Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Sep 28 22:50:30 2005

>>> Jack your theory is a bit ludacris. You must realize that in this day and age pitchers throw so many different pitches at so many different speeds so the timing factor must be considered when talking about the swing and your theory on hitting means that a hitter has to be perfect in timing the speed of a pitched ball. With your theory a hitter is basically hitting the ball with his whole body, so that means that if his body movements are out of sync with the speed of the pitched ball then he has no chance of making solid contact at all. According to my theory the body generates most of the power BUT the hands are what times the ball when it approaches the plate, not the whole body. With your hitting theory a hitter would be forced to cheat and start his swing way early on a pitcher with a good fastball, but then what if the pitcher throws a change-up or a breaking pitch? the hitter has no chance since he is timing the ball with his whole body rather than just his hands.<<<

Hi Chuck

What exactly do you mean by “BUT the hands are what times the ball?” Surely you are not saying the hands can move on their own power. You must be implying it is the extension of the arms that brings the hands to the zone – not body rotation. Let us look once again at the Rose clip - http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/Rose.mpeg

Would you say it is the extension of the arms – or the rotation of the body that is most responsible for bringing the hands around to contact?

Jack Mankin