Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sat Feb 12 11:28:13 2005

>>> Let me first say that I am convinced of the mechanics preached on this site, and I believe that if only half of the lessons advocated here were taught to every Little Leaguer in the US, we'd be improved 3-fold.

However, I want to present a different look on this issue. Frequently, I see players like Barry Bonds, A-Rod, Pujols, and Sosa pointed out as successful hitters who have incorporated these mechanics. That is great, and in my opinion, one of the best ways to form your swing ("copying" the core mechanics of great hitters). But this is my point: What is to say about those great hitters who DON'T use these mechanics, and the poor to average hitters who do?

For example, Adrian Beltre, to me, did not appear to use these mechanics last season. His swing looked horrible, but he had an MVP-type season. Mike Cameron has very, very good mechanics, but his hitting is average.

If in fact producing bat speed is by far the most important factor in a great hitter, why don't these hitters produce according to their mechanics? <<<

Hi Mike

Welcome to the site. I appreciate your appraisal of our batting principles. However, a very detailed analysis of thousands of major league swings does not support your contention that some great hitters have poor mechanics while some players with great mechanics perform poorly.

Although I do not have clips of Beltre for analysis, I can say that I have never charted a great hitter who did not have great mechanics. And, I found very, very few players with good mechanics that preformed poorly. I have seen many batters who appeared to have good mechanics with the naked eye. But a frame-by-frame breakdown of their swing revealed flaws in their mechanics and distortions in the swing plane that limited their production.

Mike, below is part of an article regarding my study of the swing on this issue. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Jack Mankin
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It may sound cynical, but I no longer believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, or that old Truism that you have to be a Born Hitter to have "pop" in your bat. But something in a few players batting mechanics allowed them to swing a bat with much greater speed than other good athletes. I spent the last 12 years finding out what that "something" was. I was determined to give coaches the proven facts to teach the mechanics that generate power and bat-speed (and not simply someone's pet theory regarding it).

The study covered nine years and literally thousands of hours. The first two years I spent charting the swings of 185 professional players. I would video tape games shown on television and replay the swings back in frame by frame action. By placing a piece of clear plastic over the screen I was able to trace the movement of each part of the body and the bats reaction for each video frame of the swing. From the time the swing was initiated to contact required from 4 to 6 frames depending on the mechanics of the batter.

When I started the study, I made a sign and hung it over my desk. It read " Have no preconceived theory, report only what you observe." To make sure I correctly identified a players swing mechanics, I charted 15 swings (at good pitches to hit) of each player over a two year period. I then devised a system whereby I could identify players according to the characteristics of their mechanics. I used 39 different mechanical characteristics and developed 12 swing classifications that players fit into. It was truly amazing how close the performance stats were for players with the same classification. There was other very interesting findings I made during the charting phase of the research and I will discuss them with you when those subjects arise.

In the next part of the study I undertook the task of defining the forces acting on the bat that would cause the various reactions I had recorded. These reactions involve a great deal of rather complex physics. My only formal study of physics was those required for my engineering major in college. Not having a strong physics background, I spent a considerable amount of time discussing my finding with college physics departments. I cannot thank them enough for their help and patience.

To me, one of the most important findings to come from the research was that a player's swing mechanics was far more important in determining batting potential than the player's athletic abilities. Even a 6 foot, 4 inch, 230 pound Mark McGwire performed just as poorly as other players with the same swing classification in 1991 when he hit .201 with 22 homeruns. I discovered that whenever a hitter went into a batting slump, there would be a notable change in his mechanics and he was just performing according to his new swing classification.

The last couple of years I have spent a lot of my time developing methods to overcoming old muscle memories (long stride, weight shift and extension) and how to teach the rotational mechanics, a circular hand path and torque, which is used by the great hitter in the game today.