

he does hit against the front side a lot but he is strong enough to do that.  most of big league hitters do hip slide.  however we talk about arod being the best player we have seen and will see but over the years his strikeouts are way up and his average is way down.  in my opinion it is because he does to much hip sliding.  watch pujols he doesnt slide at all this is why he is probably the best player we will ever see and nobody even talks about it.  is it because he doesnt make 220 million.  i see a lot of things wrong with arods swing and dont think we should be teaching our kids this today.  we should build around pujols swing, a strong base and staying behind the ball not lurching at it like arod seems to do.

[swingbuilder]

Gibbs, we could have a very good discussion on this topic. I'll get a side view clip of ARod so we can compare. May take me a couple hours to run one down.

I also see Pujols sliding his hips forward.(Notice the guy in the white shirt in the stands right off Pujols front hip....and how he moves forward and hides the guy in the white shirt) All good hetters transfer against the front leg. They do not stay on the back leg. The difference in Pujols and ARod is not the sliding of the hips. The difference is that ARod likes to take a long stride and Pujols likes to be spread out and take a small stride. Either way they both still move their hips forward and against the frontside leg.

[jgibbs01]

you have to move the hips in order to hit but if you look in relation to arod they move a lot further than pujols.  and if we are teaching kids not move the hips we will all go broke and make ourselves look foolish.  yes they are opposite styles of hitting and we cant argue that.  arod for example is mainly a pull hitter and as always been.  albert will use both sides it doesnt matter to him. i just dont like the approach most major league hitters use just because they make millions to hit homeruns.  they set bad examples for today's youth and now instructors are teaching our youth to hit like that.  just because a big leaguer does it doesnt mean everyone should. 

[swingbuilder]

Gibbs, when I was young me and my buddy's emulated big league hitters. In todays world they don't watch enough big league games to do that. If you wanta be a good hitter emmulate the best and the best make lots of money doing it.

Gibbs, if you look at the over head of Arod. His hips aren't moving very far and not any farther than Pujols!!!! or anyone else for that matter. The most efficient at it is Bonds.

[swingbuilder]

Gibbs, here is a good side view of Arod. Compare it to Pujols.

[CraigS]

there is a lot of differences about arod's swing between then and now.  for one there is a greater knee lift and stride.  not to mention the hip slide that creates.

I'll try to explain it as I understand and also define "hip slide"!

The movement from front to back and back forwards is call momentum transfer, NOT "hip slide" once the hitter reaches heel plant, he/she will block the "hip slide" as you call it into rotation. Now if the hips continue forward in a linear path past heel plant then it would become "hip slide" creating a very over the top front foot hitter, which in my opinion is very bad!

So in short, don't confuse momentum transfer with hip slide!

As far as Pujols and A-Rod, don't miss the forest for the trees. The "style" that each of these hitter use is there OWN, but notice, by the time BOTH hiiters reach the "launch" position or "toe touch" position they are pretty much the same!

We could go on forever just explaining the difference in "style" and "mechanics"!

Stide -vs- no stride

Hands high -vs- hands low

hands still -vs- hands moving

open stance -vs- closed stance

All of these are defined by "style", it is where they are at "launch" that matters, again Bonds is a great example, his hands start fairly low - get lower - and then back up into a good position at or near his rear shoulder moving back as his body transfers his momentum toward the pitch!

[STiger85]

I'll have to agree with Tiger12.  People get cought up in styles of swing. Where you start, wheres your hips, elbows, shoulders, feet. Most every batter we see will start with a different style. And as they go through there swing all will come to a point where they come together. Most of the time it is in the transfer or for some of yall call it the hip swing. At this point if you look at there elbows, shoulders, head, back knee, front foot all will be basically the same. And from the time of impact with the ball the fallow throughs are so close it is hard to tell them apart. From the hitters I have seen through the past 10 years or so this is what I have notice. I am not a hitting expert, but this is what my eyes have seen. 

[swingbuilder]

The difference in Pujols and ARod is not the sliding of the hips. The difference is that ARod likes to take a long stride and Pujols likes to be spread out and take a small stride. Either way they both still move their hips forward and against the frontside leg.

Tiger's...I'll agree. Its style as I mentioned above earlier.

[espn2]

I can't get the link of Arod's high school swing to open but I will assume it is the same as his big league swing.  But in my question (and I am not saying I have the answer) I was refering to the "average" highschool player.  Which I think we can agree Arod was not.

My grandfather once told me (not refering to baseball) to stay away from anyone who said there was only one way to do anything because that person was trying to sell you something.  So I have grown to look for more than one answer to every situation.

[soonerbeintexas]

Hello all. I hope you don't mind if I offer my two cents.

I agree that it really never matters how you "start" if you are able to get to that one consistant launch point that all good hitters get to at the exact moment the ball arrives in the hitting zone. Julio Franco and Craig Counsel with the unorthodox bat position to begin, Bichette and Galarraga would nearly face the pitcher with their open stances, and Arod prefers the high leg kick, as does Jeter, Shef and several others. All these "starting points" are irrelevant if you are ready to launch at the right time. But when we talk about high school kids, things are not that simple.

Many kids bring little league baggage with them to the high school ranks. They got away with lots of flaws when they matured quicker than some of their counterparts on the little league diamond, but when the playing surface is more level, their flaws are obvious to the well-trained eye and sometimes to the not-so-well-trained eye.

When we discuss high school hitters, many problems exist with the most common problem I've run across being the stride. Average high school kids at smaller schools, where baseball is something they only practice after football and basketball seasons are over and in between track and the weight room during the spring, have to optimize their time.

The long, lunging stride collapses their front side, opens them up too early, restricts their ability to keep the hands inside the ball, causes their heads to move, thus putting their eyes on an alternate plane, and on and on and on.

Incidently, when I look at Arod, I don't see a long stride. The leg kick back to the body does not necessarily mean "long stride". The stride, from starting point to landing point for most all of your successful big league hitters, is very small if not at all (Edmonds, Alou, etc). Bags had a "reverse" stride, but still managed to hit off a firm front side. But to get the types of kids to which I refer to wait, wait, wait...EXPLODE...is a very difficult proposition.

Do any of you guys on here run into the same thing with stride problems? What types of things do you do to combat overstriding?