Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Fri Nov 5 16:04:59 2004

>>> I have some problems with the video clips that you have shown. The clip of the circular handpath shows Jack inwardly rotating his front shoulder and this puts his back elbow behind his back (look for back elbow as he rotates backward) and it turns his head and eyes prior to the swing. I am sorry but I do not see the top major league players doing ths during their swing. I have clips of Bonds, Sosa, etc and they all keep their elbow from getting behind their back and I see a shoulder shrug but no inward rotation of the front shoulder causing head and eye movement.

The elbow going behind the back causes casting of the hands and excessive CHP that will cause the hands to travel too far away from the body. This is something that you see in very young kids where they use this to generate more bathead speed distally to the body because of a longer arc of the swing however they have trouble htting inside pitches or pitches that are travelling at a higher rate of speed.

Any comments <<<

These clips are from the first video. It was a filmed seminar where I described the batting principles and mechanics as I demonstrated them. The purpose of the clips that Nick posted was to explain principles, and thus I was speaking as I was demonstrating, rather than trying to act as if this was a game time situation. Instead of focusing on distracters like early head and eye movement, focus on the fact that a straight hand path CANNOT create bat speed when the element of torque is eliminated (the steering wheel knob prevents torque from being applied to the bat).

In fact, you can apply all of the inward turn, pre-launch torque, scap load, etc, etc, but if the hand path straightens no bat speed will be generated on this training aid. Barry Bonds could not generate any bat speed with a straight hand path with this training aid. As importantly, the demonstration clearly proves that when the hands and arms are swung in a circular motion the bat will generate considerable bat speed even though torque has been eliminated.

Anyone can spent about $10 at the hardware on a wooden dowel and a steering wheel knob and try it out. It is a great training aid, which BatSpeed.com may market soon.

You stated " The elbow going behind the back causes casting of the hands and excessive CHP that will cause the hands to travel too far away from the body." -- I disagree with you. In preparing their launch position, good hitters do pull the back-elbow back past the shoulders. In fact, Tom Querry felt the swing we show in the Swing Mechanics Page did not show the elbow far enough behind the back to represent a good launch position. I explained that the elbow did not appear as far behind the back because the clip was filmed from right-centerfield instead of the normal left-center.

How far back the back-elbow is drawn does not determine the width of the hand-path. How wide the hands are cast is controlled by the rotation and un-shrugging of the lead-shoulder. A tight hand-path occurs with full rotation and un-shrugging of the lead-shoulder -- Less shoulder rotation allows the hands to cast out in a wider path.

Jack Mankin