Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Mar 4 11:51:14 2010

Hi All

I mentioned in my post above that a design feature of the "Insider Bat" was puzzling to me. I understand the concept of having a flat contact surface to promote the proper "palm up/palm down" contact position. The flat surface would give good feedback to the batter if his wrist were rolling prior to contact.

I have had other training aids using the 'flat surface' design sent to me for evaluation. Although they may differ in the materials used in their design, they all had the 'flat surface' inline with the handle. The "Impact Bat" is an example of the 'inline' design.

What puzzled me about the "Insider Bat" design, is why it has the 'flat surface' bent 30 to 40 degrees forward from the line of the handle. With this design, when the batter hits the ball straight away, the handle is still angling back 30 to 40 degrees. If the handle were rotated to the normal straightaway hitting position, the bend in the shaft would cause the ball to be hooked over toward third base.

I reviewed a good number of YouTube demonstrations using the "Insider Bat" in order to get an explanation for the bend. I concluded that the 'bend' is to promote a more linear hand-path where the bottom-hand leads in the contact zone. Normally, this would result in balls being hit to the opposite field. For whatever reason, the design wanted this position to hit balls straightaway.

Jack Mankin