Posted by: Jack Mankin (Mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Jan 10 00:42:41 2001

>>>In apost in december you referred to tom g's post on tophand torque where he spoke about the way big mac accentuates top hand torque on the outside pitch to hit the ball to center or left center.you said you had written a three paragraph response and were about to post it when you saw his. Would you post yours anyway as i am having a hard time understanding and another description would help.i wonder how you can accentuate tophand torque more on an outside pitch than one down the middle?do you have time to cock the hands to a greater degreewhen you perceive the pitch to be on the outside corner? <<<

Hi Larry

I am not sure exactly what I wrote at that time. But I think the post below along with a little background information may help. --- Regardless of who a batter is, he does not just possess bat speed - he must generate it. There are two forces a batter can apply to the bat that develops that bat speed. One is the transfer of the body’s rotational energy via a circular hand-path. The second is from torque - the hands applying force to the bat from opposing directions. About 50% to the bat speed will come from torque and 50% from a chp.

Early in my study of the baseball swing, I thought that most of the torque was applyed late in the swing, just before contact. I had noted that almost all hitters who could hit the ball with real authority had this one thing in common. You would see a definite pull of the lead shoulder back toward the catcher at contact (bottom-hand-torque).


But there was a few hitters like Juan Gonzalas and Cal Ripkin Jr (sp) that just did not fit that model. They could hit the ball hard but without full shoulder rotation and therefor exhibited little bottom-hand -torque. Yes, they had a good chp but that could not account for all the energy required to hit a ball that hard. This was like a cloud hanging over my study for quite some time.

Then I discovered top-hand-torque. Once I understood that some batters could apply a significant amount of torque during initiation, and well into the swing, it all became very clear to me. --- Hitters like Big Mac expend their rotational and torque energies to bring the bat perpendicular to the balls line of flight at contact. If they are a little early the ball is pulled, if a little late the ball goes to the opposite field. --- We can discuss Mac’s swing in detail later.

This post I made earlier may shed more light on your question.

>>>I think one of the main reasons the chp (circular hand-path) hitters are leading the performance stats is because there is no need for the batter to change his swing mechanics or timing due to pitch placement. He is able to use the same basic mechanics regardless of where the pitcher throws to him - and still hit the ball hard. The only adjustment he needs to make is a slight change in how he initiates the swing. Once that change is made - his mechanics for the balance of the swing is on autopilot regardless of where the pitch is.

The change in the batter’s initiation that programs the swing is controlled mainly by the direction of pull of the top hand. In other words, the direction of pull of the top hand at initiation sets up trajectories that control the balance of the swing mechanics.

As an example - say the pitchers mound is at 6 o’clock and the plate is at 12 o’clock. On an inside pitch, the direction of pull of the top hand is in tight, say at 1 o’clock. This causes the back elbow to come almost straight down to the batter’s side. This also keeps the lead arm across the chest and generates a tight hand-path and thus a low-load resistance to shoulder rotation. The back elbow coming more straight down with little body rotation during initiation, means top-hand-torque was applied over a limited amount of time. But with full shoulder rotation (lead shoulder pulling back toward catcher) at contact, the batters finishes the swing with a lot of bottom-hand-torque.

On a pitch more in the middle of the plate, the pull of the top hand is more straight-away or at 12 o’clock. With a more straight-away pull the shoulders rotate a few degrees as the back elbow lowers to the batter’s side allowing a greater amount of time to apply top-hand-torque. This direction of pull also causes the lead arm to cast slightly away from the chest and generates a somewhat wider hand-path. A wider hand-path generates greater bat speed and a higher load resistance to shoulder rotation. Less shoulder rotation means less bottom-hand-torque. So on the pitch in the mid part of the plate, what we wind up with is greater bat speed from a wider hand-path and more balance between bottom and top-hand-torque being applied.

On recognizing an outside pitch, the batters pull of the top hand is more away from center - or at 11 o’clock. This direction of pull causes the back elbow to sweep for some distance with the body’s rotation before coming down. This allows top-hand-torque to be applied over a much greater portion of the swing. This direction of pull also causes the lead arm to cast out farther and develops a wide hand-path and thus a heavy resistant load to shoulder rotation. A more limited shoulder rotation equates to little bottom-hand-torque being applied. So, on the outside pitch the swing produces a wider hand-path with a lot of top-hand-torque and little bottom-hand-torque. <<<

Jack Mankin