Posted by: Zig Ziegler () on Sat Jul 29 20:45:55 2006

Hello Jack,

Great to see you're still at it. As I stated before, you are closer to the truth than any of the experts I have studied and that is why I post here. Epstein, Nyman, and all of the others are way behind you. So please know that it I do have respect for your work and appreciate it.

With regards to your challenge, how we interpret the data is simple. First we evaluate the static posture, there is an ideal angle or position of each major and minor body segment when getting set to begin the swing. First and foremost, we must discuss when the swing begins. In our definition, the swing begins on the frame with continuous movment (acceleration) of the bat towards the target (pitched ball or ball on tee).

On the way to impact, the bat reaches its peak speed (linear and rotational velocity) and then an impact event occurs. In the stable athlete who reaches say a bat speed of 75 mph (just a round number) and has achieved an ideal summation of those velocities (Ideal Kinematic Sequence), the ball exit speed will be equal to or greater than the bat speed. Meanwhile, in the frame immediately after contact, our research has found that the bat in the most efficient swing will lose from 0 to 5 mph in bat speed. (Ideal of course is zero, but we have never found anyone (all of today's greats included) who loses less than 3 mph on the next frame. As a result, no athlete continued to accelerate the bat immediately after impact.

The athlete's swing with less than ideal summation of those velocities, (Poor Kinematic Sequence), the hitter's bat reached its maximum velocities (rotational and linear) and within 1/240th of a second lost as much as 43% of bat speed immediately after impact. No athlete with a poor kinematic sequence achieved better than a loss of 22% of both the rotational and linear bat velocity.

Consequently, those athletes with a poor kinematic sqeuence continued to lose bat speed within the next 2 frames, as much as 57% of bat velocity as the wrist began to roll the bat over, the shoulders began to pull off the target line (out of posture), and suffered many other flaws that most coaches have been trained to look for and begin to correct.

The solution is a simple one, the athlete has cut of some aspect of linear motion too early, the question is how to figure out what that aspect is while watching body parts which move at up to 12 MPH and a bat that is moving in excess of 90 mph (for most many collegiate, league hitters)

What do you tell a hitter, without measuring exactly what is happening in the entire swing and identifying exactly where the power loss (as identified) is coming from (not where it is)....you can only say, "you're cutting your swing off." and you've got to swing through the ball." and "you've got to develop quicker hands." Common statements you'll hear from many coaches.

If you believe we have misinterpreted it, please tell me Jack how you would interpret such changes in the angular and rotation of the bat. We will gladly inform our technicians and modify our reports to provide clarification. But please remember, we have gotten away from trying to correct mechanics, without first addressing the reason for the mechanics.

by the way, in standardized testing, the maximum velocity of the ball after impact is near 107 mph when the test is standardized off the tee. Measuring ball exit speeds of the hitter off of live pitching is difficult to draw comparisons unless the ball is in the exact same spot and at the exact same speed for every hitter relative to the same point of contact away from that hitter. That means all things have to be the same for those of you who are reading and may have gotten confused by this statment. measure and compare likes. I just didn't want to leave anything for misinterpretation.