The command to observe the Sabbath is more important than we realize.
I missed posting yesterday. It wasn’t intentional. I just happened that my schedule was packed with a few other things. I am not all that good at writing ahead. I like to write as something hits me. That’s part of the reason I have had stretches of little to no writing.
So, today I will put out two posts. This one explaining what I came away with yesterday, and the one for today.
Yesterday one of my brothers, had tickets to a major league baseball game, and since my mom wasn’t able to go, I got the seat! I love watching baseball live. There is something about the rhythm of the game I find soothing. Even though my team lost, I had a good time. Enjoyed spending time with family.
The thought that hit me and I would like to share is this: the command to observe the Sabbath is more important than we realize.
I often wonder why we don’t do it. I don’t want to get into which day of the week is the Sabbath, although I am sure that could lead to interesting discussions. I just want to briefly look at why we should take time for Sabbath. A time for rest.
We are not designed to go forever. We have a limited warranty and if we don’t take care to rest we will wear ourselves out. Literally.
God did not make us to work ourselves to death. Work has a value too, don’t get me wrong. But, when we do not rest we cannot appreciate all of the other aspects of life. Running on emotional, spiritual, relational, and physical fumes for an extended period of time will have devastating results on us, in all the areas mentioned.
We have to learn to slow down and do things that make us feel alive. That reminds us there are moments worth our time to enjoy. Yesterday I enjoyed a baseball game. And it was great… even though my team lost.
I am a die hard Cubs fan, but I am also a baseball fan. Today the highest achievement possible for a Major League pitcher was accomplished. Twenty-seven up, twenty-seven down. That is the feat that Chicago White Sox pitcher Philip Humber competed today. I was not able to watch the entire game, but the last inning was televised during the game of the week. In the entire history of the game of baseball only twenty-one perfect games have been thrown.
Here’s the math. Major League Baseball was founded in 1869. But, since 1900-2008 there were 173,000 games played [Source], give or take a few hundred since then. The percentage of games that have been perfect is 21/173,000. This amounts to .0001 perfect of the games have been perfect. This is like saying none of the games have been perfect because it happens so infrequently. But, that is exactly why they are remembered!
Two things stand out. First, the Mariners fans are fans of the game. They saw their team lose and yet applauded the feat that they witnessed. It was a great thing to see.
Second, watching a man overcome the situation by staying in control of himself was impressive. The first batter of the inning had a three ball, no strike count and Humber comes back to strike him out. Sports are great events. The fans get to watch premier athletes performing at the top levels of sports competition.
Over the last few months, Zack (my fellow youth pastor) and I have been out and about in our community sharing time and thoughts with various squads and teams in our local schools. This has been a great time and a great experience. I have enjoyed spending time with these athletes as they prepare and play the games. I am such a fan! I love yelling, encouraging and pretty much being a kid. It’s the least serious thing I get to do.
Well today I was able to spend some time helping the county high school softball team during their batting practice. We were talking about weight transfer. This is the process of moving weight from the back leg to the front leg, while swinging the bat on plane. When done correctly it is poetry in motion.
Keep Your Weight Back!: What That Really Means
One of the things that was said over and over by the young ladies was that they were told that they had to keep their weight back. And in an of itself that is true. You are supposed to keep your weight back…until the moment of impact. You can’t hit the ball squarely or keep your shoulders, hips, hands and head in alignment if you keep your weight back as you swing. In golf this is called the “Reverse C” position as seen below.
The weight is not moving forward through the ball, but is moving away from the point of impact. Keeping your weight on your back foot will not allow your body to work with gravity and your muscles will actually be working against themselves. Your shoulders and knees end up behind your hips instead of in line with each other. The object of the game is to smoothly transfer your weight to maximize power and efficiency AND minimize alignment issues.
Weight Transfer is the Key to Power
Here is another set of pictures from two great power hitters–Gary Sheffield (left) and Albert Pujols (right). Even though they are not vertical like the picture of the golfer above, there is a straight line from their head to their knees as they swing and make contact with the ball. This is a power position.
Look at their back foot. Their are completely off the ground at the point of impact. This is a sign that their weight has completely shifted from the back to the front. While this is somewhat exaggerated in their individual swings it shows that your back foot is not as important in executing a powerful swing as weight transfer to the front foot is at the moment of impact. The weight transfer will actually keep your swing on plane and give you a better chance at making solid contact.
Here is another example of weight transfer from one of the greatest hitters of all time, Hank Aaron. His back leg is completely off the ground!
Here are a sequence of pictures of Albert Pujols swing. (Click on the Picture to see the sequence.) Notice how if you were to draw a line from the top of his head to the ground he actually rotates around that line as the weight transfer takes place. His head barely even moves.
Final Thoughts
I wantto provide a final thought about this idea of “Keep your weight back.” This is great advice for young ball players. It helps them to remember not to move too much or too quickly while they are learning to hit. The problem (as I see it) is that this is only half of the equation. Hitting is all about two kinds of timing. First, you time the pitch. Second, you time your weight shift. When these two events happen and meet at the moment of impact you increase your chances of solid contact and increase your chances of getting hits. You have to learn to develop both. Simply keeping your weight back will create some bad habits.
You will drop your back shoulder, creating a undercut swing rather than a flatter swing.
You will drop your hands, wasting time and loosing power potential. (None of the examples above drop their hands. They DRIVE their hands too the ball.)
You will leave your weight on your back foot, relying on your hands to create power–which isn’t the best way to do it–instead of the large muscles in your legs.
You will tend to flip the bat at pitches rather than hitting the ball. This is just counter productive.
Here is one more example of what weight transfer should look like. Don Mattingly was one of the most consistent hitters during his time in the Major Leagues. He has some simple insights into this concept of weight transfer.
