Big Papi's swing

[baseballislife2008]

It seemed to me tonight when watching Big Papi's swing his hips really opened up and then his shoulders followed. It wasn't like his hips turned completley and then his shoulders turned. It was smooth but powerful. It just seemed like instead of hips and shoulders turning simultaneously it was the hips rotating first and then the shoulders. I don't really think I do this in my swing. It seems like you can get more power this way.

Is there any drills to help this "hips firing first" sequence??

[Love The Game]

If you are talking about his homerun, he opened up a little early to get his hands through the ball because they were throwing him inside on every pitch. You could tell he knew that pitch was coming and he turned on it.

[baseballislife2008]

not just his HR. His swing in general. Manny seems to do it too. Shoulders stay closed while hips fire open first and then shoulders whip around. Almost like a whip effect. Body parts (big ones - hips legs) accelerate and then decelerate to convert that energy upstream to the torso (shoulders, lower back, obliques) and then that slows down and ultimately the last part of this "whip" is the arms and hands and of course THE BAT!!

[korp]

The sequence of events is what a rotational swing is. The hips rotate with lowerbody and then the upperbody. It definitely increases power and is the new age of swinging (used by every mlb player I can think of in the game today) ever since they did away with big astro turf fields.

[cosmo34]

Not really "new age", more just reverting back to the right way.

Shoeless, Ruth, Mantle....it's always been there, it just went away for a little bit.

[phantom]

I'd like to see what kind of drills the mlb guys do to promote this type of hip action.

there must be something out there dontcha think?? :confused:

[baseballislife2008]

I'd like to see what kind of drills the mlb guys do to promote this type of hip action.

there must be something out there dontcha think?? :confused:

I would pay a lot of $$ to find out drills that they use. I wish teams would make DVD's for the public to purchase with the drills they use. Just on the drills. Or even a small paperback book that shows the drills they use. I think it would sell big time and it would help players throughout the country.

I mean come on. Big Papi is no different then me. He's a human just like me. Why can he swing a bat so much better then me?? When he first picked up a bat at whatever age (2 or 3 possibly???) he didn't swing like he does now. His swing was developed and/or "built" over a period of time and I don't think it was just trial and error. I think there are certain drills that really help develop all of these players swings.

I really want to learn how to turn my hips while keeping my shoulders closed. It really stretches the oblique and you can feel how powerful your torso can rotate by doing this. I just stood up and did it right now. I'll do it again right now. I just did it and I feel so explosive. It's crazy. I want to be able to do this in my swing. It's basically loading the oblique muscle. I don't know if it's so much that the hips are rotating and it's powering the shoulders. I think it's more or less the hips are rotating which is actually loading the oblique muscle (lead oblique) which will fire the shoulders and torso with much more explosion then if you just turn your torso. Stand up right now. If you are reading this stand up right now. Get off your chair right now. Stand up. Now just rotate your shoulders as fast as you can while standing up straight. Now.....stand up and rotate your hips just a little bit while keeping your shoulders still. Keep your shoulders still and rotate the hips about 10-15 degrees. NOW explode your shoulders. Rotate those shoulders just like you did the first time. Which time had more power?? You tell me??

[korp]

Not really "new age", more just reverting back to the right way.

Shoeless, Ruth, Mantle....it's always been there, it just went away for a little bit.
Your right ... just the new age compared to the one before. There probably was somebody who was like my way is new so it must be great and then somehow everybody got hooked lol.

There is one drill that I do that helps with the rotation action ... really more of a practice swing. You get in your stance, take a stride and rotate your hips some but keeping your hands in the loaded position and you feel a "pull" from your lowerbody like a rubberband affect .... thats what creates the power ... and then you send the hips the rest of the way and let the hands come through. I agree though they could make alot of money if they released things like workouts, drills and things like that to the public. I mean really the only way to get ahold of stuff like that though is to go to somebody in minor or major league baseball. I know (have seen) the players are given usually a huge notebook that has workouts, drills and everything. I saw the Braves one and it must have been at least 200-300 pages thick on what to do.