Discover how much the baseball and softball toe tap, long stride length, or no stride contributes to bat speed. Does stride help to hit the ball better, farther, and with power? Learn lower half swing experiment and best load mechanics of MLB hitters…
Using the Zepp (Labs) Baseball app
Troy Tulowitzki had a wider stance in 2013. In 2014, he’s adopted more of a narrow stance and a longer stride length.
Forward Momentum may be a new concept to hitting, but not to other explosive rotational athletes. It’s also known as the Conservation of Linear Momentum and the Un-Weighting Principal. The idea is that the hitter is getting a “head start”. Other high level athletes using Forward Momentum:
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I think the addition of forward momentum, or a longer stride length, will contribute to more bat speed because this gives the hitter a “head start”, making the body feel lighter while moving. This allows the body to turn harder, and ultimately increase bat speed.
Equipment:
Setup:
Data Collected:
Pay particular attention to the bold typeface…
NO-stride: last 6 batted balls (Zepp Baseball app)
*Based on six or more batted balls repeated in specific mph (bold typeface in the chart above)
Longer Stride: last 6 batted balls (Zepp Baseball app)
From the Zepp Baseball screenshots to the right, it’s interesting to note, my bat speed kept up, even increased with forward momentum and a longer stride. In other words, I wasn’t as tired at the end of hitting over 200 baseballs.
Now that Troy Tulowitzki is using a more narrow stance and generating forward momentum with a longer stride, he’s able to increase his bat speed. This may explain the surge in opposite field home-runs in 2014.
Joey … this goes to show you that the principles of motion will effect everything equally. The unweighting principle applies to our bodies in the same way it applies to a car. Note that there are always city and highway gas MPH given – because once you get the car moving on the highway it takes less energy to keep it going, or to go faster, than it does stopping and starting in the city. Once again you’ve made your point in expert fashion. Great presentation.
In your forward momentum swing, you’re making contact with your back foot way off the ground and coming forward, whereas the no stride swing the back foot stays on the ground for the most part. if you look at tulo’s swing and pedroia’s swing, they have a big stride forward, but on their load, their feet are almost together, so when they stride they don’t end up so far out that their back-foot has to catch up. the only hitter that i’ve really come across that swings you’re way is trout.
what impact do you think this makes on the swing and the results of your experiment?
Hey Jake. Good observation. I may have to revisit the forward momentum (or un-weighting) part of the experiment. Dedicate one day to just that to really get an idea of increased bat speed. There are other small-bopper hitters who’s back foot comes off the ground and trails the front one: Jose Bautista, Robinson Cano, and Babe Ruth to name a few. Ted Williams back foot actually skipped towards the plate. The important thing is that backside carries zero weight during the swing. The back foot trailing the front helps the hitter gain more stability in the follow through. The farther apart the feet are, the more muscle needed to stabilize in the upper legs (mainly the quads). The more muscle that turns on, the slower the swing.
Ed,
Yes, I’ve used it sparingly so far because I’ve been so busy. The new update allows you to measure ball exit speed and distance the ball traveled now. I don’t think my android app updated yet, but the Apple one has. I still haven’t figured it out yet, but you can track and manage different hitters in the app. This is huge for “what’s measurable, is manageable” when it comes to training hitters. Also, in future articles, I’m going to be running movement experiments with it like I did in the Troy Tulowitzki blog article. Just the fact you can tinker with certain movements, and test to see what the change brings is a big deal. I know $150 is a lot to spend on it, but if you’re interested in the feedback it provides, then it’s well worth it.
I bought it when it came out and used it with my son’s training sessions. It certainly collects a lot of data. But without anything to relate that data to, I don’t know if it was a good swing or not or what to look for and improve. I’m also not sure I trust the accuracy. I often readings that don’t match up with the eye test. For instance, I’ll swing path animations that are completely wacky (they look like someone was chopping wood when I saw them take a normal swing). Essentially, all I really use it for is swing and hand speed. I was hoping to get more out of it.
I know they are constantly working on it so I’ll be patient. I just wanted to hear more about others experiences and learn from them.
Keep up the good work here. I just discovered your site and love what I’m reading/watching.
Thanks!
Ed, I hear you loud and clear. The problem with a lot of these hitting (or human movement) apps, is they don’t tell you how to fix the problem. They just give you data. However, $150 is cheaper to spend than on a Stalker radar gun which is $600! I only use the data after I’ve collected a lot of it. I average all my numbers to correct for outliers. Yes, I’ve experienced the same weird high readings on balls I’ve mishit. It’s not perfect, but if you collect a lot of data points, and average them, then I think it’s worth the feedback. Great concern though 🙂 Don’t worry about grammer. Nobody’s prfect 😉
Joey Myers
Muchas gracias braianz4