One-Legged Hitting is an approach to the baseball and fast pitch softball swing that focuses on the first half of the High Level Pattern, the creation of Power. However, and critically, One-Legged Hitting ignores the second piece, Adjustability.

Logically, that leads to a swing that excels when it comes to Power but is deficient in terms of Average.

This was been driven home to me through my study of the swing of Albert Pujols and its (de)-evolution.

Pujols started out as a two-legged hitter.

Albert Pujols

However, after leaving the Cardinals, Pujols became more of a one-legged hitter. That explains why, while he does still hit for Power, he no longer hits for Average.

Topics related to One Legged Hitting include...

• Coil
• Adjustability
  • Z-Axis Adjustability

One-Legged Hitting

There are good aspects to the idea of One-Legged Hitting.

It's one way of describing Ted Williams' swing.

Ted Williams, advocated Rotational Hitting.

Rather than moving linearly, getting a big weight shift, staying closed, and leading with the hands, instead advocated a minimal stride and rotating into the pitch with the hips leading the hands.

Ted Williams

The idea was to power the swing with the large muscles of the core and legs rather than the small muscles of the arms, hands, and forearms.

However, and as Ted Williams admitted, the advent of the Slider changed everything for him; it made a One-Legged Swing no longer viable.

One-Legged = Coil

The reason why people focus on One-Legged Hitting is because it can help hitters learn a key concept...

• Coil

However, there's more to the High-Level Pattern than Coil and Power, as Albert Pujols' career demonstrates clearly.