The original torso dominant baseball descriptions were from Jim Dixon in his exceptional player book. He had the best results following Lau Sr's work in hitting and his torso dominant model came out of trying to understand then explain what Lau meant by "weight shift". He applied his ideas to pitching, then back again to hitting. These were really breakthrough ideas with the best foundation for explaining "hip cock" in terms of "torso activation", estabishing "offcenter balance" and travelling "forward by turning" (turning backward against a planted back FOOT creating a "bind" that takes you forward.
The big thing missing from his swing model was the "winding rubber band phase" best described by Epstein. Dixon though the front foot had to stay closed when planted after the stride or the lead shoulder would fly open. No appreciation for upper body resistance.
Now Dixon's son has much of this info available online with some good video, see:
Natural Hitting - Hitting Mechanics of the Elite
The "spine engine" concept is a little more useful in my opinion with the aim of identifying and teaching key "micromoves" which establish a given movement pattern.
The big thing missing from his swing model was the "winding rubber band phase" best described by Epstein. Dixon though the front foot had to stay closed when planted after the stride or the lead shoulder would fly open. No appreciation for upper body resistance.
Now Dixon's son has much of this info available online with some good video, see:
Natural Hitting - Hitting Mechanics of the Elite
The "spine engine" concept is a little more useful in my opinion with the aim of identifying and teaching key "micromoves" which establish a given movement pattern.
