Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatSpeed@aol.com) on Mon Aug 9 13:46:45 2004

>>> I'm currently at Seton Hall University. During the last 2 months of my college season I decided to do some research about the swing where I came upon your hitting technique and have been training ever since. After about 4 months, much research on the site and my own personal trial and error, I have a few questions of my own.

First off I noticed two things about THT. One is that when you apply the torque with the top hand the bat cannot be in a virtical position. My question is, is the bathead at an angle or "in line with the lead arm" all the way from application to contact. Or does the bat naturally fall in line with the lead arm after THT is applied, (if the bat is not in-line with the lead arm at initiation).
Second, I know this is a gray area in discussion but I seem to find this as the single most questioning problem in understanding the application of THT. Do the wristsunhinge when THT is applied, and if they do nothow far exactly back do you torque before you innitiate shoulder rotation.
What I really want to know is how can you pull the bat back directly towards the catcher (virticallly) when the swing plain is more horizontal. When I try pulling the bat into the swing plane with tht, I'm actually (as a righty batter) at an angle away from my body so that the nob is pointing up the 3rd baseline. Please clarify. Respectfully <<<

Hi Mike

Welcome to the site. -- When doing video analysis of hitters, I see two major flaws occurring in how these batters accelerate the bat-head from a more vertical position. (1) Their hands move forward away from the back shoulder as they accelerate the bat-head back. (2) Basically, what you just described – they accelerate the bat-head back in a direction (too vertical) that does not match the swing plane.

Both of these flaws lead to serious wrist-binds (many times painful) and an unpredictable plane. For this mechanic to be productive, the bat-head must be allowed to sweep behind the head (hands still back at the shoulder) into the swing plane. Mike, if you have the knob “pointing up the 3rd baseline” at initiation, you are pulling back and rolling the top-wrist in the wrong direction. The bat should be in the plane and about parallel with the catcher’s shoulders as you initiate rotation.

If pre-launch torque is applied correctly, the palm of the top-hand will roll from palm-vertical toward palm-down – sweeping the bat-head behind the head. Rotating the palm from palm-vertical to palm-up will produce the results you described. --- Below is a post from the Archives that may help.

Jack Mankin
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Re: Re: Re: Components--for Jack
Posted by: Jack Mankin (mrbatspeed@aol.com on Thu Feb 5 12:43:45 2004

>>> Need a little help on the exact sequence of the THT. here's what i see happening.

You're in your stance and you pull the hands back to the armpit area for launch. this is accomplished by pulling the top elbow backwards.

The hands can continue their path back toward the armpit by pinching the right scapula towards the spine(RHB).

Now here's where it gets tricky, so let's set the sceen so we have some reference points. you're sitting at your keyboard right hand palm down. turn your hand so your thumb is pointing towards the ceiling and palm facing left. put a pen(the bat) in your right hand. it is now pointing toward the ceiling. cock your wrist back so the pen is pointing toward your right shoulder. is this the first movement of THT?

If you loosen your grip and pull the top of the pen down it will now be pointing at the middle of your bicep. inorder for this to happen your fingers had to loosen, but not the ore lock(thumb and forefinger). it appears that with this small movement we've gained some potential bathead displacement for the BHT to take advantage of??

Now with the pen pointing at the bicep muscle rotate the thumb so the palm is facing up. don't uncock anything. is this part of the THT?

Is the uncocking of this sequence what you call BHT? and does it happen during the hook or is it uncocking the moment the forearm is parallel to the ground? the uncocking is what throws the bat at the ball... the longer we wait the more momentum from the shoulder rotation to assist?

Just a few thoughts as i look at my daughter's swing. thanks, Rich <<<

Hi Rich

Describing these types of mechanics is where the written word is so inadequate. What I could demonstrate in two seconds could take volumes of writing. But here are a few key points to keep in mind.

Thinking of accelerating the bat-head back toward the catcher by the cocking and un-cocking of the wrist can lead to problems. The forward cocking and then un-cocking of the wrist will result in the bat-head being accelerated back in an angle that is too vertical to match the swing plane. This action would cause your “pen” to point toward your back-shoulder as you stated.

If we use Sosa’s pre-launch mechanics as an example, we would note that he does not accelerate the bat-head by un-cocking his wrist. As he brings his hands toward the shoulder, his wrists remain straight but roll so that your “pen” would arc from vertical to sweep toward his right ear (not back toward the shoulder). This will cause the bat-head to sweep behind his head and into the swing plane.

I have asked my students to extend their right thumb straight out (vertical to the bat) when practicing pre-launch torque. The thumb should make a circling motion. First back toward the ear and then as the bat-head sweeps behind the head into the swing plane (palm has rotated from vertical downward), the thumb should rake along the collarbone as the shoulders start to rotate. If the batter starts with the bat in the launch position instead of vertical (no Pre-launch Torque), the thumb would just brush across the end of the shoulder when applying THT.

Torque (hands applying force from opposing directions) is being applied throughout the entire swing. I broke the torque into three parts according to the most active hand in that phase. --- Pre-Launch Torque (mostly top-hand and arm generated) is used to accelerate the bat-head into the swing plane before shoulder rotation starts. Top-Hand-Torque is applied once shoulder rotation starts until the back-elbow lowers to the batter’s side. - Bottom-Hand-Torque, the bottom-hand being pulled around the top-hand by lead-shoulder rotation, is being applied once the back-elbow lowers to the side until contact.

Jack Mankin