My eyes are very uneducated but aren't we assuming here that his head remains in the same place. It looks to me like his head is slightly behind centre, might his head be moving up and backwards to allow him room to hit the ball?
Whether the Head remains in the same place really isn't relevant in this discussion, since we are not talking about the Pivot Center Tripod, etc. I've drawn the 'Tripod' for illustrative purposes only, not to substantiate my argument.