Posted by: Shawn Bell (leebell@myhome.net) on Sun Apr 2 10:44:46 2000

Jack,

Sorry to hear about your computer problems, computers can be a love/hate relationship ;).

Yes, We were using loading up to explain both actions.

When pulling back, do you see this as a easy (don't pull hard) move, very much a positioning move?

I understand how you were using loading up to drive the top hand forward. There is a another type of bad loading I associated with loading up the top hand (to drive forward), I call it disconnecting the arms/hands from the shoulders (rotation). The hands are often taken out of the plane the shoulders before they start rotating around. Perhaps, If I think of this bad loading in terms of muscling up the back side to drive forward, I could identify the cause and correct the problem when it arises.

Hitters with loading problems never get the hands back (near the back shoulder) and the bat/barrel aligned for the initiation of the swing. The hand/barrel must be aligned with the desired shoulder rotation, when torque is initiated. The hands/barrel must be near (in/behind) the rear shoulder as the shoulders start to pull the lead arm.

I think the difference between getting the hands back and up (pivoting the rear elbow, positioning move) to initiate torque, is that any rotation from the shoulder is transferred directly to the barrel (hands coming forward due to rotation). The hands/barrel is aligned with the shoulders.

With bad loading, the hands/barrel are taken out the plane of the shoulders ,lowering the rear forearm, keeping the hands static (never getting them back), muscling up at initiation (jerking the hands up/down), so when shoulder rotation begins there is no transfer (or torque) from shoulder rotation to the barrel (the hands/barrel aren't aligned properly to receive angular displacement). The bat doesn't receive any angular displacement, so they have to arc the bat with the arms only (using the shoulders as a platform to extend the arms).

Shawn Bell