Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sun Mar 4 15:58:12 2001

>>> Jack, you have articles on this site about rotation on stationary axis, circular hand-path, and top-hand torque. Most people here seem to be confused about bottom-hand torque, including me. It would be nice if you made an article regarding bottom hand torque, that would definitately help us all. <<<

Hi Maximum

Thank you Maximum for bringing something to my attention. I do have an article (with a slide-show) regarding bottom-hand-torque. But, I did not clearly label the mechanic by name. I will amend the article in the near future. -- Go to “Batspeed Research” and read “Wrist Action or Torque.” The article does a fairly good job of describing (and showing) bottom-hand-torque.

With good mechanics, torque is being applied throughout the swing, but the two hands are not always moving at the same rate. – Take Gary Sheffield’s swing as an example. As the pitcher releases the ball, Gary keeps his bottom hand fairly stationary at his back shoulder or armpit. But he pushes his top-hand forward to a point where the bat is almost pointing at the pitcher. Then, before body rotation begins, he pulls back with the top-hand accelerating the bat head-head back around toward the catcher.

I defined this early bat-head acceleration as “Pre-launch torque” because it takes place before the swing is initiated (body starts to rotate). If Gary reads the pitch as a ‘go’, the top-hand-torque (pulling back toward the catcher) will continue and rotation of the body will be initiated. He will have already developed a good deal of bat speed before he fully launched the swing. --- During this time, the bottom hand remained fairly stationary as a pivot point. Because the top-hand is arcing around a more stationary bottom-hand, I defined the mechanic as “top-hand-torque.”

As the swing progresses the role of the two hands reverse. The top-hand is more stationary (in relationship to the rotating shoulders) and the pulling back of the lead shoulder causes the bottom-hand to arc around the top-hand. Thus the term “bottom-hand-torque.”

NOTE: For pitches from the middle-in, the great hitters have their bottom-hand arcing around their top-hand as the bat approaches contact. Lesser hitters will be attempting to extend the top-hand past the bottom-hand. -- We can discuss outside pitches later.

Jack Mankin