Loading Sequence
Once the correct tempo is achieved, the body has a chance to load energy in the proper order. When the lower body begins gaining ground, in whatever stride style the player chooses, whether that’s a knee lift or a no stride approach, at some point the pelvis is going to advance. The body needs to provide consistent and constant resistance against the body’s forward momentum.
When this happens, we are increasing the stretch from the rear hip, now through the rear core to my lower back and into the upper back. We call this upper body load a scapular load. Basically, it’s the loading of the rear muscles around the shoulder blade. It’s purpose is to tighten the spring or the rear coil of the body and make the core active in the loading process.
When we create the stretch between lower body and upper body, the core tightens and activates. This produces a much faster rotation of the torso and thus a faster swing. What is important is the constant resistance created. Without this constant resistance against the lower body, the body’s forward momentum will shift too early to the front leg. The hands will begin to slot too early and now the swing sequence will fire from the top. This is no good as the hands will get ahead of the core and the hitter will lose the kinetic chain. In essence, we will lose our energy transfer started from the legs that should run into the core, out the upper body and into the barrel.
When you have a hitter with a bad loading sequence the most common error will be that they will load their scap, or upper body, the same time they load their legs. Their hands come forward with their lower body move into heel plant. This is no good. When that happens, the hitter doesn’t activate the core. He never creates opposite forces from lower body and upper body to create that good stretch across the midsection. So the timing of this needs to be precise. It has to be a constant against the lower body’s move into heel plant with my upper body pulling back.