where would one say the hand pivot point should be. should it be asap (by the back shoulder) or slightly later, out front closer to contact. seems to me getting the bat on plane faster (palm up palm down) the bat will stay longer thru the zone to contact. would this be the difference in taking the barrel to the ball and just taking the knob to the ball. just looking to get a better understanding.
We load on the pitchers 12 o'clock K position and stride at the window of release and this could vary depending on age and athletic ability.
How you load has a lot of variation however it basically is the coiling of the back hip towards the catcher, so you can feel the glute tense up in the area of the back hip pocket.
When you actually start the swing for me comes from the lowering of the front foot heel after stride or toe touch and the raising of the back foot heel, so the pressure is on the inside edge of the foot, so the focus is on the big toe and the toe next to it and the knee tilts in a little. We term this the Elvis move and Elvis drives the shoulders. Think turning the hips below the belly button. You could also think of it as a thrust as the hips have only turned slightly.
By the shoulders, elbows and hands moving we say we are in a lane. The lane for up the middle is the front foot toe to the edge of home plate and the ball position is up the middle with the tee set about 2 to 3 inches forward of home plate. We then describe the hands are inside the path of the ball and the bat travels parallel to contact and we release the bat barrel to the ball.
We do not consider the palm up and palm down to be a true representation as bat control starts with bat grip. Many females find it difficult to control the bat using what we consider a baseball type grip. In other words the bat is usually in the back of the top hand where the thumb and index finger meet. This usually is the lining up the finger knuckles instead of a slight off set. It makes it more difficult for most females to get to bat lag without dropping the bat head because they do not have control of the bat.
At the point where the wrist are unhinging control of the bat could be lost with the bat in the back of the top hand. Many of the male players have stronger wrists and forearms however I am not concerned about them with this example.
Look as you release the wrist slowly what is actually happening IF you are holding the bat in the bottom hand where the fingers join at the palm of the hand. Then in the top hand we want the bat to lay at an angle from the index finger pad across the hand and the index finger will look like you are pulling the trigger on a gun. Just at contact because the lead arm went forward and up or some say picks up and the back elbow cleared the body the hands are actually turned down and are not palm up or palm down. If you open the hands one at a time, you will see the knuckles of the top hand are turned downward and the palm is angled towards the field. The bottom hand is angled down and the palm is facing the player or catcher to some degree however neither is palm up or down in my opinion.
On an outside pitch the hands are in the lane sooner as the ball has traveled further back in the box and the hands are basically at the edge of the back shoulder.
For the inside pitch our hip rotation was more and the belly button rotates further and the bat stays in the lane longer and at an angle and the hands are more forward.
So it depends on grip, rotating as needed, turn and tilt of the shoulders and location of the ball as to depth in the batters box.
