Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Feb 5 14:53:17 2004

>>> Some of the golf greats have cues and observations that may apply fairly directly to hitting. <<<

Hi Tom

I received an e-mail from Hitman regarding how what he has learned while swinging a sword in his Martial Arts class might be applicable to the baseball swing. Both require body rotation and good transfer mechanics to maximize bat/sword acceleration. One of the main differences he pointed out was in the grip. When swinging the sword, he commented that greater acceleration from torque could be achieved by gripping the sword with a 2 to 3 inch gap between the hands. He wanted to know if this grip could not also enhance his baseball swing. --- Below was my reply

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Hi Hitman

Thank your for your kind words and please excuse the delay in my reply. I have been away from the office the past couple of weeks. – Although there have been a couple of Major League hitters who gripped the bat with the hands separated 2 or 3 inches, I feel that it would be more valuable as training technique than for a game grip. By swinging the sword as you described, I would think you get a better understanding of how Bottom-Hand-Torque (pulling back with the bottom-hand around the top-hand) accelerates the bat-head to contact in the baseball swing.

My main concern for using this grip for the baseball swing is what effect it would have on the hand-path. In a good baseball swing, about half the bat speed generated comes from the energy that is transferred by the angular displacement of the hand-path. Although this grip would increase the amount of the torque factor, how much acceleration may be lost by altering the hand-path? Also keep in mind that a bat’s mass increases greater down its length more than with a sword. This changes the moment of inertia and therefore the swing dynamics required to supply those forces for maximum acceleration.
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Tom, I think my answer to Hitman may also have some relevance to differences between the baseball and golf swings. Whereas, the grip for swinging a sword increases the amount of torque (push/pull action from the arms to the hands) that can be applied, the overlapping of the hands with the golf grip greatly restricts this push/pull action of the hands. Different from the baseball swing, torque applied with the golf grip comes mainly from the cocking and un-cocking of the wrist.

Therefore, in the golf swing where there is little push/pull action of the arms, shoulder rotation is mainly to accelerate the hand-path with limited influence on the amount of torque generate. Do you feel this difference would influence the swing dynamics and shoulder rotation between the two swings?

Jack Mankin