Posted by: HWC (Caveman7@Prodigy.net) on Sat Oct 7 22:11:42 2000

This thing about bottom hand torque makes no sense to me. If a right handed batter gets to what I call the power position, ie; the bat just starts to make contact with the ball...If you have a hitter do this and stop at that point of the bat contacting with the ball and hold back on the bat with your finger tips , and then ask the hitter to continue their swing do you think the pull arm/bottom hand is supplying the power? It is a guide/lever to help transfer and distribute power/strength. The top hand is at the 45 degree bend pushing and the left arm is straight. Any young hitter or older who is taught to open the front shoulder or pull before they push on anything other than an inside pitch will become frustrated with their hitting. Most of what I have observed is that a lack of balance is the number one failure to hitting. The next key is being able to see the ball properly from a balanced stance and tracking the ball from the pitchers release to the catchers mitt. By having the hitter get in front of a mirror and looking into the mirror, from a balanced stance, they usually do not turn their head far enough to the left. You can see this by looking at their eyes in the mirror, if you can not see the white on both sides of the pupils, their head is not turned far enough to the left. The hitters own physical size/bulk/etc; will determine if they can see the ball better with a closed/open or somewhere in between stance. If you can not see it, it makes it more difficult to hit. When they load up/inward turn/shift their weight/ or whatever term you use, you usually see the front shoulder move towards the position where the second baseman is playing and that is too much. Now add pulling and this thing on top hand torque and in my opinion you have a dead pull hitter that can not hit a low outside pitch. Ask yourself or anyone else how many coaches pitch inside at youth or the high school level inside and assign a percentage figure to it. With a metal bat you can hit home runs off the handles but not many with wood. Over time power is developed by the hitter and the more anyone tries to pull the bat or rotate the front shoulder the longer it will take to acquire the skills of hitting a baseball or having fun while trying to do it. Futher more while the hitter is at the point of contacting the ball and you are holding the bat back with your finger tips, have the hitter raise his head up slightly or look at the pitcher. You will find their power or resistance you are feeling in holding the bat back is reduced. Unless the head is down at the point of contact and while you are hiting the ball, you do not engage the intrinsic muscle group in the area of and under the latissimus dorsi. If you put your thumbs at about waist level on either side of the spine and have a person raise their head and then look down you will feel the muscles engage. If the head is not down at contact slightly with the ball you are not transferring the power from the legs through the back to the shoulders properly and you do not see the ball as well. I try to stress hitting the ball up the middle all the time. And when in a cage hitting to right field or up the middle is all I want them to concentrate on. Anyone can swing early however can you develope the timing required to hit all fields...not unless you push before you pull and learn when to open the shoulder in my opinion.