Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Mon Apr 9 11:39:39 2001

>>> Everyone,
I am a red sox fan and have been watching Manny Ramirez a lot lately. I love the way he is able to drive the ball to right center with with such ease! I know this is because of his inside out swing, but i don't really understand what makes it inside out.
Since this swing is "inside out" what type of swing is then considered not inside out? Also, what mechanically does he do to to make his swing inside out? <<<

Hi Scott

The “inside out” swing simply means the hands are ahead of the bat-head at contact. It is usually associated with linear mechanics (or quick hands) where the batter mainly uses the arms to extend the hands. With these mechanics the knob is accelerated to full extension before the bat-head becomes perpendicular to the path of the incoming pitch. --- Thus, an “inside out” or “opposite field” swing.

These are not the mechanics used by Manny Ramirez. Far from quickly extending his hands toward the pitcher, Manny’s mechanics causes his top hand to be pulling away from the pitcher as he initiates his swing. This mechanic, top-hand-torque, causes the bat-head to be greatly accelerated early in the swing. So even if his bat has not become perpendicular to the ball, he has already generated bat speed that will drive the ball to the opposite field. --- If he makes contact after the bat-head passes his hands, the ball will be “pulled.”

Jack Mankin