Bonds ... catching the ball with the bat.

Work=wins said:

I see between the 'short' and 'through'is the 'turn the barrel' ? So it is an action that is not thought of? Just achieved with a proper hand path ?

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I like to think of the hand pressure to turn/work/orbit/arc the barrel as being applied so that one is 'short'.

To me it is part of being 'short'.

Keep the hands up ... work/throw/swing the barrel down to the ball ... NOT the hands down to the ball, but the barrel down to the ball.

This is why I am personally more "barrel centric" as opposed to being "handle centric" ... but that's me.

The Gifs you put of the Oregon players, they were performing just that action short to long through aka barrel turn aka DLL aka knob to the ball. I'm not sure what I'm missing. I'm in and out today. Looking forward to your answer . I am confused now. I have always thought of 'turn the barrel' as short to long through. Getting on plane early (while your mass gets in front) and taking a direct route to the ball while attacking from the top. Get on plane, load the barrel(radial deviation), release the barrel.

I am not a fan of having a mentality to get on plane early.

Work=wins ... you wrote the following earlier in this thread.

Work=wins said:

The better cue to me would be keep the barrel up as long as you can.

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Think about that a bit. Asking a player to place an emphasis to "keep the barrel up as long as you can" is in contrast with asking a player to place an emphasis to "get on plane early".

Work=wins said:

The Gifs you put of the Oregon players, they were performing just that action short to long through aka barrel turn aka DLL aka knob to the ball. I'm not sure what I'm missing. I'm in and out today. Looking forward to your answer . I am confused now. I have always thought of 'turn the barrel' as short to long through. Getting on plane early (while your mass gets in front) and taking a direct route to the ball while attacking from the top. Get on plane, load the barrel(radial deviation), release the barrel.

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Not trying to avoid your question .... just not sure what the question is.

Work=wins said:

I like 1CAs model . I pay attention when he posts. He has a lot of good posts on dfp as well.

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I searched this 1CA' s posts and haven't found not one of them on DFP. There are none. I do know of a 1CA on BBD. Would he be the same? For the record 1CA is Howe on DFP. Whom may you be on BBD?

Work=wins said:

The Gifs you put of the Oregon players, they were performing just that action short to long through aka barrel turn aka DLL aka knob to the ball. I'm not sure what I'm missing. I'm in and out today. Looking forward to your answer . I am confused now. I have always thought of 'turn the barrel' as short to long through. Getting on plane early (while your mass gets in front) and taking a direct route to the ball while attacking from the top. Get on plane, load the barrel(radial deviation), release the barrel.

Click to expand...

Work=wins ... the bold portion above has me wondering if that may be where the confusion resides.

During the 'Around' or 'Short-to' the barrel is worked/turned/orbited/arc'd ... one can think of this as actively "turning the barrel".



During the 'Along' or 'long-through' the barrel is not being actively turned. A hitter should not actively attempt to "turn the barrel" all the way to impact. Doing that will lead to swing issues.

In the GIF below the "top hand path" is shown in 'green', the "bottom hand path" is shown in 'blue', and the "barrel path" is shown in 'red'.



A few observations ...

Up to this point in the swing the barrel is largely swung 'downward'.

The path of both the "top hand" and "bottom hand" are seen to level out and even begin to elevate. The hands are not going down into contact. This is occurring despite the "barrel" continuing to travel/swing 'downward'.

While this is pre-impact ... it is a large portion of the overall swing prior to impact ... and is largely inclusive of the effort level 'pre-release'. It is why some hitters are instructed to keep the hands up and swing/throw the barrel down to the ball (not the hands down to the ball, but the barrel).

In golf the 'forward' portion of the swing is referred to as the 'downswing'.

In baseball/softball a large portion of the swing pre-impact is 'down' ... and one could argue that virtually all of the active work occurs during the 'down' portion of the swing.

Should folks really be thinking in terms of "getting on plane early"? Not from my perspective. I hear the concept of getting on plane spoken of frequently ... and it can be easy to fall victim to it making sense ... but I recommend giving the notion a bit more thought ... with the nudge of dropping the notion from your hitting instruction.