Posted by: Jude (wayout1@columbus.rr.com) on Fri Jun 13 15:42:46 2008

The folowing was an Epstein reply to the subject of "Feeling the Stretch":

The hitter's upper torso should counter-rotate as a "unit." As a result, he should not feel any stretching of the shoulder.

In addition, the hitter's hands will not completely get back in his counter-rotation because his front heel will normally drop before this happens. The result is the hands being "yanked" forward - AS THEY ARE GOING BACK. This is a product of the hitter excuting one of the three "core" mechanical movements of the rotational swing: the hips leading the hands (torque). But, of course you must already know this from watching my videotape set, "Do We Teach What We Really See?" and also reading my book,"Mike Epstein on Hitting."

The "only" time the hitter's hands will get completely back as a result of the counter-rotation is when he gets a pitch slower than what he anticipated. To "buy" more time, the rotational hitter has the "luxury"of being able to "sit down" on his back leg somewhat to offset the timing disparity and slow his swing launch by a fractional second. This ability to wait a little longer is why rotational hitters have less problems with off-speed pitches than linear hitters. The linear hitter is done at this point. Once his weight starts coming forward, he can't stop; he's done.

Hope this helps! (I second that.)