Posted by: Mickey (drmick3@cox.net) on Wed Apr 27 12:52:44 2011

PLT, THT: What Each FEELS like, and WHEN They Occur

Jack, or anyone else,

In my post, "THT & Keeping the back elbow back," I mentioned that I
had another question that concerned your excellent video clip at the
following link, but it was best discussed in a new post:

Back-arm mechanics of 4 good hitters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=98mVxe1lBKU&feature=channel_page)

I missed it the first couple of times I viewed the clip, but you said
the following:
[my transcript of your video comments]

"Their back elbow lowers down [0:40 min into the clip], but as it
does, it lowers down behind him; so that, the forearm is applying a
rearward force. . .By keeping the back elbow back [1:25 min], its
almost like you're trying to keep the back elbow separate as long as
possible. This allows the ROTATION OF THE LEAD SHOULDER to really
apply a pulling force on the KNOB END of the bat that is causing that
acceleration we see. And as we see now, EVEN AS HE REACHES THE LAG
POSITION, even, [1:40 min] notice how far back the back elbow stays. .
. So its not just the lowering of the back elbow that causes the bat
head to accelerate rearward [2:14], but it is actually the PULLING
BACKWARD OF THE FOREARM on that HANDLE as the LEAD SHOULDER pulling on
the KNOB end that causes the bat to accelerate.

This EXTREMLY HELPFUL clip is a gold mine of information about the
practical application of THT, and combined with my "Thumb As Bat"
experiment (posted at
http://www.batspeed.com/messageboard/871971.html), I'd like to ask the
following questions:

1) Since you said above that "even as he reaches the LAG POSITION,
even, notice how far back the back elbow stays," my question is
whether or not the back hand/forearm is still resisting the pull of
the lead shoulder at the lag position, EVEN TO CONTACT, still trying
to pull back as it was during initiation?

I know that if I use my "thumb as bat," experiment, I can feel my
hands wanting to come apart; so, there uppers to be torque operating
at the lag position. I can feel this happening all the way through the
lag position,, but have to really strain to keep it up more than
halfway between lag and contact.

2) Since you state above that "Their back elbow lowers down, but as it
does, it lowers down behind him; so that, the forearm is applying a
rearward force," my question is HOW LONG DOES THE TOP HAND AND FOREARM
RESIST THE LEAD SHOULDER'S ROTATION?

If I read you correctly, its still occurring at the lag position, but
does it continue all the way to contact OR does it release just as BHT
begins. It it releases as BHT begins does it add more impetus to the
speed generated by BHT?

I am really not as concerned about extending the definition of THT to
lag or contact as I am about the practical cues for using PLT and THT
to create greater bat speed.

For example, in my "thumb as bat" experiment (involving no lower body
or torso), I found that as I continued to pull back with my top hand,
and elbow, my top-hand thumb started to trace an arc that looked
identical to that of the bat head in PLT. My lead shoulder had not
started to rotate forward, but as it reached its limit the lead arm
(biceps and forearm) started an additional turn toward the dugout,
indicating that it was the lead shoulder's additional rotation,
combined with the force of the right hand and forearm, that caused
what looks to me like the PLT movement of the bat from, say, vertical
to about 45 degrees with the ground, right in the swing plane.

From my understanding, THT begins as the lead shoulder starts to
rotate forward AS the top-hand continues to pull back. It would now
appear that THT continues from Launch to the Lag position, which is a
HUGE revelation for me, with great practical significance!

Practically, the hitter's swing takes place in the blink of an eye
(particularly MLB payers); so, one can't check at each point to see if
they're PLT or THT from initiation through launch, lag, BHT or
contact.

I'D LIKE TO JUST CONTINUE PULLING MY BACK HAND BACK THE WHOLE TIME
UNTIL SOMETIME BETWEEN LAG AND CONTACT, since that just "feels" right
to me. However, I would like to hear from you regarding what cue(s)
work best so as not to overdo pulling back.

Thanks as always for such brilliant work that keeps revealing
something new each day.