Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Mon Sep 3 00:34:38 2001

>>> I wonder if the confusion about these issues comes from the lack of a common definition of the terms. The "oarlock" analogy is just senseless, no one ever suggested that in rotational mechanics the hands remain stationary. They move in an arc, not in a linear fashion. Linear, by definition, means a STRAIGHT line. What rotational mechanics and the angular momentum theory suggest is that the hands must move in a curvilinear fashion (just another name for an arc) to maintain the rotational forces. A straight linear hand path will lose the angular momentum. So - the forceful movement of the hands and arms is very important for power - the path they describe through the air is also vital to harnessing rotational power. Daniel <<<

Hi Daniel

Welcome to the site. You show a good insight of the swing. -- I coined the term "oarlock" in my instructional video to make the point that the batter should not use the muscles of the arms to accelerate the hand-path. The role of the hands and arms are to stay back and accelerate the bat-head into the swing plane by applying torque to the bat.

You stated, "The 'oarlock' analogy is just senseless, no one ever suggested that in rotational mechanics the hands remain stationary." I understand what you are saying, but remember, the term "stationary" is also senseless without clarifying, "stationary in relation to what?" -- Example - a car is traveling 75 MPH, in relationship to the ground, but the driver is "stationary" in relationship to the car's seat.

When I stated in the video that once the back-elbow had lowered to the batter's side, the top-hand should stay back and serve more as an "oarlock" for the lead-arm to pull the bat-head around, I did not mean to imply that the hands would remain stationary - in relationship to the ground. The rotation of the body and the lowering of the back-forearm will bring the hands around in an arc too the contact point - not the thrusting out of the arms.

The hands move about 22 to 26 inches from initiation to contact in around 5/30 of a second. That equates to about a 7 to 8 MPH average - peak velocity of around 14 MPH - hands slow to under 5 MPH at contact. We want the bat-head to be traveling at 75+ MPH, so it is not the speed of the hands that really count - it is the rate of angular displacement of the bat-head around the hands ("The Final Arc") that determines bat speed.

Jack Mankin