The CLS Load Sequence:
3 Movements That Fix
Timing & Power
The free No-Stride Swing Guide explains why removing your stride doesn't add power — and delivers the 3-movement load sequence that fixes what stride changes can't reach.
- When no-stride actually helps (and the 3 situations it doesn't)
- Movement 1: Neck Pressure / Showing Numbers — +6 mph Zepp-validated
- Movement 2: Scapula Pinch / Hiding Hands — Roll & Row explained
- Movement 3: The Bounce — WHEN to time the CLS load
- Break-It-Apart drill — builds conscious load before making it fluid
- Stride style guide: slide step, toe tap, preset — which fits your hitter
- 3-week progression plan — works with any stride style
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Movements
Styles
Plan
Equip.
Why Stride Changes Fix Timing — But Not Power
Coaches prescribe the no-stride swing when a hitter is late, lunging, or struggling against faster pitching. It's a legitimate timing band-aid. But does it add power? We ran a counter-balanced Zepp experiment to find out.
The real problems that cause late swings, lunging, and inconsistent power trace to two upstream root causes — both in the load phase, before the stride even completes.
The three CLS movements — neck pressure, hiding hands, the Bounce — activate the springy fascia chain that stores elastic energy during the load and releases it at contact. When the load is missing, the hitter is swinging with muscles alone: slower, weaker, and inconsistent under pressure. No-stride doesn't add the load. It just removes the stride.
The Bounce — the moment the CLS load fires — is missing or inconsistent. Without it, some reps happen to hit the right position and some don't. Timing problems that look like stride problems are often really a missing or inconsistent Bounce. Shortening the stride doesn't install the Bounce; it just shortens the window in which the problem plays out.
The 3 CLS Movements That Work With Any Stride Style
These three movements load the springy fascia system before the swing begins. They work with a leg kick, a slide step, a preset, or anything in between. Stride style is the delivery vehicle. The CLS load is the payload.
The front shoulder tucks DOWN and IN toward the back hip before stride landing. The feel: pressure at the back of the neck. The visual cue: show the numbers on your jersey to the pitcher. Hold it to stride landing — don't release early.
This shortens the front-shoulder-to-back-hip line on the chest, loading the springy fascia X pattern and storing elastic energy that catapults the barrel at contact.
+6 mph Bat Speed at Impact (Zepp-validated, 200 swings)"Show your numbers to the pitcher and hold it until your foot lands. Feel the pressure at the back of your neck — that's the money position."
As the front shoulder rolls in (Movement 1), the back shoulder rows back — rear scapula retracts toward the spine. "Roll and Row." The hands disappear from the pitcher's view — they're "hiding."
This completes the Yin and Yang of the CLS load: front scapula protracts (rolls in) while back scapula retracts (rows back) — loading both sides of the springy X simultaneously.
+1 mph Bat Speed · −.005 sec Time to Impact (stacked on Movement 1)"Roll the front shoulder in, row the back shoulder back — one fluid move. Hide the hands from the pitcher."
WHEN to time the CLS load. For most hitters, the trigger is the front foot lifting: as the foot comes up, the body "bounces" into the CLS position, arriving fully loaded by stride landing. Two valid approaches: start in the CLS position (preset) or move into it as the stride begins (Float and Fall).
Either produces the same springy fascia effect. Ted Williams, Pedroia, and Cano use Float and Fall. Hunter Pence, Ben Zobrist, and Stan Musial start in the CLS position. Choose by feel.
"As your front foot lifts, let the body bounce into the loaded position — neck pressure on, hands hiding, shoulders downhill. Land in the Fight Position, then turn."
D1 baseball at Fresno State. Creator of the Catapult Loading System (CLS), built on springy fascia science, the Spinal Engine (Dr. Serge Gracovetsky), and the Anatomy Trains framework (Thomas Myers). The CLS approach has been used with athletes ranging from youth baseball and softball through professional players.
The Zepp experiments referenced in this drill card were conducted with counter-balanced designs across 200+ controlled swings — the same methodology used in peer-reviewed sports science research to isolate individual variables.
Get the CLS Load Sequence — No-Stride Swing Guide
3 movements. Any stride style. Zepp-validated. Free PDF delivered instantly.
Movements
Speed
Plan
Equip.
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