Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Oct 1 00:16:00 2003

I brought forward to Oct. two important threads posted Sept. 29 and 30.

Rich

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?
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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
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Rich

Thanks Jack,
Since i've found this site and the purchase of your wonderful video i've devoured everything that i can learn from all the different sources. having you confirm my observation is gratifying. the reason i asked is that this winter it will be the final piece of the swing that i teach my daughter. she's extremely happy that i enjoy learning how to teach the REAL rotationa swing. last summer she played 14U tournment ball and it was her first year in high competition. we started learning the swing at the very beginning of the season in April... early season was batting at .200 and by the end of Nationals finished a .265 very satisfying considering that we were changing the swing slowly thru out the summer.
She tried out for her HS team and made varsity as a freshman and won the starting center field position and is batting leadoff. as of today she's hitting .415. Thanks for the effort you put forth to really understand what the real rotational swing is. and thank you for teaching it to us so that we can use it or pass it along as you did.
If you or John do anything this spring with a clinic anywhere please e-mail me and i'll enroll... you've got my address at the top.
Again THANK YOU! Warm regards, Rich
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rql

Jack,would you agree or disagree that the bottom hand initially pulls down and forward driven by the lead shoulder.
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Hi rql

I agree. Once the batter has come to the launch position, the bottom hand is pulled around from the rotation of the lead-shoulder. It is important to note that, like the top-hand, the direction of force (or pull) of the bottom-hand is also always fairly perpendicular to the length of the bat. But the top and bottom hands are always supplying force from ‘opposing’ directions.

During initiation, the top-hand is being pulled back toward the catcher as the lead-shoulder pulls the bottom-hand around toward the pitcher (THT). – As the batter rotates around toward contact (the bat displaces 180 degrees), the directions of force of the hands will reverse. The rotation of the lead-shoulder is now pulling the bottom-hand back toward the catcher as the top-hand is being driven forward (The “Hook” and BHT).

Although the bat displaced 180 degree, the direction force of both top and bottom-hand remain fairly perpendicular to the length of the bat during the swing. This way the wrists need not flex and un-flex as much with good rotational mechanics.

Jack Mankin