The "Attacking Position"

The "attacking position" is a phrase I hear a lot when coaches talking about the ideal posture to swing from. I agree that it is important to get to a position at landing where the upper body hinges at the waist and the chest moves towards the plate. I've heard it called a crunch, getting to athletic position or creating room for the back elbow to work. This hitting posture needs to be created to some extent and the angle of the spine depends on the flexibility of the individual hitter. However pre setting the attacking posture in the stance creates pressure and tension in the lower back for most body types and I am a big advocate for creating the attacking position during the load or timing sequence of the swing. How early or late your begin to hinge at the waist and how much you move your chest towards home plate is up to each individual hitter and should be experimented with to find whats comfortable for your body. The main reason creating the attacking position is important is as you hinge at the waist and lower your chest to home plate you are getting your back shoulder in a lower position to fire down into the strike zone when its time to swing. The farther your back shoulder is from home plate the farther it has to go to get into the hitting zone. The majority of the pitches that are thrown to hitters are down and we need to set up our body and our eyes in a position to be accurate and on plane for those pitches. In the next post I will talk about the front shoulder's movements in the swing.