Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Mon Jun 18 10:56:37 2007

>>> Lately I have been consistently late on almost any pitcher that I face. I am a lefty with good power and I can almost always put the ball in play when necessary. I think that I am having problems with bar arm when I start my trigger. I have consistantly popped out to left field and sometimes I role over weak hits to the second baseman. Obviously there is a flaw that I am missing. Any suggestions, clarification, or help would be great. Thanks <<<

Hi Ballplayer22

From your description, the problem appears to be your swing mechanics is leaving the bat-head dragging behind your hands to far into the swing. I would need to study clips of your swing to make sure the cause. I would suggest however that your problem does not result from having your lead-arm barred. I will place below a post from the Archives I wrote on that subject.

Jack Mankin
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Re: Nyman's Commints, And Other Qs

Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Jun 6 18:37:37 2006

>>> Hi jAcc Manken,

Sory about the spelling,i can't type too good.

I have a couple of questions of I wantto ask you?

1) In the Get Yure Arms eXTEnded, you have a picture of Grifey, and recommend a straight front leg and arm at impactu suppose to bend it to Drvie through the balll?

2( What is the classic L in both the front and bacck leg at contact? Arn't you supodsded to PuSH with that back arm, and drive hard with the back nee?

3) What is with this heavy bag thing? I'm confused...are yoiu supposed to get vibrations in your hands, or attan high batspeeds with no ringing in the hands. i'm new here, and I red the following on nyman's hitting-mechanics.org site. Here is the what ny mann said:

In preparing the SETPRO Instructor Swing Training Program V 1.30, among other topics, I have new information on extension, value of, pros and cons, how to achieve it, etc.

One of the demonstration methods I was experimenting with was the use of a heavy bag as a feedback/demonstration mechanism.

The theory was simple, and I had discussed this with Steve Englishbey, that the goal of the player is to strike the bag and create as much noise as they possibly can as a result of the bat impacting the bag.

The feedback here being the amount of noise i.e. the amount of energy being transferred from the bat to the bag. The theory being that obtaining rotational extension, and the key word here is "rotational" as opposed to disconnected extension, that the amount of noise created by impacting the bag is a way of quantifying how effectively the player is creating rotational extension. In essence what you're doing is using the sound of the bat striking the bag as a bat speed indicator. But with potentially greater central "effect", i.e. the noise created by knocking the crap out of the bag.

Well to make a long story short, after breaking my favorite 34", Alex Rodríguez wooden bat (split from just above my hands almost all the way to the end of the bat). And then breaking my 34" Jeff Bagwell wooden bat (snappeed cleanly and half just above the hands), all of which occurred in the first 10 swings, I then tried an aluminum bat and quickly abandoned it because the knob, aluminum bat knobs are much more "intrusive" than wooden bat knobs because of the way the bat is constructed and as such produced a much greater shock between my hand in the knob upon striking the heavy bag.

All of which leads me to the conclusion that using a heavy bag is (for someone attempting to use it to generate bat speed and or even to approximate game swing mechanics) possibly not be the best way to go.

At least it wasn't for me.....

Could u please explainn thixs bag thing to me? Thanks?

i am looking foward to a response.

Yurr sdite has good info in it; i am just tryinmg to lern it So that i can practice it.

Thanxs for putting up with the long post.

Again,
Grand Slam Man <<<

Hi Grand Slam Man

Welcome to the site. – I normally do not like writing long posts either. I also find it more productive to limit the number of topics I cover in a post. So I warn you in advance, addressing your three questions and Paul’s comments could get lengthy.

(Question #1) – “In the Get Yure Arms eXTEnded, you have a picture of Grifey, and recommend a straight front leg and arm at impactu suppose to bend it to Drvie through the balll?”

If I interpret your question correctly, your main concern is correct use of the lead-arm during the swing. – Should it be bent (or “Boxed”) during rotation and then extend (or straighten) to contact? – Or, should the elbow remain at a more fixed angle (bent or straighter) from launch to contact?

From analyzing countless clips of the best hitters my conclusions are:

(1) Keeping the elbow at a fixed angle generates greater bat speed because it produces a more productive Circular-Hand-Path (CHP) and “Hook” effect. – Note: If the arm needs to straighten or bend more for pitch location, it should occur early in the swing (during initiation) – not toward contact.

(2) Extending the hands by straightening a bent lead-elbow to contact produces far less bat speed because it straightens out the hand-path and kills the “Hook” effect. -- Note: For those hitters who rotate with more bend in the elbow, most of the straightening occurs after contact – not to contact

There are a number of batting authorities that would disagree, so let’s not just take my word for it. There are about 50 clips of the best hitters at -http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/swings.html. If straightening a bent (or boxed) lead-arm to extend the hands to contact is what the best hitters do, we should be able to see it in a good percentage of these clips. How many can you find?

The overhead view is best for studying the lead-arm. Note the lack of lead-arm action to contact in these clips.
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/Rose.mpeg
http://dmcmillan.topcities.com/Robinson1.mov

Here is a clip of Bagwell. He has a boxed lead-arm in his stance. But, note that the arm straightened during initiation – not later to extend the hands to contact.
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/bagwell1.mpeg

Here are a couple hitters who could be accused of “Barring” the arm at initiation. They even keep it straight all the way to contact. -- Shame, Shame on them.
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/griffey_ken.mpeg
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/dunn_adam1.mpeg

Grand Slam Man, the post is already getting long. I will pause here to let you and others respond to my comments. I will address your other questions soon.

Jack Mankin