Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Fri Oct 4 15:32:37 2002

I think this is yet another term that means different things to different people. It dawned on me today that actually the term does have some useful meaning if understood properly. It has to do with Nyman's top hand "rabbit punch", except that knob to the ball would be more accurate.
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> > > Knob to the ball, if incorporated very early in the swing (like at toe touch) will enhance elbow-in-the-slot and for that matter it will facilitate the technique that I think you all refer to as top hand torque.
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> > Lau Jr. uses this cue also, you are correct Bart, I think this is one that you have to be careful with. My question is this, should the cue be, "knob to the ball", or should it be knob to a fixed point, more or less directly away from the catcher, or directly at pitcher?. As torso rotation is initiated, and bat is planed, (lagged?), should knob always be consistently pointing straight out, or aimed/pointed to the ball, (pitch location).
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> As the last part of the uncocking motion, the knob arcs toward the catcher, away from the body and at the point where the bat is parrallel to the ground the knob will be facing the pitcher (flight of the ball?). At this point (commonly called the "lag position"), the bat head is ready to arc OUT (remember, the bathead had to first com down before it could arc out), and at the same time the knob starts heading back towards the body (and unless/until the knob does head back in toward the body, how can the bathead ever be arced out?).
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> And maybe Tom can enlighten me, but is this by any chance( arcing back in of the knob and at the same time arcing out of the bathead) what some of you have referred to as the "hook" and/or "bottom hand torque?

A few(?) words on my personal tht/bht interpretation.Do not expect enlightenment.

I personally was always a contact hitter with fair average who occasionally hit the ball hard without knowing why,and I could never do much with the inside pitch.When I first read Jack's stuff I went out and tried the bht/pull back with the bottom hand/keep the shoulder rotating,etc and the results were startlingly good.Command of inside location,effortless power,etc.The only other major feel associated with this to me was the importance of keeping the head back.

Based on Paul Nyman's work,I think,analagous to pitching,you learn good basic rotational mechanics and then you learn automatic adjustments that are controlled by the hand/feel of release.As a pitcher you might have one other mechanical key,but things are driven by the anticipated feel of release for a particular pitch.In the case of hitting,you teach the body how to rotate much as it does in golf(teach the body how to go about supporting the hands).Then you learn adjustments for location that become automatic and associated with what the hands need to do("trust the hands").To me this accomplishes what Paul Nyman best described as "top down control of a bottom up motor program".

The more inside the location,the more you "hook" the handpath.This is associated with the feel of what I think Jack means by bht.When the ball gets even further inside,you can also add to the hook by pulling in the lead elbow.From Jack's "torque" and circular or tightening arc handpath perspective,this shape handpath accentuates torso turn with the bathead steadily sucking energy out of the torso over a large amount of torso turn.The handpath continues in front of the body with the feel of the bottom hand pulling the bat around a more stationary top hand.This gets the sweetspot on the ball with a good bat angle and good batspeed.The bat goes ballistic(escape velocity) while the hands are still hooking giving the look of "quick hands".I think this is what is meant as a wrist hitter a la Hank Aaron.

If outside location is anticipated/recognized and swung at,torso turn/launch is relatively delayed.Handpath radius at launch is greater setting up a "higher load" situation.Torso turn is less and near contact(after the bat has turned to almost line up with the leadforearm and with the leadbicep pressing tighly to the torso to provide connection) the handpath extends with lead elbow extension.This extension rapidly slows torso rotation and the bottom hand slows greatly with the top hand feeling like it is turning around a relatively stationary bottom hand.In this case deceleration before contact is likely(bat has to swing out fully before torso has turned very much),so you would want to avoid "giving up on the swing" or focus on some cue like "get good extension" or even recommend top hand release after contact.Lau also finds it advisable to emphasize the knob to the ball for this location(in addition to the lower body cues emphasizing weight transfer).I think it is the combo of more knob turning before the torso "launches"(starts turning) and a more active top hand at contact (driven by "L" coming out of back elbow) that gives the feel that Jack describes as "top hand torque.

Epstein "cues" the same thing with "let the ball get deep- relatively delaying launch as you set up for a wider handpath radius.The downnside of this cue is that letting it get deep should not mean make contact deep.Contact should still be out front(not quite as much as the inside location)perpendicular to the path of the pitch as recomended by Jack.Hitting everything about perpendicular shrinks the timing difference you need to deal with across these locations and the key is minimizing timing error.

So that's how I interpret what is meant by tht and bht.To what degree and how actual torquing forces are involved is something I am uncertain of because I lack the sophisticated critical faculty/experience of the true scientist/engineer.I am also not sure how these descriptions relate to eliminating hand drag(Nyman) or as Jack would say,falling behind the power curve.

Thoughts?