It's What's Inside that Counts

In the above video, I talk about the three general looks that I see from lead-arm dominant hitters. The important thing is not to try to copy any particular hitter, but to simply feel more of the lead side working in your swing and see what kind of style you want to take when doing so. However you want to do lead-arm dominance is the right way for you to do it.

For so long in our swing instruction culture, it has been about copying swings of great hitters, or copying certain parts of swings.  This is really missing the point.  Baseball is an expression of each and every one of us.  We express ourselves in how we speak, how we carry ourselves, and in the way we move.  If you simply copy what other hitters look like through the swing, you are missing the point.  You are being somebody else instead of being yourself.

I guess swing instruction really had no other choice.  After all, without an adequate understanding of the swing, you are left to just copy the swings of others - a rather crude way to go about it.  This is where I believe the lead-arm dominant understanding of the swing that I discovered has such value.  Feeling more lead-side is an internal feeling.  It doesn't have to do with what you look like on the outside.  I mean, what your swing looks like on the outside will change when feeling more of the lead-side working in your swing, but it won't change in ways that you are directly controlling or trying to think about.  

Rickson Gracie, widely considered the greatest Jiu Jitsu player of all time, has often described great Jiu-Jitsu as being "invisible," meaning that when performed at a high level, the techniques are so subtle and efficient that they are not easily seen by an outside observer, but are felt by the person experiencing them.  This is true of a great swing as well.  It's not about looking like Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, or Mookie Betts.  It's about feeling the quintessential feeling that separates the greatest hitters, and doing that in whatever way that you personally need to do it.  

Now the question is, how do you figure out how you want to do that quintessential feeling.  That's easy.  Swing a small bat using only your lead side.  As you do this, try to figure out what moves your body prefers when swinging with just your lead side.  What kind of cadence.  What kind of positions.  Continue to do this, and try to work more of this new cadence and these new movement patterns into your swing.  It will happen, just give it time.  All you need is more lead side.  The rest is your own personal style.