[Bagger Lance]

The Bat is an arm motion that uses either a Pitch or Punch elbow position. In its simplest form it is a Hit Stroke with the right wrist frozen in it impact alignments and the right arm pushing the club through impact by a straightening of the right elbow. As Homer says, "It is a quite uncomplicated procedure - The Club is an angled but rigid extension of the Right Forearm and the advisability of keeping both On Plane is the same as with the Left Arm version but is much more obvious." 10-3-K

When swinging it takes on different characteristics, most importantly that the swing center moves from the left shoulder to the right elbow. "...the Left Arm is ALWAYS SWINGING and the Right Forearm is ALWAYS DRIVING. But it is always a Left Arm Stroke unless the Right Elbow replaces the Left Shoulder as the center of Clubhead Arc." (10-3-K) I-F.

The other important distinction is the right wrist is not frozen. It is allowed to bend in varying degrees to allow Centrifugal Force to release (uncock) the clubhead and align (roll) the clubface.

Since the center of the clubhead arc is located in the Right Elbow there is less dependency on the Left Shoulder hinge pin. In terms of control, the clubshaft is held on plane by tracing a straight plane line with the right forearm 7-3., the clubhead is driven by pulling the lag pressure longitudinally with the right arm, and the clubface is still being aligned with the left wrist supported by centrifugal force.

You might ask, "Now that the center of the swing arc is the right elbow, shouldn't the ball be positioned further back in the swing to accomodate it?"

There are a couple of things to remember. First is the right forearm flying wedge with its bent and level right wrist will reach the same low point location whether the swing arc center is left shoulder or right elbow. The key is making sure there is enough right elbow bend to reach low point before the right arm is fully straight. The second point is that its still a two arm swing with the left arms role of providing checkrein action and clubface control.

To get a feel for RAS, Be O.B. - Take small pitch shots with the right arm only and left arm only. See and feel the differences and be sure to allow Centrifugal Force to uncock and roll the clubhead.

Homer left us with one Tip-off in 10-3-K for identifying a RAS and it was in most of the editions but removed from the 7th.

From the 6th edition:

"The center of the Clubhead orbit is readily transferred from the Left Shoulder to the Right Elbow. The Right Arm now is actually driving the Clubhead rather than the Left Arm and the Flat Left Wrist is now helpful but not essential – so the only tipoff to its use is the the ability to hit hard with a slightly Bent Left Wrist at Impact and/or throwing the Club in-line with the Right Arm during the Follow-through (4-D, 7-19)."