Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Sat May 8 02:34:04 2004

>>> I have viewed many tapes given by others on this site such as bonds.. and in slow motion it looks like his bat knob starts toward the pitcher first during his swing. and still havent seen his front leg opening the hips as it appears to stay firm until after the ball is hit with the hips getting into play primarly from the back side first. <<<

Hi Spence

Welcome to the site. I would like to address your statements regarding Bonds mechanics. You first stated that “it looks like his bat knob starts toward the pitcher first during his swing.” – Spence, there are some good clips of Bonds at - http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/swings.html – where we can study his swing frame-by-frame. The fifth clip (second row) is a rear view close-up that shows where the knob is pointing from pre-launch to contact. A frame-by-frame sequence of his swing reveals that he starts with the knob pointing back toward the catcher. The knob does not rotate around toward the pitcher until late in the swing (1 or 2 frames before contact). It is obvious he is swinging the bat-head and not driving the “knob at the ball.”

You then stated, “still havent seen his front leg opening the hips as it appears to stay firm until after the ball is hit.” – The Batspeed Instructional Video/CD teaches hitters to have plenty of flex in the lead-knee at foot-plant. The batter then uses the extension of the lead-leg to drive the lead-hip back toward the catcher to aid in generating a powerful rotation of the hips. Therefore, at contact the lead-leg will have fully extended.

Clip eight (second row) gives a clear view of Barry’s lead-leg action. I will let the reader decide whose description of his lower-body mechanics is most accurate.

This clip also makes obvious another important Batspeed.com batting principle. – Great hitters generate great bat speed because they first accelerate the bat-head back toward the catcher before rotating and directing their energy toward the ball. With this clip you can clearly see that the bat-head is first accelerated back toward the catcher.

Another important point -- Note that the bat-head is rotating back at a faster rate than the back-elbow rotates downward. This means that there is a “top-hand pulling back” component that is independent of back-elbow rotation (lowering of the elbow).

Jack Mankin