[tdarko]

I haven't thought to come to H & F in a long time, I forgot how much I love this place!

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I find it very interesting the way the barrel of the bat goes towards his head at the start of his swing. I've done a lot of research on pitching but not so much on hitting. When I played I was always told I had a beautiful swing so I never thought about it at all. I always thought of Ryne Sandberg as the perfect swing. It just seemed so effortless and looked completely natural with nothing goofy or gimmicky. Where did this clip of Miggy come from?

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We call this "Live and Independent Hands."

"Live"- Hands continue to move, they never stop or become stagnant/stale within the swing.
"Independent"- They work independent of their shoulders/hips. If not they will gate swing b/c the hands will rotate w/ the shoulders.

That is a very standard def for the two terms. Basically what is going on is that for there to be positive motion we need negative motion as well. Hands can't strike the ball from a still position, we can't create power this way--a boxer doesn't punch by just jabbing his arm outward, you will see a negative move first.

The back hand/arm makes the same exact motion as you would if you were to throw. This is much easier to explain/demonstrate in person. Anyway, imagine you are in your batting stance and you have a ball in your right hand (assuming you're a right-handed hitter), the idea is to skip a baseball (throwing sidearm) off the top of the pitcher's mound. Now watch the video again, you can see this motion w/ his back arm--looks like he could skip a rock across a pond or a baseball off the mound. This gets the hands started, creates power. It brings the barrel forward is what you are seeing but the most important thing you want is the hands moving/getting started, which then locks you into that bat lag position which allows you to hit in a big zone (something else to explain).

The front arm just needs to lead w/ the elbow, the worst language I hear is "knob to the ball." Knob to the ball doesn't express the path the barrel needs to take. More that could be expressed some other time. If you were in your stance and with your left arm (assuming you were right-handed again) threw a frisbee correctly this would be the correct motion the left arm would make.