Chapter3 The Automatic Step (not no-steride)

In today's MLB, many hitters has quick and small stride.

For example, Albert Pujols,  Adrian Beltre,  Matt Kemp,  Alex Rios,  Justin Morneau,  Scott Rolen, Asdrubal Cabrera,  etc.

Sometimes their mechanics are classified as "no-stride". But in many cases, their front foot is lifted up slightly. As a matter of fact, hitter who can be classified as no-stride exactly is only few.

             Brett Harper      swing1      swing2

By the way, why can they step so quickly and small like above videos? In fact, there is a secret about that step motion, and I named it as an Automatic-Step. It is important that automatic-step is different from no-stride.

Example of automatic-step

Performance of automatic-step by demonstrators




Simply stated, their step occur as "unconscious" and "automatic" motion when they try to swing quickly. Therefore, if you imitate their step as a "conscious" motion, you will not be able to swing like them.

So now, I write about secret of the Automatic-Step below.

First, please remind the experiment of chapter 2. In this experiment, your body moved foward automatically when you try to accelerate your hand.

Next, stand with your feet about shoulder width apart, and move your body toward the pitcher's direction without lifting up your front leg as a conscious motion.

In this case, your front leg should be lifted up automatically by weight transfer.



In other words, weight transfer leads lifting up of front leg. And this mechanism is different from "lifting up front leg before the weight transfer". I expressed this difference in next clips.

clip1 [Weight transfer leads lifting up of front leg.]

clip2 [Lifting up front leg before weight transfer.]

Anyway, The following can be said. That is, when you try to accelerate your hand quickly, your front leg is lifted up automatically by weight transfer.  Because weight transfer is occurred automatically when you try to accelerate your hand quickly, as mentioned in chapter2. (like following figure)

In other words, when you start the swing from batting stance directly, all preparation motions for swing (stride, load, weight transfer, etc.)  occur automatically. Therefore, as for in your consciousness, you can swing from batting stance directly without any preparation motion. That's the "automatic-step". And this technique makes your batting simpley.

example of automatic step (Jason Giambi)

※) Following clips include side view of automatic step motion.

Albert Pujols  ( 0.44~ )
Jason Giambi  ( 0.42~ )
Adrian Beltre  ( 1.02~ )
Justin Morneau ( 0.32~ )
Andruw Jones  ( 0.39~ )
Chris Young  ( 0.39~ )

Basic mechanics of automatic step by demonstrator of automatic-step.
(He practices my hitting theory.)


Here are some of the automatic-step hitters below.

Adrian Beltre, Justin Morneau, Alex Rios, Matt Kemp, Asdrubal Cabrera, Albert Pujols, Vernon Wells, Andruw Jones, Carlos Lee, Scott Rolen, Vladimir Guerrero, Shin-Soo Choo, Jim Thome,  Juan Uribe, Aaron Rowand, Jason Giambi, Ken Griffey Jr, Brett Harper, Jeff Bagwell, Moises Alou, Mike Piazza, Jeff Kent, Tim Sarmon, Rich Aurilia, David Bell, Chuck Knoblauch, Mark McGwire, Fred McGriff, Jose Canseco, Joe Carter, Omar linares, Reggie Jackson,

A typical automatic-step motion ( Jason Giambi )

 practice of automatic-step by an elementary kid in my baseball gym

~ Notion about  the "start of hitting mechanics". ~

First, you try to accelerate your bat from batting stance directly. As a result, Your legs generate the power automatically. Concretely, lower body's muscles contract, and it causes your legs to push the ground. In particular, back leg pushes the ground strongly because your weight is put on the back leg more largely than front leg. As a result, your body moves foward automatically by ground reaction force.

in this scene (weight transfer), hands move back by counteraction of body movement. That is, the "load" occurs automatically and cross-line-muscles are stretched. So the next moment, cross-line-muscles contract by stretch reflex. And this muscle contraction causes arm swing as a top-hand-dominant-swing.　

By the way, these chain motions begin from lower body's muscle contraction.  And that muscle contraction is a result of consciousness of acceleration. That is, your legs generate the power at the same time as you have the consciousness of acceleration. In short, next two things occur at the same time in the moment-of-start : [consciousness of acceleration] and [lower body's muscle contraction].  


And it means "start-of-hitting-mechanics". In addition, posture at the start-of-hitting-mechanics is called as "starting-position". Furthermore, moment of start-of-hitting-mechanics is called as "moment-of-start". That is to say, Moment-of-start means the moment that you decide to start the acceleration in your consciousness. 

By the way, In the case of automatic step, starting-position means the batting stance. In other words, automatic step hitters can start their hitting mechanics from batting stance directly.

Anyway, understanding about "start-of-hitting-mechanics" is very important. In the moment-of-start, lower body's muscle contraction causes your leg to push the ground. And ground reaction force carries your body toward the pitcher's direction, that is, this is the weight transfer. By the way action and reaction force occurs at the same time. Therefore weight transfer starts at the same time as lower body's muscle contraction. In short, weight transfer starts from the moment-of-start. As mentioned in above experiment, "weight transfer" and "lifting up of front leg" start at the same time. Therefore lifting up of  front leg also starts from the moment-of-start. 

By the way, at the moment-of-start, both legs generate the power suddenly. I mean, it is not only back leg, front leg also generate the power.  Because pre-motion-silent-period has a symmetrical nature as mentioned in chapter2. lower body's muscle contraction and upper body's pre-motion-silent-perion are in correlation.

For that matter, that state will be understood when you imagine pushing the wall with your both hands with maximum power. In this case, your legs generate the power for resisting against the wall reaction force. And when you generate the power suddenly and strongly for pushing the wall, your legs should generate the power automatically in unconsciousness.

On the other hand, in the case of batting stance, back leg sustain more heavy weight than front leg. Because weight of bat and arms are put on back side (catcher side).

Therefore, back leg generates more large power than front leg. And back leg push the ground more strongly than front leg. As a result, ground reaction force has a vector that points to the pitcher's direction. So that, your body moves toward the pitcher's direction. This is the weight transfer.

In adittion, ground reaction force has also vertical vector. So that, right after the moment-of-start, your hip is lifted up slightly while moving forward. In other words, your hip is lifted up along a parabolic trajectory.

Of course, this movement is accompanied by lifting up of front leg. And next, your hip falls along the parabolic trajectory, and this movement leads landing of front foot. In addition, your hands is lifted up to the top position by counteraction of body movement. As a result, muscles of cross-line are stretched. And it leads the bat swing as a top-hand-dominant-swing.

By the way, muscle has a nature that goes into relaxation after contraction, and that nature is called as "golgi-tendon-reflex".  So that, lower body muscles go into the relaxation after contraction due to the start-of-hitting-mechanics. And that relaxation leads stepping down of front leg. Namely, as for puncher type mechanics, stepping down of front leg means fall action due to the lower body's muscle relaxation. And this fall action makes it easy to stretch the cross-line-muscles.

Following clips expresses that fall action clearly. In their swing, their belt line sinks in the stepping down phase. It is a result of lower body's muscle relaxation.

Cameron Maybin, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia
Vladimir Guerrero, Jose Bautista, Adrian Beltre

While stepping down of front leg, cross-line-muscles are stretched. And stretch reflex of cross line muscles leads the arm swing.

Stretching of cross line's muscle

cross line muscles

Cross line muscles at the top position

Of course, top-hand-dominant-swing is just the result of stretch reflex. And stretch reflex is an "automatic-unconscious-phenomenon". So that, you should not have a consciousness of top-hand-dominant-swing. And you should have a consciousness of contact and hard hitting, and concentrate it 100%.

Let me repeat one more time at the end of this chapter. All preparation motions for the swing (stride, load, weight transfer, etc.)  occur automatically, when you try to accelerate your bat quickly from batting stance directly. Therefore, you can start your swing from batting stance directly.