Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sun Mar 2 14:24:35 2003

Would a reasonable approach to choose between the Lau thery versus a more traditional theory depend on the strength and bat speed of a hitter? My thinking is that the Lau theory is much more advantageous to a smallish hitter with less power. Do you agree? What are your thoughts? Thanks!
>
> I think you have to be more gifted to hit the Lau way than rotational.

Lau,Williams,Epstein,Jack,etc. are all describing the same basic swing.

Lau Jr gives a somewhat slanted,but reasonable history of batting styles in the majors in his book.He says there were 2 basic styles,the "Williams rotational" and the Lau(Sr) "weight shift and extension."

He then goes on to inaccurately describe rotational as "back foot" hitting where the weight is kept on the back foot,then transferred against a firm front side(recipe for a "spinner"/uppercutter"/dead puller)and he claims this is the Williams style,and you have to pull everything and hit around the ball and can't handle the outside stuff.

Then Lau Sr actually took the incredibly radical step of looking at actual video,being particularly impressed with Hank Aaron who,believe it or not,hit off the front leg! Somehow he shifted weight from the back leg TO(not against) the front leg and could still hit.The next radical concept was that getting better extension would provide underspin and keep the bat on the plane of the ball longer giving more solid contact and longer ball flight.Lau Jr then expanded the theory to include how to adjust for inside/outside-take the knob to the ball and shift weight more to front leg for outside,moreagainst the front leg for inside.Most of this is,of course largely bogus,not to mention the Williams hatchet job.But the Lau's had some reasonable and somewhat objective observations as well.One important concept was that of a somewhat uniform "launch position" when the front foot came down(stride THEN swing) as well as the fact that contact should always be about even with the front knee,a little further out for inside vs a little more in for outside.

The extension/underspin concept is way off(Hank Aaron was not a big extender type,quite the opposite).The sequence of extension is important.As JAck says,the handpath must remain circular or hooking from launch.My belief is that the hands stay in and the bathead extends to being nearly lined up with the lead arm.This would be after contact on the inside pitch,but for the outside pitch,the handpath can extend slightly before contact as long as the lead arm does not disconnect from the torso.You should never disconnect(excessive deceleration) before contact or have the handpath extend before the bathead has extended/fired out.

Spin depends on where you make contact on the ball,not significantly on the angle of the swing.As Epstein points out,early and you top the ball and get topspin grounders,late and you get underspin flies.

What Lau describes,poorly in my opinion,is just the rotational swing.As he states,p. 49 "close limbs facilitate rapid axis rotation" and p.93"FULL HIP ROTATION-I cannot stress enough the importance of the back shoelaces ending up pointing to the pitcher,and the heel pointed to the sky.That is what allows the hip to fully rotate through the ball as well as what allows the hands to stay inside the pitch."

He has many other mysterious cues as well-"first trigger"(loading hands),possible "second trigger/secret trigger"/seen only by Lau(hip cock),etc.-lots of confusing stuff that might work in person since he knows what he sees,but no way for you to know what to see.

Williams,Epstein and Mankin do a much better job of describing the swing,but it's the same Lower body/rotational swing.Epstein gives an excellent method for teaching body torque/separation and stresses the importance of getting the weight forward/pulling with the front side.Jack has described the necessity of the handpath to harness rotational energy as well as a way to think of the rotational and "hand torque"(not body torque-a separate thing)components of the swing.He has also pointed out you can shift weight,but that needs to stop when it's time to rotate around a stationary axis.

You could make an argument that within this basic rotational technique,there is a quicker/turn on the ball more style(Epstein/Mankin bht) vs a higher batspeed get off the plate more style(Lau/Mankin tht)but that may be an overinterpretation.

In general,I would think the belly up turn on the ball quick to the ball, minimal timing error,bht,hook the handpath for inside,cover plate with minimal adjustment,Barry Bonds type mechanics may be optimal,or as Epstein says "make history on the inside of the plate."

The challenge you get is that as a youngster,you aren't big enough to cover the plate without quite a range of swing radiuses.Epstein is excellent with the mental side and with the concept that timing is dramatically different enough from inside to out that you should only be looking one side or the other unless the situation demands something else.

Motor learning is also extremely important even if all the mantal and mechanical stuff were a given,and this is one of the areas you need to depend on Nyman to clarify,along with how things all fit together.