For what it's worth, I think with Mann's rant above we've reached a pretty interesting aha moment...IF you're willing to follow along with some pretty smart posters and think about things a little bit differently:
In the end, the way to use the Hanson Principle is NOT to just try to mimic what you see on video (for instance, try to actively swing with an uppercut), but rather you must understand the under the hood mechanics that are *causing that look*. Those two things -- what you see and what causes that look -- are NOT the same.
Hyp has been chasing this idea across a couple of different threads now...it's been interesting and very instructive to watch him try to articulate it.
Indeed, the idea that swinging down/having a strong top hand/actively turning the barrel will ultimately create (the seemingly paradoxical) "nike swoosh" UPWARD swing path is the perfect example of "what you see" vs. "what causes it" in action. This quote from that "other" site describes what's happening: "when you do what [Bonds] does in his rear hip socket.....those downward moving hands TURN the barrel up." Aha.
In short: you don't get the Nike swoosh barrel path by consciously trying to swing along that upward path with an uppercut. You don't keep the elbow from getting ahead of the hands ("solve" bat-drag) by consciously stopping the elbow at your hip or pinning the barrel to your shoulder to freeze your elbows/hands altogether. You don't get proper hand usage by "showing the palm of your top hand to the pitcher as long as possible", even though slow-mo video shows that sort of "look" (which is really a result of a well-executed barrel tip and turn).
If anything should be obvious, we all won't ever reach agreement here. You've got to pick the people and ideas that ring true to you...
