Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: George () on Sun Sep 2 15:00:25 2007

> I've always wondered whether releasing you top hand after contact has any affect on bat speed and power. It's a curiosity of mind for some reason. There are excellent hitters who use both methods, top hand release and two handed follow through. I just noticed something that I've never seen, though. On August 29th, Lance Berkman hit a homerun to Minute Maid Park's right field using a two handed follow through. The next night, August 30th, he hit a dinger to about the same spot, but released his top hand after contact.
>
> http://houston.astros.mlb.com/multimedia/tp_archive.jsp?c_id=hou&ym=200708.
>
> I don't think that I've ever seen a major leaguer change that part of his stroke like that--one or the other style is usually deeply ingrained into the player's swing by the time they are in the bigs. Anyway, it seems to me that this suggests that Lau was wrong, and that it doesn't make much difference how one releases the bat, except for personal preference.

Dunno. I think Lau has gotten a bad rap when it comes to hitting. And most of the absolutes Lau preaches are present it all good hitters. This is pure fact as opposed to other instructors who try to describe what the see even though they may have never played beyond beginning little league. In fact the only absolute that can be questioned is the top hand release.

To me the first thing that has to be considered before having a discussion is the strength factor. This is because in Lau's day big power hitters were between 200 to 220lbs. Now a days they are for the most part between 220 to 250 on average. And that makes a big difference (regardless of what style is used, not to mention that weight lifting has gotten many players to the big leagues as opposed to in years past.

Simply put, the extreme uppercut dynamics of today in a smaller player lead to outs period. But with regard to Berkman, his top hand release had more to do with the fact he was fooled by the pitch as those pitches were offspeed breaking pitches.

You don't have to have lead arm extension of any kind with human growth hormone, and steroids. (food for thought) And if it were just up to batspeed you would have guys 180lbs hitting 20 homeruns which you don't see in todays era with the exception of Soriano.

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> > I've always wondered whether releasing you top hand after contact has any affect on bat speed and power. It's a curiosity of mind for some reason. There are excellent hitters who use both methods, top hand release and two handed follow through. I just noticed something that I've never seen, though. On August 29th, Lance Berkman hit a homerun to Minute Maid Park's right field using a two handed follow through. The next night, August 30th, he hit a dinger to about the same spot, but released his top hand after contact.
> > 
> > http://houston.astros.mlb.com/multimedia/tp_archive.jsp?c_id=hou&ym=200708.
> >   
> >   I don't think that I've ever seen a major leaguer change that part of his stroke like that--one or the other style is usually deeply ingrained into the player's swing by the time they are in the bigs. Anyway, it seems to me that this suggests that Lau was wrong, and that it doesn't make much difference how one releases the bat, except for personal preference.
> 
> 
> 
> Dunno.  I think Lau has gotten a bad rap when it comes to hitting.  And most of the absolutes Lau preaches are present it all good hitters.  This is pure fact as opposed to other instructors who try to describe what the see even though they may have never played beyond beginning little league.  In fact the only absolute that can be questioned is the top hand release.  
> 
> To me the first thing that has to be considered before having a discussion is the strength factor.  This is because in Lau's day big power hitters were between 200 to 220lbs.  Now a days they are for the most part between 220 to 250 on average.  And that makes a big difference (regardless of what style is used, not to mention that weight lifting has gotten many players to the big leagues as opposed to in years past.    
> 
> Simply put, the extreme uppercut dynamics of today in a smaller player lead to outs period.  But with regard to Berkman, his top hand release had more to do with the fact he was fooled by the pitch as those pitches were offspeed breaking pitches.  
> 
> You don't have to have lead arm extension of any kind with human growth hormone, and steroids.  (food for thought) And if it were just up to batspeed you would have guys 180lbs hitting 20 homeruns which you don't see in todays era with the exception of Soriano.

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