Posted by: Bart Franco (bjfranco@aol.com) on Mon Jun 5 17:23:03 2000

>>>Finally, using your circular path is causing me to hyperextend my front arm, and cause it to rip away from the other hand.<<<
> >
> > Hi BHL
> >
> > "I do not mean to impolite or abrupt", but it sounds like you have about the worst mechanics I could imagine. Without reviewing your swing on video, it sounds like your swing exhibits mechanics completely opposite to those of a good rotational swing. --- An absolute “key” to developing a good circular hand-path is that you keep the lead arm back and let the rotation of the shoulders accelerate the hands. Those certainly will not “hyperextended” your arm.
> >
> > For your lead arm to be “hyperextended” and ripped away from your other hand, you must have limited shoulder rotation and use mainly your arms to shove the hands forward. BLT, when you start the swing using your arms there is nothing to tell the hips when to start their rotation and when they do, it is mainly to allow the hands to come through not to accelerate them. --- But, when you keep the lead arm back and let the rotation of the shoulders accelerate the hands, rotation of the hips is not an after thought – They are what causes the shoulders to have full rotation.
> >
> > So BLT if you are getting your hands through and not your hips – you could not be following what this site teaches. First, practice good lower body mechanics that will generate rotation around a stationary axis – then pick up a bat. If your hips do not rotate correctly with the bat -- you must be using your arms incorrectly.
> >
> > Jack Mankin
> >
> Hello Jack,
> I have been trying to sterilize my wounded mechanics by experimenting with a new one--really driving (or "drilling") my backside into the ground. I've looked at Big Mac's 62nd homer, and the home run he hit during the 1988 World Series. He stays back--no weight shift--but drills his back side into the ground by angling his back knee down and in at the same time.
>
> I've noticed that my front knee is flexed, yet very much "firm," and pushes the front hip back. To get the feel for this motion, stay on your back foot, and drive and turn ("drill") that backside into the ground hard and fast, but do not shift your weight.
>
> What do you think about these new "improved" mechanics. I will try them, and, if they do not work, desert them.
>
> My brother, of small stature, hit a ball as a 12 year old in Babe Ruth over a 310-foot fence on a high fly. The ball he hit was a fastball middle/down, and my brother had a flexed front knee, back hip real low to the ground (almost a straight "L" at contact with the back leg, and another "L" in his front arm on contact), and slammed it.
>
> He is four years younger than I am.
>
> In theory, if a small person can hit a ball that hard at that age, I assume if that Mankin were around back then, he hit the ball a little farther, more frequently, and with more polished mechanics. Am I correct? Please respond Jack.
>
> Whwen I'm in a groove, I slam balls so far!
>
> Sincerely,
> The Black Hole Lexicographer
> Knight1285@aol.com Mr. Lexicographer-I'm sorry to inform you that you have it all wrong!!!Driving your back leg into the ground ???? Sorry, but you can debate weightshift vs. rotation, stride vs. no stride, etc until the cows come home, but there is one fundamental principal that goes unchallenged: YOU MUST HAVE WEIGHT TRANSFER FROM BACK TO FRONT, and simply spinning on your back leg will not do it!!!Sorry I have to be so blunt, but whatever your problems may be now, they will surely get worse if you start "sitting and spinning".