Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sun Jan 30 13:28:58 2005

>>> Hello Jack. I was hitting with my minor league hitting coordinator the other day and he was pointing out to me how hitters start their hips. We looked at how guys take their back knee down and forward before turning our foot to allow the hands to get out in front of the hands. He explained it to me as just lifting your heel once you plant the front foot. I heard that certain organizations teach this (Florida--my organization, Oakland) I also heard that certain organizations believe this isn't correct (White Sox). I don't have any clips of White Sox players to compare this, but I am just curious if you've noticed this and how much it can affect bat speed. I don't do this. I was informed not to change, but if it is something that can help me, I'd like to add it in. My hitting coordinator compared me to Jim Thome for this little hip thing. Apparently Thome doesn't do this, but I didn't understand it as we watched Thome's video clip. I don't think Bonds does this either. Any information that can help me decide whether or not this is a better way to start the hips would be appreciated. I did see this with Soriano in his video clip. I hope I explained this correctly. Thanks in advance. <<<

Hi Kevin

I assume when you stated, “to allow the hands to get out in front of the hands”, you meant to say the ‘hips’ should lead the hands. All the best hitters, including Bonds, open (or cock) their hips 20 or 30+ degrees ahead of shoulder rotation. This stretches (loads) the muscles in preparation for rotating the body and as the hips open, the back-knee does rotate and lower.

Personally, I have not found using lower-body cues to initiate the swing to be helpful. A batter can acquire a good launch and initiate rotation with correct lower-body mechanics and still produce mediocre results. This is because they do not accelerate the bat-head with the correct trajectories during initiation. Their mechanics are only concentrating on the bat’s trajectory that occurs toward the ball.

However, for the bat-head to attain maximum velocity at contact, it must be accelerated around the entire swing plane – not just what occurs out in front. This means the batter’s mechanics must first accelerate the bat-head rearward before directing their energy toward the ball. A batter simply can not reach their full potential relying on half the swing.

Kevin, I have found that when the batter practices initiating the bat with the correct trajectories, the mind will produce a sound lower-body program to facilitate it. Using cues to aid lower-body mechanics without the correct mental image of the swing is less effective. Below are a couple of posts on this theme that may be helpful to your career.

Jack Mankin
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: questions about my son's hitting lessons
Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com on Tue Jan 25 12:21:34 2005

>>> The term circular hand path has not come up in the lessons obviously. What I see (naked eye at full speed) is that my son starts with his hands just below his right ear (he's a RH batter), with the bat in a mostly vertical position. As part of his timing mechanism, he "drifts" his hands back toward his right shoulder. This either causes or occurs simultaneously with a slight inward turn of his front/left shoulder, though he is not specifically instructed to do this.

His hands do appear to take a circular path, though I find it hard to believe he could take a truly straight path and still make decent contact with the ball. So I'm not sure how reliable this observation is. Are there visual keys I should be looking for: i.e. left/front arm staying tight to chest/rib area, right/back elbow moving down to his side as swing launches, rotate around an axis, straightened front leg at contact, etc?

Thanks for your help. <<<

Hi Jon

I would say from your description that your son’s pre-launch and swing mechanics are on the right track. You have named most of the key components of a good swing. Although one can get a feel for the quality of a batter’s swing with the naked eye, it requires a frame-by-frame video analysis to determine the efficiency of a batter’s mechanics.

There is an important biomechanical principle to keep in mind when evaluating a hitter’s mechanics. It states, “When a ballistic motion is initiated, there are trajectories produced that can only be changed at its margins.” In other words, two swings can appear very similar to the naked eye and yet one can be far more productive than the other. Although both swings may appear to have launched the hands into a productive circular path, what may appear as slight differences occurring during initiation can result in substantial differences by contact.

Even with a frame-by-frame analysis, we can see the hands (as a unit) are being accelerated, but we can not see the direction of force the top-hand applies to the bat handle. When the top-hand is pulling rearward with the fingers, the bat-head also accelerates rearward in sync with shoulder rotation. If the batter applies a forward pressure with the palm of the top-hand, the bat-head starts to lag behind shoulder rotation (falling behind the power curve).

I use the contact frame to determine the efficiency of the batter’s transfer mechanics. If the batter initiates the swing with the correct forces, the bat-head’s acceleration will stay in sync with shoulder rotation and the bat will be brought to contact as shoulder rotation is depleted. Pushing forward with the top-hand results in the bat-head falling behind the power curve and lagging 30 to 80+ degrees from contact as the shoulders stop their rotation. The batter must then rely on the extension of the arms to bring the bat to contact.

The direction of force applied by the top-hand is also evident in the initiation frame. When the batter is pulling rearward with the fingers, the hands (as a unit) stay back closer to the shoulder and we can see that the rotation of the shoulders is accelerating the hands. When the batter is pushing forward with the palm, the hands will normally start to move away from the shoulder before the lead-shoulder rotates. The more the hands move away from the shoulder before rotation, the poorer the results.

Jack Mankin
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: RE: Change of direction - cont.
Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com on Tue Jan 18 12:43:41 2005

>>> Jack,i dont like that towel idea either and am sure that is not what shawn thinks[imo] however some people broughtme video of 3 teams of hitters in bp and only 1 kid had proper hip and shoulder rotation that faced the pitcher by contact. True most did not load right either but the body not turning gave them no chance to acquire the connection. The only 1 that did turn well happened to be the best hitter of them all. <<<

Hi Rql

As I mentioned earlier, the first think I look for when doing a video analysis of a student is the frame of their contact position and the frame just before it. Around 90 percent of the time, the hips and shoulders are facing the pitcher. In fact, most of these students will have rotated their hips and shoulder to facing the pitcher well before the bat has accelerated to contact.

However, only the better hitters will have the lead-shoulder pulled back to the 105-degree position. Many of them will not have the lead knee fully extended at contact as well. I have found that working only with a batter’s lower body mechanics does not solve the problem unless they understand its importance to accelerating the bat-head around the swing plane.

Once the hitter starts utilizing more efficient transfer mechanics to maximize acceleration of the bat, the greater the load to shoulder rotation, and therefore, the greater the separation between hip and shoulder rotation. The more the batter concentrates on making productive use of the lead-side, the more he extends the lead-leg to get the shoulder back to the 105 position. The more the batter concentrates on keeping the hands back at initiation by pulling back with the top-hand, the more the hips will lead the hands, and etc.

The bottom line is that the lower body will drive the hips and shoulders to supply the most productive rotation when accommodating sound transfer principles. Without sound transfer principles, the hips and shoulders experience a lower load rotation that leaves the bat-head lagging behind.

Jack Mankin