Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Fri Sep 14 10:22:12 2007

>>> I believe the downward driving of the bottom hand has as much to do with accelerating the bat at 1st movement as the rear hand does with pulling back,This causes the flattening of the hands and the bat starting to swing. <<<

Hi Rql

I could not agree with you more. To generate torque, the forward pull of the bottom-hand is just as important as the rearward pull of the top-hand. The only reason I termed torque applied during initiation as "THT" was because the top-hand applies the "rearward" force. The mechanics of all hitters supply a forward pull of the bottom-hand. However, only the mechanics of the better hitters produce torque by applying a rearward force as well as a forward force.

With the average hitter, as the bottom-hand is being pulled forward, they are also driving the top-hand forward. For torque to be applied, the forces on the handle must be from opposing directions. Both hands applying force in the same direction (forward) accelerates the knob but produces little rearward acceleration of the bat-head.

But as I stated earlier, the only reason I termed this torque THT was to point out the hand supplying the rearward force. The same is true for the term "BHT." With BHT, the pulling back toward the catcher with the lead-shoulder causes the bottom-hand to apply the "rearward" force on the handle approaching contact as opposed to the bottom-hand is being extended forward -- like throwing a Frisbee.

The bottom line is -- both THT and BHT identifies the rearward force found in high level swings as opposed to both hands extending forward as found with most average hitters.

Jack Mankin