Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sun Oct 12 10:13:09 2003

Tom,
>
> Thank you very much for such a detailed response. I printed it and will read it over breakfast.
>
> One question: regarding the long swing, did you get a chance to view all of the video clips or just the overhead?
>
> Sandman

Thanks for trying to wade through that.

I looked at all the swings.As you mention,he is overdoing it more on the tee swings,especially more hip sway(back and forth) as a result,but all swings are pretty much the same in regards to basic sequencing.

He has a long swing for several reasons.

1- as you see/mention,he drags and casts a little,this is one of the areas Nyman emphasizes,too.It is the area that is improved by better THT.Hands need to stay back while THT/bat turning/loading coiling continues or else you remain "tophand dominant"/push the swing early/elbow gets ahead of hands (back arm allowed to lose full extension/abduction and/or back scap loses load),elbow goes toward belly button,you fall behind power curve,arms extend early,hands come away from back shoulder,handpath mechanically then has to extend a little which is the classic casting ,etc.etc.)

It isn'e enough to say what not to do.You have to do something instead to keep the loading going(keep hands back,etc) until it's time to interrupt/suddenly reverse/establish uninterrupted eccentric to concentric muscle action.At a more physical motion mechanical level,Jack would describe this as THT.Biomechanically it requires the arm/shoulder action sequence I have described to "form the box"/prevent dragging/to efficiently implement good "transfer mechanics without dragging then casting,etc.

Good "upper body loading" and THT are lead by back arm action in my opinion.You have to first internally rotate the back arm.Not only does this later permit full external rotation,it stabilizes the humerus in the shoulder socket.Next you have to max out the combination of scap loading(horizontal aDuction) and humerus extension/aBduction(back elbow goes up/back fully).Then the back arm can externally rotate to drop the back elbow toward the slot.The arm must stay fully loaded/abducted/extended.The loading/lowering to the slot is done by as pure an external rotation as possibleDo not let the arm flex or adduct,let the back elbow come down only as it is forced to by external rotation..This is synchronized to the external rotation of the lead leg(original internal rotation of back arm was synchronized with lead leg internal rotation leading to hip cock).Look at Nick's Guerrero01 clip to see the rear view that shows this arm action as well as slight subsequent torso/spine "counter-rotation".As you read the description,have Nick's Bonds and Guerrero clips available.Loading of the arm/shoulder complex for good transfer mechanics requires this back scap/arm sequence using the "big muscles".

2- Swing is also long because he never gets weight forward enough at toe touch,but stays back/leans back giving longer uppercutting swing.Many more advanced players do this because they don't get the stride to balance importance/feel.This makes it very hard to catch up to the high heater.It's a long way to get up there.The typical correction would be to "level out the swing" and "get more on top of the ball",but this advice is fairly vague.It can mean different areas of emphasis for different players/sequences/"flaws".A lot of this goes together.If you don't get the arm/shoulder action right,you are going to remain "top hand dominant" as Lau says and you are going to "push the swing" as Jack says.I do think this is a case where you work on the body first with the bat fixed on the deltoid to learn the feel of striding to balance,twisting/coiling and uncoiling with hip cock/uncock.The heavy bag can be combined with this.Jack uses this as part of his series of drills which follow the "backward chaining/backward shaping" approach.Then when the hands "go free",you have to have some semblance of good arm action/loading sequence to "keep the hands back" longer while the bat turns(THT).Learn the lower body,then let the upperbody take over.Upper body goes through sequence and synchronizes with lower body:

internal rotation-hip cock

scap load-stride out

externally rotate back arm and stride leg together going into toe touch,prelaunch tht turns/starts bat uncocking

Epstein summary:"wind the rubber band as you stride to balance at toe touch with the weight slightly forward and the front foot open."

3- swing is also "long" not just because of 1-casting/top hand dominance and 2- uppercutting/too upsloping swing,but also because lack of full uninterrupted loading means torso runs out of gas.All these things are really not separate.The arms inappropriately push the handpath,the weight stays too much back,the swing goes up to steeply,the torso turn runs out of gas,then the arms/smallmuscles take over(get off merrygoround) and try to correct by extending/swinging down right at contact. You mentioned "rotating into toe touch",or something like that.Remember,the "rotation into toe touch" in almost all cases is still just the twisting coiling rotational loading of the body(not unloading yet) lead by synchronized external rotation of the back arm and stride leg.(Rarely you have to interrupt this with launch really earl to turn on the inside heat in which case you actually can have to trigger launch,but then it's hard to get the benefit of the front foot block/heeldrop boost).Your son is starting to unload into toe touch instead of continuing to coil into toe touch(this is most common flaw/most difficult thing to correct for older kids,but young ones get through it if you know to work on it).So if you keep loading the upper and lower bodies throguh toe touch,you keep the hands back and turn the bat then interrupt this at the right time for the launch sequence/timing precision/henadpath radius necessary,then you get a full torso turn into contact and the arms/hands don't "disconnect"/get off the merrygoround early.

I would continue to get your questions answerred,but don't confuse the kid with your uncertainty.