Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Thu Oct 25 11:52:13 2001

> > > > Tom,please tell me about what you meanby the bat coming out of the arc,when and what causes it.This could be the holy grail of the subject.
> >>Tom,where is the head of the bat when you say it begins coming out of the arc,also is"nt this slowing it down ,or is it here that the torque takes over strong,which feels like the hands are being thrown or popped or whatever.Also does'nt this straightening of the bat make adjustments for hitting the ball square instead of pulling off it to much,like letting it stay in line with the ball a little longer,where a linear hitter may stay in line alot longer and slower.Seems Tim spoke of this with his son sometime back and when they came out of the arc late ,right before contact they started getting more solid contact more often.

RQL-

Let me answer by analyzing a clip.One nice demonstration is Nomar since he has such a "simple" swing.There is a thread at setpro with a side by side of Nomar hitting an outside(left clip) and inside(right clip)pitch.Each clip is eleven frames.Let's just concentrate on the right clip where he is turning on an inside pitch:

http://www.setpro.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000394.html

Let's look at the clip from the perspective of how the body moves to create the kinetic chain and good transfer mechanics.

Front toe touch has happened by frame 3.This is a time when Nomar was taking a very small stride,more of a slight pick up/put down the front foot.

The front heel has dropped by frame 5.Theoretically,the torso should start the hand path accelerating forward a few milleseconds after heel drop.So let's say "launch has happened by frame 5.

Contact is just happening at frame 8.

The sequence you want is maximum hip turn velocity when you hook up and start the torso turning,then hip deceleration to transfer lower body momentum to torso,then bathead swinging out away from axis of rotation to trigger energy transfer into bat,converted as much as possible into batspeed/angular velocity of bat.

Frame 6 is approximately maximum hip turn velocity associated with the front heel dropping and the back foot turning over.

By frame 7,the back toe has started to drag meaning that hip turn has slowed and momentum is being transferred to the torso.The bat head needs to come out after this has started,so it should start to come out of the arc of the hand path about frame 7 after toe drag has started.

As long as the hands stay in and the bat is being fired to extension,the back toe will continue to drag.The hand path will slow as the energy is transformed as much as possible into batspeed,not dragging the bat.The slower the hands are going in the hand path,the more the energy is instead harnessed into turning the bat/creating batspeed/angular velocity.

When the hands do cast away from the axis of rotation,another rective wave of torque goes down the back leg turning the foot back as the hips also drop back.This can be seen in the lastcouple of frames(10+11).This accentuates the "up" of the hips before this.It happens well after contact for the inside pitch,but at or before contact on the outside pitch(another topic).

If launch to contact occurs over about 4 frames,the bathead comes out about halfway from launch to contact.

As the bathead fires,it rapidly pulls the hands along with it and may make it difficult to "pull off the ball".You want the bat to turn,not be dragged by the hands.

Can you see things this way in the clip?