Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Fri May 24 13:32:26 2002

>>> Swinging on plane is well addressed by Epsteins cues on how to
work the front elbow at and after launch, however, this needs to be
done in the context of learning the entire progression of the swing.
In other words, work on it as a part of the swing, not in isolation.
In Epstein language, hips lead hands, match the plane(the most closely
related to your question),keep the hands in. In Jack's terms this
means you have to learn to rotate around a stationary axis create good
connection so the torso drives the handpath in a circle/arc and use
the hands and arms to apply torque steadily from launch to contact
while preserving the circular handpath. If you do this, the bat will
swing out in the power plane perpendicular to the spine. This is where
the forces you are trying to harness are going to make the bat swing.
How early or late you launch and the handpath radius set up at launch
will adjust for inside out. Body posture/degree of bend at waist will
make up/down adjustment. Always swing perpendicular to the spine(or
said another way, with good mechanics the bat will always fire out in
the plane perpendicular to the spine where the big body forces
encourage it to swing). <<<
>
> Hi Tom
>
> In your post you stated; “Swinging on plane is well addressed by
Epsteins cues on how to work the front elbow at and after launch.” ---
I have real trouble understanding Epstein’s “weathervaning” cue for
developing the correct swing plane.
>
> I have stressed in my video, that the lead-elbow MUST always stay in
the plane of the swing. If the elbow and bat are not in the same
plane, the swing loses power and consistency of contact. Therefore, if
the pitch were higher (higher swing plane), the elbow would also move
to a higher plane. Obviously for a lower pitch, the swing plane and
elbow would move lower. But Epstein’s “weathervaning” cue seems to
teach something quite different. He states; ---
>
> “When the hitter is able to match the plane of his swing to the
plane of the pitch, his lead elbow works in an approximate 6" slot: if
the pitch is perceived as "down," the lead elbow works up in the slot.
If the pitch is perceived as up, the lead elbow makes the adjustment
and works down. The weathervaning of the lead elbow allows this to
happen. The proper swing allows for dynamic adjustment.”
>
> Why would you have a cue that tells the batter to work his
lead-elbow down on high pitches and up on lower pitches?
>
> Jack Mankin

Jack-

My assumption has been that if you are well connected,the front elbow
and hands are somewhat of a solid unit with the turning torso at/just
after launch when posture adjustment needs to be made.I personally
think this allows the great sense of feel/propriocetion in the hands
to guide the posture into the right adjustment for a given pitch on
the fly-trusting the hands- as long as they can be trusted assuming
mechanics are good and they are fixed to the torso.This works for me
but not for many kids.The front elbow cues,however,do seem to work for
this better.Again,these are cues that are in danger of many poor
interpretations,but if mechanics are good,the bat will drop into the
power plane and the position of the connected hands or front elbow
will proprioceptively guide the posture adjustment to match up/down
location.In all cases the bat should fire out in the power plane or
batspeed and swing duration will be excessively variable.

I agree with you that it is simplest to try to have the bat and arms
lined up in the desired relation to the torso in the preswing set
up.If you then proceed to swing,you will feel the front elbow work up
for the low ball as a result of more bend at the waist and holding
this spine angle until finish.If its high in the zone,it will feel as
if you are working the elbow down as torso rotation proceeds standing
up more stra