Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Tue May 14 15:06:51 2002

Thanks for the feedback, Tom.
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> You make a good point that "casting" is more than 2D. It also involves the plane of the bat path, the path of the ball both vertically and horizontally, and where the players’ hands are in relation to the ball.
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> Lots to think about.
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> I just got Mike Epstein's tape and viewed it last weekend, as well as some of his articles in Hardball. As I work with my kids, they are picking up the finer distinctions (i.e. why having the hands inside the ball accelerates batspeed, and having them too far out (or up or down!) decreases it). As long as they understand the concepts, and working to improve their lower body mechanics, I think "casting" will be less a problem. I like Jack Mankin’s emphasis on top-hand torque, but Mike does a great job of both describing the lower body mechanics, as well as providing some practical drills for reinforcing them. If the concentric arcs that Jack describes are balanced, and the transfer of momentum occurs smoothly, they will probably keep their bat-path (and hands) compact.
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> Regards.. Scott

Scott-

Thanks for plowing through that.

If you read Williams and Epstein and Lau and Lau Jr. in the context of how Jack describes the swing,I believe you will find that Williams and Epstein are thinking bht and Lau Jr tht.Jack has a unified theory from the perspective of the handpath/handaction.Lau and Epstein sound different because of how the body gets trained to support the hands.Top down control of a bottom up motor program gives distinct ways of adjusting body posture,rotational axis,timing and "weight-shift",for example, for these separate ends of the spectrum.What is needed is to better understand the spectrum of body adjustments so the swing can cover the entire zone with a minimum of learned variation.The mechanical solution will also evolve over time as the hitter matures.It is probably ideal to start them young on a path that provides continuity as they grow and face higher levels of difficulty.A lifetime of learning.