Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sun Oct 9 10:39:38 2005

>>> The Final Arc DVD just came in the mail and I'm extremely excited about the results that I have already gotten. Jack, your studies on Top Hand Torque are nothing short of genius. One question though. When trying to develop CHP and BHT, you said that the first move to the ball should be perpendicular. The more perpendicular to the ball I go, my wrist are forced to cock back at the begining of the swing. In what position should the wrist be at from initiation to contact? Is it okay to cock the wrists back to develop a more circular hand path? <<<

Hi Zay Zay

Thank you for your kind remarks. – Your question raises some interesting points that are hard to describe with the written word.

The cocking and un-cocking of the wrists takes place mostly during the pre-launch phase as the batter brings the bat-head from a “wrapped” or cocked forward position back to the launch position. From the launch position to contact, the lead-wrist should remain fairly straight and here is where it gets difficult explaining why.

One might think that pulling rearward with the top-hand (THT) would further un-cock the lead-wrist. However, as the top-hand pulls the bat-head rearward, shoulder rotation is pulling the lead-arm (and wrist) around toward third base and therefore the lead-wrist is not forced to flex. The angular acceleration of the bat-head stays in sync with shoulder rotation and the lead-wrist can remain fairly straight. -- The lead-wrist is forced to flex (or bend) when the hands are thrust forward but the bat-head remains static (no THT).

Zay Zay, I would recommend that your concentration not be on accelerating the hands – shoulder rotation will take care of that – concentrate on applying forces that accelerate the bat-head around the hands (The Final Arc). – Pulling rearward with the top-hand during initiation, pulls the lead-arm straighter across the chest during rotation which produces a CHP.

Jack Mankin