Posted by: Brian () on Mon Apr 23 13:55:54 2007

> For those who are interested, MLB.com shows the side views most homeruns hit during each game on their website. I found this of interest because though most hitters use rotational swing, the relative hand/launch positions vary widely. Some hitters have the bat wrapped behind the head while others hold the bat almost perpendicular to the ground while almost never cocking the wrists to load. Some hitters take the hands back in unison while others uses pre launch torque. But all the homeruns have timing that meets the bat with the ball for the most part out in front of the plate.
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> Some hitters like A. J. Perzynski and Jermaine Dye do not have the best THT application, but it is likely more to do with using their physical strength and keeping it simple rather than intentionally using inferior technique. For the smaller hitters like a Rob Mackowiak who went deep in Thursday's game, his technique has to be better to make up for have less physical strength. He actually looks like a smaller version of Jim Thome from his side view.

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Good observations, George. Our new Swing Analysis Program is just about complete and one of the principles that we discuss in detail are styles versus absolutes (or key positions). Understanding the difference between an individual batter's style and the key batting positions is essential to properly analyze a batter's swing mechanics.

As you correctly point out, those clips show players using all different sorts of batting stances, prelaunch mechanics, some use more THT than others, but these are all styles. What is important is that once they begin the swing that they utilize get the body and bat into certain key positions.

Brian