Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Mon May 17 22:15:15 2004

Hi All

Teacherman’s reply is flawed and misleading. During Sheffield’s pre-launch movements, the bat-head arcs upward 90+degrees before the back-elbow begins to lower. The “reactionary” force he refers to is actually torque being applied. The bat-head will have swept behind his head and well into the swing plane by the time the elbow lowers to the slot position.

The lowering of the elbow causes the top-hand to circle around the bottom-hand (THT). Try it yourself. Remember, if you start with the bat cocked forward toward the pitcher, you must also roll the top-wrist to sweep the bat behind your head and into the swing plane as it accelerates back.

THT is also being applied by the push/pull action of the hands ‘before’ the elbow starts to lower. Look at the Bonds clip (second row, right) at: http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/swings.html. Note that the bat-head is being accelerated back in frames 5,6,7 and 8 by my count (I get no frame count with the video). This is before the elbow begins to drop. --- There is even greater bat-head movement before the elbow lowers in Sheffield’s pre-launch movements.

Jack Mankin