Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Sat Oct 15 18:07:40 2005

>>> Why whould you want to keep your arm across you chest? That creates a long sweeping swing.

Just check out this picture and you'll see what I mean.

http://www.hittingacademy.com/ohalibrary/picpages/swingsweepingpic129.cfm <<<

Hi Chuck

Welcome to the site. – A few years ago I reviewed the batting principles recommend at the Hitting Academy. At that time, they taught taking the lead-elbow at the ball to produce a straight (A to B) extension of the hands similar to the following clip - http://webpages.charter.net/nickkio/HandstoBall/Linear05.mpg . Therefore, it is understandable they would be horrified when one of their students’ lead-arm resembled the batter in the clip you presented.

Most of us taught our hitters those linear batting principles until good VCRs become available and we were able to study the mechanics of the great hitters for ourselves. Mike Epstein asked coaches a very challenging question – “ Do we actually teach what we see?”

Note: I am note sure what Mike’s present views are, but when I discussed this subject with him in 1991, he believed the elbow should be bent and then extend the hands in a straight (A to B) path.

Below are clips of some very good hitters. Study them frame-by-frame and see if you still feel that that keeping the lead-arm across the chest to generate a circular hand-path is as detrimental to batting performance as The Hitting Academy would have you believe?

http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/griffey_ken.mpeg
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/bagwell1.mpeg
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/boone_bret_side_oppoHR.mpeg
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/dunn_adam1.mpeg
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/mac01.mpeg
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/palmeiro2.mpeg
http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/Chipper01.mpeg

Jack Mankin