Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Jul 11 00:26:29 2000

>>>will an inward turn getting the hands in line with spine and pitcher cause the head to turn a little to much and make viewing the pitch with the right eye difficult? (right handed batter).

as you demonstrated the roll of the hands in your video it looked like your top hand was never fully in contact with the bat (sort of gripping it with the tips of your fingers).

why didnt you use actual baseball players in uniform to make the tape? <<<

Hi Bob

I was thinking about your question on the "inward turn" tonight as I watched the home run contest. Most of them did get their hands in-line with the spine and rubber and I noted little problem of seeing the ball. I guess there could be a problem if the hitter is to tense or has the lead shoulder to high during the turn.

Some of the major mechanical flaws I am seeing in reviewing players swings starts with the grip. In fact I found it necessary to add a video clip to the reviews explaining the problems a hitter gets into from gripping the bat to tight while wearing sticky batting gloves. --- When most batters initiate their swing with a high back elbow (to apply more top-hand-torque) the top of both hands are almost in-line. This means the angle between the wrist are from 145 to 180 degrees. But as the hands approach contact this angle decreases to about 15 degrees. If the grip is to tight or his gloves (or bat handle) will not allow the top hand to rotate (or slip) around the bat there is going to be a large build-up of pressure on the wrists. Something will have to give!! This causes a decrease in bat speed and the bat wobbles in through the swing plain. --- That's why Big Mac grips the bat very, very lightly with his top hand.

Bob, I had originally planned to show a few scenes of a baseball team (in uniform) doing drills. But I decided on the seminar format because it allowed me to cover more batting principles in the hour. Note: The digital video tape is 60 minutes.

Jack Mankin