Posted by: Herb () on Fri Nov 12 16:45:22 2004

Bonds and Mcgwire were always pfo hitters and so was Ted Williams.
> *******************************************************************
> Flail - noun
> "ancient hand tool for threshing grain. It consists of two pieces of wood: the handstaff, or helve, and the beater, joined by a thong. The handstaff is a light rod several feet long, the beater a shorter piece. "
>
> How in the world could it ever be a linear method of swinging??
> Clearly to use a flail properly it would have to be swung in a circular motion. Understanding the physics of the flail will increase batspeed, ball compression and increase ball velocity off the bat.
> Which I will save for another post.

mb, Don't take the term "linear" so literally. Of course pure linearism in the dictionary sense of the word would mean a swing similar to making a shot in the game of pool. Obviously we don't mean that. Linear is thrusting the hands forward whereas rotation is the hands being in a circular hand path.As far as Mcgwire, Bonds and Williams are concerned, I agree they were PFO's and they were rotational. Certainly Carew was not as PFO and he was linear. You don't have to be a PFO to be rotational (e.g., Piazza), but there does seem to be a correlation between PFO mechanics and rotational mechanics. For the flail stuff, I won't comment because frankly I can't find anyone who can explain what it is, and I have never heard any baseball commentators use the term.It might be a term someone made up to describe something that meant something to them personally in their own way, I don't know. If I'm misinformed please let me know.