Posted by: grc () on Fri Dec 10 18:58:00 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 <<<
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> Hi Rollinstone
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> 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.
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> Below is a reprint of the “Thumb to the Shoulder” drill.
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> 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.
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jack, hopefully o won't be banned from the site for making the following comments but what i have to say needs to be said.....first, though, thank you for finally answering the question i have been asking for years but never got an answer on...tou gave your abswer to someone else but that's fine....

but...your answer as to the specific technique as to how to execute the knob-to-the pitcher thing....well, all i can say is that it is pathetic....i agree with much of what you have preached over the years, jack, and i think that all the insults you have got from the other site have been to some extent unjustified...i think the single biggest weakness in you theory on tht/knob-to-the-pitcher thing is not the notion itself but the defintion/explanation of it....

and your comments in ypur most recent post, i fear will enourage more ridicule, and quite frankly you will deserve it....really, how many major league hitters have their thumb and therefore the knob of their bat anywhere close to their shoulder at any pont in their stride or swing, much less having it close to their shoulder at launch position?....i think what you have just said is not much less worse than paul pettrica's article at webball.com (if the article is still there)....

jack, i think you have boxed yourself in....you don't want to admit that there are still things about your theory that still needs to be figured out...i honestly don't think it would hurt you or your credibility to simply say there are questions iut there that still need to be resolved and then seek to resolve them....but every post you ever make in response to criticism is always defending tour theory and never once admitting that some of your thories may have some flaws that need working on....

jack, please clearify or recant your remarks on a hitter keeping his thum close to the shoulder....i say all of this in the spirit of constructive criticism, because for the most part ypur theories are sound...but honestly, sometimes you nlow it, and this is one of those times....

hopefully i will not be banned....respectfully, grc.....