Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Mar 25 19:28:32 2003

>>> Jack, If the hips don't rotate, the shoulders have nowhere to go. If the hips don't rotate you won't stay inside the ball. To say that "nothing below the armpits has any bearing on bat speed development other than their contribution to shoulder rotation" is saying a heck of a lot for the hips. Without the hips working properly, you will cut down your batspeed. Without the shoulders working properly you will cut down your batspeed. Without strong hands that work properly, you will cut down your batspeed. The hips allow you to stay inside the ball which allows you to create more batspeed. I asked this once before and did not get an answer. Why is it that all the power hitters in the big leagues have strong hands? Don't they know that the hands are just along for the ride. Doug <<<

Hi Doug

I apologize that I did not reply to your earlier post. – Doug, my statement, “Nothing that takes place below the armpits has any bearing on bat speed development – other than for their contribution to shoulder rotation,” does not say that hip rotation is not an important component of the swing. I am saying that for hip rotation to aid in generating bat speed, their rotation MUST cause the shoulders to rotate. Otherwise their rotational energy cannot be transferred up and out to the bat.

I think the batting cue “stay inside the ball” may have some merit when teaching linear mechanics. When a batter is taught to accelerate the hands while “keeping the shoulder in there,” the hands could cast out in a wide path. But if the batter is taught rotational mechanics where the swing is initiated with shoulder rotation, the hands cannot possibly cast out wide. The rotation of the lead-shoulder will pull the hands into a tight circular path (even with a “barred” lead-arm).

I do not believe the hands ever really go outside the ball and telling a batter to “keep your hands inside the ball” can have negative effects. Doug, in what direction do you think a batter will first direct his hands if you tell him to “keep your hands inside the ball?” Do you think that cue would more likely promote a linear (parallel to the incoming ball) or a circular (perpendicular to the ball) hand-path?

As far as the role of the hands is concerned, our differences are probably more a matter of interpretation. The hands obviously cannot move themselves to power the bat. The push/pull effect of the hands that produces torque on the bat is supplied through the arms. The muscles in the hands cause the fingers to contract providing the grip on the bat but this has little effect on generating bat speed.

Jack Mankin