Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Mar 7 15:24:32 2002

>>> Jack, I reviewed my swing today and I hit the ball fairly hard. I noticed some differences in my initiation and the swing frame #1 on your site.
As my hands seperate I get a lot of cock in my bat. I am left handed so if you looked at my swing from the right batter's box side the top of the barrel would be hidden behind my head. At my initiation, my back shoulder is slightly lower than the front(about 3 to 4 inches) and my back leg is not as rotated as frame #1. Also my front knee is bent, but not as much as frame #1. In frame #1 the hitter's shoulders are almost level and he has about a 90 degree bend in his back leg.
I was hitting on a gym floor of a pitcher throwing on a knee at about 20 feet away. On my finish, the front toe points up at the end of my follow through.
I noticed that throughout my swing I was closed off with my front foot about 4 to 5 inches. This may have been why my back foot was rotated less at initiation. The pitches I had the most trouble with were well inside and this may be due to lack off reaction time hitting at a short distance. I popped most of those pitches up. I noticed I was keeping my arms very relaxed and trying to stay back and rotate. My transfer mechanics looked good.

So this brings me to a few questions.

1. Do I need to be more toward the pitcher and not closed off with my front foot?

2. How can I get more bend in my front knee so that my shoulders are level at initiation?

3. Would a little less cock in my bat at seperation help me?

4. Is the front toe coming up at the follow through a sign being too far back? <<<

Hi Matt G

For questions #1,2 & 4 --- I wish there were more set rules regarding lower body mechanics coaches could use to improve batting performance. But my study of the better major league hitters found a wide variety of styles used to generate good hip and shoulder rotation. Some had long strides while others had little or no stride. Some were more crouched (set to hit) with a lot of flex in their knees and some were erect. Some had the lead-foot closed at foot-plate while others were fairly open.

Matt, there are also no set rules for the correct weight distribution or amount of axis lean. Hank Aaron was nearly vertical (level shoulders) during the stride with his weight on the front side and the back-foot dragging forward at contact. Bonds, on the other hand, has his axis fading 3 to 5 inches away from the pitcher (low back-shoulder) and his lead-toe not only raises, the whole lead-foot sweeps 6 to 8 inches back toward the catcher on some swings. So I think you can see how difficult it can be to give advice on the correct lower-body mechanics – especially not having seen your swing.

I have often made the point “nothing that happens below the armpits has any great impact on bat speed - other than their contribution to shoulder rotation.” Many average hitters generate good rotation around a fairly stationary axis. What separates the great hitters from all the rest is the quality of their transfer mechanics. Here, there are rules (or absolutes) a coach can look for. This site spends much of its time defining those mechanical principles.

Question #3 – Most of the better hitters have a lot of cock in the bat as they prepare to initiate the swing. But, the bat-head should be accelerating back toward the normal launch position as shoulder rotation starts. Otherwise, the batter’s hands accelerate under a static bat-head – that is bad,bad!

PS: Matt, in a Feb. post you said that while practicing rotational mechanics you felt like you were pulling off the ball. That is understandable at first until the accompanying transfer mechanics are also rotational. The problems and feedback you are getting from your swing is very common with other hitters trying to develop rotational principles. With linear mechanics, you were accustom to feeling the back-side pivot around a posted front side.

Most linear instruction would say, "the lead-shoulder clears out to allow the hands to come through." The shoulder moves only a few (6 or 8 inches) inches away from the plate during the swing. From the inward-turn position, the lead-shoulders of a rotational hitter rotates 15 to 18 inches away from the plate, and is pulling back toward the catcher at contact. As I stated earlier, instead of the feeling of forward weight-shift, the axis may actually fade away from the pitcher (Bonds fades 3 to 5 inches).

Jack Mankin