Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu May 4 17:22:08 2006

>>> Hey Jack, a question about lead arm linkage. My son is 12 and he converted to rotational mechanics about a year ago. I purchased the Final Arch and we practice the drills listed in the tape. He is a very good contact hitter but there are two areas he needs help. First of all, pre-launch and launch are fine, (rotates back,hides the hands,etc.) he straightens the bottom hand and uses THT to a CHP, in the middle of the swing the top had begins to dominate causing him to loose the linkage from the front shoulder. I just can't get him to understand the importance of front shoulder pull and keeping the bottom hand linkage. Any suggestions and what drills might help? Secondly, I have always told him to try to keep the front side as level as possible on the swing, it seems on the video the batters lower the backside and raise the frontside at contact. Can you clarify,will a level frontside work with rotational mechanics? Thanks for any response. <<<

Hi Larry

You state, “I just can't get him to understand the importance of front shoulder pull and keeping the bottom hand linkage.” – Not understanding the importance of getting the lead-side equally involved in THT is probably the mechanic’s biggest problem. Effective torque is not applied through just one hand. Torque requires two forces applied from opposing directions. Just thinking “top-hand” only, will lead to hours of frustration.

Larry, have your son view the following clip on THT with you -- http://www.batspeed.com/media/THTHigh.wmv – Have him to note in the clip the basis of a good swing is the rotation of the bat-head that comes from the CHP. THT must work with (and add to) the acceleration gained from the CHP. – All is lost if an over dominant top-hand distorts the path of the CHP.

Jack Mankin