Posted by: Coach C () on Fri Oct 10 22:30:55 2003

You stated "In a good swing, the bat's momentum will pull the body and limbs through the coast-out phase of the swing, not from reserved energy."

So what this says, is use the body first, then tranfer to the hands, then stop the body, then the hands take over to get the body moving again. Personally I don't think it's possible, but I could be wrong.

To me this implies that the shoulders should also not apply energies past the ball, which could mean the front shoulder may never make it to the catcher. Couldn't pulling the front shoulder all the way to the catcher possibly lead one to tranfer energy past the ball? I'm mainly interested in your approach to the inside pitch....I'm less effective on the inside pitch unless my hands get ahead of my body. My feel is that my hands must cut across my body to hit that pitch. Are the hands and bat flung to the ball on an inside pitch in your model, particularly on a tight inside pitch, where the arms are extremley bent? Also, it is my belief that batspeed post contact is relevent, in that it portrays and swing that was not impeded by the ball. Another way of describing it would be that if we were to erase the ball in a nice video sequence of a pro hitting a ball, the bat would never indicate recoil or resistance at contact, which is not the case in most amateurs. So while I agree that no energy is required past the ball, the amount of resistance is important. We've debated this issue before and you've sited some case studies, but I'm skeptical. The reason I'm skeptical is because without full extension the hands are still holding on and if the hands are weak (wrists and arms too), the swing breaks down at contact. I'm not saying drive through the ball, I'm saying stay strong through the ball. Lastly (very interested), is flinging the bat at the ball possible without extension first? Do we fling the bat at the ball while the arms are still bent?

Respectfully,

Coach C