Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Thu Oct 23 08:40:04 2003

ah-ha !!!!!! moments are the key.

To push the NASCAR analogy,think of the body rotation with hips leading the hands aroound a nonlunging/drifting axis as a torsion bar (Greg Johnston's description).

The place/time to tighten up everything is when you trigger the launch sequence(drop and tilt) at heel drop.Don't forget that the front shoulder has to be ready to firm up and tightly connect at this point.Inertia and soft tissue stiffness/elasticity/muscle tone type properties will then result in some degree of ongoing until maximum separation (x-factor maxes out) then reversal so you get Nymans "total body eccentric to concentric muscle action"(efficient untwisting that transfer momentum as instantaneously as human tissues will allow).

There are a lot of descriptions aimed at overall feel around this phase as well as the full swing.Of course,there is drop and tilt.There is also the classic Williams' body at 80% hands(?shoulder arm/hand "link")? at 100%.There is Palmeiro who says he gets every ounce of body energy into every swing.

I also like Gwynn's description of "feel" in Gwynn on Bonds,in spite of the fact he doesn't really do what he thinks he does.His feel description is still very accurate.You don't force things with the lower body.You pull with the bottom hand.The first part of hitting is getting inposition,etc.Maybe someone still has that link/address.

Another helpful way to look at it is in terms of Nyman's description of body action for throwing where the body is like the handle of a buggy whip or flyrod.The body will bow forward then the other way then forward again,which he calls "bow-arch-bow"(rotation is superimposed/going on at same time).For hitting it's bow (bend at waist to right degree to match plane of pitch as you sit to hit/get to toe touch without losing hip cock) then arch (get out of chair to hit).There is no final "bow" in hitting.Thinking of the hips turning to drive things in terms of bow/arch of the spine triggered at heel drop will help prevent "over-rotating" the hips when you try to rotate as much as possible as quickly as possible as you trigger the launch sequence.A nice tight torsion bar helps when the trigger goes.Don't force the lower body,be tightly connected,feel the pull start via the bottom hand.(also don't be confused by Gwynn's description of the pull in a "flat plane".A tightly connected handpath will feel this way with regard to the torso angle (circular/arcing handpath in power plane roughly perpendicular to upper spine)not the ground.