Posted by: Dave (nytino20@aol.com) on Sat Feb 3 14:07:07 2007

Very good point with the kickers. I'm surprised I didn't think of this myself a long time ago. I still think that if you take that linemen and go through some intense stretching so he can load just as much as the kicker he wouldn't be able to produce the same force but I think your point is valid. When it comes to a baseball swing my question is how much more "flexible" can you be?? You don't want to overload your swing unless you are playing slow pitch softball.

I think isometrics are still definetley very important and crucial to developing MAXIMUM muscular speed through the recruitment of fast twitch fibers and motor units.

Check out this article. I wonder if swinging a lighter bat which is obviously not an isometric exercise (It involves repititions of your muscles lengthening and shortening just like in weight lifting or plyometrics) actually can develop fast twitch muscle fibers. Here is an interesting article I think it's well worth the brief time it takes to read it.

http://www.athleticquickness.com/page.asp?page_id=53

Swinging the lighter bat could do something. I'm pretty much sold on the fact that swinging a heavier bat will not help with bat speed. I think at the best it will do nothing. It seems to me through my reading on some good sites that it can in fact SLOWER your bat speed by recruiting some of your fast twitch fibers into slow twitch fibers. The doc himself says it over there at athleticquickness.com

Very interesting topic overall though. I think this thread should keep going. Would love to hear from some more out there about this all.