Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed May 14 23:57:59 2003

Dear Jack,

>>> In your video you seem to believe that opening up and keeping the shoulders back does nothing for shoulder rotation. I beg to differ, as you may be perceiving the model wrong.

In the stance, I advocate opening up the front foot (i.e., 45-90 degrees), while twisting the front shoulder back. Make sure that the front heel is off the ground; this initiates hip rotation.

Next, allow the front heel to drop, and place no tension on the lead arm so it will be barred against the chest. As soon as the heel drops, for a fraction of a second, 1) there is a 40 degree differential between the hip line and shoulder line (bottom half open, top half closed); 2)the upper body is still rotating back, but for less than 1/2 a second; 3) the arm straightens against the chest.

Now, apply THT by flipping (rather circling) the top palm so that it faces the sky. In less than a second, the elasticity of the body will act like a spring, and allow the shoulders to catch up to the hips. Let the shoulders rotate while applying torque all the way through the swing. Allow the bottom hand to stay barred, and the hands to follow around the rotating body. Also keep the bottom hand close to the side so plently of BHT occurs.

At contact, you will have 138 of tight linkage, and the ability to hit softballs 320+ feet.

Max seperations works: some people just do not use it correctly.

Your thoughts Jack? I do have a point. Elasticity of the body, and, when done right, it is not just "torso." <<<

Hi BHL

I think your description of good swing mechanics is right on the money. I would guess that the problem lies in how "Max Separation" is defined. Your description, "In the stance, I advocate opening up the front foot (i.e., 45-90 degrees), while twisting the front shoulder back. Make sure that the front heel is off the ground; this initiates hip rotation," is almost exactly the way I would describe the inward-turn to a good launch position.

Both descriptions have the hips leading the hands and shoulders by about 30 degrees at initiation. An additional 10-15 degrees of separation would occur at initiation due to the load of overcoming the inertia of accelerating the bat.

But many coaches have a different understanding of �Max Separation� than what you described. "Max Separation" to many coaches means that the batter should fully open the hips (facing the pitcher) while keeping the shoulders closed. This is the 1-2-3 (stride, open the hips, swing) teaching that has stalled the progress of many young hitters. Under this method, the leg drive to rotate the hips is used up before the swing is even started (shoulders and hands start to rotate). Then only the torso would be left to drive shoulder rotation. Granted, this would produce Max Separation between the hips and the shoulders, but I doubt that is what you have in mind either. So as I said, I think it is a matter of definition.

Jack Mankin