Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Fri Jul 7 00:43:30 2000

>>>In your tape I thought you said to cock the wrists at the top of the swing and use the top hand to pull towards the catcher to start to uncock them. Perhaps I am using the wrong terms but it seems like at the top of the swing you suggest that the wrists are actively being uncocked by the top hand ? <<<

Hi Alan

You have a good point. I should have explained it more thoroughly. ---As the batter prepares his pre-launch position he does cock the bat-head toward the pitcher. This does cause the wrist to also cock. But this cocking action does not come mainly from the muscle group that controls the adduct and abduct functions of the wrist. The wrist act more as hinge points. It is the push/pull action of the arms that cause the major cocking and un-cocking of the wrist.

Unlike the golf grip, the baseball/softball grip actually restricts wrist action. --- With the golf grip the hands are placed as an over-layed unit with both palms facing in relatively the same direction. This allows the wrist to work independently from the arms.--- But, with the baseball/softball grip the hands are not placed on the bat as a unit but separately with the palms in opposing directions. This type of grip restricts wrist action.

You can check this out for yourself. --Take your normal grip on the bat. Then sit down and place your elbows on a table. Note the amount of wrist action (in the swing direction) you can achieve keeping both elbows on the table. I think you will find that in order to attain much movement the arms must slide back and forth. --- Under a low load condition (pre-launch movement) the small muscle group that abduct and adduct the wrist can cause some wrist action. But once the large muscle groups are engaged and the swing is fully initiated the bat acceleration many attribute to "wrist action" is actually coming from the torque supplied by the "push - pull" action of the arms and body rotation.

Jack Mankin