Posted by: Huub (h.vanveen@bpo.nl) on Tue Aug 14 06:50:06 2007

Dear Jack,

I’ve only recently discovered your site and you’re able to give a scientific explanation to what I think and feel is logical and natural as a player and engineer. I’m interested though in your opinion on the subject of hand spacing.

By experimenting during one of the inevitable slumps during transition from aluminum to wooden bats I found that keeping some space (5-10[mm]) in between bottom and top hand improved my feel (power and control). Taking the hands apart increases the torque (THT) that can be applied and thus increasing initial bat speed. I think this helped me overcome the extra weight/balance of wooden bats. In other words one can increase bat speed, or take a larger bat to add some distance to ones hits. It also improves ones control over the bat as the top hand moves up.

Do you see any disadvantages in this approach later up in the swing? The drawback I can think off would be, when exaggerating the distance between hands, that the wrist roll would not be as smooth. But as you explain (and I agree) this happens after contact, which in my opinion, makes it inferior to the advantages to be gained.

I would love to hear your perspective on this!

Kind regards,

Huub van Veen