Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Jun 28 15:55:38 2006

>>> First she may be straightening her lead arm a little early, resulting in lost bat speed / power. If she kept a little elbow flex in the lead arm during rotation through the ball you may find more pop and bat speed. <<<

Hi Steve

We may (or may not) have a different view on the need to keep the lead arm flexed (or bent) during the swing. I have not found that rotating with a straighter lead-arm produces less bat speed than with a more flexed elbow. In fact, I found the lead-arm remained fairly straight from initiation to contact in most of swings that produced the longest home runs.

I will place below a part of a post I wrote on this topic. Look forward to your comments.

Jack Mankin
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>>> (Grand Slam Man)
(Question #1) – “In the Get Yure Arms eXTEnded, you have a picture of Grifey, and recommend a straight front leg and arm at impactu suppose to bend it to Drvie through the balll?” <<<

Hi Grand Slam Man

If I interpret your question correctly, your main concern is correct use of the lead-arm during the swing. – Should it be bent (or “Boxed”) during rotation and then extend (or straighten) to contact? – Or, should the elbow remain at a more fixed angle (bent or straighter) from launch to contact?

From analyzing countless clips of the best hitters my conclusions are:

(1) Keeping the elbow at a fixed angle generates greater bat speed because it produces a more productive Circular-Hand-Path (CHP) and “Hook” effect. – Note: If the arm needs to straighten or bend more for pitch location, it should occur early in the swing (during initiation) – not toward contact.

(2) Extending the hands by straightening a bent lead-elbow to contact produces far less bat speed because it straightens out the hand-path and kills the “Hook” effect. -- Note: For those hitters who rotate with more bend in the elbow, most of the straightening occurs after contact – not to contact

There are a number of batting authorities that would disagree, so let’s not just take my word for it. There are about 50 clips of the best hitters at -http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/swings.html. If straightening a bent (or boxed) lead-arm to extend the hands to contact is what the best hitters do, we should be able to see it in a good percentage of these clips. How many can you find?

The overhead view is best for studying the lead-arm. Note the lack of lead-arm action to contact in these clips.
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/Rose.mpeg
http://dmcmillan.topcities.com/Robinson1.mov

Here is a clip of Bagwell. He has a boxed lead-arm in his stance. But, note that the arm straightened during initiation – not later to extend the hands to contact.
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/bagwell1.mpeg

Here are a couple hitters who could be accused of “Barring” the arm at initiation. They even keep it straight all the way to contact. -- Shame, Shame on them.
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/griffey_ken.mpeg
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/dunn_adam1.mpeg

Grand Slam Man, the post is already getting long. I will pause here to let you and others respond to my comments. I will address your other questions soon.

Jack Mankin