Posted by: The Hitting Guru () on Mon Dec 11 16:28:31 2006

> >>> Keep your head tracking forward and you cannot counter rotate your shoulders . You don't want to do that as it causes tension.
>
> Keep you hands near you arm pit. One method is to just tip the barrel to the oppo gap from a vertical hand set remaining loose. Allow you upper body to smoothly slave to that hand action . Jack calls this prelaunch torque. TO me your turning the barrel opposite from the dorection it will eventually go. I agree with your instructor. Maybe Jack can help with a better explanation
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> You can apply great BHT and THT with the barrel returning to plane.
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> You can reduce your total effort so much and increase your output that you will be amazed.<<<
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> Hi Mike & Donny
>
> Donny does a good job of describing pre-launch torque. I would also recommend you pay close attention to what he has learned about how to best apply the mechanic. When applied correctly, the mechanic can be a blessing to your batting performance. Pre-launch torque sets into motion mechanics that accelerates the bat-head rearward to the launch position.
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> As Donny points out, applying PLT produces trajectories of the hands and bat that allows the batter to, “apply great BHT and THT with the barrel returning to plane.”
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> “A ballistic motion, once initiated, produces trajectories that can only be changed at its margins.”
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> The above bio-mechanical principle can be a blessing or a curse to your batting performance. When you initiate the swing with the correct forces, your mechanics are basically on auto-pilot to contact. Initiate the bat with incorrect forces – nothing can be done from that point that produces maximum results.
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> When PLT is applied correctly, the bat-head is swept cleanly behind the head into the swing plane as the hands arrive at the launch position. When applied incorrectly, the bat is accelerated rearward in a to vertical direction that slices down through the plane instead of into it. This leads to wrist-binding and waves in the swing plane.
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> Back in the early 1990s, one of my favorite hobbies was doing a video analysis of great hitters in a prolonged batting slump. In almost every case, I found that their slump was due to flaws in how they applied PLT and THT. Regardless of the bat speed they generated, the resulting wrist-binds and waves in the swing plane prevented them from making consistent hard contact.
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> I have had hundreds of videos sent to me for video analysis. Of those, only a handful that applied PLT was performing it correctly. Accelerating the bat to vertically was not the only problem I noted. Many of them retained their “knob to the ball” mechanics as they applied PLT. Extending the hands away from the shoulder while accelerating the bat-head rearward leads to severe wrist-binds as well as flaws to the swing plane.
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> With that being said, I still think the rewards of getting it right far outweigh the frustrations in-between.
>
> Jack Mankin
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Jack. Do you have any of the old video of hitters in batting slumps?
If so (if it is not an infringement on MLB), can you share that video? Thanks!!