Matching the plane?????

quote:

Originally posted by troy99:

This brings to mind a question AGAIN. IP has brushed this aside in the past as unimportant.. our BI thinks otherwise. After contact..is there any value in getting "good extension". Or is this working against what you are teaching? The Rose clip is an example of none...but I see alot of MLB that do. Is this just "style"???

IMO, the key phrase in your question is, "After contact...". Do I think it is important to teach something that happens after contact? No, I personally don't. I think it is more important to teach what happens prior to contact. What happens after contact can be looked at to make sure the pre-contact stuff is correct. For example, if you see the bat finishing at the waist, you can tell the kid dropped his hands and disconnected.

I've heard instructors do this (our local batting cage has a 5-step approach that includes "extension"). It seems to me that "extension" is something that happens (a "non-teach"). Think of the early part of the swing as a merry-go-round. The bat builds up rotational force and flys off the merry-go-round into extension.

It also depends on the situation. For example, if you get a pitch over the middle and you time it so that you hit it just out in front of the plate, you'll have extension. If you have an inside pitch that you are slightly late on, you won't have much extension. Trying to tell a kid to "extend" after contact seems like it could lead to a disconnected swing (meaning the kid may conciously try to force the bat away from his body too early).

Joe

After I posted, I looked through my notes on "extension" and came up with some tidbits that might be useful.

Steve Englishbey had this to say on the subject:

"And more importantly you must maintain that wrist/forearm bat hinge at initiation through the first two-thirds or so of the swing [this is the "flail" portion ofthe swing]. You are "unhinging the wrist /bat at initiation. Meaning you are "uncocking the hinge" to attempt to get the bat going. This will substantially effect your ability to create and transfer momentum into the bathead, ie., it degrades the hooking potential that is a function of angular momentum of the body in conjunction with creating and maintaining the box . If you have these two essential components operating well [angular momentum plus an efficient box] you have set the stage for creating "rotational extension" into contact."

Paul ***** once wrote:

"In the beginning of my 'journey ' to understand hitting,I believed that 'whip ' was king. Now I believe it is a 'cooperative' of flail and whip.

Flail for the first half [hands -shoulders essentially rotate as one]. Whip for the second half of the swing. This is the reason that extension occurs,uncoiling of the whip.

The greatest batspeed will occur when the hitter constantly accelerates the 'fly wheel ' [turns the torso]while letting his hands go [whip].

I have at times likened this "flail plus whip" as "getting on the merry -go -round " with the bat and body [flail] with the bat
eventually "jumping off--"leaving the circle " into contact [the whip or hook]."

This is a quote from someone (not sure who):

"A long time ago Paul said there are only two adjustments to be made by a hitter. The amount of bend at the waist to set up swing plane (height of pitch) and then the amount of extension to reach the pitch (inside/outside adjustment). I can cover the entire zone with those two adjustments."

Hope you find this helpful,

Joe

Yes...Thank you. Makes sense to me. I am very close to complete agreement. Will keep studying.. Will have 2 hours in the barn (it's 35 degrees and freezing rain here) tonight with the boys.. will do some taping. See how we compare.