Posted by: Paul () on Fri Apr 22 17:20:40 2011

> > i was just in the book store the other day and i came across charlie
> lau jrs hitting book the art of hitting 400.see the funny thing is the
> first time i read it in the store the steroid story hadn;t broke.so
> lau was going thro ugh all the hitters that are bottom hand or top
> hand release hitters and how it diodn;t decreasse their power.i came
> acrossed it the other day again in borders and all the guys he said
> that had top hand released which he said didn;t lose power were
> steroid users.mcgwire,palmeiro,bonds etc.it became immedialty clear
> why those guys hadn;t lost power STEROIDS
> > ted was right when he said the baseball swing is a hard push swing
> and the right hand is the power hand and that you rotate into the ball
> the pre steroids hitter of the 80's, 70's the last era before steroids
> all used the rotation method and really crushed the ball
> schimdt,kingman,jackson,jim rice,murphy,stargell,horner.if you want to
> mention the old hitters they all were top hand hitters so i won;t name
> them all.for all that they say about mcgwires top hand release he
> really was a top hand hitter who happend to take his hand off the bat
> after he hit the ball.when he made contact withh the ball his right
> elbow was down and close to his body (williams)and his right arm was
> in the bent L shape.his weight was kept back(williams) not forward
> brett.after you make contact with the ball you can pretty much do what
> you want with your swing the ball is off your bat and gone.laus
> disciple brett never hit more then what 30 a year.i thought i post
> this since i was going through my favorites and happend to see
> this.the last post i had read had lau questioning someone else's
> acumen and authority i question his he never played major league ball
> and his father was a horrible hitter so mine or anybody else's
> thoughts are just as good as his.you can drag the bat throught the
> strike zone lau backhand and lose power or whip it through forehand
> and hit with power

All hitters use both hands. Personally, I emulated Ted Williams and hit pretty well despite my coach telling me that "You need to get more weight on the front side, and you should extend your lead arm" at contact. Look, Ted Williams was the greatest hitter of that generation and would be able to hold his own today. The Science of Hitting is the bible of hitting.

The push swing that Williams refers to is not exactly correct. As Jack has pointed out, the "push swing" does not yield as much force. However, Williams shows the arc in the hand path on page 39. Jack calls this Circular Hand Path. Others call it a Curvilinear hand path, an elliptical hand path, or a curved hand path.

Final point: Lau Jr. and Lau Sr. can say whatever they want. Baseball was better before we went to all of this "swing down, a to b hand path" nonsense. American kids don't play baseball like they used to because they get terrible instruction that makes them underpowered chop hitters.