Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Dec 7 22:47:10 2004

>>> jack, i know you believe, as i do in rotation around a stationary axis...furthermorei think you believe, as i do that the front arm should be fairly straight, not bent during the stride (some critics would call this "barring" the front arm)....

i have observed that keeping the chin tucked into the front shoulder during the stride will go a long way on (1) keeping the front arm fairly straight and (2) facilitating a "one-piece" swing....

have you ever observed a relationship between keeping the chin tucked into the front shoulder and your ideal batting mechanics?....thanks... <<<

Hi Grc

I tell my students they should be able to touch their chin to the front shoulder in the launch position. This means the lead-shoulder has been properly shrugged inward.

As for as the keeping the lead-arm fairly straight, I agree with you that most of the better hitters do. However, I have no problem with a batter that swings with a bent lead-arm (like Bonds) as long as the arm maintains about the same angle (fixed) through contact (except for outside pitches).

If I correctly read Tom’s response to you regarding the lead-arm, he advocates keeping the arm in a fixed position until a couple frames before contact. I maintain that extending the arm straighter just before contact produces a more linear hand-path and less bat speed than keeping the arm in the fixed position (like Bonds).

Jack Mankin