Exhibit A for the 1000 OPS comin' (part 2)

Q.  Aiki-Poetry recital, continued?

A.  Continuing point 1, the casual directly-rearward hand motion...

...

In the second picture here, you can sense the moving-without-motion aiki principle:  Smoak hasn't committed anything, but the elbow is way high and the angle of the bat is venomous.

Imperceptible, almost under-the-skin movement, but horrific latent power.  Steven Seagal would be proud.

...

(2) Notice, just as the bat starts forward, the iron "batter's box" that forms a trapezoid along his chest and upper arms.  One of the many ways in which his awesome strength and applied power are manifested.

The hands begin just below the shoulder and finish gently higher, at about his ear level.  One of the dozens of ways in which Justin's swing smilingly ticks off the checkpoints.

...

(3) Notice the smoothness of the acceleration as he starts forward:  first he's going 5 mph, then 12, then 21, then 33, you know what we mean.  Check the video again and enjoy the gliding effect of the MPH meter

He's not muscling the bat.  He's using physics, the same physics that orbit the moon around the earth.  I wonder if he felt the ball hit the bat.

...

(4) As he continues the fluid, dynamic acceleration, notice the freeness of the bat's trajectory as it arcs around gracefully and bumps him firmly in the backside -- and

...

(5) In the earlier front camera angle, enjoy the graceful way in which the bat rebounds along the same arc, showing his golfer's balance -- turned around his spine, weight gently transitioned to his front foot. 

His back foot is mostly unweighted, but he's not on tiptoe because of an over-sway to the front.  He's able to stand in finish position for 30 seconds if he wanted to.

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Q.  Yeah, wow.  But don't a lot of swings look good on HR's?

A.  Sure, but other major leaguers don't show you the three halves of the poem :- ) that Smoak just did:

  • The perfect, short, casually directly-back load
  • The free acceleration
  • The surgeon's calmness, the whole way through

The overall effect, is as if you had a slingshot with a very stiff band.  And you cranked it back calmly, and then unsnapped it to fire a bullet that would slay a deer.

..............

Much as I love Junior, for example, and as pretty as his swing was, too, it was more violent and chaotic.  Go back and look at 1990's vid and you'll see him coming out of his shoes sometimes, he's swinging so hard, and sometimes he lost his footing.  Sometimes his head was facing the on-deck circle.  I'm not saying he wasn't great.  I'm saying that Justin Smoak's swing isn't something that other players, even HOF'ers, typically show you.

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Part 3

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