Posted by: John D (John@Dresslar.com) on Thu Oct 20 21:49:21 2005

JAC, on this knuckles issue I'm stealing from (and hopefully not distorting) Jack's position on hand grips. The condundrum is this -- if you have the knocking knuckles aligned at launch, the two wrists are TOO aligned/parallel to one another to allow you raise your rear elbow enought to get much top hand torque to get the swing started correctly. So, as Dave notes, it's better to start the swing with the top hand's knocking knuckles aligned with the bottom hands punching knuckles.

But, if you keep the hands aligned that way all the way through contact, by necessity the wrists lock up and must roll just before contact, causing the bathead to "jump" over the ball. Bummer... If you keep the knocking knuckles aligned, you defer the moment that roll must occur until just after contact.

How to resolve this dilemma? Start the swing with the top hand's knocking knuckles aligned with the bottom hands punching knuckles, as Dave suggests. However, keep the top hand so loose that the outstretched top hand thumb can come off the bat and just reach the back shoulder.

NOW, start your swing by pulling back on the bat with the fingers of the "loose" top hand, then start your rotation of the front leg. (You don't need a firm trip for that.) As the bathead comes around into the contact position, practice and adrenaline should cause you to re-grip the bar firmly well before contact. And, lo and behold, your hand has rotated by the time of contact so that the two sets of knocking knuckles are now magically aligned!