Posted by: Chuck (jcsherwood8458@sbcglobal.net) on Thu Nov 19 13:14:54 2009

> Jack:
>
> We bought the Final Arc 2 for my son, and it has been very helpful. He had a decent swing already using rotational mechanics, but your video clarified a few things, particularly the 105 lead shoulder. He had a good lead arm, back elbow slot, tilted axis, good L's for back leg and bottom arm and flat palms at contact... but has been coming up short of the fence - lot's of doubles in the power alleys. I think the 105 lead shoulder may get him over the fence with some extra BHT, and he is working on this. That said, I'm convinced that THT will be the final missing piece that could also help with his power numbers. However, I'm still not sure how to best drill THT. In the video, you describe THT, and demo it with a golf club and a bat, but then say that THT is beyond the scope of the video instruction.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Mark

Hi Mark:

I believe that mastering bht in conjunction with the 105 shoulder will produce a much greater return than focusing on tht, not to say that tht isn't important also. As for bht, make sure he is letting the ball get deep and that he is not slightly extended forward at contact. As much as I have studied this site and a few others for several years, it took a while before I understood what Jack meant by the "hook in the hand path". It was a posting Jack did with side by side video of two hitters, one with good bht and one with poor bht, that really helped to clarify things. When pitching to my son, I now find it much easier to recognize from the frontal view, the differences in swings. When he has a great swing with lots of bht, the batspeed is much greater and the ball explodes off of the bat. If he starts hitting the ball even slightly outfront, I can see the hook in the handpath disappear, the batspeed decreases, and there's no jump off of the bat. It's really amazing when you see a few poor swings followed by a great swing - your eyes jump out of your head. I preach to my son all of the time about the tremendous benefit to his hitting of this information, bht and the hook in the handpath, and how privileged he is to have it. I could take him to every baseball facility in our state and I doubt that any instructor would explain or teach this aspect of the swing and the physics behind it, yet the return is tremendous. (I know several in our area that don't) Afterall, many of them are still teaching hitters to throw the knob of the bat at the ball. So we really are fortunate to have Jack's expertise and analysis so readily available.

Chuck