Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Tue Jan 15 05:18:55 2002

While working with the hitters on our team this weekend, I noticed something I hadn't thought about before.
> > We've worked on rotational hitting. The kids know the difference between pushing the hands and turning the shoulders. Last year's veterans use their lower body mechanics well to power the shoulder turn. The new guys need some work, as usual.
> > One of our best athletes has a 'natural swing'. He is a good golfer and we've used those golf mechanics. He generates a strong, fast swing with a seemingly easy motion. He has crushed some balls in competition.
> > When he turns through a swing and finishes his shoulder turn he is Williams'esque.
> > He was getting swings with a -3 bat anywhere from the low to high 70's MPH.
> > What we noticed was that in his 'slower' swings, the circular hand path was widening during the swing. In effect, the bat was pulling itself out of the circle created by the shoulder rotation.
> > He was not pushing his hands, the weight of the bat was pulling itself out.
> > When he worked to keep his hands in, he was in the high 70's.
> > My deduction is that the mechanics of a good rotational swing tend to throw the bat out of the circle and that the hitter has to work to keep the bat 'in' to avoid bleeding energy from the swing by letting the bat pull itself out.
> > Has anyone seen this? Am I thinking in the right direction here?
>
> Dan-
>
> In golf you maintain the swing radius with an almost locked front arm,and you vary radius with the length of the club.The main thing you guard against to prevent casting is getting out of plane or poortempo,both of which can disconnect the arms from the shoulder turn/plane.There is also the need to snap and roll the wrists at contact in golf.
>
> In hitting,you have more(not too much) of a bent front arm and you have more of the push/pull/torquing hand action with extension/wrist roll after contact.As your golfer gets more lower body power(more leg action/hip action/more siting to hit and standing up or whatever he does to cock and uncock the hips)when hitting there will be more power to control and more need to consciously think about maintaining tight connection while learning(until it becomes automatic.)
>
> I also see kids lose connection as batspeed increases.I have them focus on firmer connection of the front upper arm to the torso as a way to improve.This is less necessary on the inside stuff where they are hooking the handpath by pulling back with the bottom hand/applying bht.For the middle out stuff,the bat really wants to pull/cast the front arm away early.This is when you have to have the front upper arm clamp down against the torso until the "L" has come out of the back arm.
>
> Try it and see what you think.

Thanks Tom, I will try it.
What do you think of using the top hand/back arm to hold the bat 'in' while the elbow is against the ribs? Tightening the upper arm and shoulder keeps the lead arm from flying out. I don't know if this is a viable technique or not....