Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Wed Dec 10 08:50:18 2003

Thanks Tom! Very good description. As I wade through all of this I still find myself coming back to the same question: how do you teach it? What cues, drills, visualizations have you had success with?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Nick
> >
> > Hi Nick,
> >
> > Here's my take and I have had a lot of success with this. I believe the lead arm is the problem with most swings I see. Think of this way. if the lead arm is driven or pulled to extension, then the back arm becomes slave (extending to early in the swing), generally resulting is top hand roll, pulling off the ball, etc. I believe the front arm must be trained to be slave to the top hand. As Jack has stated (I think) the bottom hand must pull back through the ball, not pull forward. This action encourages the the shoulders to turn better through the ball. It's when the lead arm casts, that puts the breaks on shoulder rotation (effectively slows it down and then stops them at contact.) Consider keeping slack in the lead arm throughout the swing and shoulder rotation will be much easier and the back elbow will slot the way it should. Once the back arm slots better you can begin to create additional scap load just by hitting harder. Look at Lugo's swing rear view swing and tell me if you see it doing anything but holding on. It's connected to the body, but it's loosy goosy, no tension!
> >
> > See ya Nick
>
> Hey guys,
>
> Just a quick note. If the lead arm being extended prematurely is the major problem that is in most swing then explain the success of guys like Griffey Jr. and Brett Boone..just to name a couple. They completely extend the lead arm back and have absolutely no slack, yet they maintain a very tight rotation. I obviously wouldn't teach that but it surely can't be the most glaring flaw in a swing if people who have excellent swings still do it. I also think that the shoulder rotation of Brett Boone is as good as anyone else.
>
> Andy

I think this bottom hand /lead arm/connection/transfer mechanics topic is very well explained by Jack,and most people seem to eventually understand the hook the handpath/cirular handpath BHT type idea.

Where things remain confusing/difficult to interpret/anlyse is on the middle out(if you standoff the plate) or outside pitch (for belly-up types).

As the handpath radius increases(still should be set at initiation) for these middle-out pitches,you see the lead arm lengthen/straighten at the elbow before contact after "L" has come out of back arm some.

Even though I thought this could appear to violate the handpath circularity requirement,I could not often see definite signs of disconnection.I assumed that once the "L" had come out of the elbow,that perhaps it was OK for the handpath radius to extend some prior to contact before deceleration set in(sort of like beginning to let go of the weight on a rope with some degree of control).I was thinking that as long as the front bicep stayed tightly squeezed to the chest that you could still maintain some connection.

My recollection is that JAck disagreed with this and thought that BHT was still being applied.As I continue to watch,I think Jack is probably right about this.I think you need to rotate around the axis and keep connection with the lead arm bottom hand so the handpath radius ideally does NOT extend.This keeps the top hand "slaved" to the bottom through contact as described by Coach "C".

This would mean that you continue to strive for batquickness and low timing error rather than thinking about staying in the zone longer with some casting at contact,2 different swing key/thoughts.If you see someone who seems to lengthen the swing radius by the lead arm lengthening,maybe they are not because they are unshrugging the lead shoulder or even leaning the head back with a slight shift back of the rotational axis ?

This latter idea of the axis shifting in a "non-lunging" manner may be best seen in how the head moves as mentioned by Dave.If Bonds goes after a middle out pitch,his head really comes out over the plate and around after contact.

Thoughts ?