Posted by: BHL (Knight1285@aol.com) on Mon Oct 2 13:58:11 2006

> >>> I am more confused though by how torque can be applied to the bat throughout the swing when Kettering says that hands become very light at contact. <<<
>
> Hi BHL
>
> Kettering’s statement supports my conclusion on the correct use of the heavy bag. Below is an exert from a post I wrote on this topic (http://www.batspeed.com/messageboard/23356.html ).
>
> Jack Mankin
> ##
>
> “The purpose of using a heavy bag to absorb the bat's energy at the contact point is to train the batter to expend all bat speed-generating energy (rotational and torque) prior to or by contact. Good transfer mechanics and timing will have the batter depleting his rotational and torque energy as the bat-head reaches maximum velocity. -- Stated another way, all the energy has been sucked out of the system as maximum bat speed is reached.
>
> Therefore, after all of the body's energy has been transferred into bat speed, the body and limb muscles are at rest. The hip and shoulder rotation is complete -- lead-arm pull and back-forearm lowering to horizontal (the "L" position) is complete -- the hand-path has slowed to a stop -- there is NO energy being applied to the bat -- the bat's energy has been expended into the heavy bag -- all motion has ceased -- all muscles are relaxed. Thus, you now have a frozen frame of the batters mechanics at contact.”

Hi Jack,

Thank you for response.

I have a related question: are you saying that the proper path is a "U?" (What I mean is, suppose, for a RH batter, the plate (backside view) is on the right-hand side directly adjacent to the "U." The upper leftside of the "U" reprsents where the bathead is where the swing begings, the curve of the "U" represents where the bathead arcs around towards the catcher, and the rightside of the "U" represents where the bathead is at contact.)

Is this what you mean by "visualization."

BHL