[YodasLuke]

I'm not really qualified to speak on this (or any other) aspect of TGM, but this was an area that gave me a lot of trouble so I'll risk trying to put my feelings into words in the hope that it might help clarify some of the previous replies.

Let's suppose that you're going into the grocery store and you come face to face with Osama bin Laden. Your first thought is to give him a karate chop to his neck, so you pull your left arm back and, keeping your palm facing down to the ground, whack him as hard as you can with the edge of your palm.

Your second thought is that it's a little strange for Osama to be shopping at the same grocery store, so it might be wise not to kill this guy, maybe it'd be safer just to knock him out. So you decide to whack him upside the head with the back of your hand. You pull your left arm back, putting your hand in the same palm-down position, but lower your shoulder slightly so your arm will rotate 90 degrees before you hit him.

The difference is more in the orientation of your shoulder than in the initial position of your hand. To relate this to the question about Hitting vs. Swinging, the hands would be in the same position at the Top (if the Swinger stopped there) but the left shoulder would be oriented differently depending on the desired Hinge Action. At least that's the way it feels to me.

I think the reward for Osama is for dead or alive. I'd shoot him, myself.