Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Feb 16 00:38:10 2006

>>> Hi Jack,

I was looking at video and the lag position. The lag position is attained when the top hand is roughly 90 degrees from contact. If the hand rotates 180 degrees during the swing then roughly half of that rotation is the lag position.

I was looking at a clip of Pat Burrell from behind, 60 fps. It takes about 11 frames until contact. It takes about 6 frames for the hand to rotate roughly 90 degrees, a frame right before the lag position.

I have the same clip in a side view. According to the linear approach he doing everything they say. Knob leads the barrel or hitting inside the ball. He gets the hands to the front hip at lag.

What are your feelings on the lag position? Is this just a phenomenon that happens during the swing. Or is there a sequence to it like there's a sequence to the body.

For example is there such a thing as to much THT which would degrade the natural uncocking of the hands during BHT? Because during the swing force is being applied over the entire swing, BHT. But the top hand doesn't fully uncock/release (whatever) until the lag position is attained, which is roughly the last 3 to 4 frames in the video clip.

This is the second time I wrote this and left out some good stuff from the first time. I think I forgot to create a subject. Hopefully some of my questions will come back to me. <<<

Hi Shawn

To me, the lag position is nothing more than a position in the swing plane where the bat is pointing back at the catcher. I certainly do not believe there should be any pause in angular acceleration at that point. An over-head view of a great hitters swing show the bat-head accelerating right through what we refer to as the lag position.
You state, “But the top hand doesn't fully uncock/release (whatever) until the lag position is attained.” – We may interpret “uncock/release” differently. With my definition, the top wrist is most “cocked” at the lag position and “uncocks” approaching contact. I cannot see how properly applying THT would alter that.

Jack Mankin