Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Wed Mar 13 08:54:55 2002

I am confused as to the movements described on the swing mechanics page. It says, "The top hand starts out pulling toward the catcher. But by contact, the rotation of the shoulders and the rolling of the forearm from vertical to horizontal will cause the force of the top hand to be directed toward the pitcher. --- The bottom hand starts by being pulled in an arc toward the pitcher but finishes pulling toward the catcher."
> > Could someone explain at what point in the swing the top hand pulls toward the catcher and the bottom hand pulls in an arc toward the pitcher? Thank you.
>
> Elizabeth-
> the top hand is pulling toward the catcher at the start of the swing, near when the shoulders start turning and before it flattens into the swing plane. As the bat enters the swing plane, the lead arm is stretched back and the bat knob is pointing towards the opposite batters box. As the shoulders rotate, the lead arm's pull and the knob of the bat turn through an arc, sweeping across the opposite batter's box and across firstbase, toward the pitcher and secondbase at which point the barrel is squared to the field and hopefully the pitch.
> Hope that helps. Keep reading through older posts to understand what everyone is talking about here. It takes some time but you learn a lot.
>

As you learn what to look for it is important to look at video of good hitters and yourself along with the drawings here under "mechanics".A vcr/computer that allows pausing each frame as well as running slow mo back and forward helps,even some ability to annotate.The usual 30 frames per second is sometimes not enough to see some things you like,but you can look across a lot of videos and catch what you need or occasionally find clips with a higher frame rate.If this is beyond you get mom or dad or coach involved.