Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Mon Aug 21 12:45:54 2006

Hi All

Below is my reply to an e-mail I just wrote. I am posting it because I thought it might contain information of interest to others.

Jack Mankin
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>>> Thanx for the reply Jack. Would you say that practicing the drills you show on Final Arc Second Edition would make this lead arm movement natural?? Almost on auto-pilot if you have the correct mechanics that you achieve from countless hours of correctly practicing against the heavy bag the drills that you have on your video??
Or, do you think that the lead arm is something that needs to be drilled (if you will) on its own.

Basically I am wondering if I should really worry about the lead arm being straight or will it just naturally happen if I correctly practice the drills that are on your video. Thank you for your time.

This leads me to another question I guess. What in your opinion needs to be worked on and what goes on auto-pilot in the swing. Is there any key movements that need to be worked on and from there other smaller (but very important) things just go on auto-pilot?? I understand everything is important because everything has to be connected in order to achieve maximum bat speed. The 1000 horse-power engine and the transmission that slips makes sense to me. I guess I'm just confused on what needs to be worked on and what goes on auto pilot. Once again thank you so much for your time Jack. <<<

Hi XXXX

The lead-arm does not necessarily have to be straight during initiation. It can be straighter or bent (boxed). What is important to inducing the most productive circular hand-path is the elbow must maintain the same angle from initiation to contact.

Whatever forces a batter applies to the bat during initiation will induce bat and limb trajectories that will determine the balance of the swing – good or bad. With that in mind, the batter should concentrate on applying forces that keeps the knob (and hands) back close to the shoulder and accelerate the bat-head around the swing plane during initiation.

The key difference between the best hitters and the average hitter is the acceleration of the bat-head their mechanics induces to the bat from the launch position back to the lag position (first 90 degrees of bat rotation). Therefore these hitters have already attained good bat speed as the bat passes through the lag position and can attain maximum bat speed in the optimum contact area.

The average hitter apply forces to the bat that accelerates the knob forward causing the bat-head to just slide over and trail behind the hands at the lag position. There is no way a batter can have an un-accelerated bat at the lag position and attain their maximum bat speed in the zone. The bat-head will not attain maximum velocity until well after passing through the optimum contact area.

Other than relying on my instruction on how to initiate his swing most efficiently, have your son discover it for himself. Have him get into his launch position and rotate his shoulders just 20 or 30 degrees (just initiate shoulder rotation). He should not be thinking of the knob. Rather, he should invision the acceleration of the bat-head rearward to the lag position. If he keeps his lead-hand back close to the rotating shoulder, it will be propelled into a circular path. But the key is – what direction of force must his top-hand apply at the handle to accelerate the bat-head rearward to (and through) the lag position – instead of driving the knob forward away from his shoulder?

Have him practice this until he gets the feeling of the directional force the top-hand must apply during initiation to accomplish the above. Then study this clip where I demonstrate THT. http://www.batspeed.com/media/THTHigh.wmv – He should now have a better understanding and feeling for what I am demonstrating.

XXXX, I am also going to post this to the discussion board (without your name of course). It may help other readers with similar questions.

Best regards,

Jack Mankin