Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Mon Jan 16 17:22:57 2012

>>> Just received my dvds and connection in mail. Excited to get started with my
almost 11yo son. I don't want to overwhelm him with totally tearing apart his
swing because he has a nice natural swing as far as rotation and ability to control
the bat. That said, he is becoming more top hand dominant while training this
winter. I think it is because I have been trying to get him to power through to
extension. Last night during soft toss I asked him to focus on his bottom hand and
front side shoulder and surprisingly he instantly started sending line drive after
line drive back to the screen. I Suppose my question is, should I start by focusing
on bht, then introduce tht. Try to get used to the arms staying connected?
Thanks.<<<

Hi Scott

I find most young hitters can generate good bat speed with BHT -- as long as they keep the hands back and allow shoulder rotation to swing the hands to the contact zone. It is the push/pull (torque) of the forearms that really accelerates the bat to contact. That is why you found getting your son's lead-side more involved produced better results.

You can think of BHT as the action used while applying torque to rotate a nut with a four-prong-tire-wrench. -- Suppose the tire were lying flat on the ground. To add maximum torque to rotate the nut, you would need to pull your lead-forearm (and thus the lead-hand) back with the same force you are driving the back-forearm forward. Allowing your lead-hand to drift forward would produce much less turning power to the nut -- both hands moving in the same direction produces little turning power to the nut - or a bat handle.

Once the batter is performing BHT well, then I have my students start working on THT to maximize their performance .

Jack Mankin