Posted by: Coach C () on Fri Feb 6 17:16:47 2004

"my opinion:Very minimal backswing in golf,much more hands stay back......."
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> correction,should say minimal backswing in HITTING
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> Sorry.

No problem.

Tom, this is where I think people (including myself) get lost in the swing. I'll try to explain....
There is generally an instinctual tendancy to create power in the arms and hands immediately in the swing with most players, thus in and an effort to get more power, the body responds to the hands and arms and loads backside to get more into the swing. This would be incorrect in baseball, as it is in golf (I'll term it "swaying"). My true sense of the swing would be that the initial loading of the swing is absolutly effortless, no locking joints, no wrist bind, no tightly wrapped muscles........absolutly tension free, thereby utilizing the fast twitch muscle fibers and not activating concentric muscles that slow us down. Thus my theory is that there is absolutley zero backswing in baseball. As Jack has said the speed is always building. Thus pre-launch is in fact the launch position. This is why I can't relate to Epstien's model....broken up into parts. The swing is ever-flowing like a running stream. In Jack's model I can not relate to the term hands back....it implies tension....if I hold anything back it creates tension. I think it's better to train the hands to get in the proper order, or put another way "learn to fall in line". THT trains the hands to get in line, but, never do I feel that they are being held back. In fact, I feel the speed building.

I think the term "batspeed" hurts this site tremendously by having people misunderstand the real benefit of Jack's theories, "to get on plane". There should be no effort to create batspeed, but rather ever effort made to learn how to hit on plane. Batspeed comes as a result of being on plane, not the other way around.

On a side note, I've always felt Hogan and Jones had very different swings. Jones, actually came slightly over-the-top, while Hogan never did (Hogan was prone to hooking as you surely know). It does not surprise me that Jones felt his right foot, while Hogan (I do believe), never stressed it.

Thanks Tom

Craig