I've tried a few different ways and the results vary depending on my technique. When I first started (before I got into blades) I accellerated on the down stroke then pulled crazy hard on the release. This is when I was pretty upright, very tight and with hella bent arms. I hit 87' heavy and 112' light. I met with a coach in Tucson who told me to accellerate on the up stroke so I started doing that and was hitting about 115' with light (again, before I got into blades).

After blades it all changed. I was able to be looser and longer. I get up on my toes and really extend out when the ball is behind me and I try to catch it far on my right, drive my hips back and down into a squat and then accellerate it across accross my body while counterbalancing with my hips. I've found that by doing this I get way more speed than working the down or up stroke.. On my last wind instead of accellerating across, I pull crazy hard (like a hang clean) right when it hits it's low point in front of me. My PRs now are 99' heavy and 125' light and I don't have anywhere close to the speed some of these guys have. I just need a whole lot more reps before getting comfortable in the saddle with that kind of speed. A couple times I've had that thing going so fast that I've got absolutely no pull on the release and I've hit 121'.. It's just going so fast I don't know what to do with it and I lose it, lol..

I really don't know what is "right" to tell you the truth. I've had a few Pros tell me different things, for now, I'm working the "8-4" method of accelleration.

jsully wrote: After blades it all changed. I was able to be looser and longer. I get up on my toes and really extend out when the ball is behind me and I try to catch it far on my right, drive my hips back and down into a squat and then accellerate it across accross my body while counterbalancing with my hips.

This right here is poetry. Excellent description of how it should feel.