Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sun Jul 15 17:20:53 2001

>>> in usa today baseball weekly, july 12-17 issue, p. 17, a scout in the RANGERS organization gave the following advice: " pushing the hands away: this is when you initiate movement by pushing your hands away from the body in order to gain momentum vs. starting the swing with your hands going straight to the ball. it is also known as not staying inside the ball. your first movement should be moving the hands toward the inside half of the ball. the front arm starts soft-or slightly bent-and remains soft during the swing. if you push away, your front arm straightens out, so a short, direct swing is unlikely".............question: is this sound advice coming from a major league basebaseball scout?.....respectfully, grc........>>>>>>GRC I saw the hitting instructor of the cardinals ML, on tv demonstrate that the 1st movement of the swing was with the rear knee driving the body and hands right to the happy zone.How does that sound for a ml hitting instructor.Much of this is cues they teach not exact movements in my opinion.Many teach what they feel,Like the clear the hips and throw the hands idea that is so unacceptable around here. <<<

Hi grc

I do not understand why you find their statements unusual? Major League coaches have been teaching those mechanics for decades. And if it were not for a frame-by-frame study of the swing, most of us would still believe it. --- Are you now advocating using the arm to throw the hands - earlier separation of the hands away from the body - a straight hand-path - and so on?

Jack Mankin