Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Tue Sep 4 07:34:11 2007

sean -

at a deeper level, the high level mlb type swing is always the same pattern as , for example, Jack describes here with the crucial aspect being transdfer mechanics.

Every individual will execute the pattern with a distinct style and within that, some degree of variation on every swing, but the basic pattern is the same as much as possible facing a pitcher who is trying to mess up your timing.

Your question is about "hand cock" and the devil here is in the details and further obscured by the fact that it might take a large amoung of time to agree on what is meant by hand cock.

Putting that aside I would say YES, you must keep the hands cocked as the back elbow starts down. Prior to this you need a little inward (backward) turn of the body and some tilting of the front shoulder down and in as the weight goes back (neg move) and cocking of the hips as weight starts forward (pos move) then hands cock.

Then weight continues forward and hips stay/continue cocking and hands stay/continue cocking as the handle of the bat is torqued which controls the timing of coiling of the body/separation of upper and lower body/separation of hips and shoulders as torso stretches between cocked hips and cocked hands.

This means the hands stay back as the back elbow starts down and the knob turns. Coiling must not be interrupted until almost the lag position. Pushing the handpath will interrupt coil and force an arm swing compensation.

How the knob turns will become part of the adjustment for location as Jack (and rql)have noted which involves an adjustment of the direction of handle torque, especially for inside vs outside location and with back elbow coming down more away from side for outside location which will help produce the necessary increased coil to produce earlier batspeed and deal with the higher load/resistance to rotation of the longer swing radius for getting the sweetspot on the outisde pitch.

Matching outside pitch requires earlier batspeed and more coil and longer swing radius which is accomplished by knob turning more/ longer as lead arm is stretched longer so the back elbow gets more away from the side and the knob turns more (more tht) before "initiation".

If you have been listening to rql, I would continue to do so and realize the details are important to getting more consistent results in your trial and error practice.