Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Fri Oct 26 12:41:57 2001

>>>The hitter should not think of the arms throwing the bat this cause rotation problems, and is more of a linear technique with less batspeed, but the hitter should think of the hands and wrists as throwing the bat. Jeff Hitman <<<

Hi Jeff

Professor Robert K. Adair, who wrote “The Physics of Baseball,” stated in his book that it takes about 3-torque horsepower to accelerate a 35-oz bat to 70 mph in 5/30 of a second. He goes on to point out that the arms can only generate about .6-horsepower and that the balance of the energy must come from the larger muscle groups in the legs and torso.

I would venture to say that the wrist could only supply about 10% of that .6-horsepower. So extending the hands linearly (or even in a circular path) and relying on the wrist to bring the bat to contact leads to a weak swing. --- Go to the SiteMap at the bottom of the page and read “Wrist Action or Torque.” It may give you different way of thinking about generating bat speed.

Jack Mankin