Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Fri Dec 22 10:13:43 2006

>>> As usual, you have hit the nail on the head :

This cue (“avoid early "casting") seems to advocate delaying the acceleration of the bat-head until later in the swing.

and

I find the best hitters are constantly applying force to attain maximum acceleration of the bat-head (casting around the plane) from launch to contact

The "paradox" or somehat "nonintuitive" truth is that avoiding casting REQUIRES torquing the handle/accelerating the bathead from early in the swing until contact <<<

Hi Tom

You hit the nail on the head with this statement; “The "paradox" or somehat "nonintuitive" truth is that avoiding casting REQUIRES torquing the handle/accelerating the bathead from early in the swing until contact.”

As your insightful statement points out, there are two forces at work that induces the angular displacement rate of the bat (bat speed). (1) An angular displacement rate of the hand-path induces angular displacement of the bat (the pendulum effect). (2) Torque – angular displacement of the bat-head induced from the opposing push/pull actions of the hands at the handle.

As the angular displacement rate of the hand-path approaches zero (hand-path straightens out – “A to B”), the bat speed induces from the pendulum (or Whip) effect also approaches zero. Therefore, with a straight (A to B) extension of the hands, all (100%)of bat speed would be induced from Torque. – This is demonstrated at – http://www.batspeed.com/media/WhipHigh.wmv

Obliviously, few batters extend their hands straight A to B. There will normally be some “casting” of their hands and therefore some bat speed induced from the pendulum effect. However, with many of the videos sent to me for analysis, I would estimate that 75 to 80 percent of their bat speed was induced from torque applied at the handle – extending their top-hand past their slower moving bottom-hand.

From the tests I conducted, I would estimate that with high level swings, the pendulum effect-to-Torque ratio is more balanced – closer to 50/50.

Jack Mankin