MEANING OF THE CLASSIFICATION

First of all, and needless to say, those who were classified into puncher or swinger type by me didn't know my theory. It means that they built their hitting mechanics without understanding the difference of these two types. Therefore, some hitters are on the middle point between the both types, and other hitters might change  their mechanics from one to the other. However, great hitters and good hitters who has or had earned good stats solidly among long-term can usually be classified into one specific type obviously. This fact based on my observation made me sure that being either specific type throughly was very important regardless which type the hitter choses.

However, there certainly had been the "regime change" from the swinger type to puncher type in the MLB. So what caused the change? While there are many possible causes I'm inferring, it would be the primary one that the pitching skills have been advancing, especially regarding the breaking balls and moving fastballs. Probably, the struggling to adjust against more hard pitches would produce the change of hitting theories and the way of instructions, as well as players' hitting mechanics. In fact, so many hitters have come to adapt more compact mechanics, short stroke swing, and relatively light bat, which would reflect their attempts to overcome outstanding pitchers having rich arsenals.

Anyway, the "revolution" of hitting mechanics is assumed to have been brought by those simple and practical thoughts, not by academic and biomechanical theory. Therefore, the change is often vague, and transition of it appears to be unobserved mostly. For example, let's see the following movie, 1989 WS game3, and focus on Jose Canseco(~0.56) & Garney Lansford(~1.51). Both of them adopts the similar batting stance, rhythm motion, and small stride. But, their swings look quite a bit different.



Wile Jose Canseco's swing often lacks the arm extension like Barry Bonds and Derrek Jeter, Lansford's swing seems to be somewhat classical one. In short, Canseco is a puncher type hitter, and Lansford is a swinger type hitter.

Here is the side view of Canseco's home run swing which lacks arm extension. It doesn't necessarily mean his muscle strength. 

HOW TO MAKE THE CORRECT POSTURE (2)

Take a look at this picture: Alex Rodriguez, who has marked total batting average .299 at the point of 2014. As you can see, his head is inclined slightly, and it means his eye line is also inclined. Doesn't it adversely affect seeing a ball acutely?  His high batting average is the answer of it.

Many recent distinguished hitters incline their heads in their batting stances, greater or lesser. But is there any textbook in which this head angle is explained, including the benefits of it? First of all, it seems to go against the textbook answer.

You will be mostly able to know the answer of this question from this figure.

As I mentioned in the (1) of this theme, hip joint flexion due to the iliopsoas muscle is crucial core element for making a correct batting stance. And it inevitably causes pelvis to tilt forward.

As the pelvis - the basement of spine - tilts forward, spine should also tilt forward to the same degree of the pelvis.

In this posture, if the neck stands upright, it means torso axis and neck axis doesn't consist with each other. On the other hand, inclining the neck to meet the angle of torso means making a straight axis through the upper body.

And what is worse is that if the axis isn't formed correctly because of the upright neck, the natural S-curve of spine also isn't formed correctly, or rather, it causes the "opposite-S-curve" of spine. This is a wrong posture which can lead to back pain.

HOW TO MAKE THE CORRECT POSTURE (3)

HOW TO MAKE THE CORRECT POSTURE (1)

The key element of making correct posture is iliopsoas muscles, the strongest hip joint flexor muscles.

Here is a good squat down and bad squat down. "A" is using mainly hip joint flexion, on the other hand, "B" is using mainly knee joint flexion.

Good Squat Down

Bad Squat Down

This is the hip joint flexion by the iliopsoas muscle.

When you make the batting stance, to use the rubber-like nature of iliopsoas muscle makes you easy to do the "good squat down" which I indicated above. I mean, first, stretch the iliopsoas muscle. Next, contract it.

Let's do this!

Puncher Type & Swinger Type

Baseball swing mechanics can be classified into two types based on its acceleration system.

PUNCHER TYPE

Principle of Puncher Type


●Genere the power from static state directly, suddenly, and explosively.
●Lower half generates the power automatically (involuntary) before the hands' acceleration, and it causes the weight shift or transfer.
●Also stride motion occurs automatically, and notice that no-stiride is an incorrect mechanics from the kinetic viewpoint.
●Although its principle is the same as hitting a punch like above movie, it doesn't mean to put emphasis on using the top hand. What I want to suggest with above clip is the way of power production, and essential meaning of difference between the puncher type and swinger type is exactly the way of power production.

Examples of Puncher Type 



SWINGER TYPE

Principle of Swinger Type


Examples of Swinger Type


●Weight sift or weight transfer is the most essential and core element of the swinger type mechanics.
●Keep the hands in relaxed throughout the swing, and don't try to swing forcibly with the hands because the lower half can lead them. In other words, arm swing occurs automatically as a result of the lower half's movement.

Additional

Each mechanics have separate motion and they seem to be the same at a glance. But there is a difference of meaning and mechanics.

George Brett (Swinger type)

Jason Giambi (Puncher Type)