Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Oct 3 21:40:44 2000

Hi All
>
> John Basden offered a post at the end of last month that discusses (or questions) the similarities and differences between the baseball and golf swings. I decided to re-post it this month because it may produce an interesting discussion.
>
> Dear Sir,
> > I like the articles very much on the physics & mechanics of increasing batspeed. However, I am a golfer and I wanted to know if the same principles apply. Here are my questions: (1) I am not clear on the information on "opposing forces" on the bat. Is the lead hand pulling the club and the trailing hand pushing the club to create opposing forces on the downswing? Is this the circular path/orbit that the hands travel? (2) On the downswing, is the swing initiated by the front hip moving towards the catcher & the back hip moving toward the pitcher. Does this occur before or during the lateral hip slide to initiate the downswing? (3) Which comes first, the lateral hip slide or rotaion of hips on the downswing? Lastly, will a circular arc of the hands in relation to the body create a short window for a square clubface to meet the golf ball? Meaning, by increasing clubhead speed with a rotational shape vs. a linear path to the golf ball sacriface accuracy for distance? I visualize the golfs swing path as a circle rotating around a fixed axis sustained by the hips while the target line is tangent to the circle. However, the idea is to hit accurate ling shots, not just long shots. I would very much like your input and solutions to my problems. I really enjoyed your articles. Thank you for your time and consideration. John Basden <<<

Hi All

I would like to start the discussion with the topic of "weight shift." As many of you know, I have never understood how a linear weight-shift contributes to bat-head or club-head angular acceleration. Since nearly all baseball and golf instructors teach the importance of transferring ones' weight, I feel that is imperative that I be brought up to speed on this. So I really need your help in understanding the mechanics of how weight-shift increases bat-head or club-head speeds. --- Also, to get a feeling of just how important weight-shift is, it would be a great help in my understanding if you would state what percentage of head speed is derived from the shifting of ones' weight.

I would appreciate your help.
(1) Percentage -- "a little" or "a lot" wouldn't help (20%, 40% or higher)--- I have said about 50% comes from hand-path - 50% from torque - 0% from weight-shift.

(2) Mechanics --how is a linear weight-shift converted into angular displacement of the bat or club head.

Jack Mankin