Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Jul 25 22:41:05 2000

jack...please take a quick visit hitting.com...there have been some excellent posts regarding the kenetic chain and i would appreciate your comments.....i would also be interested to know if have yet come to the realization that hips, shoulders, etc DO NOT rotate in precise UNISON....i ask these questions in a most respectful way, as i generally have a high regard for your views....but i would appreciate your comments...grc....

Hi grc

I do not think I ever stated the hips, shoulders, etc rotated in PRECISE unison. --- Many coaches teach opening (or popping) the hips while keeping the shoulder "in there", as in "squashing the bug." This is a two stage or sequential movement that has the opening of the hips adding nothing to body rotation. Since hip rotation from the legs would be spent, body rotation for the swing would need to come almost entirely from the torso muscles. This certainly is not a "ground up" mechanic--- I stated this was not the case, that for maximum power, the hips and shoulders should rotated in unison. I understand it would have been more accurate to have stated "more in unison."-- The inertia of the upper body and bat acceleration does cause the hips to lead by a few degrees.

Kinetic Chain

I would really like to have a clear definition of the "Kinetic Chain." I did go to Hitting.com and got Steve T's version. It sounds like a new way of stating the old "crack of the whip" theory. I hope there is more to it than that or else I would have to challenge that approach.

Jack Mankin