Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Fri Dec 10 15:28:06 2004

>>> Welllllllllll, we went to batting practice and all I told her was to put the thumb to her shoulder at the start of the swing when she lifted her heel and use the top hand to start the bat head around faster, get a lot of bat speed at the start of the swing. Bingo! the elbow slamed into the power position, palm up/palm down on contact, bat speed was increased. She could not believe the bat speed with no increased effort. Increase in body torque without special emphasis on getting the hip around sooner just gave her the timing she needed. I will continue to read this complicated stuff i guess. Rs <<<

Hi Rollinstone

According to the other site, what your daughter experienced is a figment of her imagination. THT is “Voodoo Science.” THT “does not exist” She must learn to forget the top-hand and swing with only the bottom-hand. Batspeed.com only wants your money and couldn’t care less about helping your daughter.

Rollinstone, hope you you don't that I used your post vent a little. Below is a reprint of the “Thumb to the Shoulder” drill.

Jack Mankin
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Bill, I would suggest your son practice the following drill before changing his timing. The drill works best when practiced with a heavy bag (or tire) before hitting off a tee or soft toss. --- There are two keys to efficient rotational transfer mechanics. (1) Do not drive the top-hand forward at the start of the swing. (2) Make more productive use of the lead-side.

To help a student accomplish these keys, I have the student take their normal launch position – with one major change. I have the batter lift the thumb of the top-hand away from the bat and point it toward their back-shoulder. As the batter initiates the swing, the thumb should be touching the shoulder. The batter should try to keep the top-hand pulling back so that the thumb is touching the shoulder as far into the swing a possible. The bat-head is accelerated back toward the catcher by lead-shoulder rotation pulling (through the arm and hand) on the knob-end of the bat. The accelerating trajectory of the bat will cause the top-hand and forearm to rotate and lower to the horizontal contact position.

In order for the batter to pull the thumb to the back-shoulder during initiation, he must pull the back-elbow back toward the third base dugout. He is now learning the basics of how to apply Top-Hand-Torque while maintaining a good CHP.