Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sun Sep 1 15:52:19 2002

>>> The lag position is nothing more than a convenient bench mark by which a hitter's swing can be analyzed. for example, using a 4-frame swing, by the end of the 2nd frame the hitter's hands , if you were draw a vertical line would be over the back knee. This happens to be the point where the bathead is ready to arc out, and if at "lag position" your hands would be near the front knee rather than the bak knee, you would know that you have a problem. But again, other than being a benchmark, there is no hitting concept based on the lag position. <<<

Hi Bart

Your statement, “This happens to be the point where the bathead is ready to arc out, and if at "lag position" your hands would be near the front knee rather than the bak knee, you would know that you have a problem,” is a very important point. The bat-head has traveled about halfway around its arc (from pointing toward third base to pointing at the catcher) and the hands should still have remained back.

Extending the hands (or knob) at initiation will cause the bat-head to just slide over behind the hands while gaining little angular velocity. Obviously, keeping the knob back while accelerating the bat-head will allow the hands to remain farther back at the lag position.

Jack Mankin