Batting Stride: How Aggressive?

Baseball and Fastpitch Softball

 

This Batting Stride debate article was excerpted from our new book The Ultimate Hitting Fundamentals, Techniques, and Strategy Guide (click for book details).

 

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Batting Stride Introduction

The stride comprises picking up the front foot and then placing the foot back on the ground. Fastpitch softball and baseball hitting, pitching, throwing, and many other sports utilize a stride.

The purposes of the batting stride:

Batting Stride Affects Power

Is bat speed generation affected by increasing (or decreasing) the amount of forward movement during the hitter’s stride and approach? If so, what forces are at work?

There are two parties of thought:

Party 1 – Forward Movement Has No Effect on Bat Speed

“…the length of the player’s stride — or even the very absence of a stride — has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of power or bat speed that a hitter generates.” (Epstien, 2003) 

“The hips may start to rotate as weight shift ceases, but that rotation comes from muscle contractions in the pelvis region rather than from momentum transfer.” (Mankin, 2002)

“Your stance is fine, but you think a big stride will help you get more weight behind the ball and help you hit it harder. In fact, the large stride is causing you a loss of timing and a loss of power.” (Hitting – Stride, n.d.)

“The only reason you stride is for rhythm and timing. It does not give you power, it does not give you bat quickness or bat velocity, but just rhythm and timing.” (The Pre-Stride, n.d.)

 

Party 2 – Forward Movement Increases Bat Speed

“The body creates forward momentum and is stopped by the front leg. The body then transfers that momentum to the hips, to the shoulders, to the arms, to the hands, and then of course to the bat.” (Yeager D. C., 2015) 

“There has been some controversy over the relative importance in batting of rotational motion and translation motion. Ted Williams emphasized the importance of rotation, and Charlie Lau emphasized translation. Of course, both are essential (as both Williams and Lau knew), and they are interrelated even as the energy of translation of the body goes into the rotary energy of the bat. To hit a baseball with dispatch, one needs to step into the ball, and to rotate.” (Robert K. Adair, 2002) 

“This forward momentum is turned to rotation by the reaction of the front leg. Also, significant rotational energy is then generated as the muscles of the torso act through torque from the feet, both of which are now firmly placed on the ground. Most of the translational and rotational energy, generated in the complex actions over a fifth of second that bring the body into play, is now concentrated in the bat”. (Robert K. Adair, 2002) 

 

Fact Check

A study done by the Hitting Performance Lab (Meyers, 2014) came to these conclusions:

• Apex of the bell curve for NO-stride swings ranged from 77 mph to 83 mph.
• With a longer stride, you’ll see the bell curve shifted, 81 mph to 85 mph.
• Three more 90 + swings using a longer stride.

 

Motor Cognition Theories

Here are some prevalent theories (in a nutshell) which attempt to explain why substantial forward momentum may increase bat speed for many hitters:

As the hitter strides, the torso’s linear motion toward the pitcher comes up against the firm front leg. Linear momentum is conserved (transferred) to angular momentum, causing the hips to rotate quicker and with more torque. The sudden, forceful, blocking stop (provided by the firm front leg), which occurs during an aggressive forward weight transfer, acts to impel core rotation faster. The hitter’s body weight “slams” into the firm front leg, adding impetus to the hips’ turn.

This theory helps explain why baseball and fastpitch pitching motions have considerable forward movement. Pitchers load up the back leg, stride forward, and the front leg firms just before they release the ball.

As the hitter’s front foot strides, the “V” made by the legs flattens. At the same time, the hands move rearward relative to the hitter’s torso. These dual moves create tension in the muscles across the shoulders, chest, hips, and legs. Each of the many stretched muscles creates power-producing elastic energy (separation).

Muscles in the pelvic region turn the hips straightening the front leg and hinging the rear leg. The hips can do this more naturally and effectively when moving forward into a resisting front leg.

 

Batting Stride Affects Vision

All coaches and players agree an aggressive stride is generally more complicated. For example, most High-Level hitters drop their head a few inches when aggressively striding (above image – look closely at the hitter’s head compared to the backdrop), impacting vision.

But on the flip side, In many coaches’ and players’ opinions, the longer stride and aggressive approach’s power benefits exceed the negative impact on vision.

 

Batting Stride Affects Ability to Adjust to Off-Speed Pitches

“When a hitter strides, she wants to do so softly, as if she’s stepping out onto ice that she doesn’t want to break.”

“Why do this stride in 2 parts? The reason is that the initial stride (toe touch) is not when the player commits her hands and bat to the pitch but rather when she gets herself into her attack position. If the hitter decides SWING this requires her body weight to slide forward and her hands and bat to explode forward as well.”

“The reason that poor hitters cannot hit change ups or even slower pitchers is because they stride with their entire weight forward onto their stride foot all at once.” (Bristow, Soft or Hard, Good or Bad?, 2019)

“No weight transfer should occur during the load and stride, except to the backside. The front foot needs to be planted lightly. A ‘strong’ or ‘heavy’ front foot usually results in bad timing and a tensioned swing, which causes a slow swing. A good position to be in once the front foot is planted is to have the weight and hands still back, but ready to explode to the baseball.” (Ngin, 2018)

 

Aggressive Batting Stride Conclusion

The consensus of coaches offers the following checklist of concepts for guiding hitters:

A young player should not force a leg kick into their swing simply because they have seen a player on TV do it. But if a big stride develops naturally and their rate of hard-hit balls is high, then let them run with it. Aggressive strides often get eliminated with the mindset that shortening cures all the ails of a swing.

“This is why I believe it is very important for every young hitter to begin experimenting with the leg lift. It has just too much potential to not at least test it out.” (Kaufman, 2018)

Kids need to begin to learn how to use their bodies to develop terrific bat speed – the ability to hit the ball hard increases fun and confidence.

Stride length and the amount of weight landing on the front foot at toe touch is not Universal in its execution. Hitters have unique athletic abilities and goals and different ways of moving to achieve their potential.

Especially when it comes to striding, one size does not fit all.

Outside a few big and strong athletes, most High-Level power and gap hitters land their stride with weight balanced between their feet. It makes sense. Transitional energy, obtained from movements initiating from stance and ending in hitting position, is wasted when the swing executes in two parts. Momentum comes to a halt and then re-starts.

Verify the claim that hitters who do not stride or utilize a smaller approach are quicker to the ball by using a bat sensor (click the link to shop for a highly rated baseball bat sensor or softball bat sensor), providing the time to contact metric (click the link for our article on how to measure time to contact. Developing tremendous early bat speed, along with a compact swing path and inner zone contact, creates quickness to the ball and power. Don’t necessarily correlate a short stride to quickness and speed (or improved timing).

See Bat Speed Drills for Power and Average (click the link for drills to build bat speed).

Determining if “short and soft” helps or hurts a specific hitter’s power involves objective measurements (bat speed, ball exit speed, rate of hard-hit-balls (HHB%).

For how to evaluate power see Tool X: Experimental Stride and Approach Drills, Drill I – Stride and Approach Experimentation Drill found in our new drills book The Ultimate Hitting Training Guide.

An aggressive stride, such as a leg kick, leg lift, toe tap, or longer simple stride, is often more productive and generally more robust for hitting off-speed than is a short stride. The more aggressive stride allows the hitter time to start their stride, recognize the off-speed pitch, then slightly slow up their approach and delay toe touch.

For functional off-speed drills see Tool XXIX: Off-Speed Drills, Drill II – Early Recognition Off-Speed Drill found in our new drills book  The Ultimate Hitting Training Guide.

• Early bat speed (click for our free article detailing the why and how of early bat speed).

• Timing (for a comprehensive discussion of how to train consistent timing see Foundation XXX: Consistent Stride and Chapter 10 Timing found in our new fundamentals book The Ultimate Hitting Fundamentals, Techniques, and Strategy Guide).

An aggressive strider picks up their stride foot earlier and starts their forward approach sooner in the pitcher’s motion, compared to a short strider. As long as their stride is consistent in length, height, and tempo, the big strider’s timing is just as consistent as the short strider.

 

Further Batting Stride Drills

• Tool X: Experimental Stride and Approach Drills, Drill I – Stride and Approach Experimentation Drill.
• Tool XXIX: Off-Speed Drills, Drill II – Early Recognition Off-Speed Drill.

Find these drills in The Ultimate Hitting Training Guide (click for book details)

 

Other Hitting Debate Articles You May Find Interesting

Click the links below for more free articles:

Baseball vs Softball Swing

The Ultimate Guide to Squish the Bug

Should Tall During the Swing?

Out Front Hitting vs Let the Ball Travel?

 

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