Posted by: Shawn () on Thu Aug 12 18:02:04 2004

Does any actually know what happens in the swing?
> >
> > While taping today my swing looked very good from the side. Similar to ML'ers. It looked like the hands stayed in and rotation brought them forward.
> >
> > After taping from a slightly different angle, side/front, the elbow seemed to be getting away from the body and the hands. I thought I was doing something wrong until I looked at Barry Bonds from the same angle, and his swing was very similar to mine. After that I looked at some front shots of Alex and could see the same thing once I knew it was there.
> >
> > Side shots just don't tell the whole story. Only a side/front view can tell excatly what the elbow and hands do in the swing.
> >
> > I thought I wasn't keeping the hands in enough during rotation until I looked at Bonds from the same angle. Which I happened to have a side view of the same swing that made it look like the hands stayed in more during the swing.
> >
> > We just don't have enough angles of swings to properly break down the swing. I believe the hands stay in more for an inside pitch, but what I saw today changed my view on middle/out.
> >
> > Shawn
> >>>>shawn when you saw your elbow away from the ribs[normal slot point for inside]was this on the middle out pitch you were hitting.

RQL,

I was only swinging the bat. Just a normal swing, middle or middle out.

The next time I will pretend to hit different locations and see what happens.

I find it funny that what I percieved as correct, keeping the hands in, wasn't what really happened. I thought it was a flaw in my swing at first. Jack talked about how the bat is projected many years ago, but I tend to think of swing mechanics as middle in.

It would be nice if we could follow some hitters and get multiple angles that would debunk some myths about the swing. It's easy to see when a hitter pull the hands in on an inside pitch, it's not as clear on what happens for pitches middle and away. I can see it better now that I'm looking for it, but you don't have that 45 degree angle from the opposite batter box to look at.

Shawn