Posted by: GRC (GRCRACKEL@YAHOO.COM) on Wed Jul 19 15:06:17 2000

I am new here (just reading), but, would like to offer a little advise. Ever heard of the term "bat rack"? You know that item used in the dug out to hang your bats on. The same concept applies with hitting. The "bat rack" is your shoulders and a good rule of thumb is to place the top hand at about ear level to keep the hands at about shoulder level. It is funny you mention Jay Buhner, because of his "unorthodoxed" style. But, tape his swing and then slow it down to where you can see his the location of his hands when he is ready to hit the ball. His hands get to what is called the "trigger" point which is just about shoulder level and then uses the techniques that are discussed here by Jack. Another good example of this is Ed Sprague of the Padres. Same "exact" rules are used and the same "unorthodoxed" style.
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> Where the hands "start" from is not quite as important as where they are when one is ready to hit (trigger point). what is really important is where the hands and top arm are at LAG POSITION (the half way point in the swing where the hips have almost fully rotated and the bathead is parrallel to the ground)...at this point, most major leaguers have their hands about half way between the front and back foot, the top arm is in an "L" position with knuckles facing the opposite -side batters box and the bottom arm is nearly straight....from this ideal lag position the hands will whip the bathead around....now, at lag position, if the knuckles of the hand of the top arm are facing the shortstop (if you are a lefty) or even worse, facing the pitcher, this means that you are drawing the hands IN TOO CLOSE to the body....also, if your bottom arm (in lag position) is bent much more than 15 degrees, that will cause your hands to come too close to the body....when hands coming in to close to the body , at lag position the hands end up being closer to the front foot rather than half way between front and back foot....the significance of this is that now the hands do not have the "room" to "whip" the bat around....result?...on an inside pitch you end up "inside-outing" the pitch with less power....people who swing this way normally are victims of the "fence drill"...they think they have a "short" swing and while the swing may be "short" it is also weak....by the way, at www.blastsystem.com they have info on the "lag position".....grc....