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Introduction Keep Your Shoulder In There Get Your Arms Extended Roll Your Wrist At Contact You Must Have Quick Hands Transfer Your Weight To A Stiff Front Leg Stride With The Front Toe Closed Swing Down At The Ball Let Go Of The Top Hand Keep Back Elbow Down You're Pulling Your Head Off The Ball Swing For The Fence - Ruin Your Mechanics

Subject: The acceleration of the hand-path

Early in the spring, high school baseball tournaments attract large numbers of professional scouts. Along with relying on their stopwatches and radar guns, the scouts must make crucial judgments based on what they see. When asked, "What is the most important thing you look for in a young hitter?" Very often the scout responds, "Does he have quick hands?" or "How quick does he get his hands into the contact zone?"

I would agree that the hand-path of a great hitter does accelerate rapidly. But, I also believe that the prevailing perception of how to attain "quick hands" has been a big deterrent in developing good hitters. The concept is this: if you just quickly extend or "throw your hands" at the ball, the bat head will snap through "like the crack of a whip." Unfortunately, this concept has not only wasted many hours at the batting cages, but it has also destroyed many players dreams.

When referring "Quick Hands", I am mainly concerned with the perceived role of the top hand in the development of bat speed. Hitters are taught to accelerate the bat by driving and extending the top hand back in the direction of the pitcher. But, far from driving the top hand forward, great hitters like Williams and Sosa initiate the swing by pulling with the top hand back toward the catcher. This would be very simular to an archer pulling on a bowstring. The force of the rotating body against the lead arm will quickly accelerate both hands in an arc toward the pitcher. Thus, to maximize the torque that is applied to the bat, the direction of the force of the top hand should not be initiated in the same direction as the bottom hand.

Average hitters rotate (or clear out) the shoulders primarily to give the arms a platform to swing from (extend from would be more accurate). This is why average hitters believe that to have power - they must have those powerful arms. This is not the case with great hitters. I can't stress the following point strong enough: DO NOT RELY ON THE MUSCELS OF THE ARMS TO ACCELERATE THE HANDS. --- With Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and hitters of their caliber, the role of the hands are to impart the bat with torque (get the bat to rotate about a point between the two hands). Any attempt to force the hands forward ahead of rotation impedes the natural arc and timing of bat head acceleration.

** A Key to Stardom **

When the burden of overcoming the bats inertia falls on smaller muscles (like those of the arms) the swing will have that tense and jerky look. The huge rotational force generated by the large muscle groups (legs, torso and back) can overwhelm the smaller ones if not supported. --- The smooth, loose, powerful swing of a great hitter is the result of allowing the body's rotation against the lead arm and the bats reaction to torque to accelerate the hands.