Posted by: Jack Mankin (Mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Fri May 24 15:57:28 2002

>>> In fact, with my daughter's instruction on video, we see her back elbow forcing her hands away from her body at the start of the swing. <<<

Hi Scott

I have batters who are accustom to extending the top-hand at initiation start with the back-elbow lower and practice accelerating the bat using bottom-hand-torque. With bht, the hitter should concentrate on holding the top-hand back and allow the rotation of the lead-side to torque (with a chp) the bat-head around. When the batter can demonstrate efficient bht, I then have them raise the elbow some and from that position instead of just “holding back” with the top-hand, they can start “pulling back” as the elbow lowers.

The important point to remember with the raised elbow is that; the lowering of the back-elbow should always pull the top-hand TOWARD the back-shoulder – definitely not extend the hands away from it.

Jack Mankin