Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sat Dec 22 13:48:52 2007

>>> Maybe the phrase " working against" is not the best choice of words. I agree that the turn in does start the seperation. I don't know if I would fully agree with the statement " -any further restriction to his shoulder rotation is due the load on the shoulders of overcoming the bats inertia to acceleration". IMO the momentum created by turning the barrel rearward adds to resistance on the hips and causes you to have a lateral tilt which creates more seperation and ultimately the hips win and the shoulders are ultimately rotated. So I agree that you are not contiuosly (not good at spelling) thinking about resisting with the shoulders but you are setting that up by turning the barrel rearward and tilting laterally.

I do with some of my students use the term feel your upper body against your hips but I use it so they can understand that I want them to feel the seperation. I don't think you can produce a high level swing by rotating your shoulders at the same time you rotate your hips. When the kids I work with rotate there shoulders at the same time as they rotate there hips they tend to drag the bat or they cast there hands away from there body and swing outside in, across the ball.

I would like more feed back about my statement, because I do value your opinion and am willing to listen to any advice. <<<

Hi Graylon

During my early studies of the swing starting in about 1988, I found that the amount of bat speed generated from the launch position rearward to the lag position was a defining difference between the average and great MLB hitters. The average batter's mechanics generated much less rearward acceleration than the best hitters. In the early 1990s, I defined the mechanic that generated that rearward acceleration of the bat-head as "Top-Hand-Torque" (THT).

In 1999, when I first discussed the importance of THT in the swing on the discussion board, very few people had the opportunity to study the bat's trajectory from and overhead view as I had. Therefore, the concepts that the bat-head first accelerated rearward (and THT) were so foreign to coaches that they dismissed them as the ravings of some nut. Only a few, like Tom Querry, understood the concept well enough to appreciate its' importance.

Now that a growing number of coaches have studied the bat's trajectory frame-by-frame, its rearward acceleration has become apparent. However, even today, many of those that had for years scoffed at the concept, cannot bring themselves to give credit to me or THT. They instead attempt to take credit for the finding by defining the mechanic by different names.

Graylon, regardless of what name you choose to identify it with, if you are teaching a mechanic that first accelerates the bat-head rearward, you are on the right track. There is no way your students can attain their maximum potential without it.

How that coaches are starting to understand the importance of rearward acceleration, I plan to start a thread discussing the principles of how THT is applied.

Jack Mankin