The Importance of Swing Sequence
Content provided by JK Whited, Senior Hitting Instructor/Director of Online Hitting at Baseball Rebellion
If you have been following Baseball Rebellion at all, you know the importance of swing sequence. Simply put, the right moves in the right order. Today we will examine a hitter’s first move after the loading sequence. Now I can’t understate how important it is to have a quality and consistent load. I have said it many times before, you can not have an A+ swing with a D- load. So, assuming a player loads well, let’s look at how the first move out of that load can be different and drastically affect a hitter from that point forward.
*Note: If a hitter loads properly they have a great opportunity to begin their swing efficiently.
We look at the three most common moves after the load. The first two will be the most common incorrect starts of the swing.
Swing Sequence: The Push
We will start things off with the “push”. This swing sequence will generally start with an improper loading of the hitter’s rear leg as opposed to coiling the hips, however, it can still happen after a proper load. Here is what can happen with a “push” to start swing.
– Head/body movement up and forward
– Vision loss
– Forced to drop arms and hands to contact
– Altered swing path, usually down, through and/or across the hitting zone
– Timing issues due to body closing distance to the ball
Here is an example of the push move out of the rear side.
Swing Sequence: The Spin
The next swing-start flaw we will look at is the “spin”. The spin swing sequence can come from the idea of “squishing the bug” or a hyperactive front side pull off the plate. Either way, this can be aggressive yet cause many issues once the hitter strikes the ball. Issues that arise from a spin can be:
– Head/body movement away from zone and ball
– Vision loss
– Hands/arms forced laterally and down away from body
– Barrel path drastically across the body
– Very little to zero body weight into contact
– Virtually zero quality contact on any pitch middle to away side of plate
Let’s take a look at the spin move out of the rear side.
Swing Sequence: The Pull
This is the most important baseball swing sequence that all hitters should aspire to have at some degree. While some have it more than others, this move is there for all good hitters. Mainly because it sets into motion quality movements that fall into place like dominos. Now, it’s important to know that flaws can still happen but the chances are dramatically reduced when this move occurs first in a hitter’s swing. Here is what you can get from this move:
– Stable head/body position through entirety of the swing
– Correct biomechanical sequence of body to ensure maximum bat speed
– Body weight transfer into ball
– Barrel path that stays in the hitting zone as long as possible
– Barrel path that is slightly up on pitch path creating high impact quality
– Ability to hit to all fields with power(relative to hitter’s size)
– High rate of adjustability to all pitch types
Here is a look at the pull move out of the rear side.
While nothing can guarantee you a hit of any kind, this move will open up the opportunity to do more damage especially on mishits. Remember, you’re only as good as your mishits. Any swing type can generally hit the ball well if everything works out. But we know that things lining up in a perfect way for that to work out doesn’t happen often. Load properly and make sure your swing starts the right way with a pull from the backside through the rotation of the core.
Thanks for reading and if you or your player has any of these issues, please check out our fantastic online training program using V1 BASEBALL.
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