Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sat May 18 10:24:38 2002

Is the hands staying inside the ball the only difference between Jack and Epstein?

Mike-

If you took a hundred typical coaches and showed them one video and then cut them loose to make or break kids during the crucial time that their brains were wiring up(would we do that to our kids?),Mike's is the video that would do the least amount of damage.

Why? Because he communicates as simply as possible the rotational swing without hopelessly oversimplifying things.But remember,he is communicating exactly the same swing that Jack describes here in more detail.Jack's detail that is useful for a certain kind of coach.The rotational swing has been developed over about a hundred seasons in major league ball.It is a single optimal biomechanical solution,or as Jack and Mike might say,the same from launch to contact.

Mike thinks extremely carefully about what he says.These are the core mechanics,in order,as the unfold in the swing

1-hips lead the hands-wind and unwind the rubber band,then comes

2-match the plane of the pitch-adjustment of body posture/axis of rotation,then

3-keep the hands in-same as Jack's circular handpath

Mike has the best description of how to stop lunging I have seen.As Jack has said,you have to rotate around a stationary axis.There can be no hip slide after rotation starts.

Mike tends to give more emphasis to a limted number of cues that are useful to support drills that let coaches teach teach kids without confusing them too much.

Jack describes much more the reality of how the body moves to harness the underlying principles of developing and transferring energy to the ball so the coach has a chance to develop their own systen of teaching.But,it's the same swing.