Posted by: Shawn (mariner0324@yahoo.com) on Wed Aug 3 13:40:46 2005

> >>> HI Jack,
>
> The first video proved my point. Bagwell is extending at contact, he is in the L with the ball still out front and then extends as he makes contact.
>
> Guerrero is more then likely hitting and inside pitch and just turning into the ball. He is still in the L position because he hitting an inside pitch.
>
> Bernie Williams looks like he is pulling the hands in to hit an inside pitch, so he is still in the L position.
>
> Griffey is extending as he makes contact, the ball is still out front when he is in the L position.
>
> Mcgwire is extending at contact.
>
> The only two player whoe in the L are both hitting inside pitches. You don't extend to hit inside pitches, you turn and stay inside the ball. <<<
>
> Hi Shawn
>
> Ray may be right. Our differences may be a matter of definition and degree. -- I will use the Griffey clip (http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/griffey_ken.mpeg ) to show how I see the back-elbow during the swing. – From initiation to contact, Griffey’s top-hand moves around the swing plane about 24 to 26 inches. However, if we look at his back-elbow, once it lowers to his side it remains at a relatively fixed position at his side during rotation to contact. It is the rotation and lowering of the back-forearm down to horizontal and the rotation of the body that brings the top-hand around to contact.
>
> Even in the frame after contact (the ball is on its way), the back-elbow has extended forward only 4 or 5 inches past the “L” position. By this time the top-hand has moved about 30 inches since initiation and the extension of the elbow accounts for about 5 of these inches. The real extension of the back-arm occurs during the follow-through phase of Griffey’s swing.
>
> Jack Mankin

There is a missing frame as Griffey makes contact on that clip.

If you really want to see the L position, a rear (catcher) view shows it very nicely. In fact the same swing from the rear makes it look like the L is held even longer then the side view. I'm not trying to say the L position isn't attained or that contact is made at full extension, I was just trying to say that in a good majority of swings extension is acheived. There's a difference between the rotational and linear extension.