David Richard-Imagn Pictures
So there’s this factor known as the previous man check. It’s been round for a minimum of 5 or 6 years, nevertheless it’s making the rounds on the Web once more. The thought is straightforward sufficient. It’s important to put in your socks and sneakers with out letting your toes contact the bottom as you achieve this. You elevate your left foot and hold it within the air when you attain right down to the bottom to seize your sock, put it on, attain right down to the bottom to seize your shoe, put it on, and tie it, then you definitely do the identical factor together with your proper foot. It exams your stability, energy, flexibility, and all these different issues our bodies are imagined to have. In case you fail the check, then you definitely’re an previous man, I suppose? Perhaps you immediately flip into an previous man? Perhaps a wholesome previous man simply seems proper outdoors your window to level and chuckle at you? That half’s much less clear.
I have a tendency to purchase into the concept that the previous man check is measuring one thing essential, simply because every time I’ve needed to do bodily remedy, I’ve been compelled to do lots of one-legged workouts. In case you’ve ever been in bodily remedy, I guess you’ve needed to do them too. There’s nothing bodily therapists love greater than turning up the issue stage of an in any other case easy train by forcing you to do it whereas standing on one leg. When you get good at doing it one-legged, they’ll make you stand on a bouncy ball or one thing, and in case you nail that, they’ll actually simply begin shoving you to make it even more durable. Really, nobody on earth is hornier for stability than bodily therapists.
I carry all this up as a result of I seen one thing enjoyable about Steven Kwan whereas taking part in round with Baseball Savant’s batting stance graphics the opposite day. The graphics take after ballroom dancing diagrams of previous, displaying enjoyable little footprints for every participant at three factors: their resting batting stance, when the pitcher releases the ball, and when their bat really intercepts the ball. Right here’s Kwan’s 2024 graphic:
Kwan has one of many narrowest batting stances within the recreation, so his entrance foot strikes out towards the mound fairly a bit, however except for that, nothing about it stands out all that a lot. He’s just a little man with just a little stance, movie at 11. However that is the calm earlier than the storm. Right here’s the identical graphic for this month. Preserve your eye on the blue footprint:
I used to be so confused once I watched this. Is Steven Kwan really stepping on residence plate because the pitcher releases the ball? It appeared like one thing I might’ve seen earlier than, however there was that blue footprint, proper on prime of residence plate, clear as day. How may anybody begin a swing with their physique so closed off? And is it even authorized to step on residence plate in the midst of your swing? That positively looks as if it could be unlawful. I pulled up the rulebook and began trying earlier than I spotted what was really happening. In case you’re acquainted with Kwan’s swing, I’m positive you already know the reply, and it brings us again to the previous man check.
Kwan doesn’t step on residence plate, however he has one of many recreation’s most dramatic leg kicks, and proper in the midst of it, he dangles his foot instantly over the plate. There’s no method to point out in a two-dimensional diagram that his foot is eighteen inches off the bottom. Generally, and I’m not exaggerating right here, Kwan’s whole foot is contained in the strike zone whereas the ball is already on its method to residence plate. No batter has ever come nearer to tying their shoe in the midst of a pitch:
I went again to Baseball Savant and watched each single certified participant’s batting stance diagram, tons of of cleats dancing throughout the batter’s containers, black to blue to crimson. I might very roughly estimate that half of in the present day’s hitters don’t transfer their entrance foot all that a lot, however that also leaves scores and scores of gamers with dramatic leg kicks, their blue entrance toes transferring each which path. None of these gamers does what Kwan does. None of them does something remotely resembling what Kwan does. When batting from the fitting facet, Ozzie Albies does place most of his left foot outdoors the batter’s field, however that’s largely as a result of he units up 5 inches nearer to the plate than Kwan does, and his foot remains to be nowhere close to residence plate. No person’s diagram appears to be like like Kwan’s as a result of no person’s leg kick appears to be like like Kwan’s.
Right here’s Kwan’s secret. He doesn’t simply have a leg kick. He has a leg kick, after which, proper in the midst of it, he has second leg kick. It’s a double kick. A traditional leg kick simply includes lifting your foot off the bottom, and it’s perhaps price noting that this can be a little bit of a misnomer. In all places outdoors the baseball diamond, there’s a distinction between elevating your leg and kicking. In baseball, they’re one and the identical. Regardless, Kwan does that, pulling his knee straight up till his femur is parallel with the bottom, however he’s simply getting going. At that time, he kicks his foot ahead towards residence plate and sweeps it out towards the pitcher in a round movement as he places it down:
Kwan has a leg kick, after which he has a foot kick. It will not be in any respect unfair to say that he places his proper foot in and shakes all of it about. It’s a formidable show of stability, and as far as I can inform, it’s distinctive. I didn’t simply watch all of the diagrams. I watched the swings of each participant I may consider who has an enormous leg kick. I watched YouTube movies that compiled large leg kicks of the previous. The closest leg kicks I may discover belonged to Alek Thomas and Gary Sánchezeach of whom transfer their entrance foot whereas they get into their swing, however they’re removed from doing a double kick. Nobody else does this.
Kwan didn’t begin executing the double kick abruptly. It looks as if it’s been approaching for some time now. When he was drafted out of Oregon State in 2018, Kwan had a small, managed leg kick, with no double kick in sight. I can’t discover any video of him from the following two years, however he began 2021 with the very beginnings of a double kick:
It’s very delicate within the video above. By the point Kwan debuted in 2022, the double kick was there to remain, nevertheless it’s nonetheless evolving. As he informed the MLB Community throughout spring coaching, he went into the 2024 season trying to influence the ball more durable, and that meant a extra aggressive leg kick. “Earlier than, I’d rise up after which I might simply put it proper again down,” he mentioned. “So then my arms are capable of work and I can manipulate the bat as I have to. However final 12 months, I attempted to – hitter leverage, early within the depend – actually attempt to get that stride out, and now I’m going out to get it. I can keep within the legs, after which now I can keep slotted, catch it out just a little extra in entrance.” The humorous factor is that within the video, at the same time as Kwan demonstrated the leg kick (which he known as a leg elevate), he wasn’t doing the double kick. He could not even know he’s doing it. It’s solely within the warmth of the sport that the double kick occurs.
This deal with going out and assembly the ball earlier is probably going the explanation it solely began displaying up on the Baseball Savant diagram this season. It has to do together with his timing. This 12 months, the second kick really looks as if it’s not fairly bringing his foot as far ahead or as excessive, nevertheless it’s additionally faster. If Statcast may present us its full path, it could seemingly look practically equivalent to the 2024 or 2023 path, nevertheless it’s solely displaying us its place in the intervening time the ball is launched. At that time, Kwan is additional alongside, so his foot is already over the plate. He’s additionally getting his foot down a fraction of a second earlier, and it’s attainable that getting began that little bit earlier is a part of the explanation he’s operating a career-low reverse area price.
Watch any baseball recreation and also you’ll see 18 totally different hitters with 18 totally different timing mechanisms. No person’s precisely the identical, however they have a tendency to fall in a few classes. There are gamers with quiet toes, gamers with toe faucets, and gamers with leg kicks. These leg kicks take their toes in just about each path. Some gamers elevate their leg straight up, some pull their foot method again as a cocking mechanism, some use the leg kick to true up a really open stance, some begin slender and push their foot towards the pitcher. However Kwan is the one one who simply dangles his foot there, then kicks it out into the strike zone earlier than he assaults the pitch. It’s a feat of ingenuity in addition to a feat of stability. On the very least, he ought to be each bodily therapist’s favourite participant.
