SECTION1-8

Simple explanations for puncher-type mechanics

While arguments about "which arm should lead the swing" are often heard, the rear arm plays the dominant role in puncher-type mechanics. However, you should not use the rear arm intentionally because it works automatically in your swings.

Figure35: Typical examples of puncher-type swing (Freddie Freeman, Tony Blanco, Melvin Upton Jr., Katsuya Kakunaka)


By the way, most leg muscles that work in APA have vertically running fibers as you can see in figure36. Therefore, when those muscles work in APA, the resulting weight transfer inevitably takes somewhat vertical course like figure37 (see movie1-19).

Movie1-19


Figure36　　  Figure37: See yellow line and belt


Specifically, in the initial phase of the weight transfer, the pelvis is pushed up by the ground reaction force of kicking move due to APA.
In this phase, the pelvis moves in a parabolic orbit because the ground reaction force is transmitted through the rear leg to the pelvis like figure39.

Figure38: Parabolic weight transfer　　Figure39

David Wright, Albert Pujols

As you can see in figure40, the pelvis, or center-of-gravity (CG), rises in a parabolic orbit, and then falls in the same parabolic orbit.

Figure40: Parabolic weight transfer unique to puncher type (movie1-19)


And what's important is: In the falling phase, muscles on the front side of the body trunk are stretched diagonally from the rear shoulder to the front hip. There are some muscles in that diagonal line like figure41, and the contraction of those muscles causes a rear-arm-dominated swing.

Figure41: Diagonal line Muscles


Figure42 shows clear examples of mechanics in which parabolic weight transfer and stretching of the diagonal line are clearly seen.

Figure42: Albert Pujols, Sean Rodriguez, Adrian Beltre, Yoenis Cespedes.


The muscle contraction of diagonal line causes various moves as you can see in figure43: (1) shoulder joint adduction, (2) scapula downward rotation, (3) lateral bending of body trunk, (4) shoulder horizontal rotation, and (5) shoulder joint horizontal adduction.

Figure43: Various moves caused by diagonal line muscle contraction



Movie1-20 and figure44 shows swings that clearly show diagonal line muscle contraction.

Movie1-20


Figure44: Barry Bonds, Tony Blanko, Glenn Braggs.


Manny Ramirez, Miguel Cabrera, Mark McGwire, Freddie Freeman, Fernando Seguignol.


Dry swings in figure45 show characteristic bat path that traces the diagonal line. This kind of dry swings are very common in today's MLB. Probably, they understand their own mechanics in their sense, not by any theories ーthere are apparently no theory that refers to the top-hand-dominated swing due to diagonal muscle contraction. 

Figure45: Dry swings unique to puncher type


Old time hitters, on the other hand, generally showed dry swings that had horizontal bat path around their shoulder height. Probably, it reflected a belief in those days that body rotation is the major driving force of hitting mechanics.

Figure46: Dry swings unique to swinger type: Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio.


Ted Williams, Kozo Kawatoh, Shigeo Nagashima (Japanese legendary third baseman)


As you can see in above photos, even dry swings can prove existence of the hitting revolution from swinger type to puncher type.

By the way, you probably have a question like, "Why the front arm doesn't work in puncher-type swings?" I will write on it in detail later, but there is one simple answer that I want to write here. First of all, to pull a bat with the front arm, back muscles around the scapula have to work like figure47.

Figure47: Back muscles' contraction causes front-arm-pull.


See figure48. These muscles cannot be stretched in the falling phase of the parabolic weight transfer unique to puncher-type mechanics. That is one of the reasons why front arm doesn't work in puncher-type swings.

Figure48: Muscles for front-arm-pull cannot be stretched in the parabolic weight transfer unique to puncher-type mechanics.

Anyway, the most important thing is, the rear-arm-dominated swing in puncher-type mechanics is just a result of the parabolic weight transfer caused by APA and PMSP. And the diagonal muscle contraction is an unconscious muscle contraction due to stretch reflex (*1). (*1) See this page.

Therefore, I don't say like, "Swing with your rear arm, pushing the bat forward." Instead, I want to say like, "Hit the ball with your bat that is in the center of both arms." Which arm dominates the swing doesn't matter in practical side of my theory. In other words, you must not use the rear arm intentionally or emphatically in your swings. This is the most easy-to-misunderstand point in puncher-type mechanics.

So, the arguments about which arm should lead the swing is nonsense, particularly when we think about hitting skills from the practical perspective.
Then, what should we think or what kind of image should we have while swinging? That is the sense of power production that you can get from the dodgeball experiment in this page. It can be put in the following way like: "Hit the ball hard." Or, you can express it with a simple sound like "boom!"

Figure49: Concentrate on what you are doing — hit the ball hard. And don't think of the hitting mechanics itself while swinging. You should not think of your own motion when running away from a lion. Batting is an instinctive activity.

SECTION1-7

Definition of Start-Up

In puncher-type mechanics, when a hitter decides to start the swing in his brain, APA occurs in his lower body and PMSP occurs in his upper body. As a result of the APA and PMSP, the weight transfer, stride, and separation occur automatically in his mechanics. In other words, APA and PMSP trigger off the whole process of puncher-type mechanics. Therefore, the moment at which APA and PMSP occur is regarded as the start-up moment of puncher-type mechanics. In other words, the moment when your brain sends a command to the body to accelerate the bat is the start-up moment.

Figure31: Start-up moment or start-up position

Figure32: Monochrome frame is start-up position.

In movie1-18, start-up moment is expressed with a monochrome frame with a sound effect. And figure33 shows various patterns of start-up position.

Figure33: Robinson Cano, Sean Rodriguez, Albert Pujols. (Monochrome frame means start-up position.)

By the way, phrases like "hit the ball hard" are often heard in today's baseball instructions. Actually, those phrases well match with puncher-type mechanics because it uses APA and PMSP.

Of course, you have to avoid stiffening your muscles and keep them relaxed, but if you try to swing with half of your power, APA and PMSP cannot work well. That's why you should hit balls hard.

Figure34: APA, PMSP, and consciousness (intention) are in a proportional relationship.

Having said that, it is one of the most difficult things in hitting skills to keep your body relaxed while swinging with your maximum power. If you can do it easily, you will be able to become a triple-crown hitter. That's one of the reasons why we have to work hard.

SECTION1-6

PMSP (Pre Motion Silent Period)

Besides APA, there is another term that is important to understand puncher-type mechanics: PMSP, the abbreviation for Pre-Motion Silent Period.
PMSP occurs at the same timing as APA, and it means unconscious muscle relaxation that occurs just before an intentional (voluntary) muscle contraction. Likewise APA, PMSP occurs only when we try to generate large power quickly and suddenly from a static position.

Figure22: An example of PMSP experiment and its electromyogram


For example when you try to jump as quickly as you can directly from a slightly squatting position like figure23, the relevant muscles fall into PMSP right after you decided to jump in your brain. Right after the PMSP, those muscles generate explosive power to jump.
In this case, interestingly, a squat move occurs automatically by the body weight of the subject, thanks to PMSP.

Figure23: Vertical-jump experiment for PMSP (movie1-16)


PMSP is definitely different from intentional relaxation. In other words, I didn't say that you should relax before you move quickly like tennis players do (see figure24). Actually that is the most common misunderstanding about PMSP, though above saying itself is right.

Figure24: This is intentional relaxation, but not PMSP.


PMSP occurs unconsciously when we try to generate large power suddenly and quickly. In a sense, it is quite the opposite phenomenon of intentional relaxation because it occurs when we try to generate power.
To understand PMSP more easily, imagine doing arm wrestling and a sprint race. When you start to move right after hearing the starting signal, there should be a split second of time lag before your body starts moving actually. PMSP occurs in that split second of time lag and so does APA.

Figure25: PMSP in arm wrestling

In the case of dodgeball experiment (p1-13), when lower body generates the power due to APA, upper body falls into PMSP.
As a result of the lower body generating power and the upper body relaxing, the core muscles are stretched enough. Because of that reason, APA and PMSP are essential factors to make a separation in puncher-type mechanics.

Figure26: Work of APA and PMSP in dodgeball experiment

By this mechanism, we can generate large power without any intentional preparative motion such as back swing, weight transfer, and separation. I refer this effect as "backswing effect'" — it stretches muscles that are used in forward swing. The backswing effect is indispensable in puncher-type mechanics.

Figure27: Work of APA and PMSP in puncher-type mechanics


Lean more ~ Wall push experiment for APA ~

This is an experiment for APA and the resulting "backswing effect". Push a wall with your full power from a static position like figure28. In this experiment, your lower body should generate power due to APA just before your arms push the wall.
As a result, your whole body should move toward the wall with your elbows left behind your back like a prone position of push-up training (figure29), which stretches the upper body muscles to push the wall (see figure30). This is the very "backswing effect", and thanks to it, you can push the wall strongly without any preparative motion. In addition, PMSP also works effectively in the "backswing" as relaxed muscles can be stretched well. This mechanism works in hitting mechanics too.

Figure28: Wall push experiment (movie1-17)


Figure29                                        Figure30


PMSP and APA have two common factors like the following. Understanding PMSP and APA is very important for puncher-type hitters as their hitting mechanics depends on PMSP and APA.

(1) Both of them occur unconsciously when you try to generate large power quickly and suddenly from a static position.

(2) Both of them occur at the same timing: right after you decide to generate power and just before your muscles actually generate power for the motion you intend to do.

While these two functions (PMSP & APA) cause a split second of delay in the start of hitting mechanics, we can generate large power without any preparative motions, thanks to them.
By the way, these two functions might work effectively in the primitive life of our ancestors. For example, when they fended off sudden attacks to their feet from dangerous creatures like snakes, they would jump up in the same way as that of vertical-jump experiment (figure23).
That is because in those cases, they cannot afford to think like, "let me squat down to stretch my muscles before jumping up." However, muscles cannot contract strongly without being stretched just before the contraction. Backswing effect due to PMSP and APA can be a solution to such a contradictory situation in which there is a need to generate large power as quickly as possible.

SECTION1-5

APA (Anticipatory Postural Adjustments)

Actually, the system I wrote in p1-14 has already been proved by some scientific experiments. And the system is called APA (Anticipatory Postural Adjustments).



For example, like figure18, when the subject tries to raise his arms quickly and suddenly, the lower body and core muscles generate power just before the upper body muscles do. More specifically, the hamstrings and erector spinae muscles contract before the deltoid muscles do.

Figure18: Work of muscles in arm-raising experiment


Next, I want to introduce another experiment for more profound understanding of APA. Like figure19, throw punches with your both hands right in front of you from a static state as quickly as you can.
In that experiment, your lower body should generate power just before your hands start to move forward. As a result of the lower body's power production, your whole body moves forward slightly, leaving the elbows behind the body trunk, which means a separation (frame2 of figure19). Thanks to this system, you can throw punches strongly without any intentional preparative motion.

Figure19: Double-punch experiment (movie1-14)


This way, our lower body can work automatically and therefore we don't need to use our lower body intentionally when we accelerate our hand. Besides, the lower body's power due to APA has a significant nature: It brings our body in the direction of where we want to accelerate our hand. That is because APA is one of the brain functions.
For example, if you try to accelerate your hand to the pitcher direction, APA moves your body to that direction. In addition, there is another important nature in APA: The faster you try to accelerate your hand, the bigger power your lower body generates. Conversely, the slower you try to accelerate your hand, the smaller power your lower body generates.

Figure20 is a sequence photo of an experiment (movie1-15) in which I gave a command to the subject like, "Try to swing directly from the position at which your body weight is on the rear leg (frame2), and don't make a separation intentionally because it occurs automatically."
As a result, separation occurred automatically by the automatic weight transfer due to APA. Those motions allow the subject to use his whole body's power effectively.
Through this experiment, you will be able to understand the difference between intentional weight transfer and automatic weight transfer unique to puncher-type mechanics. That is one of the core differences between swinger- and puncher-type mechanics.

Figure20: Batting tee experiment: Yellow line is a yardstick line to see weight transfer.

This experiment is very useful to let beginners understand the basic mechanics of puncher type. If possible, you should videotape this experiment and show it to the hitter to let him understand that the separation occurs automatically.

Figure21: Alex Rodriguez and Joey Votto (movie1-13): They should have tried to swing directly from the white-framed cut. As a result, weight transfer and separation should have occurred automatically. They must have waited the ball in the white-framed position and tried to swing directly from there.