Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sat Jan 6 15:31:49 2001

Hi Tim

Tim, I went to your site “http://digsports.net/” and was impressed. I especially like the video clips that you are able to present. -- I viewed the clip of your sons swing and though I would add a few of my thoughts.

I think the most informative time to view his swing was during the still frames sequence as the clip was loading. Here I was able to study the position of his legs, body and limbs for each segment as the swing progressed. I like slow motion to get a feeling for the continuity of the swing, but use frame-by -frame for analysis.

A. First of all, I like your son’s initiation of the swing better than that of T. Martinez’s swing you showed. Yes, they are similar in the way they bring the bat into the plane of the swing, but Martinez’s bat came almost to a complete stop just before he fully initiated the swing. Your son kept his bat-head smoothly flowing from launch through full initiation.
B. I agree with Tom Guerry, His axis does slide forward too much after rotation has begun. This is and indication he is thinking of using his back-side more than his lead-side.
C. For the most part, the position of his legs, shoulders and limbs at contact is good. In fact the position of the back arm (classic “L”) is better than this particular swing of Martinez at contact. Note: For pitches from the middle-in, the back arm should not be extending until after contact. -- Martinez bat-head was lagging into the contact zone - probably because he initiated the swing with a static bat and less THT.
D. Your son’s main problem is his soft front side. Frame-by-frame clearly showed that on this swing, there was too much flex in the lead elbow and to little lead shoulder pull. Flex in the lead elbow means he cannot fully transfer the rotational energy of the lead shoulder. And the back shoulder and arm cannot develop much torque because there nothing (or little) firm to push against. Although a little late, Martinez’s front side mechanics is more like what he should strive for. He will gain a lot more pop in his bat with better use of the front side. It will become even more important as the weight of his bat increases.

At least this is how I see your son’s swing from just one angle. I find it much better to make assessments on swing-plane, hand-path and a few other mechanics from frontal and back views.

I wish you nothing but the best for your new site.

Jack Mankin