Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Feb 2 12:41:40 2005

>>> The bat should act as a flail and follow the "law of the flail".
The whip effect that you are describing it is more appropriately described as the "endless belt effect" by Homer Kelley. <<<

Hi Mb

I agree with you that describing the angular acceleration of the bat as a “flailing action” is far more accurate than referring to it as the “crack of a bullwhip.”

Note: To readers that may not be familiar with a flail – (encyclopedia.org/F/FL/FLAIL.html) “Flail, or flagellum, is a farm hand-implement formerly used for threshing corn. It consists of a short thick club called a swingle or swipple attached by a leather thong to a wooden handle in such a manner as to enable it to swing freely.”

In the baseball swing, the handle of the flail would be the lead-arm, the wrists serve as the hinge (leather thong) and the bat is the swipple. The rotation of the shoulders flings the lead-arm and hands into a circular path. The angular displacement of the hands (or hinge) induces an angular displacement rate to the bat (or swipple). This flailing action of the bat concurs with Kelley’s “Law of the Flail” -- Centrifugal Acceleration, Centrifugal Momentum, and Centrifugal Deceleration.

It is important to note that a flailing action (or Centrifugal Acceleration) results from the hands (or hinge) being accelerated in a circular path. Whereas, the cracking of a bullwhip requires a more linear extension and stopping of the hands to uncoil the whip. There within lies the difference between the linear theory (extend the hands in a straighter path) as compared to a rotational transfer model which relies on a CHP.

Jack Mankin