Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Mon Nov 19 12:44:54 2001

>>> Jack,I was watching baseball today on ESPN and Joe Morgan was talking to Brett Boone. Boone talked about how he stresses staying inside the ball. He said to think of swinging at the ball like it's inside inside to keep a tight hand path. He hit in a cage and hit some balls hard the other way. I was wondering how to go about this without using an inside-out approach. After experimenting I noticed that when I forget about it and don't think too much It happens naturally. Anyhow do you think swinging at the pitch like it's inside and keeping your hands in tight is a good cue? Or can this cause problems? <<<

Hi Matt

Stressing the point to keep the hands inside the ball can be a helpful cue to a batter with linear mechanics. Linear principles has a batter extending the hands away from the back shoulder while keeping the shoulders closed for as long as possible. Under these conditions, the batter could have the hands casting out too wide. So reminding the batter to keep the hands in close to the body as he extends may be helpful. --- Extending the hands close to the body while keeping the shoulders more closed will require the lead-arm to flex and then un-flex toward contact (a straighter hand-path).

For a batter with rotational mechanics, the "keep the hands inside the ball" cue is of little value and may cause the batter to develop a linear (straight) hand-path. The rotational hitter does not need to bend the lead-elbow in order to have a tight hand-path as with extension mechanics. By keeping his hands back and allowing shoulder rotation to accelerate the hands, the rotational batter can maintain a tight path while keeping the lead-arm straight. So, for the rotational hitter the amount of shoulder rotation determines how wide the hands are cast. --- Full shoulder rotation at contact = a tight hand-path --- Less shoulder rotation and allowing the lead-arm to cast away from the chest further = a wider path.

Jack Mankin