Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.con) on Sun Jan 30 23:54:10 2000

>>>To clarify, you mean to say the lead arm is straight at contact? I ask because it appears to me that most hitter have little movement in their elbow through most of the pre-contact portion of the swing but still retain a little bend at the elbow, straightening it near contact. In other words, it's not barred throughout the swing.<<<

Hi Jeff

No, in most swings the lead arm is not barred. I stated the following in an earlier post.

>>I would agree that a slight bend might occur as the swing is initiated. But this is because of the inertia offered by the bat and not to have �a shorter path to the ball.� The arm should be fairly straight by mid swing<<

The �barred lead arm� term raises the hackles of most all coaches. But Jeff, what would be the dire consequences of a batter rotating with the arm barred if he kept it across most of his chest to contact?

Jack Mankin