Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Jan 18 20:05:07 2000

>>>In your mechanics section you state that the better hitters drop the forearm later,frames 3,4,5 as opposed to frames 1,2,3.Is this something that can be worked on ? <<<

Hi Tom

Sorry for the late reply. I have been away the past few days.

The lowering of the back arm is quite different with rotational mechanics as compared to extension mechanics. With extension of the hands, the bat head sort of slides down the line up with the hands (knob at the ball) and develops very little angular displacement as the arm lowers to horizontal. --- With rotational mechanics, the initiation with torque generates considerable angular displacement while the forearm is still vertical (and lowering). This necessitates the wrist being able to rotate in the plane of the swing.

Hold the forearm vertical and rotate the wrist. Note the plane of that rotation. Now slowly lower the arm while rotating the wrist. --- The lowering of the arm must be in time with the position of the bat (or plane of the swing) if a serious wrist bind is to be avoided with rotational mechanics. --- But this not as much a problem as it sounds. With proper initiation this timing will happen automatically as long as we allow rotation instead of extension to accelerate the hand-path.

Jack Mankin