Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Jan 7 13:39:05 2004

>>> Jack, with all due respect.....go out on a limb and explain what you see wrong in this one swing. Presuppose the pitch is right down the middle and this is the batters' normal swing. Your analysis will help us all understand your philosophy better. There has been plenty of analysis on other swings presented to this site...(with all good intentions I'm sure), but you've refrained to comment on the flaws. There are issues .........most noticebly to me is the overall tension in this swing, it lacks fluidness does it not? Are you comfortable with the spine tilt created by the inside/out approach? There is a ton of top-hand over use going on here. It's not about who he is, who his Dad is or what his roots are......shoot straight! People may not recieve it well, but secretivly they always listen and will take note. I too will be taking notes.

I wish this was not Doug's kid, because it ain't about the kid as a person. Doug, you made a comment about your boy going farther already than I've ever been.........I refrained at the time from commenting, but you should apologize, you know you shouldn't have said that. I don't picture you being that way, from all of your involvement over the years with kids. I realize you're just a proud Papa!! Try to respect my privacy for now, and maybe one day I'll come watch your boy play and introduce myself. Sometimes the worst of enemies, become the best of friends.

Respectfully,
Coach C <<<

It was not a matter of taking it easy on Doug’s son. To be honest, after noting how he initiated the swing, I really did not study the rest of his mechanics in any detail. Initiating the swing with a static bat as compared to having the bat-head accelerating to the launch position was what I wanted to make a point of.

If Nick can post his swing from both the frontal and side view I will give a full analysis. – Coach C, we are in the process developing an improved “Swing Mechanics” page. Below is a post from the archives we used to explain why we chose the frontal view.

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Re: Front View vs Side View, Jack?
Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com on Thu Apr 19 14:33:58 2001

>>> I don't see why a frontal view is more important than a side view. In fact, you can view more components clearly from a side view (hands, hips, legs, the width of stance) than from a frontal view, where your view of these components are blocked, IMHO. Just my sentiments. <<<

Hi BHL

When I am doing video swing reviews, I use both the side and frontal views to make my recommendations. The side view provides better information of the batter’s energy development mechanics. I can better evaluate a batter’s stride, knee action and his hip and shoulder rotation. It is also better for evaluating the first direction of the hand-path and viewing the back-arm and lead-shoulder positions at contact.

The frontal view lends itself more to evaluating the batter’s energy transfer mechanics. I can see clearly if the lead-arm and hands are rotated to a good launch position (hide the hands). It also offers a better view for identifying the forces applied to the bat at initiation – does the batter use the arms or body rotation to accelerate the hands? If the batter uses his/her arms, I can observe the lack of shoulder rotation as the lead-arm separates from the body (loss of linkage). These actions are not as visible from the side view.

One of the most important components of a good swing is the quality of the swing-plane. When a hitter is performing at his/her peak, the swing-plane will be flat and true without dips and rises from the true plane. A poor swing-plane will appear as a sine wave because of wrist binds and the batter not accelerating the bat-head into the plane at initiation. --- Although these actions are usually quite clear from the frontal view, I am unable to identify them from the side view.

While charting the swings of professional players, I found that when the better hitters like Bonds, McGwire, Strawberry, Eric Davis and etc. went into a slump, there was an identifiable change in their mechanics. In most cases, the flaw first became apparent in the quality of their swing-plane.

Jack Mankin