Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Mon Oct 15 06:58:54 2001

As my son, Matt, works on using pre-launch top hand torque, he sometimes pulls his bottom hand down as he pulls his top hand back. THis of course results in dropping the barrel of the bat and either popping up or hitting a high fly ball.
I've seen this type of error as a common pitfall on the road to using this technique properly.
Anyone else see this happen during the learning curve?
During Bonds' chase for the HR title, I got to see him swing a few times (that's about all the swings he got from the Astros!). Bonds certainly uses tht and pre-launch tht at that. But his initiation is similar to many of the old time players - his hands are held low. Rather than keeping his bottom hand up and pulling back with his top hand, he lifts his bottom hand while pulling back with the top hand.
I tried this myself just to experiment. If you do it correctly, the bottom hand assists the pre-launch tht. Rather than the top hand pulling around a stationary bottom hand, the two hands torque the handle. Its actually easier to get the bat torquing that way.
I've seen clips of Ted Williams and Babe Ruth who also used this technique.
Any opinios on this?