Posted by: () on Fri Jul 26 11:54:46 2002

Glad to see Batspeed is up and running again
> > >
> > > I'm with you Major Dan!! I was starting to have withdrawal symptoms. How about this question to get something started. While you were down, I went back and read almost every thread from 1999 to late 2001. I have a better understanding of Jack's hitting system. My question is....if the front arm rests on the chest and the top hand pushes back toward the catcher(tht)and the hips and shoulders rotate with mostly inactive arms (they don't pull the hands) what gives the bat head the direction it needs to hit the ball squarely?
> >
> > Richard-
> > We need to be clear about what 'inactive arms' means. On the one hand the arms don't pull the hands, on the other hand they do. (pun intended).
> > Jack has maintained that upper body rotational hitting excludes pushing the hands, especially the top hand, forward at the ball. However shoulder rotation and the circular hand path to bring the hands to the ball. So while the hands/arms don't push, they do maintain their position relative to the shoulders. And to keep the hands from dragging behind, they must be active - active staying with shoulder turn, not active pushing away from it or passively falling behind it.
> > Also consider that if the swing plane is perpendicular to the axis of rotation (spine) then the hitter's posture goes some way toward determining swing plane.
> > And in the end, the eye-hand coordination of the hitter is working behind the scenes to guide the swing so the bat hits the ball.
> > There is a difference between what does the work and what guides the work being done.
>
> Dan
>
> I think we're saying the same thing about the arms. I'm in agreement that they maintain their position relative to their shoulders. I'm confused by your statement "they must be active staying with shoulder rotation". I agree they should stay with shoulder rotation but I don't understand the active part. Do you mean maintain good linkage? If so the word active doesn't work for me. In any case, I still struggle with bathead direction depending on hand-eye coordination when you only have a rotating torso doing the moving. I understand posture adjustments to keep the swing in the proper plane. But a plane is just that! It's a plane, not a point (ball contact point). Its seems to me that although batspeed is very important and optimal with the hands in, they have to be allowed to let the bathead get to the proper point in that plane. What am I missing?

One other thing. You said the hands/arms don't push and that they maintain their relationship to the shoulders. I agree but if they are maintaining the relationship to the shoulders how do they lag behind?