Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Mon Oct 20 09:28:18 2003

seano-
Good to hear from you.

Do you still have your clips from the Cape Cod league ?

It might be interesting for people to look at those as a range of styles/techniques.

I believe,as you may know,that there is a universal back arm action sequence that is the same for overhand throw and rotational hitting pre-swing(up to a point,of course).Furthermore,this action must be synchronized with lower body action.This "arm action" leads/controls the preswing loading.Arm action is king in the same sense that it is in Nyman's overhand throw model(although he does not see it this way for hitting).Don't confuse this with getting overactive/prematurely extending the arms.It's all about how the big muscles position and move the entire shoulder/arm/hand "link" and how this works with the lower body "hip link" to load and set up launch.The sequence is described well for throwing by Hodge/Biomechanic Baseball.Nyman adds the crucial connection to the torso interms of scap loading.Do this sequence right and synch it with the lower body well and you will be more likely to find your personal best swing.You will probably notice an "affinity" for some sucessful major league role model due to some type of similarity you recognize/value.In that case you can proceed with further trial and error emulating what the role model does.There are a number of role models who do things well.As JAck has noted,more and more do good preswing/laucn THT.To do this,I think they all have to have the sequence and synchronization just as you do for overhand throw.They can look fairly different due to their individuality/uniqueness.

I think this action can be taught interms of how and when to cock and uncock the bat/how the back arm is lowered into the slot/how the lead arm participates,etc.It can be worked on backwards and forwards,just as in throwing.How to structure this is clarified by Jack's teasing out the rotational vs torque components of the swing.