Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Tue Nov 23 08:38:12 2004

One thing that makes a dialog like this difficult (besides being impersonal and not at the same time) is that there is no clear meaning to many of the words.To make progress,you would have to propose a hypothetical swing model and gain enough consensus on the meaning of the words and illustrations that describe the model that one person in the dialog could restate the description of the model in a way that the person originally defining the model would largely agree with.The you could state differences and agree on ways to test for validity.

Jack has gone a long way toward doing this on this site.He is also pretty good at restating others hypotheses.

In spite of (perhaps because of) Jeff's lengthy experience,there may be some valid concepts that Jack has described that will be very hard to understand let alone believe without somehow taking a "fresh look" and understanding that everyone sees things slightly differently and feels things quite diferently even when "science" tells us they are the same.

Another way to approach the problem (which I like) is to look for comparisons with other skills.In the case of of "THT", my belief is that this is an upper body/club/bat action that is very similar to the mechanics of golf.If you read hitting books,it is the same as Lau Jr's description of "pulling the knob with the hands,not the shoulders".There are a few others in hitting and many others in golf who explain the same thing.I would propose that what is being described in all cases at a more fundamntal level is the typical motion of the body as it is continuing to coil itself.This does in volve the club swinging back because the desired ongoing coil turns the club in a different /better plane than what would be described in golf as "swinging over the top". This plane is the result of better coil which permits a quicker swing whiich "launches" the bathead later and with less timing error.all essential requirements of a good swing.

What is very different from golf is the shoulder (scap) and arm action that shortens the swing and is optimized for a bat with different mass/distribution of mass from a golf club so that it can function successfully in the face of limited reaction time.

The lead arm action that controls the bat from launch to contact is also quite different from golf,but the lower body weight shift and overall coiling of the trunk and desired "swing plane" are very similar.

At a higher/more abstract level,both the golf and baseball swings can be understood as a blend of a loading action (golf - "back swing") that begins in the middle of the body then,after weight shifts forward slightly,a superimposed unloading action beginning in the middle (while the loading continues in the shoulder arms bat for a bit and which is seen as THT and a transition/formation of the desired swing plane while coil is optimized).

This is described in many ways for golf,but this is one of the best illustrations:

http://www.golfbetterproductions.com/article-gi-summer-201.asp

This shows how swinging the club "back" (toward catcher) quickens rather than lengthens the swing becasue the body is continuing to load/coil at this point.

Another big difference in hitting is wrist action which is much more of a "torquing" push/pull transmitted through arms than the wrist cok/uncok/snap in golf.