Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Thu May 6 14:14:09 2004

>>> You've really got me confused now. The bag experiment described above had the top hand being pulled back by the elbow. You then "accelerated (the bat head) to the bag". I agree that you are applying primarily torque to the bat, but aren't you doing this by simply extending the wrists? You can't possibly be saying that significant bat speed is generated by wrist flick, can you? Isn't the motion described in your experiment - and maybe I just don't understand it - exactly the same as extending your hands, throwing the bat head at the ball, pushing with the top hand or similar type cues? <<<



Hi JJA

I totally agree with your post, including the wrist flick. The first part of the test (driving the top-hand forward) is the linear mechanic we see from “extending your hands, throwing the bat head at the ball, pushing with the top hand or similar type cues?”

As I have pointed out before, torque and the angular displacement derived from the hand-path are the forces that accelerate the bat-head in both linear and rotational transfer mechanics. Rotational hitters generate greater bat speed because they apply torque and CHP from initiation to contact (THT to BHT). Whereas, linear hitters delay applying torque (knob at the ball – waiting for the whip effect) until they are close to the position we used for the test.

I call BHT (pulling back of the lead-hand – second part of test above) rotational mechanics because it compliments and works with the CHP. The lead-shoulder pulling the bottom-hand back to apply torque also shortens the hand-path and keeps it circular (the “hook”). Applying torque by driving the top-hand forward (linear mechanics) lengthens and straightens the hand-path, plus greatly reduces the “hook’ effect.

Jack Mankin