Posted by: John D (JohnD@Dresslar.com) on Thu Feb 16 09:44:17 2006

> >The bottom hand holds the bat like you would if using a hammer (firm and in you palm).>>
Nothing too wierd so far.

>>The top hand is held in the finger tips with you wrist bent so the palm of you hand faces the pitcher. The top hand should be loose.<<

This sounds wierd, but in actuality I think it kinda works. I'm coming to the belief (inspired partly by Jack) that the top hand should be loose so that with the proper launch the bat will slide through the hands slightly so that the top hand palm will be facing up just before contact, at which point instinct (aided by training) will cause the batter to grip it hard. If the top hand is held too tightly, either the grip will be too awkward to launch the swing well (with the palm facing the pitcher as you mention) or, if the top hand middle ('knocking') knuckles are lined up with the bottom hand lower ('punching') knuckles, the wrists will roll prematurely.

>>With this grip it is very important that when you pivot you pivot with both your back hip and your shoulder going toward the pitcher and not using your hands or ams.<<

You're preaching to the choir on this point, Brother John. That's what bat speed, and Batspeed, is all about.

>>Once the pivot is done you create a punching and squeezing motion with your top hand. I teach my students to get good extension with their hands and to not roll the top hand over the bottom utill you get full extention. With this technique I have been able to get my students unbelieveable bat speed and power.<<
At that point, the top hand is kinda going along for the ride, so there's not much it can do wrong then anyway. If they've rotated right, the contact will be made before extension is completed, so rolling the wrists can't occur until after contact. So, it may not be a bad set of cues.

> The swing will be much shorter and will elp you stay inside the ball. This swing is mostly taught in minor and the professional leagues and have not met any high school coaches that teach this technique.< From talking with major leaguers, I detect that many teams want players who aren't going for the fences anyway to use this kind of swing to be able to spray the ball around and adjust to higher caliber pitching. I'm not sure it's a good set of cues for younger players, who need all the pop they can get. Still, if it works for you, I'm not going to criticize it. I too would like to see it in action.