Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Tue May 1 14:01:53 2001

How does this theory compare to thitting style presented by olympic coach Ralph Weekly?

Marty-

The swing Jack describes is distilled from (long) years of structured analysis of what the most successful MLB hitters do that make them successful.This model of what they actually do is very different from what Weekly teaches and is based on very different assumptions about how energy is created and transformed into batspeed.

Theoretically and practically,this "baseball" swing that Jack describes is more successful as a power swing for fastpitch than what Weekly teaches.In fact many of the successful fastppitch power hitters who think they are using Weekly mechanics are actually using more of a "baseball" swing when you look at them in slowmo video.If they knew and understood this they would probably be even better(unless they started thinking too much).

Weekly's swing can be effective as a placement swing,but the more you try to overpower it,the more the body fights the arms and the less consistent it is.The most recent description of Weekly's method I have seen was in the Spring '01 edition of the ASA magazine,touted as the preferred mechanics of the national team for youth instruction.The assumption is that you want to whip energy from the hips to the bat by the sequential extension of the shoulders/arms wrists,including rolling the wrists before or during contact.There is emphasis on limiting torso/shoulder rotation to avoid pulling off the ball and to stop shoulder turn with the assumption that this whips more energy into the next link which is extending the arms at the shoulder.This is not the way efficient transfer of energy occurs as Jack points out here.This is a real batspeed killer.The wrist rolling is a compensation to keep the bathead up.If you follow the Weekly description,the hands are loosely connected to the torso with both elbows flexed softly at about 90 degrees-"L" in elbows.When the torso starts to turn,the hands are left behind as the arms begin extending(this sort of premature extension kills the necessary energy transfer described by Jack for the baseball swing).As the hands go away from the turning torso,they suck the energy out of the torso(which has not had enough time to get energized by the lower body)stopping torso turn and pushing the knob of the bat out rather than turning the bat.The bat head will then tend to drop(as the body tries to pull the bat down into the palne the torso is turning in perpendicular to the upper spine) unless you try to swing down at this point and then snap and roll the wrists.The bat is snapped to extension with relatively low batspeed and then has to be pulled across the body for the sweetspot to get to a middle/in pitch,usually giving a dead pull for this location.

The harder you try to swing,the more the body wants to swing the bat in the plane of torso rotation perpendicular to the spine.This fights the downswinging plane the arms want to swing the bat in.If used as an armswing,the Weekly swing can be effective for making good contact for the away pitch and keeping the ball low.Batspeed is low because the energy of the lower body does not get sequentially transferred through the torso to the bat(short circuited by early extension of handpath/rushing).Also there is no way to adjust the plane of the swing to the plane of the pitch(shoulders level,swing down)so it is also limited as a placement swing,giving a poor match for inside/low pitch locations.A light bat is preferred to increase batspeed,and a door knocking knuckle alignment(golf) grip helps keep the bathead up, promotes wrist snap,and minimizes the wobble of the bat due to wrist roll.

As Jack points out,rolling the wrists at contact was the single worst swing flaw for the power swinger in MLB.I believe the Weekly swing should be taught as a placement swing and can be part of the hitters arsenal just like bunting and slapping for the right situation.It is a suboptimal choice for the basic power swing.