Posted by: daw (daw@bellevue-law.com) on Mon Nov 3 07:32:26 2008

> > >>> Jack,
> >
> > I understand the " Do's and Dont's" of Linear Hitting as you stated, but can you give us the same type list for rotational hitting? <<<
> >
> > Hi Gator
> >
> > That’s a good question. I have always considered the rotational terms (CHP, PLT, THT & BHT) we coined at Batspeed to be mechanical principles rather than batting cues. I would suppose “Hips first” would be considered a rotational cue. I also started to mention “rearward bat acceleration” but that is also more a principle than a cue. Hopefully, someone can point out a few I missed.
> >
> > Jack Mankin
>
> ..I will try a few I use,1st the hitter must understand how the rotational swing evolves inorder to make a cue work,same is true for linear.So in order to help picture the swing and have it evolve we need cu up both



We "named" Jack's rotational principles and had good results over the course of five years with the following "sequence" of cues:

"Lock": Just a word to describe the inward turn, we told them to point their front shoulder towards the opposite middle infielder (obviously much work went into adjusting/fine tuning individual players' turns)----some kids incorporated it into their stance, others "rolled" back into it;

"Load": A word that means all things to all people, we used it to describe pulling the hands back to the back shoulder with the front elbow up in the swing plane, the front arm tight to the body and relatively straight, front shoulder shrugged up under the chin---again, some kids got into their stance "locked" and "loaded", others rolled into it;

"Explode": We "cued" initiation with the front shoulder "exploding" AROUND into the ball, keeping front arm relatively straight, thinking of almost literally nothing but blowing the shoulder around.

So the "phrase", became "Lock, load, explode". Just words, but easy to remember and teach.

Last thing we added was THT, which we described with a term from Jack's handbood...."spinning the hands".