Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Fri Sep 29 11:20:24 2000

>>>WE TALK ON HERE ALOT AS TO HOW TO GENERATE BATSPEED AND SOME THINGS JUST SEEM TO MAKE SINCE FOR MORE BATSPEED BUT MAYBE A TRADEOFF ON QUICKEST WAY TO CONTACT.I WENT OUT AND EXPERIMENTED OVER AND OVER WITH DIFFERENT ELBOW POSITIONS,TOP HAND TORQUE,BOTTOM HAND TORQUE,ELBOW IN THE SLOT.I HIT SOME DEEP BALLS OFF THE TOP HAND TORQUE BUT EQUALLY FAR BY JUST LIFTING THE ELBOW HIGH AND PULLING FORWARD AND THEN USING BOTTOM HAND TORQUE.BUT WHAT THREW IT ALL OFF FOR ME WAS HOW DID MY LONGEST SHOT BY 20' COME FROM THE ELBOW IN THE 45 DEGREE POSITION AND LESS MOTION.ALL WERE OFF A TEE WITH SIMILAR BALLS AND NEAR SAME TRAJECTORYS OFF THE BAT.ALSO I SEE SOME SLOW MOS OF DELGADO SWINGING AND HE HAS A HIGH ELBOW BUT I CANT SEE ANY PULLING BACK WITH THE FINGERS TORQUING THE BAT AND WONDER IF THEY ARE JUST GAINING SPEED AND MOMENTUM FROM A LONGER SWING AND THEN USING BOTTOM TORQUE NEAR THE END.ANY THOUGHTS. .......rql.....we are having the same exact discussion at setpro.com...as a matter of fact, someone posted a clip of delgado....from what i can see, there are far more major leaguers who have a high elbow than i had previously realized....but it's a lightening-quick high elbow...goes up to 90 degres & back down to 45 degrees in about .006 of a second.....what ourpose does this serve, the high elbow?....you yourself once speculated that it may be just a "cocking maneuver" and i think you may be right....with all due respect to jack & tom, i find it hard to attribute it to top hand torque because i too do not see them pulling the bat toward the catcher with the fingers.....& i have inquired several times as to the technique for pulling the fingers to the catcher, because for me it is mentally hard to make a swing motion in the opposite direction of the target.........or, to jack or tom.....can top hand torque still be at work WITHOUT this one particular technique of pulling the fingers toward the catcher?....respectfully, grc..... grc see if you can find one with delgado going above 90 degrees it seemed to wherever i saw it and i wonder if the higher starting point allows more momentum from longer swing and is this trait consistent for him because of great reactions and others would get jammed.just food for thought.rql<<<

Hi grc & rql

Just a couple of questions regarding your discussion

(1) Do you believe the bat-head starts accelerating toward the pitcher at initiation - or do you believe it first accelerates back toward the catcher be before arcing around toward the pitcher?

(2) Do you think the bat-head would accelerate toward the catcher while both top and bottom hands are driven toward the pitcher?

Jack Mankin