Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Jan 7 18:48:37 2004

>>> Hi Jack, It is true that Bonds and Bagwell accelerate through the normal launch position, and Brett does not. I have thought about this and then researched it quite a bit too for its overall value. Piazza, Giambi, Chipper Jones and many others do not accelerate through launch and are very successful hitters. To accellerate through launch you need the same hitch as Bonds and Bagwell use to keep the bat in motion. Brett's hitch and stride are for timing and we have tried continuous motion with his hitch and he loses the timing that he desires. I feel that it is a style type of thing, otherwise all the great modern day hitters would use it. Years ago, many more hitters would hitch and try to keep continuous motion going. They did it out of nessesity if they wanted to hit with some power, as they used much heavier bats and most of them were not near as strong as today's players. With Brett's workout plan going strong, I don't feel that strength will be a problem with him. He is 6'5" and about 220 as a 19 year old and in a couple of years should be pushing 235-240 with ample strength. Nick has some clips of Brett in the cage taken from behind that he is more than welcome to put on his site for you to look at. In fact he has one where Brett is taking the ball to LT center and one where he is pulling the ball. <<<

Hi Doug

Brett is a fine looking athlete. I am curious as to the bat size he is swinging. --- Although the number of top hitters employing pre-launch torque in their swings has really jumped the past few years, I would agree that it is not an Absolute. However, keeping the hands back at initiation and accelerating the bat-head back toward catcher (THT) instead of accelerating the knob toward the pitcher is a must to generate maximum bat speed.

I recorded a couple hundred swings from the direct overhead view at the old Astro Dome. Plotting the bat’s knob and head trajectories from that view was very revealing. With the best hitters, the knob moved very little the first 2 or 3 frames (just before and after initiation) while the bat-head arced a good distance (18 to 24 inches) behind the batter’s shoulder. With the average hitters, the knob (and hands) separated a good distance (maybe 12 to 14 inches) from the shoulder while the bat-head’s path arced only 4 to 6 inches beyond the shoulder.

In order to get the bat-head to arc back toward the catcher instead of mainly sliding across the shoulders, the batter must not initiate the swing by extending the top-hand forward. The top-hand must be held (or pulled) to the back-shoulder during initiation. You can name this mechanic what ever you choose, but it is torque that is accelerating the bat-head instead of the knob.

Jack Mankin