Revisit: Door-knocker-knuckle grip and back elbow position

[FiveFrameSwing]

Ted Williams: "To hit the ball to the best advantage, I recommend an extremely firm grip, the pressure applied by the fingers and not against the palms."

Performed with the top hand, gripping the barrel in the fingers, and not in the palm, allows the top hand hinging action to take place efficiently.

 

[PEPPERS]

Have the grip way out in the finger tips – not in the palm, align door knocking knuckles, some batting gloves have stripes on knuckles to help line up the knuckles.

Door knocking knuckles lined up = better bat control - helps a quick release of the bat head and extension.

Arms are in an upside down V as elbows resting on a dinner table, make a bicep for where the hands are to go at the starting point.

Thanks, Peppers. This instruction is common, and it's what is being advised for my daughter. So I certainly understand it's a widely held notion, and I'm not saying it's wrong. But seems to me that if you're trying to throw the barrel, then the ''door knocking knuckles lined up'' grip (and the position of the forearms if the back elbow doesn't point backward during the load) restricts this effort.

I'm pretty sure that this guy is not heeding Alabama's advice on this issue:

I posted what we were told at the clinic and AL has one of the top hitting teams in the SEC, Howard/Hitter posted on here some time ago that splinting the knuckles has proven to give the highest bat speed.

I don’t like the chicken wing (as Alabama coaches called it). The main thing IMO is you want you hitters to be palm up and palm down at contact.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

The top hand being palm-up, and in a state of unhinging, is what is important to me going through contact.

 

[Lenski]

In those images it looks like Manny and Pujols come close to lining up the middle knuckles at contact. The Images of Konerko and Griffey don't look like they do.

Konerko's knuckles are fairly aligned. Griffey.....no. The Griffey pic is there to show that some hitters knuckles are staggered at contact while others' are aligned.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I think we would all agree palms up/down at contact is ideal right?

So couldn't we also conclude that the easiest way to get to this ideal contact configuration is to start with opposing palms in the first place?

Swing at a low/inside pitch with the hands parallel at contact .... see if the light bulb turns on.

Promoting having the hands parallel at launch, with the door knocking knuckles aligned, can be problematic for many ... and as the videos indicate, it isn't an overly popular orientation for many of the best hitters. It can be done, but it isn't what is important, and it can be very restrictive for many.

 

[SBFAMILY]

If you have a way to measure bat speed do your own study. Grip the bat tight and align the knuckles and measure bat speed. Next what Don Slaught did, put a sock on the top hand so that as Len stated it allows the bat to move and then align the knuckles . Test the results.

This is an old cut and paste from a hitter post on here when he used to post.

"For many years I have lined up the finger knuckles or what some call the door knocker knuckles and it worked. In December of 2007 Don Slaught changed my mind about how to do it. While in Detroit as the hitting instructor for them he explained they cut the top of their tube socks off and placed it on the bat at the top hand position so the bat could rotate in the top hand. I ask why they use so much pine tar and he explained it was to keep the bat in their hand. He went on to say that at contact you want your hitters to be thinking of letting the bat slide into the finger tips of the top hand to promote bat speed and have the feeling of whipping the bat through the zone and this is why they use so much pine tar so they can keep the bat in the hand.

I then started trying to swing the bat by placing the bat in my bottom hand where the fingers join at the palm of the hand and then placing the bat in my top hand about ½ to ¾ of inch away from the line where the fingers join the palm of the hand towards the thumb.

When I looked at my grip it was the top hand door knocker knuckles lining up with the face knuckles of the bottom hand. "

 

[CoogansBluff]

Just tried hitting myself w/ a bat against a punching bag (which isolates hand/arm/body position at contact). My 'door-knocker' knuckles are more closely aligned at contact than in the stance. Can't explain why that is, and wasn't conscious of this until this thread prompted me to test it. (Actually, what I think is happening is that the pinky side of my right hand turning clockwise a little against my left thumb as I swing.)

But I would not conclude that I would perform better with the 'door-knocker' knuckles aligned. Seems to restrict my attempt to throw the barrel. Seems awkward having DKK aligned when I load hands and elbow works back and up. That's not scientific, but experiential.

My DD has granted me 15 minutes of her time here shortly, and she will experiment also.

 

[Perfect Circle]

I don't quite understand this post. There wasn't anything extensive about it. I knew it. I guess the pics don't fit into your "Perfect" little hitting world? It's all good PC, I ain't mad........

You want some extra bat "whip" through the zone?? Get those knuckles from staggered at stance to alignment at contact.

Thx... like the presumption... immediate, calculated improvement...prescribed.

Understand that I was referring to the thread as a whole... I seen two sides of an issue explained with lots of quality media...and regardless of that... my= (something I embedded into my DD from DFP website) technique was absent... Can't remember who posted it... but she does it. It is just my humble opinion, and I was happy that it wasn't on either side of the evidences...

 

[CoogansBluff]

So, funny thing happens. I get my 15 minutes w/ my daughter, and we're discussing the knuckles. I haven't said anything about what has been discussed on this thread, and she says out of the blue, ''I know my knuckles aren't lined up when I start, but don't they get there with I hit the ball? Look at this.'' ... And sure enough, they do. She knows more about it than I do. (Don't tell her I said that.)

 

[Jim]