Posted by: Joe Hernandez (coach2hit@yahoo.com) on Thu Jun 1 21:50:34 2006

> >>> Jack Mankin advocates using a card to keep the leading arm stuck to your chest while swinging. I recently took a look at Mike Epstein's site and he promotes raising the leading elbow up to shoulder level and keeping the right arm stuck to the body. What do you guys think about the leading elbow? Should it be elevated to promote an upswing or stuck to the chest to promote a lag? <<<
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> Hi Bond1
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> I am not sure there is any disagreement between what Mike and I advocate on this issue. I doubt if Mike means the lead-elbow should be raised up to shoulder level in reference to the ground. I am sure he must mean the elbow is shoulder level with reference to the axis of rotation.
>
> Reviewing the following clip of Dunn - http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/dunn_adam1.mpeg - , we can see that in his launch position, his elbow is about shoulder level in reference to his axis but not in reference to the ground. That is about the lead-arm position I advocate when using a playing card. – “The lead-elbow-arm-hands and bat should always be in the same plane during the swing.”
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> I do not think of the batter raising the lead-elbow to promote an up-swing. As we can see in the clip, due to the axis angle of his launch position, Dunn’s elbow naturally starts at a lower position and is rotated upward from body rotation during the swing – not lifted up with the arm prior to, or during, the swing. We can also see the playing card would remain in place to contact. Some hitters with more bend in the elbow might not keep the card in place but the angle of the elbow should remain constant from launch to contact.
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> Jack Mankin

Hi Bond1,

Following up with what Jack Mankin has posted, what Mike actually advocates is that proper rotation (balance) requires that both legs be balanced to make sure that one can achieve maximum rotational velocity. To make sure that this happens he advocates getting a bit more weight forward during the stride because when the front heel drops, the rear shoulder begins to dip. It is here, as the rear shoulder dips, that it allows the lead elbow to start going up slightly. As all this is taking place, the hitter's weight automatically shifts back to the inside of the rear thigh...this blocks the forward movement and causes the momentum to rotate around the axis.

It's in this context that the forward elbow begins to go upward slightly. Mike is clear in both his video and his book of the need to swing level to the pitch and not level to the ground.