Posted by: BHL (Knight1285@aol.com) on Sun Mar 6 21:19:53 2005

Dear Jack,

I am in the process of editing your material, but you have to decide whether you agree or disagree with my feedback. I see three elements missing from your research: a preface, clear terminology, and a works cited.

I will start will the preface, since this is where you will introduce the reader to terms that you will use. I will also clarify some of your terminology.

Terms

Rotation Around a Stationary Axis (Keep): The most effective type of rotation occurs when a person begins with a commensurate amount of weight on both feet and legs then rotates. This is because doing so will rotate both sides of the torso, resulting in an equal degree of turn in both shoulders. In turn, both arms will rotate, exerting a force on both hands that causes both hands to spin around each other, creating a corresponding gyration of the bat head.

Rotation Around the Front Side (Add): When a person posts weight on the front side, and uses it as a pivot point to rotate around, this will turn only the back side of the torso, causing only back shoulder gyration. Consequently, only the back arm will rotate, causing only the back hand to spin around the front hand. Since there is no force being applied through the front hand, rotating around the front side provides only half the power as compared to rotating around a stationary axis.

Rotation Around the Back Side (Added): Likewise, if a person pushes his or her front side around his or her backside, only the front portion of the torso will turn. Now, only the front arm can exert a force to turn the bat head. In the end, rotating around the back side provides only half the power as compared to rotating around a stationary axis.

CHRE (use in lieu of BHT and THT): This acronym stands for Combined Hand Reactive Exertion—that is, using rotation around a stationary axis to cause both hands to rotate around each other.

BHRE (use in lieu of BHT): This acronym stands for Back Hand Reactive Exertion, which is caused when the culmination of rotating around the front side leads to only the back hand pushing around the front hand. For reasons discussed earlier, this should be avoided.

THRE (use in lieu of THT): This acronym stands for Bottom Hand Reactive Exertion, which is caused when one turns around the back side, and his or her corresponding hand movement is such that the front hand pulls around the back hand. This should also be avoided.

FAS (use in lieu of front arm bar): This acronym stands for front arm squeeze. If the front arm strays away from the chest, the FHRE will decelerate. This principle is grounded in physics: an object can be shoved more forcefully when closer to an object than from a distance. The same rule applies here: the body will push the front arm around the body with less force if it separates from the body.

BAS (use in lieu of keeping back arm back, since rotation brings it forward): This acronym stands for Back Arm Squeeze. If the back arm does not press against the lower back, THRE will decelerate for reasons discussed previously.

FAS / BAS (use in lieu of front arm bar and keeping back arm back): This denotes an effective use of both arms; the acronym stands for equal usage of Front Arm Squeeze and Back Arm Squeeze. If no FAS is used, only BAS can work to apply BHRE to the bat; conversely, if no BAS is used, only FAS can apply THRE to the bat. Efficient hitters use both squeezes at the same time.

CHP (Keep): This acronym stands for a Circular Hand Path. The Exertions discussed earlier helps a batter attain CHP. All bats must traverse in a circle, but some bats travel around this path more rapidly than others. For instance, if the batter relies solely on one type of HRE (i.e., hand reactive exertion), the bat speed will be only half as fast as a batter that applies both HREs (i.e., hand reactive exertions) to the bat.

IDCZ (use in lieu of PLT): This acronym stands for Increasing Distance through the Contact Zone. Since acceleration increases over distance, the further the bat head is cocked away from the CZ (i.e., contact zone), the more the bat speed will increase by contact, provided that all other areas of the swing are executed correctly.

WHCP (Add): This acronym stands for the Width of the Circular Hand Path. Since distance is always a factor in acceleration, bats will accelerate over a wider arc than a narrower arc.

MC (use in lieu of Casting): This acronym stands for Modified Casting. In order to achieve a wider hand path, obviously the batter must cast. However, the batter approaches the problem by keeping the upper arms against the upper body, but allowing the forearms to go the ball. The body rotation will continue, as will the HREs, but the circle created will be wider. The MC will afford the batter to hit the ball with a greater amount of velocity for reasons alluded to earlier.

Here is your preface; I will edit your terminology (i.e., as it pertains to “Batspeed Research,” “Truisms and Fallacies,” and “Swing Mechanics” several days from now.

Best Wishes,
BHL