Posted by: BHL (Knight1285@aol.com) on Mon May 10 11:52:36 2004

Hi Jack,

The conclusion that I have reached is that, although hand torque may be a de facto initiator of the bat-head sweep, it does not continue throughout the swing. At some point during the course of the stroke, the hands become very light on the bat-head; centrifugal force then takes over, and prevents the path from deviating on a linear course.

As a result, I think it would be more accurate to say that top hand torque helps initiate a circular path, rather than stating that one must apply torque throughout the entire swing.

Yet, according your model, the process of initiating the bat-head into an arc holds primacy over other subsequent stages of the swing; therefore, I am starting believe that "rotate the heel, rotate the bat-head," if polished, can become two of the singular most important "cues."

Specifically, the "cue" of "rotate the heel" could become more accessible to hitters if they were told to "rotate the toe towards the pitcher." Since "a body in motion tends to stay in motion," swiveling the front toe open will start the hip movement while the shoulder stay back; this, in turn, will cause the reactive movement of the heel drop, causing the rotating hips to continue gyrating in the same direction, allowing for seperation, and lower / upper body connection, and "tug."

Simarly, "rotate the bat-head" could be utilized easier if you just instructed batters to "rotate the top hand around the bottom hand" throughout the swing. Since the bottom hand torque is reactive to top hand torque, and a circular hand path is reactive to bottom hand torque, one should initiate all three with top hand torque."

Put these together, we get the following "cue": "Rotate the toe towards the pitcher, and rotate the top hand around the bottom hand throughout the swing."

Note: I used "initiation," because, as soon as centrifugal force makes the hands light, the torque instruction becomes a "cue."

So, in a way, both you and Adair are right.

Sincerely,
BHL
Knight12285@aol.com

P.S. My sister just graduated from the University of Richmond.

While I was away, I can put my thoughts on torque thusly: torque initiates the swing, and, therefore, is a minor--albeit important--part of the swing.