Posted by: Jimmy () on Fri Feb 23 13:54:45 2007

> Hi Jimmy
>
> You state:
>
> “If the hitter can try to keep his sweet-spot on that line for as long as he can, while still
continuing to apply THT, then his chances of hitting the ball on that sweet-spot are
greater. When the sweet-spot travels into the hitting zone and is traveling too rotationally,
the sweet-spot and the ball will have only one chance of crossing eachothers paths. When
the sweet-spot crosses outside the hitting zone line then back across to the other side the
ball and the sweet-spot will cross at exactly two and only two points.”
>
> The over-head of John’s swing Brian showed is in contrast to your statement. You said
his swing was to rotational and not Major League caliber. Why, because you contend that
the Major League hitters extend their hands linear to keep the meat-of-the-bat inline with
the ball while John’s hands remained circular to contact.
>
> Below is a frontal and across the plate view of a very good Major league hitter. I would
say an over-head view of Griffey’s swing would look almost identical to John’s over-head.
Obviously, you would disagree. Please point out - (1) Where Griffey’s hand-path differs
from John’s and (2) Where Griffey’s hands start to go linear.
>
>
> http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/griffey_ken1.mpeg
>
> http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/Griffey01.mpeg
>
> Jimmy you ask “I still want to know why you deny that linear/directional components of
the Major League swing exist? “
>
> These clips can be advanced frame-by-frame. Your frame-by-frame analysis of his
hand-path should help me understand what linear components you are referring to –
other than during the stride which I already agree with.
>
> Jack Mankin

Jack,

You hit it right on the head with this statement, "The over-head of John’s swing Brian
showed is in contrast to your statement. You said his swing was to rotational and not
Major League caliber. Why, because you contend that the Major League hitters extend
their hands linear to keep the meat-of-the-bat inline with the ball while John’s hands
remained circular to contact."

Especially the part wher you state, "The over-head of John’s swing Brian showed is in
contrast to your statement". The reason his swing is in contrast to my statement is
because it is not a quality swing. His swing does not stay through the hitting zone long
enough as I stated before.


Also the clip of John being off of the tee really shws how he came off the ball imediatly
after contact. Had that been a pitched ball, the odds that he finds the sweet-spot are
slim. It's obviously easier to find the sweet-spot when hitting off of the tee reguardless of
how poor your mechanics are.

The difference between Griffey's and John's overhead view would be the length of time
Griffey's sweet-spot stays in the hitting zone. Even though the path looks arced, the arc is
lengthened in that area of the swing. If you added a linear component to a circle, you
would create an oval.

The Griffey clips do show what I consider the linear portion of the swing.

If you go to the first clip...

http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/griffey_ken1.mpeg

Freeze it right at contact. The next two frames show how he tries to stay through the
hitting zone as long as he can (even after contact has been made). Notice how any rotation
of his front shoulder has almost stopped and his rear arm is going from a bent state to an
extended state through the hitting zone.

Now I know his barrel does not make a perfectly straight line in this area (actually it is
slightly arced) but the point is that he is trying to stay on that path as long as his body will
physically alow him to. This is called extention through the ball.

In the next clip...

http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/Griffey01.mpeg

This pitch really got too deep on him and he did not meet the ball in the ideal hitting
zone. The ideal hitting zone for him is just in front of his front foot extending about a
foot or so out toward the pitcher. He got beat and did not get the sweet-spot on the ball,
but you can still see where he tried to extend linearly through contact. This shows up by
his rear arm extending through contact.

I'm sure that he wished he had caught that pitch a little more out in front (in the ideal
hitting zone), because he would of had more leverage, strength, and batspeed on the ball
at contact.

Jack, my definition of linear mechanics within the swing may be different than yours, but
they definately exist.

Jimmy