[tdarko]

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-Bat drag: The elbows lead the bat into the zone. This causes a late bat and saps power; hitters with significant bat drag will never be able to hit 85+ MPH fastballs and will not hit for power.

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This is the one move every great hitter makes, he leads with the front elbow--the worst thing you can teach is to tell a hitter to throw is hands at the ball or to throw the knob at the ball b/c that doesn't get you into a slot. This would be much easier if I were in person oh well.

Leading with the elbow puts the bat in a lag position which you said it makes it drag which isn't right. It also locks the back elbow into the ribs--the power position mentioned like in the bonds picture. The barrel moves at a rate at something like 9 or 10 times faster than your hands do--so obv you want your barrel to move the greater distance than your hands. When you lead with the elbow, your hands are at about your chest and the barrel is still back behind you. Now, the ball is right in front of the plate--upon swing/impact your hands only move 4 or 5 inches to the ball at this point whereas that barrel moves 2 feet or so--but we want this b/c it is moving at a much much faster rate than your hands, THIS is how you create power. That is bat release, if you don't lead with the elbow--which every single hitter in each video did--then you can't release the barrel through the zone and you lose a ton of power, instead your hands are swinging the barrel through the zone which is slower and less powerful not to mention incorrect directionally much of the time.

Watch big league hitters take a pitch, they are starting their swings even though they take but every time they lead w/ that elbow, their hips and elbow attack and then stop...b/c what was coming next was the rotation and the bat release. This would be a lot easier in person, it is hard to discuss over a message board--it is hands on stuff as you know.

Another thing leading w/ the elbow does is what I learned in a big league camp--it is called "hitting in a big zone." You are told all your life to "swing down on the ball" etc., but what happens is that when you swing down on the ball the barrel is only in the zone for a split second--at contact, so you have to "time" the pitch perfectly and we all know how tough that is. When you lead w/ the elbow and the bat lags the barrel drops into the hitting zone immediately and stays in the hitting zone upon the instant of bat release all the way through hand break when the ball is long gone from the equation. This made immediate sense to me b/c I could remember seeing some of the great hitters looking like they were completely beat on a great fastball and they drove it the other way in the gap--and it was b/c their barrel was in the hitting zone--they were way late timing the pitcher but their swing was great which allowed them to get a hit.

Good thread Kyle. I have to get to a game, I will check this thread later.