Posted by: Nick () on Thu Sep 18 09:15:25 2003

Ray,

You have noted that I said:

"...many people advocate “flattening the hands” early in the swing."
"...appear to me to have a “modified” hands to the ball type of swing..."

I’ll try to explain.

The term “many people” should probably have been “some coaches”. I also should have excluded the term “modified” from the second sentence.

My impression is that there are at least two successful hitting techniques being used by good major leaguers today. I think a lot has to do with where the hands start. The Charlie Lau thinking has been that every major leaguer gets to the same “launch position”. However, I don’t see it that way. I have put the following clips on my webpage:

http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/bonds101.mpg

http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/tejadaside.mpg

http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/StepB.gif

http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/Pujols01.mpg

http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/Sosa04.mpg

To me, Bonds has a classic swing. His hands are slightly behind his shoulders at launch (and slightly lower than shoulder height), the bat quickly flattens behind his shoulder (elbow in slot or hands flattening, effect is the same). My impression is that his bat gets on the plane of the pitch very early and stays there for a long time (frame 130 in the unfortunately very poor clip).

Tejada and Pujols start with higher hands at the launch position. Tejada’s bat position in frame 23 is actually very similar to the position depicted in StepB.gif. Look at Pujols starting in frame 153 or so. Also similar to StepB.gif. My impression is that Pujols and Tejada get the bat on plane later in the swing than Bonds does.

Look at what Sosa works on when he is between home run derby swings.

Are these personal preferences? Just style? I don’t know. . I do know that I am seeing too many kids hitting the ball too well with a more “hands to the ball” type of swing. This is what I am trying to get to the bottom of. Hopefully, Jack, yourself and others can weigh in

Nick