Correct Stride

After loading your back hip/inside of back leg, you will pick up and put down your stride foot. While there are many different approaches to the stride.... somethings must remain constant. When your foot lands, your body must be in a 50/50 athletic position. There should be an equal amount of weight on each leg. This athletic stance is very similar to one that you would have when playing defense in basketball or the stance you would take as you got ready to steal a base.

If you leave any extra weight on your backside, this will cause you to spin, wasting energy when you rotate away from your body... spinning off the ball as your swing.

Instead, you must think about working forward towards the pitcher to get to 50/50. Your inside ball of your back foot will push your stride foot forward. As this push occurs, you will bring your power source forward in a linear path.

Some people ask how much ground should you gain with your stride? A good rule of thumb is that your back knee will gain the same amount of ground as your stride foot.

What about "staying back"? The main thing to remember that staying back is when the front foot lands, with your knees inside your ankles, and you are 50/50. If you get passed this, the momentum will lead your front knee going over or past your front ankle and this would be "out in front". The momentum gained during the stride is tough to stop if the knee gets outside the ankle.

Finally, one important teaching note is that we must land with our front foot closed when we are doing drills. This forces us to keep our front side locked in.
TIPS TO CHECK-
1. Landing on ball of front foot at 45 degree angle
2. Knees are inside the feet and have equal bend
3. Hips are square and shoulders are level and in (could be slightly down)
4. Hands are even with back foot (from side view) or behind back elbow and inside front elbow (when looking from a front view)
5. Barrel of the bat is pointing towards the head
6. In an athletic and balance position
7. Most hitters who fail to hit-fail to get to this position properly and with timing.