Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatdpeed@ol.com) on Sun Aug 12 10:50:24 2001

>>> How about this for a cue?

"Hit the ball with your back shoulder"

(In other words, as you make contact with the ball , the front of your back shoulder now faces the pitcher.)

I'm just looking for a simple, useful cue to take up there with me. <<<

Hi Carlos

If the cue, "Hit the ball with your back shoulder," results in you getting full shoulder rotation then obviously it works for you. But it is important to remember that both shoulders are rotating during the swing. True, the back shoulder does rotate around toward the pitcher (or the ball). But, at the same time, we must remember that the front shoulder is also rotating around toward the catcher.

Because most hitters are back-hand (top-hand) dominate, they normally are very conscious of bringing the back-side through. Their main problem is not making the most productive use of the front side. The better hitters will rotate their shoulders to a point where the front shoulder has rotated past “facing the pitcher” and is pulling back toward the catcher at contact. --- This pulling back of the lead-shoulder, and thus the pulling back of the lead-arm and hand (toward the catcher), is the basis for the “hook effect” in the hand-path and “bottom-hand-torque” that we so often discuss here.

So the cue I use to get the batter to fully rotate their shoulders is, “pull the lead-shoulder back at contact.” --- Also, the cue helps to cure a batter with a “lunging” problem. It is hard to have the body lunging forward while concentrating on pulling back with the lead shoulder.

Jack Mankin