Posted by: Chuck (Chuck10112@gmail.com) on Mon Aug 25 11:27:40 2008

> >>> When bringing the lead arm across your chest in your load (taking the slack out), do you want you lead arm to be loose or flexed? And why do you do this maneuver <<<
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> The lead arm should be tight across the chest and the bottom hand should be close to the rear arm pit as shoulder rotation starts. This is to take slack out so that when shoulder rotation begins the bottom hand will begin applying force to the bat. If the front arm is loose, shoulder rotational will produce no bat speed.
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> Brian

The lead arm shouldn't be tight across the chest!!! It should be as loose and wobbily as a strand of cooked spaghetti. If you try to force it to be tight across the chest you won't get maximum separation (load) between the arms and shoulder when shoulder rotation starts. With the muscles flexed rotation will be more one- piece with the arms rotating in unison with the shoulders rather than the arms being pulled forward by the shoulders.

You can crack a whip but you can't crack a stick. Why? Because a stick is rigid. The end of a rigid stick doesn't have to accelerate to catch up with a rotating stick because it moves in unison. The end of a whip on the other hand doesn't move in unison so it accelerates to catch up with the moving whip.

It's the same when you swing. You stay loose and let your arms lag behind the rotation of the body which creates a tremendous load. The arms will then automatically fire without any concious muscular effort.