Posted by: RQL () on Fri Dec 26 19:45:35 2003

Thanks again for the excellent clips,Nick,and Happy
> > Holidays !
> >
> > Nomar goes in and out of the stride style,but not much
> > stride for the past few seasons.Was this a stride just for
> > the derby or was this long enough ago that he was still
> > doing some stride ?
> >
> > He has a great swing to study.He is one where you can
> > really see the back foot turn backward as he finishes
> > cocking the hips.Lugo does this to and jump starts the
> > hips by pointing the back foot toward the pitcher.
> >
> > I tend to like this belly-up,hook the handath as much as
> > possible swing because I believe it is the quickest
> > swing.As I mentioned before,I think the key to the
> > transfer mechanics is that the center of rotation of the
> > bat keeps getting closer to the center of mass of the bat
> > ("swing radius stays circular or hooking").This seems to
> > prevent deceleration and encourages a quick swing
> > which reduces timing error.There must be some
> > physics type way of doing the inertia/momentum/kinetic
> > calculations,but it still intuitively seems to me that these
> > players who belly up and hook the handpath like
> > Nomar and Bonds are getting both quickness and great
> > max batspeed.I don't think they are prisoners of a zero
> > sum/either/or game.i think they get better power and
> > better average.I think Arod is rotational in the same
> > sense(swing radius circular or diminishing/no
> > disconnection from launch to contact),but more off the
> > plate and therefore not as quick and with a wider range
> > of adjustment required to cover the zone.
> >
> > The lead arm/bottom hand is determining the swing
> > radius via tight connection to the front scap which
> > "unshrugs" as necessary to hook the handpath.The
> > back arm will go along for the ride on the late approach/
> > through contact/into follow-through,.Ideally at
> > contact,the bat should turn about an axis between the
> > hands if it has hooked maximally.Longer swings will
> > have the center of rotation still off the knob of the bat as
> > much as 6 inches or a foot or more.
> >
> > The more you hook the handpath,the more you apply
> > BHT,and the more the torso totally transfers its
> > momentum to turn(not slide/drag)the bat.For
> > outside,you depend on more THT to get the bathead
> > out fast,so inspite of a high load/limited torso turn
> > situation,you still get excellent batspeed.The combo of
> > THT/BHT/circular handpath is the minimal/simplest way
> > of adjusting to cover the zone.THT is necessary in
> > every case to adequately load for the swing.BHT is
> > necessary in every case to prevent deceleration before
> > contact.
> >
> > The theory is nice,but I think more important are the
> > sequence and synchronization of joint motions during
> > the cocking of the hips(hitch the hands) and cocking of
> > the hands(scap load/center bat/hide hands) followed by
> > THT( slotting of elbow/rotate the bathead-rotate the
> > front foot)) and uncocking of hips to drive launch(drop
> > and tilt).
> >
> > Then to "teach it" you can break things down and
> > backward chain with no-stride,then add stride.Jack
> > demonstrates most of this nicely on Final Arc II.
> >
> > One handed top hand swings for rotational component/
> > circular handpath.
> >
> > Add bottom hand to apply BHT.
> >
> > Rotae the foot/rotate the bathead to apply THT,etc.
> >
> > You can customize the backward chaining progression
> > depending on the needs/style of the individual.
> >
> > Tom,what do you mean by that term you use belly up to the ball.
> >
> > Hey RQL,
How can the bat rotate around the point on the bat that is in between the top hand and the bottom hand? it seems that the top hand would have to push on the handle straight towards the pitcher and the bottom hand would have to pull the handle back towards the catcher to get it to rotate around that point. maybe you meant the the bathead will rotate around the point in the wrist when the palm is facing up?? check it out and see what you think... Happy New Year, Rich