Williams Swing

[NJPirate]

Check this out:

http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Animation/williams.bat.html

See how Ted used the principle of conservation of angular momentum to speed his rotation. Notice how the knob of the bat starts far away from his body and gets pulled toward his middle as he rotates to contact.

This really speeds up rotation and the bathead. Try it off of a tee.

Does anyone use this now (other than Jeter)? What are the disadvantages?

[Baseballking15]

that is high quality bat wrapping

[jbooth]

that is high quality bat wrapping

What is your definition of bat wrapping? He certainly isn't wrapping by my definition or what I see in the photos.

[Sultan_1895-1948]

What is your definition of bat wrapping? He certainly isn't wrapping by my definition or what I see in the photos.

Wouldn't "wrapping" be defined as cocking the bat and an angle behind the head, toward the pitcher? I don't see that as a big problem with Ted.

NJPirate, what's up with the Jeter mention? Jeter is an extreme inside out hitter, much like Ventura was. Ted has never shown any signs of being an inside out hitter. He brings the knob toward the pitcher, but all great hitters do that. That's a cool clip, but it'd be nice to have more frames in the shot. As skinny as Teddy B was, it's amazing how much torque he was able to generate.

[NJPirate]

NJPirate, what's up with the Jeter mention? Jeter is an extreme inside out hitter, much like Ventura was. Ted has never shown any signs of being an inside out hitter. He brings the knob toward the pitcher, but all great hitters do that.

What I am saying is that Ted is not bringing the knob to the pitcher, rather he is pulling the knob into his belly as he rotates to contact. Jeter is more or less doing the same thing even though it looks different.

Any rotational hitter that starts with the hands far away from the spine and then brings them in at contact is using this principle. Similar to figure skaters do when they bring their arms in close to spin faster.

In Ted's case, his "box" starts out elongated and looks "squished" at contact. Also note how "strong" his grip is at contact (referring to knuckle alignment).

The way to really understand what Ted was doing is to hit some balls off a tee:

Swing#1: Hold your hands at a constant distance away form your spine as you rotate from initiation to contact with a nice easy swing.

Swing#2: Start like Ted with your hands far away from your spine and then pull the knob toward your belly as you rotate to contact. Lots of whip and pop. You will have to stand closer to the tee in Swing#2 by definition.

edit an easier way to illustrate without a tee: take a heavy bat (or 2 or 3 or a weighted bat). Hold the bat far away at shoulder height with both hands and your arms fully extended (bat and arms horizontal to ground). Now rotate (spin) around in circles. Now, pull the knob of the bat in toward your chest while you are spinning. Please do this where nobody can see you and you won't hit anything.

[jbooth]

What I am saying is that Ted is not bringing the knob to the pitcher, rather he is pulling the knob into his belly as he rotates to contact. Jeter is more or less doing the same thing even though it looks different.

Any hitter that starts with the hands far away from the spine and then brings them in at contact is using this principle. Similar to figure skaters do when they bring their arms in close to spin faster.

In Ted's case, his "box" starts out elongated and looks "squished" at contact. Also note how "strong" his grip is at contact (referring to knuckle alignment).

The way to really understand what Ted was doing is to hit some balls off a tee:

Swing#1: Hold your hands at a constant distance away form your spine as you rotate from initiation to contact with a nice easy swing.

Swing#2: Start like Ted with your hands far away from your spine and then pull the knob toward your belly as you rotate to contact. Lots of whip and pop. You will have to stand closer to the tee in Swing#2 by definition.

edit an easier way to illustrate without a tee: take a heavy bat (or 2 or 3 or a weighted bat). Hold the bat far away at shoulder height with both hands and your arms fully extended (bat and arms horizontal to ground). Now rotate (spin) around in circles. Now, pull the knob of the bat in toward your chest while you are spinning. Please do this where nobody can see you and you won't hit anything.

I think this is a better example of how Ted moved the handle:

Ted From the back

[pgibbons]

Back in the day, jbooth wrote a nice analysis of this swing, which really helped me when I was struggling with connection and maintaining the box. Hopefully this helps.

Starts here and has some good discussion following it:
http://www.baseball-fever.com/showth...438#post447438

[tom.guerry]

nj-

This is the same concept as "handpath hook" or momentum/inertia transformer stepup -setpro.com

or

Circular handpath(CHP) plus Bottom hand torque (BNT) - batspeed.com