Knob To The Ball? Pulling The Knob Of The Bat Explained - The Baseball Barn 

Thank you, sir...it certainly can be and many get it wrong.

Hi John, did you mean the barrel follows the knob? It reminds me of something the late, great Tony Gwynn would say: "Swing the knob" meaning the knob moves before the barrel. Another way to think about it is like this: the Knob is the Force and the Barrel is the Mass. The Force or Energy is what pulls or creates the energy for the Mass to move from Launch through the Hitting Zone. Hope that helped-Rich

Right, I just don't get that idea behind taking your hands, or the knob to the ball...kids can be very literal at times. Good observations. Makes sense what you are doing and also, probably most important, is that you are there with them to explain and demonstrate.

Tony gwynn actually says swing the knob at the ball not at the pitcher. It puts the bat on plane with the ball and give you more room for timing mistakes. And hops you hit the outside pitch.

tyson woody PREACHED knob to ball, amazing “batting average hitter” don’t take that as a knock, loved his hitting! Do you think if he had the “turn the barrel behind you approach” he would have dropped his batting average but increased his power? Since he wasn’t a power hitter? Maybe this is why batting averages are so low now, but homeruns are up? I’m sure there are other factors like better pitching etc..

Rich Lovell-The Baseball Barn would love to hear your opinion..

Hey Joseph, I was not aware of this particular term/phrase, so I looked it up: "The hitter has to learn how to utilize the energy that is created by the swivels counter clockwise movement in order to make it easier for him or her to generate torque. For every action there is equal and opposite reaction -- something you probably learned in physics class." They go on to reference Babe Ruth-"Babe Ruth the most prolific home run hitter to ever play the game of baseball was a master of creating tremendous bat lag and had one of the longest area of impacts ever, making him known for having one of the best swings ever.. Increasing the range of motion that is made by the swivel will increase the range of movement and create more energy. Harness that new found energy by allowing the equal and opposite movement of it in order to increase or maximize the hitter's ability to generate torque." No doubt Babe Ruth was a prolific hitter, but the "most" prolific? Barry Bonds comes to mind and his swing was much more compact and shorter than Ruth's. Ruth, Williams, Castro and others have pretty long swings compared to Bonds, Altuve, Correa, Stanton and others. Is one better than the other? Depends on who you are talking with and their goals or agenda. From what I can gather off their website I see it as a way to convey their philosophy of the swing. Physics? Sure, it applies in all aspects of life. Equal/opposite actions? Yessir, it's in the swing, but I don't agree with how they apply it to the swivel, or at least it isn't the way I would try and explain it to a hitter. Joseph, my take is this. Find a system and Instructor that works for you and stick with the process. When I say Instructor I mean someone that will not only teach you how to swing and hit the ball, but also the why and be able to explain the why. If that Instructor can explain the why then they understand the 'science' behind the swing. To over complicate something like the baseball/softball swing does nothing for the hitter. As far as the hands, or hand swivel, it almost seems they are describing 'lag' which is set with the wrists. To me, this is not something a player thinks about and certainly not releasing the wrists. It is the result of a previous action at Launch. Some player shave more lag than others, but the goal should be a measurement or angle of less than 90 degrees from the knob of the bat to the end of the barrel when a player/hitter is in the Short Approach Position. I will try and remember to do a video addressing this in my next video series for you. Keep it simple...

Hi Rich, Thank you for your reply. I just wanted your input. I have a couple of students that said they were taught to pre-set. They coil over their back leg and load their scap. To launch the bat they uncoil the back leg and swivel the hands. From what I noticed is that they have a couple of blind spots. Up in the zone and breaking pitchers low away seem hard to get too. From doing a video analysis it looks like their swing is over behind them.

You're welcome. Good stuff Joseph. Are you a coach, teacher, player? Just curious. If you could, Ssnd me one of their swings to rjl41061@gmail.com. I get the pre-swing movements, etc, but focusing on pre-setting or pre-scap load and moves like that isn't necessary. They occur because of body movements to ready a player to hit the ball-maybe that is the 'pre' craze everyone jumped on. Too many people jumped on the 'scap load' wagon without really understanding that the really meant and how, or even if a full scap load happened or was necessary. Many things in the swing happen because of actions or movements before... Think about how you say they launch the bat. 'They uncoil the back leg and swivel the hands'-maybe they aren't doing it that way, but if they uncoil then swivel and speaking of swivel, let's understand what that actually means: swivel-a coupling between two parts enabling one to revolve without turning the other. Turn around a point or axis or on a swivel. That would be confusing to me as a young hitter if I actually knew what the word meant. In essence, they are telling the hitter to uncoil the back leg then turn their hands around what? It sounds like they are forgetting the sequence of the swing...feet, knees, hips, core, chest/back, shoulders, arms, then hands. Somewhere around the point of Contact is when the hands 'release', meaning the wrists unhinge as the barrel goes through the ball. That would be optimal, but doesn't always happen perfectly. That action is from movements set earlier in the swing.

@@josephbassil4171 They wouldn't happen to follow a guy named Richard Schenk, would they? I have seen him and his disciples on Twitter of late and frankly, not a fan of this particular style of instruction. To me and many others than me, this promotes barrel dump-meaning the barrel drops below parallel to the shoulder during Approach and the barrel during the Approach and what refer to as Attack Angle (barrel travel measured in degrees up or down) is 25-35 degrees. As my good buddy Jake Epstein commented; at 14u, a 25 degree AA doesn't play long. Cheers

Thanks for watching

I think maybe you misunderstood what the video was about? This was more about the hands and the knob...not necessarily whether you direct the knob of the bat to the ball. Wherever you pull the knob the barrel is sure to follow-more or less.That's just physics. If you watch MLB hitters as they begin to point the knob towards the field of play, or the ball if you will, towards the direction of the incoming pitch(loose interpretation) the hands/knob actually pull forward ever so slightly to release the barrel from the shoulder. The barrel eventually catches up and goes around. If you are hitting against live pitch this applies, however hitting on the tee obviously you wouldn't knob pull the knob to the ball. That can cause casting which you then must compensate by pulling the knob back and the throws the barrel around the ball. I would also disagree that knob to ball doesn't necessarily set the pane of the bat to strike the ball squarely. Body posture and shoulder tilt along with hand height will allow the barrel to strike ball squarely, but I can see your point their.

you're a weirdo bro lol

@@blacksheepsoftball what an ignorant comment.

Thanks for the comment. I agree to some extent. This video was an explanation of that and my personal 'theory' of how that 'cue' might have come about. As far as anyone any good doing that? There are still plenty of coaches and players that will say 'knob to the ball', or 'throw your hands'-another cue I don't use, but I do talk about getting the hands out front early. It's just a feeling and I explain what I want my hitters to do and feel when I say it, but many use that. If you explain to your hitters what you mean when using specific external cues then you can say just about anything as long as they get it. Cheers.

@@richlovell-thebaseballbarn1008 Sorry, I write before I think sometimes. I’ve just had so many problems with these phrases. Kids take them literally causing big problems.

Hey Dennis, thanks for the comments, but maybe you misunderstood what the video was about. The video is actually a discussion, or description of what 'knob to the ball' means. If you swing the knob to the ball while it is sitting on a tee, you will end up having to pull your hands back inside which throws the barrel out and around the ball. This action is what typically causes the pull ground ball to 3rd or SS, or the hooking fly ball to left that ends up going foul. Think Kirk Gibson's game winning HR, but his had enough room to clear the wall before it hit the pole. Let's first address your comment here about the elbow being too close and no extension. If I am looking at an inside or middle pitch, my elbow is going to be fairly close to my body and you extend through the ball out in front...not out to the side. If you make a proper swing from the inside on an outside pitch, your elbow may be slightly away from your body, but you will also extend in front of your body if your swing is correct and you weren't making a last second adjustment on the fly where you swung out just to reach the ball. My challenge to you would be to watch slo-mo, MLB swings from the side, front and back of hitters taking swings at pitches middle-middle. That's the type of pitch I usually discuss. If you disagree, by all means please describe the proper way this should be according to you. BTW, where would you place a tee in relation to the hitters body when working on middle plate pitches, waist high?

When do the hips open up? Just curious your take on that. Btw, I've seen this technique and teaching system in practice and there is great success. This is just one approach to teaching a particular concept, or movement and the focus may not have been on the lower body. Obviously, for some players a different approach may be required, but that is what we do as Instructors. We are problem solvers and not every drill, fix, approach works for every players. Energy source and mass doesn't work for some, but having think about the dog chase the bone does. As far as success, the system I teach, the Epstein Hitting System has a 90%+ success rate. Cheers

The hips “open” once the hands travel past them.

Where is your 90%+ success rate? Off of the tee? With children? I would love to meet you in Orlando, Florida and have my high school players utilize your technique versus my, or the real successful, technique.

@@DDDDD760 That is incorrect, sir. The swing starts from the ground up...feet, knees, hips, core, chest/back/shoulders, arms, hands. If the hips opened after the hands traveled past them, the hitter would be out of sequence. I think maybe you should look up kinematic sequence and kinetic chain. If you swing your arms and hands first, where do you generate power? Power is generated from torque-the separation of the lower body and upper body and ground force-the ground reaction, or energy created from the front foot/heel pushing into the ground. That energy os transferred back up the leg, into the body and out the hands to the bat-the lever.

You're probably correct. How would you explain it? I am always curious to hear different perspectives/input and learn new ways to explain something.