Separation: Key to a Smooth Stroke

If I get around to saying nothing else this month--or if I had to describe just one lesson that I think I have learned from studying great hitters--I would begin with the word "separation". Aaron had it. So did Jackie R and Clemente. So did guys like George Kell and Harvey Kuenn (whose swing almost cloned Kell's)--and of course Musial and Cobb and Speaker. I'm talking about the trailing of the hands behind the head and shoulders as the hitter's upper body surges toward the pitcher (and the pitch: but the surge takes place automatically even before the hitter's eye sees the ball released). The hands stay behind: they are separated from the upper torso.

I used to think of separation as a quality distinctive to front-foot hitting, where the batsman has already transferred most of his weight forward before contact. A strong correlation certainly exists, but not (I've decided) a necessary one. Strides seemed to lengthen throughout the thirties and forties as hitters searched for more power. A really long stride like Gehrig's or Mays's would keep the weight back even as it left the hands behind. And then again, some of the long-striders would be leaning back on an inside fastball but almost vertical on their front leg as they met a change-up. Keeping the hands back allows for such adjustment. Personally, I'm not a fan of long strides--I think they grew unwieldy once pitchers dispensed with their windmill wind-ups and left the hitter with less motion to use in his timing. Separation is no more dependent on a long stride, however, then it is on front-foot contact (which is to say, it is somewhat but not completely so). Nick Markakis, for instance, appears to me to get good separation without hurling himself into the pitch. I think the Brett/Raines generation did this same thing by spreading out in the box, so that they had already taken their stride (as it were) and needed only to launch forward off a strong back leg.

Why is separation so important? Two reasons: it levels the swing out so that the planes of bat and ball intersect for a much longer time, and it creates a dynamic whiplash effect to shoot the bat forward should the hitter decide to attack the pitch. The contemporary style seems to me to devalue the level swing in pursuit of the power contained in a strong downward cut (enhanced by today's heavy barrels). With more homers come more pop-ups and strikeouts, though--far more than an old-school hitter would have thought acceptable. We will save a discussion of forespin and backspin for another day: enough to say now that batsmen who achieve good separation are redoubtable line-drive hitters.

That's my kind of ballplayer. You can start building your Team for the Ages with Arod if you like. I'll take Aaron, and we'll have no quarrel. You'll sell more jerseys, and I'll win more games.