Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sun Dec 7 14:17:41 2003

>>> Andy,
>
> I threw this together this morning, just for fun. ;)
>
> It only took about 10 mins. tho.
>
> http://members.cox.net/wclittleleague/Andy%20vs.%20Gonzo%20-%20swing%20planes.gif
>
> Enjoy,

Jack makes an absolutely key observation which is the mechanical importance of the handpath starting out perpendicular to the path of the ball, driven by torso turn,not any push of the top hand (with the arms providing tight connection and accelerating/uncocking the bat back toward the catcher/THT).

In old fashioned terms,Lugo "keeps the hands back longer".But what happens in more detail/?causally.



You have to look more upstream/earlier in the swing.

For this I would compare the earlier andy clip which shows the bat cock and compare this to Lugo.I would ideally like to compare to a righty and to a righty that cocks the bat more vertically,because this is what andy does(vertical hitch/cock).It will be very difficult for a hitter to go from vertical(Bonds,Aaron) to horizontal(Lugo) type cocking/uncocking I would speculate.But anyway we are looking at andy vs lugo now.See:

http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/11.15.Swing.mpg

Here is how I would narrate andy's swing here:



Andy does the big stride and cocks the hip well.The back arm hitches(internal rotation synchronized with front leg internal rotation assisting hip cock) and the bat goes from horizontal to vertical.

As the frontknee finishes coming up and just as it starts down/out,andy pinch/loads the back scap well.The bat "centers"/cocks
toward the pitcher.

Next,andy "gets out of sequence".Instead of continuing the smooth scap load and keeping the back back arm and lead leg internally rotated as the stride foot goes out,he externally rotates the back arm and front leg and loses scap and hip load.Notice this means the bat uncocks and the front waist "unpinches" some.The back hand comes away from back shoulder a little.This means he loses load/separation/twist some and has to reload.He ends up with a double cock/uncock of the bat with loss of load.

Next,the bat centers again slightly,but hips are already opening now and the upper body can't resist/stay loaded/coil enough.

Front toe touches,then front heel drops and torso/hands start prematurely and somewhat toward pitcher instead of perpendicular to flight of ball.This lack of good upperbody loading/lack of separation makes it hard to keep the weight back.The weight continues forward,especially the front shoulder after front heel drop and after the handpath has started.

[Note:relative vs absolute timing of weight shift gets very confusing here,my point in an earlier post was that Lugo gets the weight shift stopped sooner with regard to toe touch/heel drop as compared to andy because Lugo continuously loads the upper body as the lower body starts open.I think andy made the following excellent observation/analysis in another post:
"What I need to do is keep the weight a little bit further back it would still qualify as "centered" so I won't make anyone mad by using a "weight back" buzzword that conjures up wrong images. Gonzo sits to hit and I somewhat come out of that. That is what causes the upright axis and that is what causes the steeper bat angle. Tell me if you agree. In an attempt to "center" myself I go too far forward and it has nothing to do with Gonzo getting his weight forward first. Just some thoughts, tell me what you guys think".

I think the way to keep the weight back better is better scap load/upper body load/smooth cocking/centering and uncocking/tht of the bat.This means andy will "sit to hit" better because he won't lose the upper body load or straighten/reach out the front leg too soon,but this would permit more weight forward sooner which then stops better to boost launch as opposed to thinking some more weight needs to stay back.Trying to keep more weight back as part of the fix is likely to be counter-productive.Instead accentuate the upper body load/ keeping the hands back ]



Another thing to look for as a sign of lack of upper body load/hands staying back is,as pointed out by John Elliott in Jack's FINAL ARC 2,the early locking of the lead knee which prevents full front shoulder turn(105 degrees) and causes the handpath to straighten early.

I think this can be "fixed" by accentuating back scap load (smooth continuous centering/cocking of the bat) and synchronizing it with keeping the stride leg internally rotated(Nyman would call this "showing the sole")/hip cocked as you go out to landing.THEN "ROTATE THE BATHEAD/ROTATE THE HEEL" as described by Jack to start THT/bat uncocking while the back scap stays loaded.Pay attention to the flex of the front knee too.