THREAD: I never paid attention to stances or setups. If you could get to a good launch position, I didn’t care. Then I went to MLB camp. The word “setup” was used more than any other word to talk mechanics. I started paying attention. So I go back to Indiana to give lessons 1/

again, and I start working with kids. Now I can’t unsee stances, setups, and how they affect how a hitter moves and compensates throughout the swing. Take the hitter I showed you for example. She’s hit with an open stance her entire career. It seems to be a fad in softball. So 2/

I notice her bat is coming through flat through the zone, she is pulling off the ball, and her direction is off. Rather than mess with her upper body, I told her to make her stance more neutral. In an open stance, she had to shift her weight over the plate before she even 3/

began her forward move, which caused a huge inward turn. The result is a loss in hip hinge and spacing, and an increased time to contact. This then causes a loss in posture as she begins her turn. That explains the flat bat, as her body is compensating for a stance that was 4/

inefficient for this particular player. Once her stance was neutral, not open, the original shift of her weight over the plate went away. She was able to compress her body and load into her hip immediately. 5/

The forward move was now more efficient, and even better, she could start her swing whenever she wanted and get to her launch quicker. Her timing was instantly better. She kept her hinge better throughout the forward move and kept her hip spacing. 6/

Then, once her turn began, her posture held, she was able to keep the bat more vertical, and her direction was much better. 7/

So I’m not saying that every swing flaw will be cured with changing a hitters’ stance or setup. But I do know the body is a wonderful compensator for the bad positions we put it in. There are probably tons of hitters that can benefit from a stance change to make them more 8/

efficient and move better. I now pay more attention to how a hitter sets themselves up in the box and the initial move that they make. If that initial move is not helping them load, it just “looks cool” or is part of their style, it won’t help once the velocity increases. 9/

The gather that you see from elite hitters is efficient, and it is always doing something to help load their body or put them in control of their loading mechanism as they move out. 10/

This adjustment was simple, but I easily would have overlooked it had I not been exposed to some smart people at camp. I’m blessed to be able to learn every day from some brilliant people who love to share. 11/

Now if every adjustment would just be this simple, and pitchers would stop throwing cheese, hitting wouldn’t be so hard