POTD Nick Franklin - Mechanics and Power (3)

=== Frame 2, READ ME ===

Look at Franklin's wrist hinge.

Two golfers, both weighing 180 lbs., will hit the ball very different distances. The reason? Wrist hinge.

People wonder how Ichiro, weighing 165 lbs, hits a baseball 400 feet. It's just torsion and wrist hinge.

Most ballplayers can't hit for as much power if they're smaller, no. But some ballplayers have special swings.

=== Frame 3, Pre-Contact Position ===

Midway between trigger position and contact. (Well, closer to contact.)

Look at the wrist hinge now! Are you KIDDING!! me! That ball is almost to his bat! What kind of acceleration occurred for him to pull this pitch?

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From a classical viewpoint, the nose, back elbow, and back knee are aligned, allowing for a smooth rotation around a central pole (his spine). But notice too that there is a slight "fold" in this alignment: his hips are a bit farther back than ideal, his nose a bit too far forward; the subtle "C" of his nose-belt-foot, if it exists, should point the other way.

Franklin tends to do this on the vid I've seen. Hey, whudja expect, a 27-year-old's swing?

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Classical hitting coaches will love the position of Franklin's front shoulder, which hasn't flown open in a "greedy" attempt to rush the swing. Aiki and NPB coaches will love it because of the hidden dynamic: the longer those hands stay back -- even as the lower body is already released -- the higher and higher you crank up that torsion (and therefore the power of the rubber-band snap).

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AGAIN, THESE GRAINY PHOTOS DON'T DO HIM JUSTICE. Thing to do is use these images to get the idea, and then to watch for these phenomena in the videotape.

=== Frames 4 and 5, Followthrough ===

Frame 5 here (showing the arc at the finish), frame 4 next post (showing the height of the bat earlier).

Notice the "preying mantis" kung fu explosion: compact to the target and then a blossomy, huge-arc finish. Junior did this, of course. It occurs because of the extreme power up to contact. Kung fu sifus spend their lives trying to attain compact, quick, super-powerful motions that dissipate in blossomy followthroughs.

Notice also in Frame 4 (next article) that the bat is higher off the ground than his shoulders. Notice that it is higher off the ground by a specific delta that is simply beautiful. Take a minute and enjoy the angle of the batsweep: low-to-high by just that difference that allows for a DiMaggio "rising line drive" result.