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Lesson 5: Stride and Timing Mechanisms

HOME > PLAYING > Hitting > Hitting Mechanics Lesson Series > 5 Stride and Timing

An Apology for Mechanics

Value of Soft Toss

Hitting Mechanics Lesson Series

1 Perfect Swing

3 Stride to Load

4 Correct Stride?

5 Stride and Timing

6 Backside Triggers

7 Loading the Arms

9 Rotational or Linear

11 Optional Arm Action

12 Head-Body Tilt

13 Shoulder Power

14: The X-Factor

15: Hands vs Body

16 Follow-Through

17 All Together

Small Ball Lesson Series

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Teaching Methods

Coverage Clinic

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To the Next Level

Even with all the stride examples, a question might remain...

"How much should you stride forward?"

Remember first and foremost the ultimate purpose - to drive energy from bat to ball on contact. And the initial intent - to counter-balance the arm-shift which is the other half of "load".

So the best answer to stride distance is...
"enough to balance the arms"
and...
"not so much to lock up the hips".

We don't want so little stride that the arms feel no need to really load deep. Also we don't want the leg to stride so far that it has to land only on the back edge of the heel. Nor do we want the stride to be nothing more than a toe-in landing.

We want a firm - and we do mean firm - full-foot landing so the heel makes solid contact without the toes coming up. We also want the toes pointing up the line (to first for RHB, to third for LHB) - so the foot is at a 45 degree angle forward.

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There is a side debate you can get into on stride - about weight shift. Be careful of any instructor who insists that the weight shift from front to back is 60-40 or 70-30 on load, any more than it shifts to frontside 70-30 or similar on contact.

No scientist to our knowledge has put athletes on electronic scales to test this. In fact, at leg lift all weight is on the backside; and at the point of contact - driving through the ball - the weight is mostly on front foot.

So the numbers express intent only, not science, and any number you feel like using is okay by us. (We hope no resarcher decides that this should be tested, that an absolute number should be determined. It won't help; it won't be universal to all hitters; and it won't be worth trying to teach or learn. Focus on intent only.)

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