Posted by: Jim (jwelborn@lexcominc.net) on Wed Dec 14 20:09:22 2005

> I'm still trying to find out what the best launch position is for the hands. I'm quite familiar with the term "hide the hands from the pitcher" but how hidden, or how far back are they supposed to be? By 'back' I mean are the hands supposed to be out of view from the pitcher, blocked by the head? Or are they supposed to be further back where the pitcher can see the hands a little behind the head-to the point where you can feel a stretch in the back pectoral (chest) muscle? Cause I find that stretching the back pectoral muscle gives a tad bit more of bat speed at initiation due to the contracting of the muscle that way, and that pec muscle is a big muscle in the body. Any opinions? Jack?


Doug,

The hands should NOT be “hidden from the pitcher” to the point that the upper body twists backward and pulls the head. If the head rotates toward the catcher during the negative move the batter may loose sight of the ball with the back eye, resulting in loss of depth perception. The back eye is typically the dominate eye (i.e. right handed batters are usually right eye dominate).

To check for excessive twisting, close the front eye and see if you can still see the ball as its being pitched.

How much the hands should be “hidden” is an individual comfort thing. Some pros hide their hands much more than others. What they do not do is twist the upper body backward enough to affect their head. The “hand hiding” occurs dynamically as part of the negative move as opposed to hiding the hands in a static manner during the stance.

Jim