Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Jan 13 13:36:07 2004

>>> Can anyone give feedback from my previous thread? What are your thoughts?

"Here is some food for thought! In relations to BHT and THT, you stated in a previous thread that upon reaching contact, the front shoulder will be pulled back to the catcher causing BHT.

I want to take this a little further. Wouldn't you say that this pulling back of the front shoulder also causes shoulder torque (front shoulder being pulled back towards the catcher and the rear shoulder being pushed towards the pitcher)? Also, wouldn't you say the same holds true for the hips, beings that they work in sequence?

If this is true, then which torque application training process would you think could have a greater impact for hitting with power - hand torque or shoulder/hip torque? I think that if you focused on the shoulder/hip torque training, it will cause greater rotational forces." <<<

Hi Kajun Coach

Since the hips and shoulders are rotating around a fixed axis (the spine), it would seem logical that the back-shoulder would be rotating around toward the pitcher at the same rate the lead-shoulder is rotating back toward the catcher. However, this not actually true because there is an added dimension to lead-shoulder rotation.

From the Archives: -- "Each shoulder has 90+ degrees of movement independent of the spine or other shoulder. As the batter extends the hands back toward the back-shoulder to set up the launch position, the lead-shoulder rotates inward about 60 to 70 degrees from its straight away position. I have referred to this inward rotation as the "Shrugging of the lead-shoulder."

This over-head clip of Rose - Lead & Rear Shoulder Rotation - shows the difference in degree the two shoulders rotate.

As the rotational batter prepares to launch the swing, he can almost rub his chin on the shoulder. (In fact, Matt Williams does just that as he waits for the pitch.) Although some of the "un-shrugging" is used during initiation for THT, it is very important that some of the "shrug" remain in the shoulder after initiation. If the batter fires the hands forward, the shrug will come out of the shoulder and the lead-arm will be forced away from the chest too soon resulting in a loss of linkage and disconnect to body rotation." --

Therefore, during a good rotational swing, the lead-shoulder rotates through 60+ more degrees than the back-shoulder. The rotation of the body supplies most of the energy for the swing, but as you practice to perfect your swing, your primary focus should not be concentrated on the mechanics that rotate the hips and shoulders. I seldom find the lack of hip or shoulder rotation to be the root of a batter's problem.

It is important to keep in mind that the ultimate purpose of all swing mechanics is to attain maximum acceleration of the bat-head into a predicable swing plane. Our concentration at initiation should be focused on accelerating the bat-head into its arc back toward the catcher. --- Below is a portion of my response to an e-mail I just received regarding a problem of rotating the lead-shoulder back to the 105 degree position.

There are a few things to keep in mind when initiating the swing that will allow the you to bring the bat to contact with the back-elbow still at your side ("L" position) and the lead-shoulder pulling back to 105 degrees.

You must retain some of the shrug (inward turn) in the lead-shoulder after you initiate body rotation. If you direct your hands back toward the pitcher with your arms, the shrug is gone and a more linear hand-path will develop. The hands will be too far extended to get the 105, BHT, or the Hook effect.

You must keep the hands back and think about accelerating the bat-head back toward the catcher - not your hands (or knob) at the pitcher. Think about holding the top-hand back (or pulling back) and letting the pull on the knob (toward 3ed base) from the rotation of the lead-shoulder to first accelerate the bat-head back toward the catcher -- then around toward contact. When initiated correctly, the balance of the mechanics will just happen in the proper sequence. -- This is best practiced with a heavy bag."

Jack Mankin