Posted by: Jack Mankin (Mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Jun 19 15:01:54 2003

>>> Okay. This quickly got away from me. I appreciate all the advice,
but you all lost me a ways back. I mean, I understand most of
what's been said, but I don't want to try to take all of it into the box
on Saturday.

I will debut a new swing in 2 days, the one I've been working on
by reading this site, going to the cages on my lunch hour, then
reading the site some more. I will no longer simply turn my back
foot during my swing, I will turn my hips, torso, and shoulders
roughly in unison before driving the bat through the strike zone.

I have found that while doing that, I sometimes hit the balls in the
cage much better than I used to, and sometimes I don't. I'm still
at the "it's a lot of things to keep in mind" stage.

I'm not sure but I think my primary difficulty now is my weight
distributed correctly between legs during the swing. I find that I
need to "hold myself back" and not lean my weight forward too
early.

I also don't know exactly what to do with my lead leg- I've seen
players end up with a bent front knee or a stright one. I read
somewhere (else) that I should try to straighten that leg as I'm
swinging and drive my left hip back toward the catcher. Does
that sound right?

Again, thanks for all the help. <<<

Hi Mike

You stated, “I will turn my hips, torso, and shoulders roughly in unison before driving the bat through the strike zone.” --- It is important to remember that “turn my hips, torso, and shoulders roughly in unison” IS what drives the bat through the zone. Setting up the correct launch position, with good linkage, will allow you to keep your hands back and let rotation fling the bat-head to contact before the back-arm extends.

Jack Mankin