Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Feb 19 03:09:08 2003

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Jack in his video said something about the KNOB of the bat going in the direction of the opposite batter's box; and emphasizes a circular hand path and talks about swinging a ball on the rope.
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> Linear people talk about taking the KNOB to the pitcher.
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> From what I see on video it looks (especially on inside pitches) that the Knob goes linear or to the pitcher that is probably where the cue get inside the ball comes from and then the circular hand path.
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> Does anybody see anything different? Is it all circular and NO LINEAR at all? What about on an inside pitch? Can you keep the ball fair if you are all circular? If you are all linear - then no power, right? In order to have a short, compact swing it seems like the good ones start the knob to the pitcher or inside the ball and then rotate. Hey TOM, isn't that what your buddy Epstein teaches with his propietary FENCE drill. The knob definetly goes linear before circular. Is it all or nothing or is there such a thing?

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How do these MLB players hit the ball to the opposite field if they are purely circular? You have to hit the inside of the ball to hit it to the opposite field which tells me that the KNOB has to go first to the pitcher. And on Epstein's fence drill, if you watch it on video and go try it yourself the KNOB goes parallel to the fence for about 8 inches before you can really start going circular. <<<


Hi Georger & Mikeyd

If you tied a bat on a rope behind your car and accelerated to 500 mph, the bat-head would still be trailing linearly behind the knob. Only when you started around a curve would the bat start swinging out in an arc. – You can find out for yourself which hand-paths generate bat speed and which ones don’t by placing a steering-wheel knob on a bat and swinging it. The steering-wheel knob will eliminate the torque factor (push/pull effect of the hands) and the bat speed attained will be isolated to that generated by the path of the hands. --- You will find that the more linear the hand-path the smaller the amount of bat speed you can attain.

The more linear the batter’s hand-path, the more he/she must rely on torque to swing the bat-head. Young kids, especially girls, are just not strong enough in the upper body to apply much torque to the bat. They would be much better off relying more on the larger muscles in their legs and torso to rotate the body and allow a good circular hand-path to swing the bat-head.

Mikeyd, stated, “ And on Epstein's fence drill, if you watch it on video and go try it yourself the KNOB goes parallel to the fence for about 8 inches before you can really start going circular.” – I agree with you, that is what it shows and that’s why I am so against using the fence drill as a teaching aid. --- If the hands start off parallel to the fence (and to the incoming ball), where are the hands heading when they “really start going circular?” That’s right, the hands must start arcing away from the strike zone and over toward 3rd base well before the bat-head comes through. – In “Epstein's fence drill”, note where the batter’s hips and shoulders are facing when the bat-head does come through.

I always tell coaches that before they subject their players to the “fence drill”, they should first test it for themselves. – Stand with your bellybutton a bat’s length from a fence and have someone throw you a few balls. Just how well could you hit? I believe if you try this test, you will not teach it.

Jack Mankin