Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Aug 1 11:22:11 2007

>>> With Griffey he has a long swing[pretty flowing swing]his body style and long limbs allows him to get off the plate and pull balls well away from him and therefore he must have extension forward in his lead arm as he hits ball well out front. On a ball he goes the other way that is outer 3rd of plate he must have extension but the lead arm is more perpendicular to ball that those he pulls, nevertheless he still carries linkage and chp to create batspeed. Bonds is opposite, close to plate shoeter arms and bat and more flex in lead arm on many balls pulled. i think the flexing of lead arm is the adjustment made for the barrel to go out to the balls away[straight lead arm] and bent more for inside pitches drawing the hands inside the ball which allows ball to stay fair and not hitting around the ball. <<<

Hi Rql

I agree with your analysis of Griffey’s and Bonds’ swing. However, it does raise the question of how one defines “extension.” To me, extension is when a flexed elbow is straightened to extend the hand farther out (like a boxer’s jab -- Or, the way you would use the lead-arm to throw a Frisbee). Therefore, if the batter’s lead-elbow remains at a fairly fixed angle during the swing, the arm is not being “extended” to hit the ball out in front. To hit the ball out in-front, just requires the lead-arm to be rotated around past perpendicular to the pull position -- not the un-flexing of the arm.

Jack Mankin