Linear? or Rotational?

When I first started following the internet hitting sites the world was divided into two groups, linear and rotational. Mike Epstein's name was on 'rotational' and Dave Hudgeon's name was on 'linear'. There were others, but those were the guys formerly associated with MLB that carried the clout.

The linear guys shifted weight forward to drive their swing and pushed/pulled with their hands/arms.
The rotational guys kept weight back and rotated around a stationery axis while staying 'connected' to the rotation.

Mankin and Nyman, jumped in and put their spin on rotational. And it was their inability to swing the bat that brought them their demise. While different in some aspects, both put all of their eggs in the 'rotation' basket....and both have failed to create a hitter in the high level pattern as a result. Their belief that the energy from hip rotation exits through shoulder rotation brought their demise. You simply can not hit the ball as the hands are taken out of the hitting zone by shoulder rotation. The more they rotate the further the hands leave. The faster they rotate the faster the hands leave. When your power supply pulls you away from the ball....good luck. The Nyman shoulder rotation theory is based on knob pulling....developing energy 'down the length' of the bat by getting the lead arm into the swing plane and then having the rotation pull on the lead arm, which pulls on the handle, which pulls the barrel through the zone....from the knob. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, what they believe happens.....automatically creates Bat Drag. Yes....what they teach CREATES bat drag. Even with Mankin's Top Hand Torque....which is much closer to what is involved with the high level swing....even with that....he delivers the developed energy through rotating shoulders....which automatically....pulls a hitter off the ball. Both missed the mark.

The best definition of the swing came from this site right here. HittingIllustrated.com. And that defintion is a combination of linear and rotational. The hands MUST take the barrel to the ball. They MUST NOT leave the hitting zone. They MUST have the freedom to 'get to the ball'....while not losing the energy that the body develops. And they do that by TURNING THE BARREL....and then allowing the hands to move forward as needed to get the speeding barrel to the ball. The ALLOWING....is the key word. They do not push forward in a good swing at a good pitch. They TURN THE BARREL....and then the arms extend....not in a pushing fashion....but in a directing fashion....BUT....only AFTER launch.

Here is an outstanding demonstration of what the hands and arms do....in relation to the torso.



The hands and forearms are TURNING THE BARREL....causing it to PIVOT about the hands.....while....the arms move it forward....to the pitch location. The energy production....is from the TURNING OF THE BARREL....by the hands/forearms. The 'letting out' of the arms....simply takes the speeding barrel to the pitch location.

Watch....



Why don't Manny's hands cross his body? Why don't they move left (from his perspective) as he swings? Why do they 'stay in the zone'? Why do they stay 'on a line toward the pitcher'....AS....the body turns? The answer is written above. He swings 'out from' his body. Not 'around' his body.

Take another look....



Notice the HAND PATH. It is 'toward the ball'....not 'around the body'. Also notice his BARREL TURN....as....the hands take that path.

My demo above shows JUST how the upper body works. When you put what I'm demonstrating on/over a lower body that is properly loaded....it gets turned by the lower body action....and would look just like Manny's full swing. I am demonstrating JUSt the upper body so that you can learn what to do with it. When you do what is shown properly....AND have a properly working lower body....you end up matching the high level pattern.

Your power supply CAN NOT BE YOUR delivery system. If your power supply and your delivery system are the same....you will never hit well. You have zero adjustability. Your delivery system must be separate from your power supply. The hands/forearms TURNING THE BARREL is part of the power supply. The arms 'letting out'....or 'pulling in'....is the delivery system. When you power the bat by pulling on the knob (both Nyman and Mankin teach that....Nyman's hand path hook nonsense....and Mankin's oar lock nonsense) and you deliver the bat with the same powering action....you have to make delivery decsions at the same time as you make go (powering) decisions. Good luck with that slider or the cutter or any pitch with late movement.

Once you learn to TURN THE BARREL and deliver the energy 'out from' your body instead of 'around your body'....your ball squaring will improve drastically.