Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Mon Feb 2 15:31:58 2004

>>> However, I did read this particular post, and would like to point out a few key items.

First and foremost, I would like to say that your objective above is essential to understanding how the swing works, and, prior to doing drills, people must understand just what they are trying to achieve. Nevertheless, I feel that some of Mike Epstein's cues allow me to put these principles into practice.

The first item that I believe is de regueur to hitting is dropping the front heel on time, which is best accomplished by opening the front foot at a 45 degree angle, while keeping the shoulder under the chin. Remember, the stretch position does not occur until that foot lands, which means that the shoulders are not being pulled to a premature positon. Nevertheless, once the heel drops, the front leg begins to straighten, the backside releases, the top elbow tucks in, generating significant THT. This is the "early batspeed" you talk about on your DVD.

One should also not forget to work the lead elbow up for pitches down, and vice-versa and keep plenty of flex in both elbows. Here's why. If the pitch is down, the lead elbow working up will put the bat on the right trajectory to meet the pitch going down, and establish rotation around a spint tilted backwards. Once the elbow works up, all forward movement is thwarted at heel plant, and the body must rotate. This means the bottom hand is causing BHT.

If the pitch is up, the front elbow works down slightly, causing the body to spin around an axis titled forward. If the pitch is right down the middle of the plate, you would then be rotating around a vertical axis.

In the case of the DVD, John Elliot is swinging at a high pitch, which is why his weight ends up against his front thigh--rather than back thigh--at contact. If the pitch were lower, Mike's "L" position in his back leg would look even more like an "L."

Now, I am not arguing that the back foot becomes light at contact; I'm just saying that more weight ends up against the rear thigh on a low pitch.

As for the circular hand path, once the hitter chooses the proper axis, the shoulders rotate, and so do the loose elbows, especially on the low pitch, where the "chicken wing" forces weight back against the shoulder, forcing it to rotate back. The hands follow suit, and so does the bathead, brought around by shoulder rotation. In order for this to happen, the back shoulder must dip. Even Elliot had a very slight dip of the back shoulder on the high pitch.

All three of these components mean 180 degrees of bat rotation.

Please respond ASAP. <<<

Hi BHL

Just a couple of points regarding your statement.

Most hitters drop their heel, straighten the front leg and lower their back-elbow to their side. However, very few generate significant acceleration of the bat-head back toward the catcher. For a batter to apply THT, the direction of force of the top-hand must be pulling back during initiation. Other than the best hitters, the top-hand is directing its force forward at initiation – not rearward and all those cues will not solve this problem

You stated, “One should also not forget to work the lead elbow up for pitches down, and vice-versa” – The lead-elbow should always remain in the plain of the swing. If the pitch is higher, the swing plain (and lead-elbow) must also be higher (and vice-versa). As I read it, this is a very bad cue whatever name it is given.

You stated, “As for the circular hand path, once the hitter chooses the proper axis, the shoulders rotate, and so do the loose elbows, especially on the low pitch, where the "chicken wing" forces weight back against the shoulder, forcing it to rotate back. The hands follow suit, and so does the bathead, brought around by shoulder rotation. In order for this to happen, the back shoulder must dip. Even Elliot had a very slight dip of the back shoulder on the high pitch.” – Far too many good hitters keep their lead-arm fairly straight for the "chicken wing" cue to applicable to most hitters. I think it is more of one person’s style than a cue for all. – Loose elbows may lead to loose linkage (or connection).

A batter should not think of dipping the back-shoulder. Once the axis is set, the shoulder will rotate to the lower position according to the axis angle.

Other than those points, we are in agreement.

Jack Mankin