On an ordinary swing, the front arm doesnt do anything but hold on.
Barry Bonds once stated that the bat is an extension of the lead arm. I believe there is a video on youtube where he talks about this, but I cannot access that site from work...
Agree. I had never thought about aligning the lead elbow to the pitch. Always taught cut it with the knob, which gets the same results. Thinking- for the kids that pull off the ball it may help if they are trying to align the forearm/elbow before launching