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SHOULDER DOMINANCE RUINS THE SWING

Jun 7, 2022

I think of the ”shoulders” as a separate anatomical unit for hitting purposes from the ”torso”.

For the necessary early bat speed, quickness and adjustability, there must be separate movements of the shoulders from the movements of the torso.

The SHOULDERS ACTIVELY TURNING in a transverse plane is a major flaw and destroys adjustability that has been talked about and discussed. Likewise, the shoulders and torso ”tilting” in unison in the frontal plane and in a rearward direction to create LOFT is becoming a more common swing occurrence and is creating major problems and needs to be investigated more thoroughly.

The elasticity we encourage at SWING ATTRACTORS happens in the torso and is transferred to the barrel and should be accomplished without over reliance on the shoulders tilting and becoming UNLEVELED.

HOW IS ELASTICITY MEASURED? HIPS-TORSO-SHOULDERS-HANDS?

When we grew up playing baseball, the #1 cue repeated over and over again to us was KEEP YOUR SHOULDERS LEVEL. How do you create elasticity throughout the torso region without excessive movement of the shoulders?

Here is another excerpt from a previous SWING ATTRACTOR article on elasticity:


The common denominator in the swings I see predominantly in the game now because of the flaw of the shoulders tilting rearward is poor torso rotation around an axis (spine angle/POSTURE) that is not stable and stationary – because it is TILTING BACKWARDS. Most of these swings are accompanied by a chicken winging of the front arm and a weight shift back over the back leg. This is a poor type of rotation that does not accept the transfer of energy from the pelvis.

Classic signs of this excessive shoulder tilt are:

  • loopy swing with the barrel dropping and upper cutting;
  • inappropriate weight shift;
  • no stationary axis to rotate around;
  • extending the handpath prematurely; and
  • chicken winging.

It is the TORSO TURN not the SHOULDERS TILTING that drives the barrel path acceleration.


Relying on the shoulders to swing the arms by rapid scapula pinching and unpinching or by dropping the back shoulder a.k.a. tilting bypasses the necessary and essential role of the torso in creating elasticity. It also FAILS TO or inhibits the establishment of a stable/stationary axis of rotation.

Compare the shoulder angle, barrel angle and spine angle of Bonds versus Judge at bat lag. With Judge’s barrel moving this vertically down, tons of tilt in his shoulders, and a leaned back posture/spine angle, he has to make contact ”out front” versus deep and his loft/launch angle will be way steeper than Bonds.
Look at Mookie at toe touch – level shoulders, balance weight shift, spine angle/axis is stable/stationary and his ”head is over his belly button” versus leaning or tilted backwards.

The purpose of ”stride” or weight shift and coil is to ADJUST THE AXIS OF ROTATION FORWARD.

The hitter should not be trying to start in the middle and then move backwards. The objective is not to start upright then lean back and uppercut. The goal is to always encourage weight shift forward and NOT let the center of mass fall backwards before contact.

If the center of mass falls backwards before contact, you will cut across the ball and have too much loft.

Compensating for inadequate elasticity by leaning backwards and using the arms to keep the swing going prevents adjustability and squaring the ball, resulting in all of this slicing around the ball and high pop-ups.

More level shoulders by primarily keeping the back shoulder up will take the center of mass and thus the axis of rotation FORWARD and help stop the LEANING BACKWARDS.

PURSUE EXCELLENCE & WIN THIS PITCH!



About the Author

Mike Lotief coached 17 successful years as either the head softball coach or co-head softball coach with his wife Stefni Whitton Lotief at the University of Louisiana from 2002-2017 with an overall coaching record of 731-176 (80.6 winning percentage). Every season, the Ragin Cajuns softball team advanced to the NCAA tournament and also advanced to three (3) Women’s College World Series (2003, 2008, 2014) and from 2012-2016 advanced to five (5) straight NCAA Super Regionals. Coach Lotief produced over 40 All American selections and his 2017 team lead the nation in scoring and was ranked in the Top 10 in home runs, slugging percentage, on base percentage.

The coach is a cancer survivor (twice) and was the first person in the U.S. to receive the Pro Trach device. Mike and Stefni spearheaded and raised the funding to build the new softball stadium in 2009 and the new softball indoor hitting facility in 2015. They are proud parents to Chelsea, who played softball and graduated from the Univ. of Louisiana in 2018, and Andrew, who is a junior at Louisiana studying Mechanical Engineering.

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