Posted by: The Hitting Guru () on Tue Apr 3 23:14:37 2007

> > > Dennis,
> > >
> > > I believe batters can achieve greater bat barrel velocities by moving the center of mass of their bats in as straight a line as possible rather than along curved pathways.
> > >
> > > Thanks.
> > >
> > > Matt Schirm
> >
> > Matt. Would would you advocate that the hitter take the knob to the ball when hitting?
>
> -- I would like a definition of what you mean by 'knob to the ball'.
> What it means to me is maintaining a 90 degree angle approach (barrel) until torque is applied in the wrist. I would prefer we call it knob inside (referring to left of the ball (right-handed hitter).


Dennis W. In laymans terms my definition is that the hitter leads with the knob of the bat in a straight or slight move (to the right for a lefthanded batter vice versa) accross his body forward toward the pitcher. This is similar to the tomohawk drill but is done as a regular swing.

At this time the initial rotation of the bat is replaced to a large degree by a forward movement of the hands. In this way the hitter actually gains swing quickness because part of the swing is eliminated as the rest of the bat lags behind the hands.

Now the hitter snaps the bat to the point of contact using the power in his wrists. In this way the hitter still generates a lot of batspeed though it is more concentrated.

This swing/style uses more upper body and hips to compensate for the lack of a more full swing. And because the hands/knob lead the swing, the bat stays in the swing plane for almost the entire path of the swing. Thus, the bat head is less likely to dip below the swing plane in an effort to meet the incoming pitch.