Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Jan 12 12:52:05 2005

>>> You're hung up on something that has no relevance. The rigidity of the lead arm and bat, has nothing to do with anything. Is a whip flexible, yes. Is a bat rigid, yes. Doesn't mean there isn't a whip "effect". Without the "rigidity" you'd have a connection issue. The sudden change of direction of a whip handle is the key element. The sudden change of direction of the body is the key element of the whip effect of a swing. The load/unload of the body should be your area of interest. Not the arms or hands or bat. <<<

Hi Teacherman

It is increasingly obvious from your statement that what you now describe as the “Whip Effect” is completely different than the “segmental” definition of the whip as defined by Professor Adair and Dr. Yeager. In both of their definitions, as each segment of the body reaches its maximum velocity, it transfers its energy to the next segment which culminates in the final segment (the tippet) being accelerated to the speed of sound as the segments uncoil (crack!).

Dr. Yeager states, “The second part is the conservation of momentum in which the body conserves energy and then transfers it through different body segments. Conservation of momentum is very similar to the cracking of a bullwhip”

By Dr.Yeager’s own definition, for there to be a “whip effect” in the baseball swing, there must be an acceleration and uncoiling of each segment. This would mean that as the shoulders rotate, the biceps segment would uncoil at a greater rate than the lead shoulder, which would uncoil the forearm segment at an even faster rate, etc.

Teacherman, as you correctly point out, this is not what takes place in the baseball/softball swing. The biceps, forearm, wrists and hands rotate with the body in a fairly fixed (rigid) relationship to the body. And as you also point out, any uncoiling of the lead-arm away from the body “you'd have a connection issue.”

You stated, “The sudden change of direction of a whip handle is the key element.” However, the “whip handle” you refer to is the bat with no trailing segments. The “key element” in the swing is actually the angular displacement of the hand-path produced (CHP). It is the CHP that induces an angular displacement of the bat-head (like swinging a ball around on a string) – not the whip effect as described by Dr. Yeager.

Jack Mankin