Breaking Down Albert Pujols' Swing

3/7/2008

When I teach hitting, I try to keep things as simple as possible. I try to strip things down to the bare essentials and focus on just the things that are really important, and ignore those things that are just superficial.
     In studying the differences between ordinary swings and major league swings, I have found that the swings of ordinary hitters and major league hitters tend to differ the most significantly when it comes to 5 stages of the swing. As a result, when instructing hitters in the principles of Rotational Hitting, I largely focus on those 5 stages.

     1. Ready
     2. Load
     3. Shift
     4. Rotate
     5. Finish

I make sure that these 5 stages are present, are performed properly, and are performed in the correct order.
     In this essay, I explain these most critical phases of the swing and explain how they are consistent with the swing of Albert Pujols.

Albert Pujols - Home Run Swing

Ready

Many ordinary hitters' -- and in particular younger kids' -- swings are doomed from the start due to poor posture in the Ready stage of the swing. Too often, what you see are stiff-legged, locked-knee stances with the feet too close together. This is a problem because it prevents you from being able to swing the bat with your entire body. Instead, it only makes possible a weak, arm-y swing.

Albert Pujols - Frame 01

At the Ready stage of the swing, I want hitters to look like Albert Pujols does in Frame 01 of the clip above. Notice how his knees are bent, his butt is sticking out, and his torso is tilted slightly forward over the plate. This will enable him to swing with his entire body, and not just his arms.

Albert Pujols

This side view of Albert Pujols shows a couple of other things that he does at the Ready position. Notice how his feet are well apart, his weight is on both of his feet, and his hands hands are back by his back shoulder. Not every hitter may want to spread their feet quite as much as Albert Pujols does, but I prefer that the feet be spread at least as wide as the shoulders.
     This brings up the topic of the very common cue to "Get your back elbow up." I have found that this cue can be helpful for some hitters in helping them get to a more aggressive and prepared position. However, over the years I have found that a more consistently helpful cue is "Hands back." This is because having the hands back by the shoulder is more important than getting the back elbow up. As long as the hands are back and ready to fire, it is relatively less important if the back elbow is up or down.

Load

The second common difference between an ordinary swing and a major league swing is the absence of the Load stage. The function of the Load stage -- which is sometimes termed a "negative move" -- is the same as the back-swing in golf or tennis; to prepare the muscles for the subsequent positive, or forward, move. Among other things, the Load stage of the swing stretches the muscles of the core, which enables them to more powerfully contract and pull the shoulders around due to something called the Stretch-Shortening Cycle (or SSC).

Albert Pujols' Load Phase

Albert Pujols has a relatively simple Load. He lifts up the heel of his front foot, which shifts all of his weight onto his back foot. He also reverse-rotates his shoulders slightly, which has the effect of hiding his hands from the pitcher.

Shift

The Shift stage of the swing is often missing from many ordinary swings. During the Shift stage of the swing, the hitter shifts their weight from their back foot to their front foot. This is important because it will help the hitter to power the rotation of their hips during the next phase of the swing.

Albert Pujols' Shift Phase

I use the term "shift" and not "stride" to describe this phase of the swing because, as the example of Albert Pujols makes clear, you don't have to stride (much less kick your leg) to shift your weight forward. If you look at the clip of Albert Pujols, you will see that as he shifts his weight forward toward the pitcher, his front heel drops and his back heel starts to come up off the ground. However, he does this with little to no stride.

Rotate

The Rotate stage of the swing starts with the planting of the front heel. Up to this point, the hitter can check their swing. However, once the Rotate stage has started, it's hard to stop the swing in time.
     The Rotate stage is driven by the rotation of the hips ahead of the shoulders (and thus the hands) and is facilitated by the weight shift and landing with a bent front knee.

Albert Pujols' Rotate Phase

If you compare Frame 32 and Frame 37, you will see how Albert Pujols transitions from the Shift stage to the Rotate stage.

Albert Pujols - Frame 32

Albert Pujols - Frame 37

In Frame 32, Albert Pujols has shifted his weight forward and has landed with his front knee bent. In Frame 37, Albert Pujols' front knee has stiffened, which has caused his hips (and thus his shoulders and hands) to rapidly rotate 90 degrees.

Finish

I'm not as picky as some about the Finish stage of the swing. For example, I don't care if a hitter's swing finishes high or low or if they finish with one hand or two hands on the bat. What I do care about when it comes to the Finish Phase is the amount of rotation of the shoulders.
     In a good swing, the hitter's shoulders will rotate up to 180 degrees. This ensures that the head of the bat is accelerating through the Point Of Contact.
     If a hitter is lacking power, part of the problem may be an abbreviated Finish stage. If their shoulders only rotate 90 or so degrees, they could be cutting their swing short. That means that the head of the bat may actually be decelerating through the Point Of Contact.

Albert Pujols - Frame 18

Albert Pujols - Frame 55

If you compare Frame 18 and Frame 55 of the clip of Albert Pujols, you will see that his shoulders have rotated close to 180 degrees. This means that there is no way that he cut his swing short. Rather, he accelerated the head of the bat through the Point Of Contact.

More About Albert Pujols

If you are interested in a more detailed description of Albert Pujols' swing, then check out my high-level analysis of Albert Pujols' swing, my detailed analysis of Albert Pujols' Home Run Swing or my detailed analysis of Albert Pujols' Single Swing . I have also put together a page full of photos of Albert Pujols' swing.

More About Hitting

I have written a number of pieces about hitting, including a very popular one that discusses Rotational Hitting. I have also put together a number of analyses of the swings of major league hitters like Ken Griffey Jr., Manny Ramirez, Tony Gwynn, and others. Finally, I have recently start writing a hitting blog that discusses current topics about hitting.