Posted by: Bryce (bsummers06@wou.edu) on Thu Apr 22 01:20:00 2010

> Jack,
> I often read your absolutes as a checkup for my son's (9 yr old)
mechanics and have a fairly good grasp of most of them. However,
absolute #10 confuses me, in that you state that the further away from
contact the bat head is when the shoulders stop rotating, the weaker
the swing. it seems to be related to the heavy bag drill, correct?,
where we want the energy of the bat all used up at contact. but
wouldn't the shoulders keep rotating upon follow through? if I take
dry swings and find the point where my shoulders stop rotating, they
seem to point way too open to have the bat still in the zone. also,
could you explain the heavy bag drill as it relates to this concept?
any videos to show the concept in the archives?

Steve,

Perhaps I can clarify a bit as to how I understand Jack's principles.
First, think about a very extreme situation, in which the hitter has
completely rotated his shoulders to form and angle perpendicular to
the flight of the ball, or square with the pitcher, and left his hands
on his shoulders and bat head pointing at the catcher. At that point,
the hitter would have to swing using his arms only.

What I think Jack's absolute #10 states is that if the bat is at ANY
point before contact with the ball and the shoulders have fully
rotated to be approximately square with the pitcher and the lead
shoulder has relaxed, the swing only gets weaker as it approaches that
contact point.

Another way to state this is that if the lead arm is not at the 105
degree point relative to the vector of the pitch (which intrinsically
assumes that the shoulders are properly rotated) at the moment of
contact, the swing is less powerful.

Also in other words, timing is everything. Just make sure your son's
bat head is not lagging behind, and that his contact with the pitch
occurs AS his chest comes to point right at the pitcher.

Hope I've helped to clarify,

Bryce