Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Oct 25 18:53:00 2011

>>> Thanks for sharing. I'd like to hear from the those who know more
than I, what are they doing less than optimally if anything? Obviously
they get results but Fielder especially looks off balance and little
awkward.

I think that Fielder is off balance after his hit is over. The thing
I found shocking is how, AFTER the plant of the front foot, their
swings are nearly identical! After the ball is gone, and they fully
extend, their swings differ, and Prince looks really bad, but if you
watch carefully, during the swing, he does the same thing as the
others.

I would love for Jack to comment on the swings and use these videos
like he has in the past. It seems they do what he talks about.

> What's a best gauge of "swing correctness" anyway? Home runs,
average, how it looks? Something else?

I think it has to do with using the body, hips, shoulders first, then
the rotational swing and top had torque that Jack talks about to get
the incredible bat speed through the hitting zone. All of the hitters
in the video do this. Really neat IMHO. <<<

Hi Ross

Sorry, I do not have a recent clip of Prince's swing. However, I agree with you that from launch to contact, his core mechanics would be the same as the other top hitters. The bat's angular acceleration is governed by the Torque and CHP forces applied and the most efficient mechanics that supply these forces are the same for all batters.

Good hitters may have different styles in how they prepare their launch position. But once the swing and shoulder rotation is initiated, all the top hitters will exhibit the same mechanics to contact -- because they are the most efficient mechanics for generating bat speed.

Ross, you ask, "What's a best gauge of "swing correctness" anyway? Home runs,
average, how it looks? Something else?" -- When reviewing a player's swing sent to me for analysis, there are key positions I look for to determine the efficiency of the batter's mechanics.

First, I look for the position of the bat when the batter's shoulder rotation is depleted. In a high level swing, the angular acceleration of the bat will stay in sync with shoulder rotation so that the bat accelerates to contact as the shoulder rotation is depleted, or ceases to rotate. This indicates that from launch to contact the swing is being powered by the large muscle groups of the legs, pelvic region and torso.

I find with batters that generate less bat speed that their bat is still 30 to even 90 degrees of rotation from contact when their shoulder rotation stops. This means the larger muscles of the lower body are no longer supplying energy and all they have left to bring the bat to contact are the smaller muscles of their arms.

Note: Professor Adair states in his book (The Physics of Baseball) that the arms can only supply about 1/6 the energy required to hit a ball 400 feet. -- I will cover key positions I look for in a later post.

Jack Mankin