Posted by: Jack Mankin (Mrbatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Nov 14 00:17:19 2002

>>> This is why I try to explain it in terms of a tight connection from the bottom hand to the front shoulder that doesn't depend on arm muscles to tranfer the rotational power. Does Bonds bar his arm in clips three and four of the linked series of stills? Depends on your definition, but he darn sure has a tight connection from the bottom hand to the front shoulder through the early part of shoulder rotation after which he tightens the arc (your tightening hand path or final arc). Mark H. <<<

Hi Mark

There are a large number of good hitters who launch their swings with an arm that is straight enough to be called “barred.” But, as you pointed out, there are other hitters, like Bonds, who have the lead-elbow flexed a few degrees during their swing. For one thing, muscular players or those with large chests can not get the hands to the back-shoulder without some flex to the arm.

The important thing to remember is in order to generate a good circular hand-path, the lead-arm should not flex any farther than the launch position. The more the elbow flexes and un-flexes during the swing, the straighter the hand-path. For the hands to go straight from A to B, the linear hitter is sometimes told to “drive the elbow at the pitcher.” Most lead-arm drills use the flex and un-flex principle.

Starting the swing with some flex does have advantages. A batter, like Bonds, can setup to maintain the arm in that flexed position for middle-in pitches and allow the arm to straighten for pitches farther out. But only hitters with good top-hand-torque mechanics can stay with the power curve on pitches away due to the increased load of a widening hand-path.

Jack Mankin