Posted by: Nick () on Mon Dec 22 05:14:30 2003

Jack,

When I started the Vlad-Mac thread I was interested in understanding the role of the top hand arm in the swing. Following is a reference to a clip of Nomar. This is not an unusual swing for him. The more my son has worked on keeping hands tied to shoulder (hitting the bag) the more his swing path has started to resemble Nomars. There is a concept being talked about by Lamber (?) and maybe others that the hands don’t move at all (or very little) after the elbow has slotted. That the elbow never gets away from the body. Nomar has this type of a swing. However, my observation of clips has been that for most hitters the angle between the back forearm and the upper forearm (which starts at say 45 degrees) is releasing into contact to 90 degrees or more, with the hands going forward into contact even as they are rotating. I have numerous clips of Bonds releasing the back arm into contact. It is very hard for me to understand how the technique used by Nomar in this clip can produce a more powerful swing than one where there is a little back arm extension into contact. That is what I am trying to get to the bottom of.

Nick

http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/Nomar06.mpg