Posted by: Coach C () on Tue Jan 6 07:20:29 2004

>>> Jack,
>
> My explanation is simple. I believe powerful leg drive is a fundamental component of the successful baseball swing.
>
> The question is: How does one recruit leg muscle fibres to maximally drive hips (and overall resultant batspeed)?
>
> In my experience, lower leg muscles (calves, and particularly ankles) are simply too small and remote to contribute significant power to the bat at the time it is required. Rather, employing these muscles strenuously has a dampening effect on overall power transfer since inertia must pull more rigid mass (lower limbs) in a circular arc.
>
> My theory is similar to your loose wrist theory, where you debunk direct wrist muscle flexing as an unwarranted impedance to overall power transfer through the joint. I believe the small lower leg muscle group is best suited for fine balance control, but little more.
>
> However, I am flexible, in that I respect we are all in various states of muscle development. I can envision one with exceptionally strong calves being able to utilize these muscles efficiently. This depends somewhat on the individual, however, I am less convinced of ankle muscle contribution. This grouping is just too small and remote to significantly drive the bathead.
>
> Calf and ankle muscles are necessarily slower to react than thigh muscles since they are located approximately 25% further from the brainstem.
>
> See http://www.rwc.uc.edu/koehler/biophys/4d.html
>
> This article suggests the speed of propogation for mammalian motor neurons is 10-120m/s. Assume maximum speed, and calf and thigh are 0.5m apart. Then it takes 0.5/120=4.2ms longer for the calf to receive the signal. For a 90mph (40.2m/s) fastball, thats 0.17m.
>
> A signal delay in which a pitch travels 17cm is fairly significant.
>
> Regards,
> Mike. <<<
>
> Hi Mike
>
> Good answer. I agree with your wrist and ankle analogy and I sure do not have the expertise to challenge your data.
>
> Jack Mankin
>
>

The results have been tremendous Jack, but don't go by what you see in my current swing clips. Someday I'll post another one. I would also contend that head movement is extremely minimal, thereby giving the hitter the feeling that the head is working independent of all the motion taking place below the neck line. The stability of the head, no doubt is caused by the feet being stable, instead of driving. As Mike implies....this may not be for everyone, but it is something I've charted in great hitters over the last several months. This goes back to a point I made some time ago.......toe/heel together, but sometimes the toe wins the race. Most notably I see it in Griffey, Bonds, Walker, L. Gonzales, but there are countless others.

To each his own, but there needs to be more tolerance by all of us, when discussing new ideas, Whether or not one can provide scientific data. I pretty much got crucified by many for introducing a new concept to the site. This is why I keep my anonymity, because people are often cruel. My thanks to Mr. Meyers for picking a guy up when he’s down. None of it means I’m right…….but it means someone listened, which is all I wanted anyway.

Take care and Thanks Jack,

Coach C