Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Sep 30 01:08:59 2003

>>> Jack in the elbow up or down discussion you mentioned that the fingers pull the bat back toward the catcher... don't you mean the fingers pull the bat back towards the third base dugout RHB to take advantage of more angular bathead displacement. if it's going back towards the catcher as in a bow and arrow move you're only getting 90-100 degrees of displacement. where as pulling it toward the dugout gives you at least 180 degrees or more of displacement. am i misinterpreting what bathead displacement is and how it is created? thanks... oh, do you have any batting clinics scheduled for spring 2004. or can you recommend any competent disciples? <<<

Hi Rich

Good observation. It shows you are on the right tract of understanding how the bat-head is first accelerated behind the batter before he rotates and directs the bat’s acceleration around toward the ball. -- Rich, the direction of pull (or force) of the top-hand is always perpendicular to the length of the bat. Therefore, your observation (direction of top-hand is back towards the third base dugout) would be true during “Pre-Launch Torque”. At that time, the bat would be cocked forward toward the pitcher. Pulling perpendicular to the bat in that position would be directed more toward the third base dugout.

As the bat sweeps behind the batter’s head toward the launch position, the direction of pull of the top-hand also rotates around. When the bat has reached the launch position, the top-hand is still pulling perpendicular to the bat. But, with the bat in the launch position, perpendicular is now more back toward the catcher.

When I first described the Top-Hand-Torque mechanics used by the top hitters (early 1990s), most coaches had a real problem just visualizing the direction of force of the top-hand being back toward the catcher at initiation instead of forward toward the pitcher. I did not think it would be helpful, at that time, adding in the “pre-launch” directions of force.

John Elliott and I had 4 batting clinics when I spent most of my time in Southern California. I spend less time there now and no clinics have been set yet.

Jack Mankin