Practicing the Point of Contact
June 22, 2009 by Dave Hudgens
Filed under Baseball Instruction
Imagine someone driving a rod through your shoulder, through your back leg, and through the knee. The line should be straight through your body with your back heel up. You will either end up on the top of the toe, or just turning a bit on the ball of the foot. I prefer that you get up onto the back toe to make sure your weight is in the center position at the point of contact. After contact, and during your follow through, your weight will be balanced. The key here is to go from back to center.
All good hitters are in the same position when contact is made. Starting from the ground up, note the contact position of the majority of major league hitters:
- A solid base, wider than shoulder
- Their front foot closed at 45 degrees
- The proper heel toe sequence
- A firm front leg for maximum leverage
- Are up on their back toe, heel pointing to the sky
- Back leg at 90 degrees
- Their head in line with their back knee
- A good head position down on the ball
- Flex in their elbows at contact
- Their top hand palm up at and through contact
- They have taken a short path to the ball
- They have a slight tilt toward the plate with their upper body
swingaway's status on Monday, 22-Jun-09 21:16:30 UTC - Identi.ca on Mon, 22nd Jun 2009 2:16 pm
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