Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Fri Feb 23 12:21:43 2007

>>> I do not think that every contact/hit that Mantle and Williams made was a perfect swing. I know for a fact that I saw a few hits during a documentry on the Yankees playoff run and Mantle was out on his front foot and extending his arms to hit a change. Extension of the arms occurs during rotation of the hands and must contribute some to the bats direction.

It is hard to require perfect mechanics for every swing when this is not a reality. EVERY BATTER tries to achieve an efficient swing but timing the pitch will dictate a vast portion of one's success. <<<

Hi Dave

I agree with you that timing, pitch location and the direction the ball is hit has a great bearing on the extension of the back-arm at contact. We stress in our new Swing Analysis dvd that these conditions must be consisted for an accurate analysis. The back-arm will always be more extended at contact on outside pitches or the batter is pulling the ball.

That is why we suggest using that point of the swing where the bat has been rotated to perpendicular to the flight of the ball (ball would be hit straight-away) as a reference point for analysis rather than the actual contact point. You will find that the best hitters all exhibit about the same “L” position (depending on pitch location) when the bat reaches perpendicular. Hitters with less efficient mechanics will have back-arm more extended at that point.

I would suggest not using a swing for analysis if the batter appears to fooled by the pitch or his timing is obviously off.

Jack Mankin