This week, I sat down with J.P. Sportman of JP3 Baseball to discuss the biggest deficiency he sees when hitters come in for training.
Cues like “load the back hip” or “sit in your back hip” are often said to hitters who tend to crash or get to their front side a little early in their swing.
This can result in timing issues, barrel/slot efficiency issues, and most importantly, power lost in the swing.
How do we fix this?
There are three reasons why this may be happening.
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Hip Internal Rotation Issue
We can use exercises such as hip rolls, side-lying hip shift, pelvic rotations, and landmine rotations. These will increase the mobility of both the femur movement in the joint but also the ability of the pelvis to rotate around the femur.
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Lack of Hip Stability
The hip must have the stability to control the pelvic rotating around the femur. This can be cleaned up through single-leg stability exercises and hinge patterns.
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Patterning
The athlete does not know how to pattern this movement, or know what this loaded position should feel like. In their pre-work for hitting, we can perform exercises using the What’s That Strap to pattern out pelvic rotation around the femur.
On JP’s side, he uses drills to help put athletes in the proper body positions, putting them in a spot to feel what the proper patterning should feel like.
A strong program should be used to emphasize an athlete’s deficiencies, especially the deficiencies that hold them back on the field and prevent them from gaining power in their swing.
At the end of the day, we train baseball players. The only thing that matters is the athlete performs between the lines.
Are you a hitter looking to learn more about custom programming that might work for you? Book an assessment today.