Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Nov 17 23:21:36 2005

>>> These are all telling point, but I'm almost having trouble finding the original question in all that. The short answer is as Scott described it: "watch big league guys and you will see that where a hitter starts is extremely varied, compare that to where a hitter ends up the spilt second prior to starting the initiation of their swing and you will see that they are all in about the same spot and position." Don't worry what the hands are doing prior to the foot plant (as long as they're not moving so much a la Sheffield) that you can't get them in the right position). All most the variety in hand movements are to get the batter loaded and his timing down. Just be comfortable and balanced. <<<

Hi John

I agree that little hand movement is required prior to foot plant for batters who take a stance with the bat in the launch position. But there are a number of good hitters who have the bat-head a good distance from the launch position. These hitters (like Sheffield) must use the correct movement of the hands to sweep the bat-head back to a good launch position before foot plant.

Jack Mankin