Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Feb 22 18:44:37 2001

>>> What happens if you apply too much bottom hand and/or top hand torque-or is it imossible to do that? <<<

Hi Maximum

Well, let me answer your question this why. Most “slap” or low bat speed hitters are predominately torque only hitters. They are the batters who thrust the hands forward on a fairly straight path then attempt to bring the bat-head to contact by driving the back hand past the lead hand. That is a low yield one-dimensional mechanic. By one-dimensional, I am referring to the fact that the body’s rotational energy is not transferred by a straight hand-path and torque is only applied over a limited portion of the swing.

I had rather the batter first get the feel of generating bat speed from an angular hand-path without any torque. I have them swing the bat with an attached steer-wheel knob that does not allow torque to be applied to the bat. This develops the proper hand-path. Then, they are ready to start adding both top and bottom hand torque. I impress on them that torque is something added to the bat speed generated from transferring the body’s rotational energy. It should add to but not override or diminish the importance of the hand-path.

Jack Mankin