The images below illustrate a core belief about hitting in the Valor Baseball program. Many of us were taught to keep our shoulders level and to swing down on the ball to create backspin like the image on the left. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how to lead players to the most success at the plate. As the illustration shows, this allows one opportunity to hit the baseball - on time and on location.
The illustration on the right shows freedom in the movement of the hips and shoulders. In order to get on proper plane with a baseball pitch, we must create certain angles in our hips, shoulders, and torso. This creates freedom and better results when hitting a baseball. It allows us to control the release of our barrel and hit the ball when we are on or off time, as well as on or off location. Allowing the hands to maintain their proper sequence as the final link in the kinetic chain can be accomplished in the image on the right and not in the image on the left.
See this plane and sequence in action with the Gary Sanchez video as well.
