Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Thu Nov 28 09:23:54 2002

Happy Thanksgiving to the truly obssessed !

I'm not sure of the specific clip referenced.In general,in all
cases,contact should(ideally) be before disconnection/deceleration.One
kind of extension is the "V" which is well after deceleration.When
deceleration starts,the front upper arm casts away from the torso and
goes to the "V" position.

Tom's Thanksgiving outside pitch/extension fantasy:

The question is then how much extension(maybe best seen on video as
how much the "L" has come out of the back elbow) has occurred at
contact,or whether the hands get away from the center of rotation just
prior to contact(if you can see this-may require overhead shot).

Going back further in the swing,the question is how big a handpath
radius was set up at launch.According to Jack's theory(my
interpretation)the handpath radius must be set at "launch"(upper
torso/shoulder turn when lower body hooks up and drives upper body,and
not 2 separate links,but somewhat of a lower to upper uncoiling).You
can't widen the handpath radius right after launch or you ruin
transfer mechanics.The hands can get away later just as the bat is
lining up with the front forearm which permits adequate transfer in
this configuration.

Outside pitch means relative delay of launch with more stretching of
lead arm and setting up wider handpath radius.This creates a "high
load" situation.Torso turns later and less because once it starts
turning more energy is transferred out of it sooner by the wider
handpath."L" comes out of back elbow prior to contact.Then as bat
almost lines up with front forearm,front bicep squeezes more against
torso(maintaining connection)and front arm extends(there is a little
flex at the elbow until this point) at elbow extending handpath just
before contact(bottom hand still trying to oppose top hand with torque
which is a very unusual feeling to describe,but different from trying
to purposefully extend both elbows through the ball).Handpath
extension creates an ovwerwhelming demand for transfer of energy out
of torso stoppng it rapidly and forcing deceleration/casting of the
front arm immediately thereafter.

Perhaps ,for a given handpath radius at launch,more extension before
contact means more batspeed as long as contact is prior to
deceleration.However,the tradeoff is less timing consistency.

For the inside pitch,the short radius means much more torso turn,so
batspeed may be more related to how much the torso turns as opposed to
how much extension there is.Another factor in both the inside and
outside situation is how fast the bathead fires out to extension while
the handpath radius is maintained.

One place you see players modify the swing to do this(get more
extended) somewhat consciously is the homerun derby.The less
consciously they do this(change mechanics)the more it ruins their
"regular" swing.If you look at some of Sosa's 500+ ft. blasts from the
Milwaukee derby,he got those right as the handpath extended/prior to
deceleration.His "regular" swing is the most similar of any to the
derby swing,but still not this extended.Most players should not be
working so close to "extension" if by this we mean extens