Posted by: R B () on Mon Oct 8 14:47:11 2001

Jack, from your various materials and postings, I have concluded that you are misguided on this topic.
> >
> > Some of your ideas I agree with, for example, the circular hand path. As far as top hand torque is concerned, I simply do not understand it. I saw your tape (borrowed from a friend)and I think I will buy it, because I do see the potential for me understanding top hand torque & maybe even agreeing with it.
> >
> > But back to the subject at hand. It seems that you object to the concept of throwing the hands at the ball under the misguided notions that (a) the hands/bat will be thrown in a "linear" direction and that (b) the hands will somehow jump out ahead of the lower body & energy will be lost.
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> > Neither notion is correct. If throwing the hands can be a useful cue to some hitters (and there are some major leaguers who use that cue), they can throw the hands in a circular motion. For example, if you were to take a basketball and throw it in a side-arm motion (using both hands), the hand path would/could be quite similar to the circular hand path of a baseball swing. Throwing the hands does not automatically equate to throwing in a straight line.
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> > There is no merit in the notion that throwing the hands somehow causes the hands to jump ahead of the hips, the hands slow down, the hips catch up & enery is lost.You yourself have said that everything rotates in unison. Believe me, Jack, if the hands are "thrown",the hips will move along in tandem. Take a stride and try throwing the hands, bat, whatever without letting the hips rotate. You really have to try hard in order for the hips NOT to come along with the hands.
> >
> > Sincerely
> RB,
> Did you read about the yo yo analogy, as soon as you take your hands off that circular path, the bat slows down, well i agree for outside pitches that you need to throw the back arm at the ball but for pitches middle in you shouldn't extend toward the pitcher, it seems to me that with the lead arm straight (as jack and I prefer)it is impossible to throw your hands at the ball because your whole body is moving in a circular motion, and it seems that you would need bend in both arms to provide the power for throwing your hands at the ball, which is why that is a linear mechanic. I hope I cleared it up for you and showed you the right way.
> Jeff

A baseball swing has nothing to do with a yo yo. This subject came up in the spring on my son's 13-14 yaer old team. The coach was trying to teach the kids to "throw" the bat at the ball. I was skeptical. At a work out, we had the kids "swing" a soccer ball 10 feet from a wall. The idea was to see how long it took the ball to reach the wall with the kids simply "swinging" but letting go of the ball. Then we had the kids, with the same motion "throw" (and let go) of the ball. With this method , on average the ball reached the wall about 20 per cent quicker. That doesn't necessairily mean the imparted 20 per cent more force, but it was obvious they did impart MORE force by thinking "throw". We also filmed the kids (side view) throwing the ball, "throwing" the bat and simply "swinging" the bat. In all cases, much to my surprise, none of their "swings" or "throws" resembled "linear". I'm not claiming this experiment as science, but I saw with my own eyes that "throwing" the bat at the very least does NOT result in a "linear" swing, and on the other hand the data seemed to suggest that batspeed increased. I'll leave it at that. You can stick your head in the sand and come up with all kinds of excuses , analogies, etc so as to not complicate your nice, neat model of a baseball swing. Or, you can do your own experiments and see for yourself. What is important is that your viewers out there can understand that this concept is at least looking into. (and it's not exactly a new concept simply because it conflicts with your model. Do you want to learn, or do you want to teach what you think you know. I had my say, do with it whatever you want. Good bye