Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sat Aug 18 10:28:06 2007

>>> I suggest a "better" more comprehensive analysis. Watch Rose's lead hand just as it gets to the front of the plate.

In this swing, that is where you can actually "see" what has been happening since "go" (launch).

Also, the angle isn't the best to see this in the Rose clip, but you can clearly see it in Justin. Watch what the lead elbow does. Add that to what you can see the lead hand doing (actually both hands are doing it but you can "see" it in the lead hand in this clip).......and analyze what that lead elbow action means to the hands.

Then evaluate the CHP. With a rotating body, almost every swing path is circular since those hands/arms are attached to that rotating body. It's really almost a given....short of the real elementary amateur swing. Mlb hitters do something else.....something critical to their success.

Then rethink the shoulder rotation premise. <<<

Hi Teacherman

Give us your analysis of what you think you saw and we can discuss it.

You state, “Then evaluate the CHP. With a rotating body, almost every swing path is circular since those hands/arms are attached to that rotating body. It's really almost a given.” – I wish that were true. However, just because the batter rotates his body does not mean his hands are taken in a productive CHP. I find that most young hitters attain most of their bat speed from torque (push/pull of the hands) and little from a productive CHP.

When I first ask a student to swing the PathFinder (or a piece of rubber hose), they find they are producing very little bat speed from their hand path. They get their hands to the zone but the bat-head (or hose) is left dragging far from contact (a heavy bag).

Note: The PathFinder and rubber hose eliminates torque (push/pull of the hands) as a factor in accelerating the bat-head.

Even though the batter may have good body rotation, their upper body mechanics takes their hands to close to the body and in to straight a path to produce an adequate “pendulum effect” of the bat-head. It takes a good bit of practice for them to develop a CHP that swings the bat-head instead of just driving the knob forward. Once they are producing good bat speed from their hand-path, then we can work on adding torque in the swing to maximize their bat speed.

Jack Mankin