Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Mon Dec 4 18:12:23 2000

Shawn-

I haven't seen much detail on Dave's site,so I assume he put this out in his newsletter.I think he is a prisoner of thinking of the swing in terms cues that describe the desired feel of the swing rather than looking carefully at the swing(video/slow mo)to see what the hitters are really doing/ how well the hitters mechanics harness the power of the optimum underlying physical and mechanical principles that Jack has demonstrated here.

This is also the same with Charly Lau Jr who has to resort to a lot of weight shift and top hand release mumbo jumbo to describe what is more simply stated as "rotation around a stationary axis",a "circular handpath","initiating the swing with top hand torque" and "applying torque from initiation to contact".

Lau,and now it sounds like Hudgens, are under the impression that the best way to describe how the body rotates around a fixed axis is in terms of how weight is shifted.Lau even goes so far as to classify hitters as front footed(good) or back footed(bad).He demonstrates the inaccuracy of pursuing this reductionist view by showing an unbelievable set of still shots that show the torso way too far forward which would have to result in an unacceptable degree of lunging.In similar fashion,Hudgins shows his lack of understanding of video reality by the still shot he uses on his website.No power hit could have the arm/hand bat position he shows.

Lau goes further to state that without weight shift,you will be a rotational hitter who can only pull the ball and poopoos Ted Williams for hyping the rotational swing.Lau also institutes an inappropriate grip as one of his Laws as well as keeping the head in there which is probably why you have to let go of the top hand after contact if you don't want to sacrifice batspeed.

Jack's work confirms that the high batspeed required for any successful power hit must come from rotation of the body around a stationary axis and the right transfer mechanics.If your handpath,for example,straightens before contact,you WILL lose significant batspeed.

When Lau and Hudgins preach the necessity of weight shift,they are under the impression this is necessary to "stay on the ball" and not open the hips/shoulders too soon.What they are really describing here is the necesity of establishing the right axis of rotation once the pitch is recognized,but before the bat is launched followed by continued torso rotation.It is more accurate to instruct a player how to generate power with body coiling and uncoiling,establishment of the axis of rotation and launch of the bat with tophand torque at initiation.These are not the words you can use,but the words/cues need to produce this."Weight shift" cues may work for some,but to focus on weight shift to the exclusion of harnessing the necessary underlying physical/mechanical principles does a disservice to the student.Going so far as to believe a cue to the point of DISCREDITING a universal attribute of great swings(circular/arcing/not straightening handpath) is simply denial as well as counterproductive.

This said,learning good body rotation and the proper action of the top hand are very difficult in this most difficult of all motor skills.Teaching this requires more of an open mind and as good an understanding of the underlying principles as possible.