Posted by: Jack Mankin () on Tue Sep 4 01:15:06 2001

>>> Wow a real discussion on hitting, :). Try this link for a better understanding of Jack's post and I will add a slower clip showing his back elbow (coming around the rib cage) and hand relationship.

http://www.angelfire.com/games3/s_bell/images/hank1.gif <<<

Hi Shawn

I want to thank you for your time and effort in presenting the clips. I agree that slowing them down would be helpful. But would it be possible to show the frame where the bat becomes perpendicular the ball's flight in a 3 or 4 second freeze frame? Much can be learned about the batter's mechanics by studying that frame. --- I will study frames 4 and 5 (5 being contact) back and forth 5 or 6 times in order to get a feel for how the batter initiated the swing. You really can not see all the forces applied at initiation but their results show up at contact.

To understand the body and limb positions at contact, we must also take into account the location of the ball at contact. A batter's positions at contact will change considerably for high, low, inside to outside pitches. Did he pull or hit the ball to the opposite field (bat-head ahead of or behind perpendicular at contact)? This is one of the reasons I found a frontal view so important.

Normally, the view shown during the games is the frontal view, but with some of the better hit balls, particularly home runs, two or more views are sometimes shown. I found comparing the two very beneficial. If you have some of these, both views of the same swing, it would be most helpful to show them. Once again, thanks for your effort.

Jack Mankin