Posted by: Jimmy () on Fri Jan 5 12:13:31 2007

>
> Hi BHL
>
> Good observation and Question --- I do not think of the front leg as being “locked” at contact. I think it would be more accurate to think of the leg as being fully rotated and extended. A fully extended lead leg indicates a full rotation of the hips and shoulders were required for the swing. This is usually true for pitches from the-middle-in where a tight hand-path is needed to get the meat of the bat on the ball and much of the bat speed is
generated from bottom hand torque. To apply maximum bottom hand torque, the lead shoulder needs to be pulling back toward the catcher at contact. This requires the full rotation and extension of the front leg. In this case the hips rotate about 90 degrees and
the shoulders about 120 degrees.
>
> On outside pitches the hands must take a wider path to get the meat of the bat on the ball. This means the lead shoulder can not rotate as far. On pitches on the outside part of the plate, the shoulders rotate about 70 or 90 degrees and the hips around 60 degrees or so. Therefore, full extension of the lead leg would not be required to rotate the hips to that point."
>
> Jack Mankin

Jack,

On different locations of the pitch the shoulders rotate to different degrees as a result of the hand and bat path, not the other way around. Through the point of contact the bottom hand is more a fulcrum for the top hand to apply leverage to the bat. If the front shoulder was intentionaly pulled back towards the catcher to increase bottom hand torque, the top hand would lose force and drive on the bat. In the Sosa (middle-in) clip, if you click back and forth between the frames of contact and just before contact, you will see that the most action is comming from his top hand and the barrel. In both frames both front and back shoulders are in the same area allowing his hands to finish the job.

To say that Sosa intentially pulls his front shoulder back towards the catcher to gain more bottom hand torque is a rediculous statement. I'm sure if you asked him he'd probably say the same thing.

Jimmy