Posted by: Coach Tom () on Tue Aug 27 20:36:52 2002

You stated, "The effect of the back elbow being at the side is not an element of bat speed. Its a element of bat control. The back upper are against the body creats stability therefore control that gives the batter the ability to put the bat where is he looking. Without it its just a fast bat and a pop up or gound out."

If this were really the case, why do so many (if not most) high slugging percentage hitters have the back elbow up at initiation? In reality, these hitters disprove your statement because, at least for one reason, their bat moves so fast through the hitting zone that the better hitters must also have incredible bat control to make consistent contact. Though there are many top notch hitters with the elbow up that we could examine, just look at the consistency and power of the best hitter in the game (Bonds). However, we must also understand that the back elbow up does not automatically mean more power, especially if the batter drops the elbow for the purpose of driving the hands toward the pitcher (linear), as compared a better batter who uses the elbow drop to initiate a circular hand path (Jack's THT). Therefore, simply examining the back elbow position does not end the argument because what is more important is how the batter initiates the swing from a high elbow position.

From a low back elbow position, most batters are setting themselves up for a push swing with the hands (toward the pitcher), but it is possible to still apply lead shoulder rotation and still hit for pretty good power (using BHT).

I believe that elbow position is important, but it's equally important how you initiate the swing from a high elbow position.