Posted by: () on Mon Apr 21 07:52:59 2003

>>> IMHO every hitter has a circular hand path. Everyone rotates therefore everyones hand path turns circular at some point. I believe the tightness of the circular hand path is the issue. If your hands go straight to the ball they eventually turn circular as you rotate. But the path is not very tight. If your hands never go straight to the ball they turn circular immediately. This latter example is a much tighter hand path and allows much more quickness.
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> > IMHO ARod is very linear and relies on his athletic gift to accomplish what he does. Less athletes cannot do what ARod does. And, it is my opinion, that ARod would have Bonds like numbers if he was rotational. <<<
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> > Hi Teacherman
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> > You are probably right in saying “everyones hand path turns circular at some point.” But “If your hands go straight to the ball they eventually turn circular as you rotate,” would mean that when they do start to go circular, they would be arcing away from the ball’s path toward third-base. The more arc in the hand-path, the less likely they can reach the outside pitch. Also, starting with a linear hand-path they would be generating less bat speed to really hit the outside pitch hard.
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> > I do not see A-Rod’s swing as you and others describe it. Every frontal view of his swing I have seen show that his hands completely disappear behind his shoulder just before full initiation. When they reappear at shoulder rotation, the hand-path has already gone circular. This means his hands are first directed perpendicular to the ball’s path and not parallel with it.
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> > Jack Mankin
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> Jack - Does this mean that rotational hitting can be variated in the lower body? Since A-Rod's legs seem to flex more after contact and his body weight seems to shift forward. But it still seems he has the perfect upper body rotational mechanics which allows him to create alot more bat speed than any player I have seen in a while.


Dave you are completely backwards here. He has a rotational lower body and a linear upper body. The upper body is where the REAL difference between rotational and linear shows up. ALL hitters rotate their hips (hence rotational). But not all hitters have "inactive" hands that just hold on to the bat. A-Rod, at least IMO, has active hands that go to the ball. He's not purely linear, but his hands go out more than others and cause him to be out over his front leg.