Posted by: MeatHead () on Thu May 13 22:49:45 2004

After about five years, I think I am beginning to understand how to use tht to initiate the swing. My study was delayed by one of my coaches(imagine that). When I first started to study tht, I was taking "pull back toward the catcher" literally. This led to me dipping the back shoulder. I was pulling back, but I wasn't getting into the proper swing plane. My chp was more like a golfers I guess. I would occasionally pull one down the line, but more often then not I would pop up weakly to the opposite feild. Last night while experimenting, it hit me like a ton of bricks. The night started off normal, watch the Cardinals blow another game, look at the mechanics page to get a visual, then grab my duct taped wood bat and start to experiment.

The stance I was using was similar to Griffey. I hit the heavy bag and then started to take some dry swings. I decided to try something I saw in the mechanics page. It appears from the frontal view Jack uses that the batters front elbow goes up and toward the plate while the back elbow goes down and away from the plate arcing the bathead pointing the barrel toward where the on-deck circle roughly would be behing me. Problem solved, my bat was now in the perfect swing plane as it swung around in an arc like a flat disc. It felt smooth and natural. It then dawned on me that the top hand doesn't pull directly toward the catcher, it is more toward the area where the on deck circle behind me would be. I talked a freind into throwing some bp and the results were thrilling to say the least. I now understand that pulling strait back toward the catcher was causing me to dip the rear shoulder possibly causing wrist binds(I never understood that term till now). I guess I got in trouble when I thought of cues like strait or directly back toward the catcher. I hope this info will help anyone else trying to understand tht. I would enjoy hearing thoughts or debates from Jack or anyone else on the board. MeatHead