Posted by: Tony (t_stefko@yahoo.com) on Mon Jun 26 11:05:43 2006

I don't hear much talk here about the importance of momentum in the swing. Batspeed itself is good, but a slower batspeed with greater momentum can hit the ball harder and this is the real reason the swing should be rotational and your arms should not disconnect from your body.

Every swing goes from stop - max speed - stop. In between stop - max speed, the bat is speeding up. In between max speed - stop, the bat is slowing down. Forces acting on the bat between stop - max speed are in the same direction the bat in traveling while forces acting on the bat between max speed - stop are in the opposite direction.

It is very important that contact is made at a point closest to max speed, but between stop - max speed so that the forces are behind the bat and give the most momentum and greater force on the ball. If contact is made just after max-speed and in between max speed - stop, the batspeed may be very close to when contact was made just before max speed, but momentum will be much less and the force acting on the ball will also be much less.

If that concept doesn't make sense to you,, imagine getting hit by a baseball traveling 100 MPH. Now imagine getting hit by a train traveling 50MPH. Which one will make you fly further?

##

Just a little further info. Momentum = Mass x Velocity. for solid moving objects, mass does not change. In a baseball swing, if your arms rotate properly with your body, the mass is your entire body. If the arms disconnect and do not rotate with your body, the mass gets reduced to your arms only. So, you can see that two 80 MPH swings are not the same if the largest possible mass is not obtained through proper mechanics.