Posted by: BHL (Knight1285@aol.com) on Mon Apr 10 19:14:14 2006

> >>> Watching the Williams and Bonds clip I do not see the bat being accelerated prior to rotation. I see them bringing the bat and hands up to the launching position at toe touch and then the hips begin to rotate. It's true the shoulders haven't started to rotate although the lower body has started. This is when the bat starts to rotate. <<<
>
> Hi Shawn
>
> The back knee also starts its rotation ahead of shoulder rotation. However, the rotation of the feet, knees, hips and torso do not have linkage to effect the bat’s acceleration until the shoulders start to rotate. The arms-wrists-hands-bat segmentation is linked at the shoulders.
>
> Jack Mankin

Hi Jack:

Let me add that the swing begins with dropping the front heel, which "Golf Digest" analogizes to using the anterior heel to press down a button. As this occurs, according to Mike Epstein, the back heel will come off the ground, the back knee will turn down and in, and the posterior hip will turn around its axis. At contact, the back leg will form an "L."

Where you are particular useful in intervening is suggesting that proper transfer mechanics complement proper lower body mechanics. One advisory strength I gleamed from one of your posts is to keep both the anterior and posterior elbows in the same degree of elbow bend that they started at the beginning of the swing.

I, on the other hand, disagree with the idea of a proper swing plane and reverse wrist binding--from what I see on television, these factors do not exist. A-Rod, for one, possesses an extremely wavy stroke. I believe that there is merit in sliding the back elbow ahead of the knob while dipping the bat, since this will allow a batter to swing up at pitches. Although your technique might seem befitting to Mo Vaughn's mechanics, it does not describe Ted Williams' swing, who believed that, in an upswing, a greater portion of the bat intersects the strike zomne than an uppercut (See "The Science of Hitting").

Other than that, I find your post--especially the sections that pertain to linkage--as great advice.

Best,
BHL