Posted by: zeke mcintyre (mcintyre@one.net) on Fri Jun 28 09:57:21 2002

This thing about bottom hand torque makes no sense to me. If a right handed batter gets to what I call the power position, ie; the bat just starts to make contact with the ball...If you have a hitter do this and stop at that point of the bat contacting with the ball and hold back on the bat with your finger tips , and then ask the hitter to continue their swing do you think the pull arm/bottom hand is supplying the power? It is a guide/lever to help transfer and distribute power/strength. The top hand is at the 45 degree bend pushing and the left arm is straight. Any young hitter or older who is taught to open the front shoulder or pull before they push on anything other than an inside pitch will become frustrated with their hitting. Most of what I have observed is that a lack of balance is the number one failure to hitting. The next key is being able to see the ball properly from a balanced stance and tracking the ball from the pitchers release to the catchers mitt. By having the hitter get in front of a mirror and looking into the mirror, from a balanced stance, they usually do not turn their head far enough to the left. You can see this by looking at their eyes in the mirror, if you can not see the white on both sides of the pupils, their head is not turned far enough to the left. The hitters own physical size/bulk/etc; will determine if they can see the ball better with a closed/open or somewhere in between stance. If you can not see it, it makes it more difficult to hit. When they load up/inward turn/shift their weight/ or whatever term you use, you usually see the front shoulder move towards the position where the second baseman is playing and that is too much. Now add pulling and this thing on top hand torque and in my opinion you have a dead pull hitter that can not hit a low outside pitch. Ask yourself or anyone else how many coaches pitch inside at youth or the high school level inside and assign a percentage figure to it. With a metal bat you can hit home runs off the handles but not many with wood. Over time power is developed by the hitter and the more anyone tries to pull the bat or rotate the front shoulder the longer it will take to acquire the skills of hitting a baseball or having fun while trying to do it. Futher more while the hitter is at the point of contacting the ball and you are holding the bat back with your finger tips, have the hitter raise his head up slightly or look at the pitcher. You will find their power or resistance you are feeling in holding the bat back is reduced. Unless the head is down at the point of contact and while you are hiting the ball, you do not engage the intrinsic muscle group in the area of and under the latissimus dorsi. If you put your thumbs at about waist level on either side of the spine and have a person raise their head and then look down you will feel the muscles engage. If the head is not down at contact slightly with the ball you are not transferring the power from the legs through the back to the shoulders properly and you do not see the ball as well. I try to stress hitting the ball up the middle all the time. And when in a cage hitting to right field or up the middle is all I want them to concentrate on. Anyone can swing early however can you develope the timing required to hit all fields...not unless you push before you pull and learn when to open the shoulder in my opinion. hwc,jack was refering to using the bottom hand to pull and torque the bat as the top hand fingers pulled back ,but at initiation of swing not out at contact i believe.this is how he controls the top hand torque.we are not pulling on fingers at contact.when you have gotten to the elbow at 45 degrees top hand torque is applied and yes the front arm is more straight guiding through here and then the top hand begins to push once it gets in front of the rear elbow.personally on the pull push idea of yours even without top hand torque the bottom hand pulls to guide before the back begins to push even when swinging like an ax from a-c down to ball which is not the style Jack teaches here.also on, anyone can swing early and timing is harder if you stay back.I believe this is false.timing is easier to stay back.you see it longer and your stroke is shorter to contact which is further back. why did cobb rose boggs carew gwynn, get so many single hits.if it was easier to time a long powerful swing with the contact point out in front of the plate why would there be a trade off of power vs.consistency.
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> > > For me pulling is pulling. The front shoulder starts to be a problem. The next time you are at a cage see how often you can hit the ball up the middle or to right field. While attempting this you will foul a lot of balls. However the rewards for doing it builds timing and makes you focus on the ball. By keeping the hands inside the path of the ball, NOT taking the hands to the knob of the bat and keeping the front shoulder in will allow you to be quicker. With all the hub, hub of top hand torque it appears seeing the ball and hitting the ball are lost. Keep making solid contact by hitting the middle of the ball and the rest will take care of itself. Your point of Rose, Cobb or Gwynn is what? None of them were power hitters but they could hit to all fields and they hit down on the ball. They are said to have a level swing ie;8 to 10 degrees above horizontal. Jackson was said to have an upper cut of 14 to 20 degrees. All are great hitters however I will take advancing the runner any day over a long fly out because at about the age of 13 and above most fly balls are outs but I rarely ever see a routine ground ball or line drive, not even in the majors. In my opinion too many people try to turn all the kids into power hitters, too soon and too young. Not every kid that plays from lets say 5 to 13 will continue playing ball, but they will give it up sooner if they can't hit well enough to just have fun. hwc,i have made some of the same arguments here as you are about 5-13 y.o.and why do you propose your style on kids,I think because you believe they will have more success with it hitting ground balls and line drives.this was my point about the great singles hitters.those 5 guys got more hits than most all m.l. hitters ever to play the game.why because it is easier to hit a ball up the middle without getting fooled by off speed,or getting jammed on a fb down the middle,shorter stroke,less rotation less committal early,less power in the end.however this a site on batspeed and generating it .I dont want to take away from the singles hitter formula for young kids,i hit this way growing up myself my friend Wade Boggs made a career out of it.he almost gave up on ball in the minors,being overlooked by power hitters,i could"nt get anyone to notice my 400+ b.a.until I brought power into it.power will not take care of itself you must create it,understand it,believe it,I hit 2 HRs in 12 years,once Ichanged my theory I went into double digit HRs.and I see routine fly balls carry over o.f. reach and others carry over the fence anymore at alarming rates by a # of factors.
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> RQL...You are right. Continue working on bat speed. I would have nothing further to add for a site dedicated to bat speed, other than my kids advance the runners,have a high on base percentage, low strike out ratio and usually are within the top four for leading their respective teams in RBI's. Good luck.