Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: The Hitting Guru () on Wed Aug 11 20:13:35 2004

>>>Can you feel some discomfort in the wrist of your top hand when working on the heavy bag if you’re properly executing rotational mechanics? It feels like my backside is still rotating around at contact even though my front side is pulling back. – Tom Waz<<<
>
> Hi Tom,
>
> If you are properly executing rotational mechanics, you should not have any discomfort. If a batter experiences discomfort in the wrists or any part of the body when practicing with the heavy bag, it indicates that the batter is tense and/or applying forces to the bat after contact (driving the bat through contact). The heavy bag is intended to teach the batter to expend all rotational energies by contact and the reason is because the bat is only in contact with the ball for about 1/2000th of a second. Any forces applied to the bat after contact are wasted energy. At the moment of contact with the heavy bag, the body and limps should be perfectly relaxed and the body should be balanced. The hands and arms are not tense nor should they move forward after contact with the bag.
>
> In contrast, if you were attempting to hit a deflated basketball with a bat, you would apply forces to the bat after contact in order to propel the deflated ball since the bat and ball are on contact for a much greater period of time. However, since a baseball is in contact with the bat for such a short period of time, it is important for the batter to practice being perfectly relaxed and balanced at the moment of contact, and to apply the correct mechanics to use all available energy by contact.
>
> The next time you practice with the heavy bag, take a full swing and find out if you are applying forces after contact. If so, slow the swing down and work gradually up until you develop the mechanics to apply all energy by contact. Your bat speed should increase and you should drive the ball harder because you will be directing all of your bodies rotational energies in the ball, rather than the follow through.
>
> Jack has further discussed this topic in the products section under heavy bag, which we would encourage you to read:
>
> http://www.batspeed.com/products08-1
>
> BatSpeed.com

Any kind of discomfort is possible, especially as the human body ages. (Just look at Ken Griffey Jr.)
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>
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> >>>Can you feel some discomfort in the wrist of your top hand when working on the heavy bag if you’re properly executing rotational mechanics? It feels like my backside is still rotating around at contact even though my front side is pulling back. – Tom Waz<<<
> > 
> > Hi Tom,
> > 
> > If you are properly executing rotational mechanics, you should not have any discomfort.  If a batter experiences discomfort in the wrists or any part of the body when practicing with the heavy bag, it indicates that the batter is tense and/or applying forces to the bat after contact (driving the bat through contact).  The heavy bag is intended to teach the batter to expend all rotational energies by contact and the reason is because the bat is only in contact with the ball for about 1/2000th of a second.  Any forces applied to the bat after contact are wasted energy.  At the moment of contact with the heavy bag, the body and limps should be perfectly relaxed and the body should be balanced.  The hands and arms are not tense nor should they move forward after contact with the bag.  
> > 
> > In contrast, if you were attempting to hit a deflated basketball with a bat, you would apply forces to the bat after contact in order to propel the deflated ball since the bat and ball are on contact for a much greater period of time.  However, since a baseball is in contact with the bat for such a short period of time, it is important for the batter to practice being perfectly relaxed and balanced at the moment of contact, and to apply the correct mechanics to use all available energy by contact.  
> > 
> > The next time you practice with the heavy bag, take a full swing and find out if you are applying forces after contact.  If so, slow the swing down and work gradually up until you develop the mechanics to apply all energy by contact.  Your bat speed should increase and you should drive the ball harder because you will be directing all of your bodies rotational energies in the ball, rather than the follow through.
> > 
> > Jack has further discussed this topic in the products section under heavy bag, which we would encourage you to read:
> > 
> > http://www.batspeed.com/products08-1
> > 
> > BatSpeed.com
> 
> 
> Any kind of discomfort is possible, especially as the human body ages.  (Just look at Ken Griffey Jr.)
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >

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