Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Tue Mar 27 10:36:46 2007

>>> Jack, I am an enthusiastic convert.

But, CHP, and esp. the THT rearward pull that initiates it, not only goes against all the coaching (clinics, books, etc.)I've ever been exposed to, it also is counter-intuitive -- it's not what the normal body would come up with on its own. Pushing the hands towards the ball is the instinctive path of the hands. The counter-intuitive aspect of THT (IMO BHT is more natural and intuitive for a lot of batters, including my son), makes it somewhat daunting to teach it to an experienced hitter beginning the spring season. However, rewards outweigh risks: I"ve begun to teach it..

Your learning cues are excellent. But I wonder if we could add one. The cues make the teacher and pupil aware of what the hands and lead shouder are doing. But even at reduced speed against the bag, it hard for teacher/pupil to get visual feedback as to the PATH OF THE BAT HEAD. What if we could make it easy to trace this path?

Here's my proposal: when we camp out, the kids put the ends of long sticks in the campfire until they're glowing hot, then wave them around in the darkness. The effect is magical: the exact path of the end of the stick is etched in the air. Could we duplicate this effect by affixing something to the end of the bat? I think this would provide valuable feedback to teacher and learner. I've got no idea what this device would be. <<<

Hi Skip

I could not agree more with your post. Pulling rearward with the top-hand does “go against all the coaching (clinics, books, etc.)” and is not the instinctive path of the hands. A batter would better understand a productive hand-path if they envision the correct trajectory of the bat-head. Your proposal of using glowing sticks to “get visual feedback as to the PATH OF THE BAT HEAD” should be very effective.

We do basically the same thing in our new “Swing Analysis DVD.” We use over-head video clips of a good hitter initiating the swing. With the drawing tools of our analysis software, we plot the trajectory of the bat-head and the top-hand. The plot clearly shows that both the bat-head and the top-hand arc rearward as the swing is being initiated.

Jack Mankin