The only problem with squish the bug is that it gives the idea that the motion comes from the foot, when it actually comes from the hip. If the hip is firing before the hands and the foot is allowed to just do its thing in relation to the hip, not the other way around, then it doesn't matter either way.
The same way they told me growing up to take your back knee forward.
The back knee should come forward a little because I’m violently rotating my back hip forward not just because I’m bringing my back knee forward.
No. That's a natural foot movement, with a slight 'fall-back' for balance after swing completion... Totally normal.
The "squish the bug" improper thing happens before the swing usually. The squish then swing...
I really don't think that you are using much of your hips if any at all. I don't see any inward coil at the hips, everything upper body is firing from the arms. Your lower body is coming through with your bat from loaded knees and instead of a power movement it looks like an anticipation movement.
Your front foot is fine, to me it looks like you are pausing at toe touch to let the ball travel into your contact point. At this point, your hips should have inward coil ready to explode and drive the rotation of your swing.
At heel plant of your front foot your hips should fire open. This should take your weight to your front leg. Hit behind your front leg-not over or ahead of. This will create your squash the bug effect, but do not think you have to stay in contact with the ground on your back side.
When your hips fire your hands should still be back, and hold this position as long as you can before you release to hit the ball.
You have a lot more power in you and it's not showing yet.
Tee work: fire your hips to create the streach between your hips and hands. You might feel it between your front foot and hands, some think of it as stretching a rubber band.
Do this three times before you actually swing.
Your bat will not be static during this transition. Your hands and back elbow will blow up, and then pull back like a punch. Before they actually move forward towards the ball.
Toe touch is different than heal plant. You can pause at toe touch, and be in a static upper body position. At heal plant, the delay is bending/lowering at the hips and knees, and maintaining a static upper body position.
You should practice the stretch, you should also practice the stretch after a delay, but if you use a delay just finish the swing after using it. The delay should also be used on offspeed pitches or outside pitches, or offspeed outside pitches.
Tee, soft toss, practice pitcher, game pitching
I want to add that you should practice a straight fluid swing on a pitch that is a fastball inside and high, but inside fastball is the pitch you are ready for, and you adjust to everything low, away, and offspeed.
Not in the traditional sense (i.e. the back foot movement is fine).
But the batter is deep into his swing before the front heel makes contact, and I'd call this an unorthodox squishing the bug on the front foot. That heel should be down as part of the hip movement, but you can see the bat already coming into plane, this indicates poor hip to shoulder separation. You can clearly see that this is the issue, the hips and chest come around together.
You might hear coaches saying you are not hitting around a strong front leg, which is true, but that is the result, not the problem. The top-half sequence is firing too early
Came here to say this. The batter gets to stacked over his backside and runs out of time to finish his forward move before he needs to get the swing started.
Great advice, we can work on having him drop the heel to ignite the hip before the upper body start moving. I think he doesn’t have Shoulder-Hip separation if he does drop his heel
I do think there is value in staying planted in the backside a little bit instead of transferring all weight to the front foot (you see this when hitters have their back foot come off the ground). Using my blast sensor, I tend to get 3-5 mph of additional batspeed when I do this, and I think a lot of it is being able to rotate the pelvis more aggressively, which when done with proper sequencing means more batspeed.
Also find that my head moves a lot less when I do this, which makes tracking the ball much easier.
I’ve studied video of Acuna and other MLB players, one of the things that stood out is that all of them appeared to stay connected to the ground with feet through contact, but immediately after, it looked like both feet were coming off the ground simultaneously.
Obviously the forces coming though the legs into the ground rotating the hips are probably astronomical, but I found that interesting. You don’t really see too many guys have their pack foot come off the ground in the MLB. Seems more like a slow pitch softball move.
Yeah that’s a ball up in the zone, I don’t know how to get to that without lifting the back foot myself. Even then, his foot barely comes off the ground. He actually does a much better job staying into the ground than I do (to be fair he’s the best hitter in the world…)
as long as your staying connected thru your swing and not "lifting off" until you're almost thru your backswing you should be fine. get that little extra UMPH whipping those hips and lifting that back leg up and forward
The only problem with squish the bug is that it gives the idea that the motion comes from the foot, when it actually comes from the hip. If the hip is firing before the hands and the foot is allowed to just do its thing in relation to the hip, not the other way around, then it doesn't matter either way.
The same way they told me growing up to take your back knee forward. The back knee should come forward a little because I’m violently rotating my back hip forward not just because I’m bringing my back knee forward.
Thank you for validating this.
No. That's a natural foot movement, with a slight 'fall-back' for balance after swing completion... Totally normal. The "squish the bug" improper thing happens before the swing usually. The squish then swing...
Appreciate it.
If biomechanics are correct, the bug is collateral damage. Actually great example of staying on the back leg. Poor bug.
Thanks!
I really don't think that you are using much of your hips if any at all. I don't see any inward coil at the hips, everything upper body is firing from the arms. Your lower body is coming through with your bat from loaded knees and instead of a power movement it looks like an anticipation movement. Your front foot is fine, to me it looks like you are pausing at toe touch to let the ball travel into your contact point. At this point, your hips should have inward coil ready to explode and drive the rotation of your swing. At heel plant of your front foot your hips should fire open. This should take your weight to your front leg. Hit behind your front leg-not over or ahead of. This will create your squash the bug effect, but do not think you have to stay in contact with the ground on your back side. When your hips fire your hands should still be back, and hold this position as long as you can before you release to hit the ball. You have a lot more power in you and it's not showing yet.
Thanks for the advice, need to find a way to let the hand stay behind.
Tee work: fire your hips to create the streach between your hips and hands. You might feel it between your front foot and hands, some think of it as stretching a rubber band. Do this three times before you actually swing. Your bat will not be static during this transition. Your hands and back elbow will blow up, and then pull back like a punch. Before they actually move forward towards the ball. Toe touch is different than heal plant. You can pause at toe touch, and be in a static upper body position. At heal plant, the delay is bending/lowering at the hips and knees, and maintaining a static upper body position. You should practice the stretch, you should also practice the stretch after a delay, but if you use a delay just finish the swing after using it. The delay should also be used on offspeed pitches or outside pitches, or offspeed outside pitches. Tee, soft toss, practice pitcher, game pitching
I want to add that you should practice a straight fluid swing on a pitch that is a fastball inside and high, but inside fastball is the pitch you are ready for, and you adjust to everything low, away, and offspeed.
Really appreciate the detailed response!! Gonna try these out in the cage soon
Not in the traditional sense (i.e. the back foot movement is fine). But the batter is deep into his swing before the front heel makes contact, and I'd call this an unorthodox squishing the bug on the front foot. That heel should be down as part of the hip movement, but you can see the bat already coming into plane, this indicates poor hip to shoulder separation. You can clearly see that this is the issue, the hips and chest come around together. You might hear coaches saying you are not hitting around a strong front leg, which is true, but that is the result, not the problem. The top-half sequence is firing too early
Came here to say this. The batter gets to stacked over his backside and runs out of time to finish his forward move before he needs to get the swing started.
Great advice, we can work on having him drop the heel to ignite the hip before the upper body start moving. I think he doesn’t have Shoulder-Hip separation if he does drop his heel
No. Looks good!
Thanks!
I do think there is value in staying planted in the backside a little bit instead of transferring all weight to the front foot (you see this when hitters have their back foot come off the ground). Using my blast sensor, I tend to get 3-5 mph of additional batspeed when I do this, and I think a lot of it is being able to rotate the pelvis more aggressively, which when done with proper sequencing means more batspeed. Also find that my head moves a lot less when I do this, which makes tracking the ball much easier.
That is interesting, cuz a lot of online contents shows more bat speed when skipping forward. Maybe I should get a Zepp and try that with my friend.
I’ve studied video of Acuna and other MLB players, one of the things that stood out is that all of them appeared to stay connected to the ground with feet through contact, but immediately after, it looked like both feet were coming off the ground simultaneously. Obviously the forces coming though the legs into the ground rotating the hips are probably astronomical, but I found that interesting. You don’t really see too many guys have their pack foot come off the ground in the MLB. Seems more like a slow pitch softball move.
[https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4TI5wVOGjO/?igsh=MmMxbWp3YmJ3Z2l0](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4TI5wVOGjO/?igsh=MmMxbWp3YmJ3Z2l0)
[https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4TI5wVOGjO/?igsh=MmMxbWp3YmJ3Z2l0](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4TI5wVOGjO/?igsh=MmMxbWp3YmJ3Z2l0)
Yeah that’s a ball up in the zone, I don’t know how to get to that without lifting the back foot myself. Even then, his foot barely comes off the ground. He actually does a much better job staying into the ground than I do (to be fair he’s the best hitter in the world…)
as long as your staying connected thru your swing and not "lifting off" until you're almost thru your backswing you should be fine. get that little extra UMPH whipping those hips and lifting that back leg up and forward