Posted by: Joe (joe.flowers@nofreewill.com) on Sun Jun 13 08:01:11 2010

Hi Jack,

I like your work a lot and I like Chris O'Leary's work a lot too.
Both of you have helped me a ton. But, I have to believe you are more correct on the hand torque issues because I do see the video evidence, even on Chris' web pages where he refutes THT.


http://chrisoleary.com/projects/Baseball/Hitting/RethinkingHitting/Essays/RotationalHitting.html

On Chris' web page, I see hand torque in both Albert Pujols and Megan Bush's beautiful rotational swings. For example, I see significant change in the angle of the bat to the top hand forearm from initiation of the swing to the point of contact. This implies a torque (which implies a force) in the vicinity of the wrists. Watch Chris' video over and over again.

Besides, Chris includes contradictory statements in the same paragraph.

"In a rotational swing, the role of the hands, wrists, and forearms is to get the head of the bat where it needs to be at the POC."

This sentence implies that there is a force of NON-ZERO magnitude being applied by the hands, wrists, and forearms.


"In a rotational swing, the hands, wrists, and forearms do not generate any force;"

This statement implies that there is a force of ZERO magnitude (i.e., no force) being applied by the hands, wrists, and forearms.

"they just funnel and direct the forces that are generated elsewhere in the body, causing the wrists to unhinge and the bat head to whip through the POC."

This sentence implies that there is a force of NON-ZERO magnitude being applied by the hands, wrists, and forearms.

Further, looking at Chris' videos, I think it can be proven by physics and mathematics that "Whip"ping alone (as defined by Chris) is not enough to generate the bat-head speed that is being shown in those videos at the point of contact without torque from the hands and wrists. Yes, I'm an engineer and familiar with the Conservation of Angular Momentum.

Still, no disrespect to Chris. I like and continue to learn a lot from his work.

--
"When you're through learning, you're through." - Vernon Law.