I do think that the connection over the back hip looks good in the video and I had actually drafted something to that effect last night, but then I realized that I was too tired to put the words together for an argument that the connection over the back hip can occur in a particular swing mechanics but that people can still argue whether the player (especially a young female player) should be coached to do the fairly extreme and early rotation of the front hip that Lagenfeld takes in the video. How long will it take the younger player/student to learn how to hit anything but dead pull? How easy will it be for that younger player to keep the front elbow moving slightly up instead of flying both the front elbow and shoulder and, in many cases, the head? Lagenfield does an excellent job of keeping her head down on the pitch and the elbow moving slightly up, and she probably has great ability to go up the middle or to the opposite field, but for players who are just developing their stroke, I'm not at all sure that the fairly extreme rotation of the front hip so early in the swing is a good approach. I'll actually be interested in what Howard has to say about these things and about what, if anything, that early rotation of the front hip does to a young lady's ACL.
I'm certainly not contesting that the power of a swing comes from the core or that the hands should not cast forward of that core movement. I've been encouraging our players to do Marc Dagenais's softball-specific core exercises for a couple of years now. But I think you can tap that core power and the pull of the knob inside the ball's path with a strong linear first step and an elvis shifting of the hips as well as with the fairly extreme initial rotation in the video. And I think it's easier for a player to initially adopt a style that allows the player to hit up the middle (that is, a style that incorporates a strong linear first movement of the lower half).
I never played fastpitch. I certainly wouldn't change a thing about Lagenfeld's swing given her success. I just wanted to make sure that I had enough popcorn to read about the posts that I was sure would follow Crush1's comment. I'll be following the coming posts with interest and an open mind.