Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Feb 12 04:33:16 2003

>>> Major Dan
I agree with you on Epstein's arm interpretations. He mentions a "slot", the range that the front elbow works in depending on pitch height. If I understand correctly, on the low pitch, front elbow works more upward, and more level on the pitch up so that the hitter can get "on top", (his words). I can't get this to make physical sense, I get a better feel from planing the lead shoulder, ala Nomar, (one example). In one clip I can plainly see him work the lead shoulder UP and out on the pitch below the belt. this made instant sense to me as soon as I tried it. I also like back elbow up, I don't think that Baker's version of the box is the same as Tom's version. <<<

Hi PatA

The premature rolling of the wrist before contact is a killer flaw that must be corrected for a hitter to advance. For the wrist to roll, the lead-elbow must also drop below the swing plane before the bat reaches contact. Whenever I suspected a player might have this problem, I would throw high pitches to him. If he had a problem of dropping the lead-elbow out of the swing plane it was often most evident on high pitches. So red flags go up in my mind when someone says the lead-elbow should work “down on high pitches” and “up on low pitches.” --- Good hitters always keeps their lead-elbow in the plane of the swing through contact. Then during the followthrough the lead-elbow lowers below the plane and the wrist starts rolling over.

So to stop the early wrist-roll – remember – The wrist can’t roll if the lead-elbow stays in the plane of the swing. The wrist will roll whenever the elbow lowers below the plane.

Jack Mankin