Posted by: Lamber () on Sat Dec 20 21:36:39 2003

>:>>I love your site. I'm a huge believer in rotational hitting. But you need to take a better look at Arod.
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> He's a Charlie Lau Jr. hitter. He definately extends his hands to contact. Of course his upper body rotates. But watch the hands move to the ball. The path may look circular but what hitter doesn't. Everyone looks circular because of the upper body's rotation. The question is do they go linear before they go circular? Yes they do. Do they travel away from the armpit area before rotation? Yes they do. He is not a poster boy for rotational hitting.
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> To say differently is uninformed. If you're telling me his swing is the same as Bonds, Sosa, and everyone else we all consider rotational then you're not paying attention.
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> I don't think it's a bad thing, even though we all believe in rotational hitting, to acknowledge that Arod is not.
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> Please look at the clips. <<<
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> Hi Lambert
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> You stated, “The question is do they go linear before they go circular? Yes they do. Do they travel away from the armpit area before rotation? Yes they do.”
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> Just to make sure I was not missing something in Arod’s mechanics, I just spent the last few minutes reviewing a good number of his swings again. On every swing viewed from the frontal view, his hands completely disappeared behind his head as he prepared the launch position. He then accelerated the bat-head back with THT. As he initiated rotation, his hands re-appeared arcing outward 12 to 18 inches (depending on pitch location) before they headed toward the camera. An even then, they maintained their arc to contact.
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> His back-arm is more extended because he uses THT over a longer portion of his swing, but that does not mean his hand-path went linear. – Lamber, It has been proven that CHP, BHT and THT forces will induce angular displacement to a bat. Can you (or Paul) explain how a linear force applied to a bat will induce angular displacement?
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> Jack Mankin
>

Jack

Please don't use the bat on a rope example to prove that linear doesn't produce angular displacement. That is the worst example on your DVD. There isn't a player alive that doesn't rotate when they hit. The question is "what do the arms do" while the body rotates because as it rotates it will make everyones path look circular. A player that keeps the hands at the rear shoulder and rotates has a very tight radius. Those that let the elbows unfold as they swing create a larger radius. Both paths are circular.

So you can't just say because the path is circular that he's rotational. I'm a big believer in CHP, BHT, and maybe THT (not sold on THT yet). I believe the best swing has little arm movement forward. But, that is not what Arod is doing. In fact, his arms unfold at the elbow so much and so often that he has a definate downward swing path at initiation that levels out as the body rotates.

Jack, it's ok if Arod doesn't do what you and I believe in. Almost everyone else does!