Swing Question: Rotation or Weight Transfer

I frequently am asked questions about the all time great hitter, Ted Williams and Charlie Lau. Williams is thought of as being a pure rotational hitter, while Lau was a pure weight transfer teacher. Both are misconceptions and misrepresenting the swing.

Percentage wise, Ted teaches more rotation but if you look at his old videos and still shots, you clearly see his weight going from back to center which is weight transfer. Lau embraced a pure weight shift philosophy and many of his still shots in his book do show hitters on top of their front leg, however, that isn’t what happened to those same hitters in real game action swings.

If any of you have Ted William’s book, The Science of Hitting, turn to the very last page and you will see a perfect swing. However, look closely. Ted has gone to the center position, with his back heel in the air, and his toe – NOT the ball of his foot – on the ground. This clearly shows you the weight has transferred to the center position therefore, it is not a pure rotational swing. A pure rotational swing that would involve no weight transfer, would consist of the weight spinning on the ball of the back foot. It is clear cut, he is definitely not spinning.

The swing is definitely a combination of both rotation and weight shift however, there are vary-ing degrees of this combination. Speaking in mathematical terms, look at it as a matter of the percent used of each. Some hitters will use a greater percentage of rotation, while others will use a greater percentage of weight shift. Ideally the swing should be 50/50. Fifty percent rota-tional, fifty percent weight transfer. Most great Major League hitters are at 50/50 – Palmeiro, A-Rod, and Giambi – just to name a few.

Results of having a pure rotational approach are that the hitter will be guaranteed to have a less effective, more inconsistent circular hand path. When taking a circular hand path through the zone, the barrel of the bat stays on the contact plane for a very short time. This leads not only to an improper hand path but also to inconsistent contact. In addition to that, these hitters will have a greater likelihood of rolling over the ball with their top hand which in turn leads to more weak ground balls being hit.

Contrast that to a hitter using a strict weight transfer or linear path. Despite the fact that he will stay on the ball longer, he will in fact have more of a chopping type swing. That is why a com-bination of the two is what leads to the most success. The proper hand path will start out linear, or straight to the ball and on the finish or follow through, the swing becomes more circular. In other words, the swing is more linear on the approach to the ball, and more circular on the fol-low through. Remember to keep it simple because this truly isn’t a difficult concept, people make it much harder then what it is.

Weight Transfer for Softball

Q:

My 12 year old daughter has had this problem for long time. After she swung, she loses balance and her back foot goes toward home plate. She was all star last year and hit .450 in the season.  Does she have a weight transfer problem?

A:

I would keep working on her weight transfer; balance and staying balanced throughout the swing. If she is rolling her top hand, work on keeping her hands closer to the body on her approach to the ball. The swing should be a combination of rotation and weight transfer. Some players are more rotation, some are more weight transfer but all good hitters are a combination of both.

If she hits .450, her balance is fair. In the stance, start, and power position, her balance will be excellent if the toes (or back toe at least), knees, and tips of shoulders are vertically aligned. To align them, sink straight downward as if preparing to jump straight up, and sink to the desired level. This improves balance from face-to-back.

Balance from rear to front is more complex. She must arrive at the power position, then at full weight transfer at the right times. This is done by timing the footwork right. If she has trouble hitting the slower pitchers, I suspect it is because she strides as early for slow pitchers as she does for the fast ones. This will cause a weight transfer problem. She should stride a bit later for slower pitching, or a bit sooner for a very fast one.

Weight Transfer and Hitting