Posted by: Marcus Boyd () on Wed Jul 28 10:55:50 2004

>Or should I focus on learning the torque procedures instead of the CHP? Will the CHP come with learning THT, will it take care of itself? If I learn one, will the other come or do you have to learn both of them separately? I have a couple tryout coming up in 2 weeks, so the quicker I learn, the better.

Dougdinger,

I think the CHP is the basis of rotational mechanics...it's what it's all about. While rotating around the stationary axis (the spine), the circular hand path will hook as the front shoulder comes back around toward the catcher. This is what causes BOTTOM hand torque. It just happens naturally with good CHP.

TOP hand torque, on the other hand, is something good hitters develop AFTER developing a good CHP. It adds momentum to the bat head BEFORE bottom hand torque is even applied, meaning you have attained higher bat speed even before BHT starts.

PRE-LAUNCH torque is that finesse motion Jack describes just before initiation of the swing to add a slight "running start" to the THT that starts at initiation.

The way I see it (and Jack please correct me if I'm wrong) a mechanically sound rotational swing MUST PRODUCE AT LEST a circular hand path which will automatically produce BHT. This is the bare minimum of a rotational swing. Add THT properly and you have generated more bat speed with the same CHP and BHT. Add pre-launch torque, and you will generate yet more bat speed on top of THT.

Bottom line is this: you must have a good circular hand path FIRST. Trying to initate top hand or pre-launch torque won't help without a good circular hand path.

Marcus