Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Wed Jan 26 23:22:42 2000

Hi pipes

My first suggestion would be to drop the term “explode” from your batting vocabulary. I know many coaches say you should explode into the ball. But I think the connotations associated with the term are misleading and harmful. Instead of thinking of the swing as explosive, hard, sudden movements, imagine stretching time out a little and experience the swing as smooth, powerful, ever accelerating motions.

I would find it hard to believe that anyone from SetPro would advocate lower body mechanics as you describe. I had rather think it was a communication problem.

Pipes, your hip problem may be that you have “the cart ahead of the horse” – starting the hands then opening shoulders -VS- letting the body’s rotation accelerate the hands. Many batters with hip-timing problems start the swing by using the arms to accelerate the hands. The opening (or clearing-out) of the shoulders is to allow the hands to come through. This leads to many questions – when do I open the shoulders? – do I wait and pop my hips at contact? – and etc.

Jack Mankin