Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Fri Mar 1 06:45:48 2002

Hey everybody,
> > > I was wondering how Barry Bonds is able to hit those inside pitches that are about to hit him for home runs, and the thing is they barely even hookes any of the balls. I was thinking his circular hand path is so tight that it is close to linear.
> >
> > Hitman-
> >
> > I used to think part of Bonds recent success was the wind blowing in from right field helping to keep the balls down the line fair as long as they got above the roof line.Not as much of a windtunnel as Candlestick,but almost some nights.
> >
> > However,I don't think this has much to do with it now.As you point out,he just doesn't hook the ball very much.Theoretically,this must mean he is hitting the ball fairly square/perpendicular,only slightly to the outside of center.The most striking feature of his style is the amount that he leans back on his axis.This makes him look like a "back foot" hitter who never gets off the backside.Giambi is similar.They do get off the back side,but it is obscured by the lean back.I think this lean back also gives more time to get around and encourages hooking the handpath(reducing radius of handpath,handpath extending around front of body,allowing building of batspeed without releasing bathead early enough to hit much around ball).To be as absolutely quick to the ball as possible requires rotating evenly around the spine,not letting the axis drift toward the front hip(which happens when you slide to much/push to much from the back against a firm front side making it hard to use the front leg to assist rotation and hard to get off the backside without lunging back to front).Tight body rotation,keeping the hands in,leaning back,hooking the handpath,knowing near instantly where his body is going to need to be and timing things nearly perfectly add up to long bombs to the pull field with only a little hook.
>
> >>Thomas do you think he tries to lean back or do you think it is a symptom of something else.

The most recent interviews I have heard(last year) he mainly talks about instantly knowing where his entire body needs to be for almost any pitch he has seen before.Beyond that I'm not sure.He seems to lean back more in recent years,front leg sometimes at as much as 40 degrees when the knee straightens.