Posted by: Chris O'Leary (chris@chrisoleary.com) on Wed Feb 21 13:54:32 2007

"In almost every swing of every mlb player, as they approach contact, the hands move out of the rotational path of the body and toward the ball. It's on almost every video you've ever watched......yet you say it isn't there. That is a linear move. If they did not do this, they would pull off the ball every time."

To see if this actually happens or not, the relevant angle is an overhead view. Even the most rotational swing will look linear when viewed from the side or behind.

In both of these overhead views, the hands maintain their distance from the back shoulder (and rotate with respect to the chalk line on the ground). That's not what you would expect to see if what you are describing actually happened.

http://photos.imageevent.com/siggy/hitting/pro/Robinson1.gif

http://photos.imageevent.com/siggy/hitting/pro/Rose.gif

I will grant you some linear movement of the hands toward the pitcher, but not very much. The majority of the linear movement happens AFTER the point of contact as the bat pulls the hands out toward the SS.