Posted by: Troy () on Tue Feb 12 09:13:19 2002

>>> To me "casting" happens when your body begins rotation while your hands are trailing too far behind. Because of the amount of force that your body during rotation creates, if your hands are too far behind, it is impossible for your hands to stay inside the ball and on the correct path. They will cast away from your body too soon and create a long arc, like a golf swing on a flatter plane. Get in your hitters stance, lock your front arm straight and try to keep your hands close to your body. This is death as a hitter. If you look a some hitters,Griffey for example, they have great uppper body flexibility and are able to have their front arm almost straight and still keep their hands working inside the ball. You have to remember the professional hitters see live pitching everyday, they develop a swing that complements their strengths. <<<
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> Hi Troy
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> You Stated: “To me "casting" happens when your body begins rotation while your hands are trailing too far behind.” – If that were true, we would have to conclude that nearly all great hitters have a serious “casting” problem. They all have their hands back at the shoulder when they start rotation.
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> For one of many examples , go to - http://www.setpro.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000178.html – Not only does Sammy Sosa have his hands as far back as possible as rotation starts, his lead-arm straightens early in the swing. - How much casting did you observe? - Troy, you can’t just dismiss the mechanics used by one great hitter after another as flawed mechanics just because they do not fit the linear mode. They are not freaks of nature that can make bad mechanics work – why do you think they chose the mechanics they have. Do you really think Sammy would hit even better if he extended his hands before he rotated?
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> Jack Mankin

Jack,

I think one of the problems with instructors is vocabulary. Something that means on thing to one instructor means something else to another.
I said the problem starts with the hands trailing too far behind. There is some hand and bat lag in the swing. If your hands do not catch up and get in the correct position your hands will cast away from your body. The way that these great hitters are able to maintain their balance and bat path is they establish a good front side and they keep their head on the ball until after contact.

I don't dismiss any information that I get from an instructor. I listen read evaluate and use the information if it helps my hitters. If you watch hitters, some of them may reach far back with their hand. When contact is made though their trailing arm is bent in an almost 90deg angle (which is the strongest angle for the levers of our body).
Contact, most of the time, is also made with the hands in front of the torso. So at the power position (weight gathered back, stride taken and hands over the rear foot)if the hands are extended way back behind the rear foot in which the lead arm is almost straight. The hands and arms at some point are going to have to catch up, bend and get in front of the torso.

That is not just my opinion, that is fact.
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