Should a hitter have a two hand finish or a one hand finish??? I had a debate with some teammates of mine and we all had good pro's and con's... I just wonder which would allow you to drive the ball farther???

quote:

Originally posted by 5 TOOLS:
Should a hitter have a two hand finish or a one hand finish???

Do you mean at the point of contact? If so, I don't know anyone who would advocate only having one hand on the bat. If you mean after contact, what possible difference would it make? You've already hit the ball.

As long as you were through the ball (ball is gone off of bat) the finish with one hand or two doesn't matter. What does matter is the direction of the finish.

power comes from batspeed and solid contact that does not slice across the ball or force you to hiw too early before you hit top batspeed or too late before you start decelerating.

An impoortant part of power is adjusting the "contact zone" on the fly as Williams was the first to describe, to meet these requirments.

Just finish what feels comfortable. Sometimes it depends on your dominant hand. There are some switch hitters that finish one-handed as a lefty batter and finish two-handed as a righty (Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira). There are some who finish two-handed as a lefty and one-handed as a righty (Posada, Swisher, Beltran).

Swisher is the only one that throws lefty.

The finish of the swing from my experience is not very affecting of the power. BUT! one thing is that if you stop your swing without letting it flow, then you lose power. It takes muscle to stop the bat, let it flow like that of a river.

:Power to all fields- when you refer to the only thing that matters is the finish your speaking of rather you finish high or finish low right!!! How would you suggest that the finish should be ???

5Tools,

I’m no guru but have studied the baseball swing and high-level hitters for a long time. And in my opinion, releasing the top hand after impact is an individual preference just like a hitter’s stance or tempo of movement in that stance.

As far as “what gives you more power”?

In my opinion, its hamstrings, glutes, lower back, upper back, shoulders, arms, bottom hand, top hand in that order.

And I do think that “finishing high after contact” promotes lift. I am no scientist like a lot of guys here but one of the situational hitting skills I teach high school and college hitters is to try to hit a sac fly with a runner at 3b and the infield in. The cue “finish high” has seemed to produce a lot more favorable results in practice and games than “in the air if you can”.

For what it’s worth,

THop

quote:

Originally posted by 5 TOOLS:
:Power to all fields- when you refer to the only thing that matters is the finish your speaking of rather you finish high or finish low right!!! How would you suggest that the finish should be ???

High! On a 4 degree up-swing!

I don't think it really matters as long as you have both hands on the bat at contact. Since there is no such thing as swinging through the ball, after contact no power is necessary, and it is all about deceleration of the bat.

quote:

Originally posted by baseballfever24:
I don't think it really matters as long as you have both hands on the bat at contact. Since there is no such thing as swinging through the ball, after contact no power is necessary, and it is all about deceleration of the bat.

Ask a Karate person if they are taught to hit to the board or through the board, it's the same principle.

Oh a Charlie Lau disciple. I've never seen a Karate person hit a moving board. A whole different concept.

quote:

Originally posted by baseballfever24:
Oh a Charlie Lau disciple. I've never seen a Karate person hit a moving board. A whole different concept.

Uhhh....no, not a Lau guy. Correct, stationary object in Karate, moving object acting in opposite directions in baseball, even more need to carry momentum through point of contact.

What would you estimate the time being that the ball is in contact with the bat? Are you saying the by swinging through the ball that the ball actually rides on the bat and the bat pushes the ball through the batter's swing?

quote:

Originally posted by baseballfever24:
What would you estimate the time being that the ball is in contact with the bat? Are you saying the by swinging through the ball that the ball actually rides on the bat and the bat pushes the ball through the batter's swing?

No, nor does the hand push the wood out of the way when breaking a board.

Then you must concede that any energy expended after contact is useless.

quote:

Originally posted by baseballfever24:
Then you must concede that any energy expended after contact is useless.

Not to the extent that it took to provide the energy to reverse the ball in the opposite direction. IOW, once the maximum energy was absorbed by the ball and the ball had actually left the bat. Electricity works on the same principle. Understand that stop action photos don't actually tell the entire story since both objects are moving in the same direction at some point, if you have the hand strength to transfer all of the energy created from the bat to the ball.

Wiffle ball bats, karate chops and electricty. Who can argue with that logic?

quote:

Originally posted by baseballfever24:
Wiffle ball bats, karate chops and electricty. Who can argue with that logic?

It's all Physics my Brotha', it's not my logic, just Science.

Swinging through the ball maximizes compression of the contact areas of the bat and ball creating the greatest reflex action into the flight of the ball.

The alternative would be when the ball compresses an area of the bat that cannot withstand the compression causing the bat to either crack or break.

Breaking objects in karate involves creating 'through' compression that exceeds the point of compression's elastic ability. In other words, bending beyond the ability to recoil or uncompress.

Hence, the greater compression of both objects in collision, the greater the recoil of the object of lesser density.