Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Feb 5 12:43:45 2004

>>> Need a little help on the exact sequence of the THT. here's what i see happening.

You're in your stance and you pull the hands back to the armpit area for launch. this is accomplished by pulling the top elbow backwards.

The hands can continue their path back toward the armpit by pinching the right scapula towards the spine(RHB).

Now here's where it gets tricky, so let's set the sceen so we have some reference points. you're sitting at your keyboard right hand palm down. turn your hand so your thumb is pointing towards the ceiling and palm facing left. put a pen(the bat) in your right hand. it is now pointing toward the ceiling. cock your wrist back so the pen is pointing toward your right shoulder. is this the first movement of THT?

If you loosen your grip and pull the top of the pen down it will now be pointing at the middle of your bicep. inorder for this to happen your fingers had to loosen, but not the ore lock(thumb and forefinger). it appears that with this small movement we've gained some potential bathead displacement for the BHT to take advantage of??

Now with the pen pointing at the bicep muscle rotate the thumb so the palm is facing up. don't uncock anything. is this part of the THT?

Is the uncocking of this sequence what you call BHT? and does it happen during the hook or is it uncocking the moment the forearm is parallel to the ground? the uncocking is what throws the bat at the ball... the longer we wait the more momentum from the shoulder rotation to assist?

Just a few thoughts as i look at my daughter's swing. thanks, Rich

Hi Rich

Describing these types of mechanics is where the written word is so inadequate. What I could demonstrate in two seconds could take volumes of writing. But here are a few key points to keep in mind.

Thinking of accelerating the bat-head back toward the catcher by the cocking and un-cocking of the wrist can lead to problems. The forward cocking and then un-cocking of the wrist will result in the bat-head being accelerated back in an angle that is too vertical to match the swing plane. This action would cause your "pen" to point toward your back-shoulder as you stated.

If we use Sosa's pre-launch mechanics as an example, we would note that he does not accelerate the bat-head by un-cocking his wrist. As he brings his hands toward the shoulder, his wrists remain straight but roll so that your pen would arc from vertical to sweep toward his right ear (not back toward the shoulder). This will cause the bat-head to sweep behind his head and into the swing plane.

I have asked my students to extend their right thumb straight out (vertical to the bat) when practicing pre-launch torque. The thumb should make a circling motion. First back toward the ear and then as the bat-head sweeps behind the head into the swing plane (palm has rotated from vertical downward), the thumb should rake along the collarbone as the shoulders start to rotate. If the batter starts with the bat in the launch position instead of vertical (no Pre-launch Torque), the thumb would just brush across the end of the shoulder when applying THT.

I am going to use an overhead clip of John applying THT to illustrate the “Thumb” cue above. You can see that his hands are not going forward during the PLT phase of his swing. His hands stay back close to his back shoulder as the bat accelerates rearward. Note that if he had extended his thumb, it would rake across his shoulder. This cue (Thumb to the Shoulder) helps keep the hands back and allows the shoulders to rotate the hands around the swing plane.

PLT/THT and the “Thumb Cue”

Torque (hands applying force from opposing directions) is being applied throughout the entire swing. I broke the torque into three parts according to the most active hand in that phase. --- Pre-Launch Torque (mostly top-hand and arm generated) is used to accelerate the bat-head into the swing plane before shoulder rotation starts. Top-Hand-Torque is applied once shoulder rotation starts until the back-elbow lowers to the batter's side. - Bottom-Hand-Torque, the bottom-hand being pulled around the top-hand by lead-shoulder rotation, is being applied once the back-elbow lowers to the side until contact.

Jack Mankin