SECTION1-4

~Basic mechanics of puncher type~

Maybe you think that the motion of puncher-type experiment (movie1-3) is a kind of arms-only swing. There are commonly known believes that assert the importance of lower body as a driving force of hitting mechanics. They say that the lower body's power is transmitted to the upper body and it accelerates the arms and bat. Of course, this kind of saying is correct.

Puncher-type mechanics uses the power of lower body, and the whole body is involved in the hitting mechanics — That is definitely not an arms-only swing.

As a proof of it, I want to introduce an experiment for understanding the basic mechanics of puncher type. Figure13 is a sequence photo of the experiment named "dodgeball experiment".

Figure13: Dodgeball experiment (movie1-12)

In this experiment, subjects were directed to throw a ball as fast as they can, trying to throw the ball directly from a position at which their body weight is loaded on the rear leg (frame2 of figure13). They were also directed not to do weight transfer intentionally before they throw balls.

As a result of above experiment, weight transfer, stride, and separation occurred automatically as you see in figure1-13. When the weight transfer occurred automatically, the throwing hand was left in its starting position. In other words, separation occurred automatically.

Above experiment tells us that there is an inherent system in our body: When we try to accelerate our arm quickly, our lower body generates power automatically just before the upper body generates power. This system works only in the case of generating large power quickly and suddenly from a static position like the case of dodgeball experiment.
See figure14. In dodgeball experiment, when the subject decides to accelerate his throwing arm in his brain, the rear leg generates power automatically to push the ground, which causes a weight transfer that inevitably is accompanied by a stride and separation.

This way, stride and separation occur automatically when we try to accelerate our arm. Of course, the same can be said in the case of hitting mechanics like figure15. This is a fact that can overturn a conventional teaching that says, "Take a stride and make a separation before the swing."

Figure14: Mechanism of dodgeball experiment

Figure15: The mechanism of dodgeball experiment also works in hitting mechanics. 

While conventional instructions say, "Take a stride and make a separation before you swing," that kind of instructions actually can be applied only to swinger-type mechanics like figure16. They do separation and make a top-of-swing intentionally.

Figure16: Hank Aaron, George Brett. (TOP means top-of-swing.)


However, In the case of puncher type, when you try to swing, stride and separation occur automatically. So you should try to swing directly from the monochrome frame of figure1-17.

Figure17: Alex Rodriguez, Joey Votto. (movie1-13)

SECTION1-3

~History of Revolution~

(1) Pre Babe Ruth era (before the early 1900s) 

In the initial period of baseball history, it seems that hitters had been trying just to contact pitches to hit strong line drives. In fact, as far as I see old materials, they seemed to have small stride and small backswing. Therefore, this period had not outstanding sluggers who produced large amount of home runs like Babe Ruth. Probably, a hitting mechanics like that of Joe DiMaggio had already been common in this period. Movie1-7 shows the examples of hitting mechanics that probably were common in those days. 

(2) Post Babe Ruth era (after 1914)

Babe Ruth made a revolution in the evolutional history of hitting mechanics with his own mechanics that had large stride and dynamic weight transfer. He proved that weight transfer can be a driving force of power hitting.

Figure10: Babe Ruth (Movie1-8) 

After his debut, many sluggers who had long stride like him made their debut in MLB, such as Jimmie Foxx, Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays. Of course, there also were hitters who had small stride like Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams — they still should be the majority in MLB. Anyway, the mainstream belief on hitting skills in those days was apparently based on swinger-type mechanics that uses weight transfer and body rotation as its driving force. Movie1-9 shows hitters in this period. 

(3) A Difficult time for hitters (from about the 70s to 80s) 

During from about the 1970s to 1980s, pitching mechanics evolved before hitting mechanics. Since hitters came to be required to adapt themselves to various pitches, more and more hitters and instructors came to prefer compact hitting mechanics. However, since they tried to make their hitting mechanics compact without changing their core mechanics of swinger type, power hitters became difficult to emerge in this period. In fact, this period had not so many home run hitters. Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Reggie Jackson, and Eddie Murray were prominent hitters in this period. This circumstance continued until the early 90s when Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. made their debut. Movie1-10 shows hitters in this period. 

Figure11: George Brett, Mike Schmidt, Reggie Jackson. Reggie Jackson was a pioneer of modern, puncher-type mechanics.


(4)Breakthrough in the early 90s

During from the late 80s to early 90s, puncher type started prevailing in MLB like a revolution, probably triggered by Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, who played for Athletics' golden age in the late 80s. The first time we saw visible results of the revolution was the early 90s. In those years, so many sluggers who had the ability to hit over 40 home runs emerged one after another, such as Frank Thomas, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, Juan Gonzalez, Cecil Fielder, Albert Belle, Ken Caminiti, and Mike Piazza — all of these hitters are classified into puncher type.



The spread of banned drugs and the inflow of lower level pitchers due to MLB's expansion were not the only reasons of increase in single-season home run numbers. There certainly was a revolutionary change of hitting skills. In this period, hitting skills caught up with and overtook pitching skills that already had experienced a revolutionary change. A movie "Baseball's Hottest Stars" is clearly depicting the circumstances of MLB in the vortex of the "Hitting Revolution". 

Figure12: Sluggers in the early 90s (movie1-11) 

(5)Post revolution era ~ After the 2000s ~

Introduction of stricter doping test contributed to decrease in the number of single-season home runs (as of 2015). However, doping tests are not the only reason of that decrease — pitching skills evolved again in this period. More and more pitchers came to throw various moving balls and tremendous fastballs, with their pitching mechanics becoming more compact and quick. It means the average level of pitching skills have caught up with that of hitting skills again. Now is the time when each of pitchers and batters have high-quality mechanics equally.

Post revolution era players: Pedro Martinez, Justin Verlander, David Price, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, David Ortiz. 

SECTION1-2

The existence of these two different mechanics doesn't mean that there are poor and correct mechanics. Rather, each of two types has completely sophisticated mechanics, and therefore, they show different features respectively. In other words, there are two types of correct hitting mechanics. 

Having said that, there is a difference in the adaptability to today's baseball between those two types. That is to say, while various aspects of baseball have changed over the yeas, the features of puncher-type mechanics have turned out to be more adaptable to today's baseball. 

As a result, puncher type has gotten overwhelming majority in recent MLB. There was a revolutionary change of the hitting mechanics during from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. 

Figure5: Both ends are right, but the center is wrong. 

Figure6: Chronological table showing the transition of majority. 

Let me cite two instances for understanding the change of hitting skills that occurred in baseball history: slow-pitch softball and wiffleball (movie1-4). As for slow-pitch softball, Long Haul Bombers, a team of home run hitters, is clearly expressing what I want to say here. In the environment where pitch speeds are slow and hitters are required just to hit many home runs, swinger-type mechanics likely to be preferred.
On the other hand, in the case of wiffleball, pitches move unbelievably, and therefore, hitters are forced to concentrate just on making a contact — an environment where puncher-type mechanics likely to be preferred.

Wiffleball & Slow-Pitch Softball: Upper left is wiffleball and upper right is slow-pitch softball (Long Haul Bombers). The batting stance of the wiffleball hitter looks like that of Albert Pujols, and the hitting mechanics of the softball hitter looks like that of Babe Ruth.
 

Since this classification method is not based on superficial appearance but on essential acceleration mechanism, it differs from so-called linear-rotational classification method in which the width of stride is an important factor for classifying. 

Figure7: Example of web site dealing with Linear-rotational problem that is frequently discussed in American baseball circles. 

For example, Bryce Harper and Jose Bautista (movie1-5) are classified into puncher-type in spite of their large stride, on the other hand, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams (movie1-6) are classified into swinger-type in spite of their small stride.

Figure8: Bryce Harper (puncher), Joe DiMaggio (swinger). 

As I mentioned above, this puncher-swinger classification method doesn't depend on the width of stride. Even if a hitting mechanics has a small stride like Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, as long as it uses the momentum of weight transfer as its driving force, that mechanics can be classified into swinger-type.

Likewise, even if a hitting mechanics has a large stride like Bryce Harper and Jose Bautista, as long as it doesn't use weight transfer as its driving force, depending on explosive muscle contraction, the mechanics can be classified into puncher type.

Figure9: Carlos Gonzalez: In spite of the dynamic weight transfer, his mechanics can be classified into puncher type. His way of power production is closer to that of puncher-type experiment (p1-3) than that of swinger-type experiment (p1-2). 

By the way, swinger-type mechanics requires large stride to generate large power like Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays. That is the reason why the number of swinger-type hitters has decreased in MLB. Since breaking balls and moving fastballs have been highly developed in today's baseball scene, hitters are required to have more and more compact hitting mechanics. 

While there certainly are hitters who cannot be classified readily into one type, most top-ranking hitters can easily be classified into one type. That is to say, pursuing one particular type thoroughly is the only way to get supreme hitting mechanics.
In other words, this classification method does not mean puncher-type is correct or swinger-type is poor, but means mixed or intermediate mechanics is poor. 

SECTION1-1

~Essential difference~

I classify hitting mechanics into two types, depending on how they generate the power to accelerate their bats. Since each of those two types has completely different mechanics, they require different hitting drills, tips, and instructions respectively. Even suitable tools and tactics are different too. Therefore, understanding which type you are employing is crucially important.

I named one puncher type and the other swinger type.  Movie1-1(a) and movie1-1(b) shows typical examples of those two types. This is not an innate difference. Which type a hitter chooses is decided by acquired factors such as coaches who taught him and star players who had influences on him. There are definitely not any innate differences between puncher-type hitters and swinger-type hitters. So you can change your hitting mechanics from now on by learning their different mechanics.

Movie1-1(a): puncher type hitters

movie1-1(b): swinger type hitters

First of all, I want to introduce two experiments for understanding the core systems of swinger- and puncher-type mechanics.

(1) Experiment for swinger type (movie1-2)

Movie1-2: swinger experiment

Like figure1, stand with your whole body relaxed, letting both arms down. Then, rotate your hip, using the momentum of weight transfer. By doing so, your arms will swing around your body by centrifugal force. In other words, you need not to swing your arms forcibly with your upper-body muscles.

Figure1: Experiment for swinger type  


Examples of swinger-type hitters: Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, George Brett, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Darryl Strawberry, Eddie Murray, Randy Bass, Tony Gwynn, Josh Hamilton, Joe Mauer, etc.

(2) Experiment for puncher type (movie1-3)

Movie1-3: puncher experiment


Like figure2, make a stable and wide stance, squatting down to some extent, and put your top-hand in the launch position. Then, throw a punch directly from there quickly and suddenly without any preparative motion such as back swing, weight transfer, and separation. Generating your maximum power like an explosion is very important. You should not use your lower body intentionally because it works automatically when you try to accelerate your punching arm. Specifically, weight transfer and hip rotation occur automatically when you try to throw a punch.

Figure2: Experiment for puncher type 

Examples of puncher-type hitters: Mark McGwire, Derek Jeter, Barry Bonds, Mike Piazza, Jose Canseco, and most of today's hitters in MLB.

To make a long story short, swinger type uses weight transfer, body rotation, and front-arm-pull. On the other hand, puncher type uses explosive muscle contraction and rear-arm-push. 

Figure3: Swinger type uses front-arm-pull. (Babe Ruth, George Brett.) 

Figure4: Puncher type uses rear-arm-push. (Miguel Cabrera, Barry Bonds.) 

SECTION1 TWO TYPES OF HITTING MECHANICS

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1-2
1-3
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1-5
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