Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Sat Nov 23 11:18:04 2002

Bart-

Thanks for the reply.I will try to confine my thoughts to the golf comparison.Golf,as an aid in analyzing hitting mechanics, is extremely useful for understanding how the body rotates.Not so useful for "transfer mechanics",grip,etc.

Even with respect to body rotation,the emphasis on a big "backswing"in golf is not desirable for hitting.I consider back swing like "counter rotation" ,so I don't like this cue.You want to stretch things in a spiral without a big backswing.I like the "coiling" description used by Hank Aaron along with his warning against a big backswing.

Also in golf,the club selection is used as the way of adjusting both the swing plane and clubhead speed.The handpath(for the full swing) stays the same.The longer the club,the more upright the body and the flatter the swing plane and the higher the maximium batspeed potential.The driver swing plane is the most similar to hitting,but the big back swing limits the similarity.I love to tape the Long Drive contests.The winners get up to almost 50 " club lengths with very stiff(and light to put more weight in the clubhead) shafts,but can't handle much longer than this.

The "best" way to set up the same handpath radius for all full golf swings is to use the straight(nearly "barred") front arm as a guide.The contact point is so far into extension that the wrists roll before contact/deceleratiom/disconnection.Another big difference.