Posted by: () on Sat Jul 31 18:27:47 2004

Looking at Ted Williams overhead page in Science of Hitting, it looks like when his back elbow comes in, the bat and the hips form a 90 degree angle, in other words, they're perpendicular to each other, for most of the swing until just before contact when the bat speeds out. Does the same thing apply to all good rotational hitter?

All good hitters initiate the swing with rotation. It's one of swing charatistics of the ML swing. It makes them quicker with the actual swing and the bat bat is swung rather then controled by the arms and hands to much.

It's one of the things you should be trying to accomplish with teaching mechanics, setting up a good launch position or sequence.

Most amatuers do it poorly because of improper lowerbody action or excessive arms and hands action.

One of the things you might be seeing in the pictures is something Mankin preaches about. Not letting the hips rotate without transfering it directing to the swing. Everything works together at launch and any sequence to it is minimal. In a good launch position the upperbody is back and the hips are slightly forward, creating the power v position. From there you just rotate.