Posted by: Eric (eric.moore.15@gmail.com) on Sun Sep 17 16:17:14 2006

Dear Batspeed,

I think you have a very good site and I like the scientific approach to the baseball swing. I find some of your explanations a little difficult to understand. For example, I read your take on "Back elbow up" vs. "Back elbow down". Am I correct in saying that you believe that the back elbow should be up which will put the hitter in a good position to apply opposing force to the handle? If that is what you are saying, that makes sense. After reading your article, I am a little unclear on what your research concluded. If you could simple state whether your research suggests the back elbow up or back elbow down is best, that would be greatly appreciated. Based on experience, I feel that a back up elbow up swing produces more power, that is strictly based on feel.

One other thing that I find interesting is that the great hitters like Pujols and Barry Bonds never talk about applying opposing force on the handle. They talk about much simpler keys like taking the knob to the ball or catching the baseball with the top hand. I am curious if you have ever interviewed the great hitters and they were able to confirm that they try and apply opposing force to the handle. My guess is that things happen far to fast for this type of a thought process. I did read an article where Pujols said he simply tries to catch the ball with his top hand and says that if he is doing that, everything else is taking care of itself.

Thanks a lot for your time and your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Eric