Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Mar 7 08:43:49 2012

>>> I think that you are utterly confused at what a linear swing path really means. Linear describes the general path of the hands during the swing as well as the action of the back knee. Keeping the hands close to the body during the swing puts a hitter in the most powerful position possible in the shortest amount of time. Rotational hitting
describes a swing that casts the hands around the baseball creating slow hands and every spin other than the backspin that is essential to hit for power. and will surely end a kid's career well before he even moves to a 90' diamond. I hope to God that you are just confused at what to name your hitting technique but I'd say that Rotational (unless you are insisting that a hitter actually swings with their shoulders with a circular batpath) is the wrong name. If you told any professional that his swing looked "rotational" he would be insulted. Am i confused at what you are trying to explain about the swing? I hope so.

Perhaps you can post a video of a kid using your swing theory in slow mothion with a step by step explaination. <<<

Hi Carl

Early in my study of the swing, I collected over a hundred overhead views of the swings taped from games in the old Astro Dome. Charting the hand-path of these swings presented me with one of the first fallacies to the mechanics that I (and most all coaches) had taught for decades. We were all taught that "The shortest distance between two points was a straight line" and therefore the hands should take an "A to B" path.

Note: I use the term "charting" because at the time of my study, I did not have Motion Analysis Software. I placed a sheet of clear plastic over a TV screen and traced with a grease pencil as I advanced the frames with a VCR

Since we believed an "A to B" hand-path to be most productive, we referred to batters whose hands followed a more circular path as having a "casting" problem. We used drills, like the "Fence Drill," and cues like "Keep your shoulder in-there" to straighten out their problem.

Studying the charted hand-paths of these MLB hitters caused a knot to form in my gut -- "What had I done to those kids I had coached?" Not only did these MLB hitters' hands not take a linear path, the more circular the path, the higher they placed in the batting stats. Batters with less arc placed much lower than those we might think of as "casters."

The overhead video clips below of Pete Rose and John exhibit the hand-path and shoulder rotation you will find with all the best hitters.

Rose - Keys to CHP

Overhead - CHP & Plate Coverage

Jack Mankin