Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Mar 21 11:58:21 2006

Jack,

>>> I have been teach your cd to my son for a year. I love the cd and it has helped him a ton.
I have noticed that seems on faster pitching he is late. At first I was just thinking it was timing but now I am not sure. We have been using the back elbow as the trigger or the first thing to start off the swing with. Using that as the trigger seems to creat a long swing. Slower pitching he has no problem with.

After watching Elliot on your cd. I was wondering do you support the idea that the lead should pull and the back eblow starts at the same time. In the over head it seems to happen that way but no discussion of it. I am trying to quicken up my son's swing on 60mph and to give him more time on the slower pitching low 50's. What do you think? <<<

Hi Mike

In order to take full advantage of the pendulum effect to accelerate the bat-head around the swing plane, we must keep the hands back and allow shoulder rotation to accelerate the hands into a circular path. Therefore, our trigger should be something that initiates the rotation of the body – the lowering of the lead-heel – un-cocking of the lead-knee – the un-cocking of the lead-hip – etc.

Since we want rotation to swing the hands, using an upper body movement to trigger the swing can get the cart ahead of the horse. This is a major problem with hitters who use the arms to fire the hands. They make hip and shoulder rotation subservient to the hands and the rotation of the bat-head become out of sync with body rotation.

Mike, I have not seen your son’s swing, therefore I cannot say this is his problem. However, I would suggest that he keep in mind that the lowering of the elbow is to accommodate rotation rather than initiate it. I think the best way to explain the role of lowering the elbow is to review the following clip - http://www.batspeed.com/media/THTHigh.wmv .

Note that once the bat reaches the launch position, the proper lowering of the elbow should cause the top-hand to pull rearward with the fingers which adds to the rearward acceleration of the bat-head. It works with rotation – but it does not initiate the swing. This is a major problem with batters that have the bat cocked forward (toward the pitcher) and use pre-launch torque to accelerate the bat-head back to the launch position (behind the head). They have the tendency to take the hands forward (away from the shoulder) as they accelerate the bat-head rearward. This has lead to some prolonged slumps with some of the best pro hitters including Bonds, Strawberry, A-Rod and etc.

Jack Mankin