Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Mon Oct 30 20:42:07 2006

Hey Jack,

First timer. You do a good job of telling people that long strides a'int necessary. Your axis is wrong though. For some reason, you think that the back leg is an "L" shape at contact. How can it be? Even in no-strides, which is what I teach, the batter must shift AGAINST HIS FRONT SIDE HARD (also known as pushing off your back leg) against a planted and stiff front leg. This snaps the whip. We wanna have transfer + rotation Jack, not spinning, as hitters (even as commenters say) that the back leg needs to DRIVE.

Hi Gym Teacher

For 18 years I taught the mechanics you described. In fact, almost every batting authority I relied on believed that there was a “whip effect” that accelerated the bat to contact when the batter transferred his weight to a firm front leg and extended his hands in a straight path. I have since discovered that what I taught did far more harm than good to my players. – There is no acceleration of the bat from a “Snap of the Whip” that occurs from a weight-shift and straight extension of the hands.

Here is a clip I produced on this topic -- http://www.batspeed.com/media/WhipHigh.wmv

Jack Mankin