Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sun Mar 20 17:12:57 2005

Coach Peavy-

Thanks for responding.

My understanding is that to have a swing oprimized for quickness requires using as short a swing radius as possible which requires bellying up to the plate and hooking the handpath for the inside ball as described by Jack Mankin here,usually by lead scap action
("unshrugging").

I think you have a very nice website with great descriptions and illustrations,but my assumption has been that you teach the same handpath type mechanics as Lau Sr/Lau jr which is pull knob,get hands flat then get lead arm extension/top hand release. This tends
to prevent the quicker handpath hook type mechanic and requires the player to be more off the plate with a longer swing radius and more baseline body muscle stretch/separation.

Here is a simulation of hook/"fishook" effect :

http://www.setpro.com/stuff/swingphysics1.gif

and a thread from this setpro related website web site discussing this:

http://www.hitting-mechanics.org/vbforum/showthread.php?t=595

These features-more off plate,more separation,longer radius create a higher load/resistance to rotation may translate to a potential for higher maximum batspeed at contact but at the expense of swing quickness (longer duration and path of swing from "launch" of bathead-after knob pulling has finished-to contact) which means higher swing timing error. The difference in quickness is not very great, under a frame at 30 frames per second, but still significant.

What is your relation to lau/lau jr. ?

Can you say more about pursuit curves and their application to the swing ?