Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sun Jan 4 17:39:05 2004

hi all
> >
> > i experimented with my legs. i started with legs first and then the whole
kinetic chain. and it worked! tremendous bat speed and power. at the
beginning it was hard to time the pitch and it looked weird but once you get it
down you start hitting like jeter. it is amazing. i cant wait to try against live
pitching. i dont know if i will be able to time pithes this way but i have to try it. it
feels good and connected now. i still struggle at times with keeping hands
back as my body rotates.
>
> >
> >
> Worked with my son today on same thing. Loading the shoulders
(independant of arm and hand muscles) into a weighted, bent knee, toe
touch, opening the hips/toe and firing the front side open at heel drop
launching the bat. Keeping the hands passive until the hip turn brings them
out naturally. Got a great tip about keeping the top hand in front of the rear
elbow as the elbow goes to slot position. It all works well when you can pull it
off. Had him focused on getting the bat barrel out into the contact zone rather
than swing toward the pitcher. I too thank all for the imput. I feel like we are
getting there too. Special thanks to Jack and a Happy New Year
> >

Donny- You might try this and see if it works well enough to try on your son.

Jack uses the top hand only drill as one way of learning the feel of the circular
handpath/learning to break the habit/feel of "top hand dominance".

rql and others have described how the position of the back elbow varies in the
slot for inside vs outside.For inside,the elbow is down more and closer to the
side at launch.For outside/longer swing radius/higher load the back elbow is
higher and more away from the side.Jack describes how this can come from a
slightly different angle/direction of torque application between the hands.

After the one hand top hand drill,jack recommends adding BHT with the lead
arm as you then go to a 2 handed drill.

I would describe THT(?kinesiologically?) as being primarily applied by
externally rotating the back arm to drop the elbow to the slot.To do this
requires first getting the back arm internally rotated (hitching hands as the
front knee turns in with stride lift/ hip cocking) then keeping the back arm
internally rotated as you "hide the hands" by pinching the back scap("pinch
and lift" as stride foot goes out).This cocks/centers the bat using the big
muscles and then you can keep the scap loaded/continue loading as the bat
uncocks via external rotation of the back arm into the slot.

Given this info,you can practice the 2 handed BHT drill starting with the back
elbow down and in close to the side for inside location.Back arm will be fully
externally rotated,and back scap still loaded.This would emphasize BHT
more.

Then for outside where THT is more important /applied longer prior to
launch,you can start with the back elbow up and back scap loaded (back scap
more "preloaded" the wider the stance/smaller the stride),then start your
swing for the outside location by externally rotating the back arm from this
position as you set a longer swing radius with the back elbow higher and
further away from the side when you launch/pull with the lead arm.

See if this makes sense to you.