Posted by: Jeff M () on Wed Oct 11 10:20:06 2006

> > > Hi All,
> > >
> > > While I agree with Jack's observation of what Tom Guerry has often called the "three arc model"--which encourages the batter's hips, shoulders, and bat-head all to travel in an arc--I, like Paul Nyman, believe that Jack, for some reason, has overlooked the fact that the brains of each individuals are "wired" differently, and different hitters respond to different cues. Jack's insistence on encouraging others to focus on their upper body to allow their lower body to work correctly is an inventive way to envision the swing. Yet, this begs the following questions: what about those who do not see the swing in precisely this manner?
> > >
> > > Just my thoughts,
> > > BHL
> > > Knight1285@aol.com
> > >
> > > P.S. I will issue a hypothetical question to Jack: what would you do if you were working with Matt Williams to fix the position of his back foot which often did not seem to pivot? Could Epstein's cues of "helping" the back foot, knee, and hip possibly be in order?
> >
> > BHL & Jack & Tom Guerry...
> > Be careful when discussing baseball hitting with neural transmissions. Science Lesson #1 for BHL - Lets model an external signal as it passes through the membrane of a neuron and travels down the dendrite to the cell soma, and summed at the axon hillock.
> > The BHL neuron membrane can be modeled as a capacitor and resistor in parallel. The following equations describe how Black hole properties affect the input signal. For this simulation, the cell body is assumed to be spherical like Tom's generally unscientific evalauations of swing mechanics. Signals often move passively along the dendrite, decreasing exponentially as the signal moves away from the input site. Resistance of the cell membrane and cytoplasmic resistivity contribute to the signal decrease. Sorry but equations were left out so as not to confuse anyone. At the axon hillock, the inhibitory and excitatory signals are summed. If the total exceeds threshold, an action potential is generated. At this point, threshold is lower than the rest of the cell due to a higher density of voltage-dependent Na+ channels. For this simulation, the resting membrane potential is...lets say -65 mV and threshold is -55 mV requiring a depolarization of 10 mV to trigger an action potential. So what does this mean BHL??? Well simply stated {one can see what one can see from one's dominant eye}, and subsequently then transmit a neural signal and hope for an impulse reaction within a specified time frame and of course based on position of potential impact or collision. In this case we are talking about the impact of the bat to ball where position is location relative to the plate. So...after all this dialog we are at a point where it becomes important to state "see the ball-hit the ball-run" and if that means hitting opposite field, then let's all agree that the exit bearing is determined by all the above and where the collision occurs, the ball path surely follows. BHL and TG...lets not muddy up the playing field with fancy words and comparisons to golf and place-kicking. This is baseball and the pitched ball is on you in <.5 seconds...certainly not enough time to engage with PFO matters.
> > Jeff M (BHL - just think of me as the new sherrif of PFO...cuse I'm taking over)
>
> Hi Jeff M.,
>
> I believe I am the one the possesses autonomy presently. Are you aware that a Sapir-Whorf hypothesis exists to substantiate my findings? While this experiment was conducted in linguistics, rather than psychology and neuroscience, the former parallels the latter in that it operates upon the same premises. To be fair, the Sapir-Whorf experiment, unfortunately, can be proven to the degree that it needs to be labeled as a theory. But the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis does appropoximate psychology and neuroscience in the respect that this experiment has been replicated multiple times.
>
> According to the experiment, a plethora of colors were placed before individuals that spoke different languages. What is interesting about this experiment is that languages that had no name for a different color did not label them.
>
> So let us analogize this process to hitting. If a person is alien to hip loading and unloading, but comfortable with heel drop into hip rotation, then this thought will initiate hip rotation.
>
> My conclusion is that the use of cues can have more of an effect on hitting that people have imagined.
>
> BHL

BHL - Another one-liner...Toki Pona.
Aside from the obvious (see ref), I agree with your position on initiation.
Jeff M