Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatSpeed@aol.com) on Fri Mar 5 15:04:22 2004

>>> Jack,

So this would not get lost I moved it to a separate thread:

A while back I wrote this on the HS Board:

THT: Perhaps we can get to the bottom of it here: if I hold a bat out in front of me pointing to the sky, I have several movements I can make involving my wrists, lower arm. (1) I can move the bat away from me in a hammering type of move. (1a)I also have a little range of motion toward me, opposite the way I would hammer something. (2) I can also move the bat left and right, about 90 degrees in each direction. Shefield exagerates this move. (3) I can combine these activities and make the end of the bat go in more of a circular motion.

To me the activities of the swing involving the hands. wrists would go 1a, 2, 1 in that order. I believe 1a and 2 are done in a more of a circular manner. Are 1a and 2 Top Hand Torque? Or is there something else? Which clips do we have that show this the most clearly.

Jack, I know I've expanded the discussion, but I think it cans shed some light on what form me has been a difficult concept to grasp. <<<

Hi Nick

All the wrists movements you described occur during the Pre-Launch Torque phase. For a batter to sweep the bat-head (from a more vertical position) behind his head and into the swing plane as he applies Top-Hand-Torque, the wrists must roll inward as he pulls the hands back toward the back-shoulder to initiate the swing.

Pre-Launch Torque is not solely wrist and hand movement. In order to apply THT as the batter pulls the hands to the back-shoulder it also requires the top-forearm to be pulling rearward. --- If the batter starts with the bat already in the swing plane (no Pre-Launch Torque), then obviously the wrists would not need to roll while applying THT.

Nick, in an earlier post you stated, “So we are clear what I am calling scap loading: it is the pulling back of the back elbow.” – From my studies, I defined Top-Hand-Torque as the pulling back of the top-hand. Would you not agree that pulling the back-elbow back also pulls the top-hand back?

Jack Mankin