Learn whether hitting for power is either or neither of: hips before hands, hip rotation, all in the legs, or lower body mechanics. You’ll discover useful youth baseball and softball swing drills to do at home.
Zepp Swing Experiment Attempting To Put Value On Role Of Pelvis In Swing
Question: How Much Does Pelvis Add to Bat Speed at Impact?
According to InnerBody.com, the pelvis is a sturdy ring of bones that protects the delicate organs of the abdomino-pelvic cavity while anchoring the powerful muscles of the hip, thigh, and abdomen. Several bones unite to form the pelvis, including the sacrum, coccyx (tail bone), and the left and right coxal (hip) bones. Photo courtesy: OrthoInfo.aaos.org
Using the Zepp (Labs) Baseball app, I wanted to employ the Scientific Method to analyze how much turning the pelvis (some refer to this as the hips) adds to Bat Speed at Impact. The ‘Front Facing Swings’ are an attempt to isolate out the role of the pelvis in the swing, so we can analyze how much the pelvis adds to swing performance.
Just a heads up, the “pelvis” and “hips” are not the same thing. The hips are a small part of the pelvis. However, most coaches refer to “hips” when instructing the swing, when most likely they mean “pelvis”.
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.
Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.
For those coaches with a Growth Mindset that want to find out more about the science of locomotion. I’d recommend reading the following technical books:
If working through the weeds isn’t for you, then you can click the following HPL posts that synthesize the information contained in the previously mentioned books:
I’ve done two swing experiments revealing the role of the shoulders in the swing that tested the value of ‘Showing Numbers’ versus ‘NOT’. These showed an average increase to Bat Speed at Impact – Showing Numbers – of between 5 to 6-mph. In addition, one of the experiments showed an average increase to Ball Exit Speed of over 9-mph ‘Showing Numbers’! That’s between 38 to 48-feet of ADDED batted ball distance by ‘Showing Numbers’:
This Zepp swing experiment is attempting to put value on the role of the pelvis in the swing.
Hypothesis
Ted Williams, in his book The Science Of Hitting, said the ‘hips lead the way’. This observation is irrefutable when watching slow motion video of elite hitters. A majority of coaches teach primarily a ‘hips only’ strategy, which I disagree with. I feel ‘firing the hips’ is over-taught and over-valued, while the role of the shoulders is under-taught and under valued. The objective of this experiment is to see what benefit the pelvis (or hips) add to swing performance.
I predict ‘Regular Swings’ will have a substantial increase in Bat Speed at Impact than the ‘Front Facing Swings’.
Performance Benefit of Pelvis Swing Experiment
Equipment Used:
Zepp Baseball app (to measure Bat Speed, Hand Speed, Time to Impact, & Attack Angle),
Yellow dimple ball feedback markers to keep starting footwork the same = bat length…I used two yellow dimple ball markers to make my stance setup consistent. One was placed inside my back foot, close to the plate. The other was placed one bat’s length ahead of the back marker.
Tee was set one baseball’s length behind the front feedback marker, and tee height was about mid-thigh
We stayed as consistent as we could with keeping the ball height and depth the same for most swings.
The two tests in the swing experiment were counter-balanced. Which consisted of eight blocks of 25-swings done in the following order ABBA BAAB. ‘Front Facing Swing’ was letter ‘A’, and ‘Regular Swing’ was letter ‘B’. 200 total swings were completed in the experiment, 100 per test. Counter-balancing helps remove the “getting tired” and “warm up” factors.
The objective of ‘Front Facing Swings’ was to start the ‘belt buckle’ pointing at the pitcher, and to minimize pelvic movement.
Experiment Day-1 on 6/19 we completed 75 total swings (25 ‘Front Facing’ & 50 ‘Regular’). Experiment Day-2 on 6/26 we completed 125 swings (75 ‘Front Facing’ & 50 ‘Regular’).
We had to break the 200 total swings into two days, with the second day coming 1 week later, because of time constraints.
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‘Front Facing Swing’ AVERAGES for the following metrics: 77-mph Bat Speed at Impact, 30-mph Hand Speed Max, 0.177-secs Time To Impact, -24.5* Bat Vertical Angle at Impact, & 3* Attack Angle.
‘Regular Swings’ Days 1 & 2 side by side…
‘Regular Swing’ AVERAGES for the following metrics: 81.5-mph Bat Speed at Impact, 33-mph Hand Speed Max, 0.130-secs Time To Impact, -28.5* Bat Vertical Angle at Impact, & 0* Attack Angle.
Data Analysis & Conclusion
Zepp data analysis comparing the averages of averages:
4.5-mph INCREASE to Bat Speed at Impact in ‘Regular Swings’,
3-mph INCREASE to Hand Speed Max in ‘Regular Swings’,
0.047 DECREASE to Time To Impact in ‘Regular Swings’,
-4-degree DECREASE to Bat Vertical Angle at Impact in ‘Regular Swings’, and
-3-degree DECREASE to Attack Angle in ‘Regular Swings’.
Notes
The increase in Bat Speed at Impact and Hand Speed Max confirmed my hypothesis, and didn’t surprise me since the first piece of The Spinal Engine to interact with Gravitational Forces is the pelvis.
It’s also interesting to note, that you can see from the side-by-side video of the swing, that I wasn’t able to keep the “belt buckle” ‘front facing’ as much as I would have liked to on ‘Front Facing Swings’, so possibly the pelvis could have added a bit more. I was feeling inside right knee tightness when forcing pelvis to stay facing forward.
The DECREASE in Time To Impact with ‘Regular Swings’ could have been due to the increased step and/or unfamiliarity with the movement, while doing ‘Front Facing Swings’.
In past swing experiments testing ‘Down Shoulders’ and ‘Showing Numbers’ I increased my Attack Angle – in the positive. I think the 3-degree increase in positive Attack Angle for ‘Front Facing Swings’ was due to better execution of those elements.
We were testing Ball Exit Speed in the beginning but had equipment malfunction (batteries went dead). I was too many swings in when the equipment was fixed, so we threw BES out in this experiment. I’d love to see BES measured in a future review of this swing experiment.
One last thought, because my pelvis inwardly turned toward the catcher – drastically – on ‘Front Facing Swings’, we saw quite a drop-off in production. Does this give evidence that an inward turn before the swing may be inferior to keeping the pelvis in neutral (or belt bucket facing plate)?
'Add 40-Feet' To Batted Ball Distance
Swing Study reveals how tens of thousands of hitters are adding 40-feet to batted ball distance by using one simple strategy.
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Is-Hitting-For-Power-Hips-Before-Hands-Hip-Rotation-Legs-Or-Lower-Body-Mechanics.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2023-01-18 09:00:342023-01-18 20:01:36Is Hitting For Power: Hips Before Hands, Hip Rotation, Legs, Or Lower Body Mechanics For Youth Baseball & Softball Swing? | Drills To Do At Home
The Anatomy Of A Game Winning Justin Turner Walk Off Homerun
To be honest with you…
I MISSED watching the Justin Turner walk off homerun LIVE!!
My excuse…?
For those of you who can remember when your kids were 2-5 years old, you might recall the Disney channel being on almost constantly in your household.
When I turn on baseball, I get “Why are we watching this…?” from my 5yo. And not after 30-mins of it being on…no…RIGHT AWAY!
He could be drawing, watching a kid’s show on his Kindle, or playing with his NERF gun, and he knows when the channel is changed. It’s like he knows it’s going to happen before it does. That’s another talk for another day.
But I digress…
I did get to see the replay of the game winning dinger via Twitter…
And, I DO know this, Justin Turner’s walk off homerun was a thing of beauty.
As many of you know, I get a lot of Fixed Mindset knuckleheads claiming this system doesn’t work at the higher level on the socials…in baseball and softball circles.
I blame the lenses they look at hitting through, which – let me tell you – are far less effective than picking up a bar fly with “beer goggles”.
Seriously though, here’s some context to put the dinger in perspective, before getting to the info in the video above…
I know, shocker for a select few out there. I do define some of the above terms in the video, so make sure you watch that before commenting. I know some of the cues can be used with the right framing of it.
So let’s see…
What he IS Doing
Catapult Loading System principles: globally flexed spine, hiding hands, showing numbers, and
Pitch Plane Domination: knee action, back foot skip, early barrel on pitch plane, barrel stays on plane for long time, great spine angle at impact.
The Catapult Loading System Kindle eBook Giveaway
Just FYI, on this Friday, October 20th, I’m giving away free Kindle versions of my new bookThe Catapult Loading System: How To Teach 100-Pound Hitters To Consistently Drive The Ball 300-Feet…but here’s the catch, this giveaway is for 5-days ONLY! Last time I did this, over 1,300 coaches and parents downloaded the ebook. And you don’t have to have a Kindle to read the book, just download the Kindle app on your mobile device. If you’ve already downloaded it, then I’d appreciate it if you could let a friend know. Literally hundreds of coaches across the States are getting the same results – if not better – with their hitters (literally THOUSANDS of them!!) using this system, than I am with mine. I’ll make the announcement over email and Facebook, so please look out for that in a couple days…
'Add 40-Feet' To Batted Ball Distance
Swing Study reveals how tens of thousands of hitters are adding 40-feet to batted ball distance by using one simple strategy.
Click the button below to access the FREE video that's been downloaded over 30K times!!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Justin-Turner-Swing-Analysis-Hit-Line-Drives-Instead-Of-Ground-Balls-WHY-Squishing-The-Bug-Is-Bad.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2023-01-16 09:15:212023-01-17 06:38:34Hit Line Drives Instead Of Ground Balls, Why Squishing Bug Is Bad, & Keep Head Still While Batting: Justin Turner Baseball & Softball Swing Analysis
Learn how Mike Trout uses his “golf” footwork to hit home-runs better and farther every time. Discover hitting drills to increase bat speed and power like Trout’s golf swing?
Mike Trout Hitting Golf Ball: Same As Baseball Swing?
What we go over in this Mike Trout hitting golf ball video:
As Physicist, Electrical Engineer, and author of The Spinal Engine, Dr. Serge Gracovetsky says the arms and legs ARE NOT necessary for locomotion, they’re an enhancement. When it comes to spinal movement, hitting is basic locomotion. Fact.
Shifting Foot Pressure
A couple recent posts I’ve done complimenting the above video…
Very few are teaching this. This is at the heart of a stable swing. I see a lot of hitters over-rotating their lower half. Back foot heel moving closer to the the plate versus staying far away. When the hitter shifts pressure to pinky side of front foot, we should see them shift back foot pressure to the big toe side. If instead hitter shifts back foot pressure to outside (over-rotates), then hitter is unstable with low half.
The Big-3 are fundamental to building consistent power in hitters. They’re a combination of using springy fascia and the spinal engine. Responsible for 70-80% of consistent power. Legs contribute only 20-30% to power.
'Add 40-Feet' To Batted Ball Distance
Swing Study reveals how tens of thousands of hitters are adding 40-feet to batted ball distance by using one simple strategy.
Click the button below to access the FREE video that's been downloaded over 30K times!!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/How-Mike-Trout-Uses-His-Golf-Footwork-To-Hit-Homeruns-Better-Farther-Every-Time.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2023-01-09 09:30:022023-01-10 06:21:18How Mike Trout Uses Golf Footwork To Hit Homeruns Better & Farther Every Time | Hitting Drills To Increase Bat Speed & Power
Learn how to increase your hitter’s bat speed, hitting power, and hit the baseball or softball harder every time like Javier Baez in this swing breakdown…
Javier Baez Swing Analysis: Why Inward Turn Of Hips Is Wasted Movement
Hey, what’s going on it’s Joey Myers from the Hitting Performance Lab, and in this Javier Baez swing analysis, we will cover:
Let’s get into the fan graph metrics. As you can see here, look at the six foot, hundred ninety-pound Javier Baez in the swing analysis we’ll be looking at in 2019. You can see his line right here. You can see a .281 batting average, 38 doubles, four triples, 29 homers, and you see a big giant balloon over here, one hundred fifty-six strikeouts and only twenty-eight walks.
Now, if we look at his line when it comes to ground ball, fly ball, line drive percentages, and his fly ball home run ratio and his pull and hard contact numbers, we look at his line drive rate being eighteen point one. You can see his averages over the amount of years he’s been in the Bigs is 19. So, a little bit down from his average.
You can see his ground ball percentage was up quite a bit, fifty point three, which was down in prior years as low as 44 percent and 37.3 percent.
You can see the average line drive rate is 20 percent or so. So as long as they’re around 18 to 22 percent, that tend to be about league average. The ground ball percentage, league average is about 43 percent or around 40 percent. You can see he’s well above average on the ground ball percentage and fly ball percentage typically floats around 37, 38 percent at league average.
So you can see he’s below well below average when it comes to the fly ball percentage homerun to fly ball ratio, the percentage at 24.4, league average is around 9 to 11 percent. So, if he gets the ball in the air or his fly balls, the percentages of his fly balls going out are almost 25 percent.
What’s also interesting to note is if you look over at his soft percentage contact medium and his hard contact percentages, you can see that his medium actually outweighs his hard percentage contact. Some interesting things going on from this Javier Baez swing analysis, might shed a little bit of light on that.
But I thought interesting to note that his hard ball contact percentage at 37.4, you can’t see it on the screen, hard contact percentage. And then you can see as medium here is 44.6.
Over-Rotation of Lower Half During Pre-Loading Phase
All right. Let’s get into the Javier Baez swing analysis, and the breakdown of his mechanics. Let’s give this a little context. This is a two thousand nineteen swing, I think, in May or so. And this pitch looks like a ninety-one mile an hour slider that ends up, as you can see in the K zone in that lower outside quadrant. And he hits this one out to right center a little bit more towards center but right center.
One thing I want you to take a look at is over rotation of the lower half. This is something I think Ted Williams said in The Science of Hitting. And a lot of instructors out there will take this to the extreme. And they think that by turning the pelvis in towards the catcher, so imagine a hitter’s belt buckle turning in to face the catcher. Like there was a flashlight coming out of the belt buckle and that you’re shining the flashlight at the catcher to get the hips some momentum.
Now, I think this is wasted movement when it comes to function of the spinal engine. Not my opinion, but if we look at springy fascia, the spinal engine, what we want is we want to see this front shoulder … we’ll get a chest view here in a second … we want to get this front shoulder to go down in and towards the back hip. And we want this back shoulder to move away from this front hip.
When you move the pelvis in or you move the front hip bone in along with the shoulder, is that now the hip and the shoulder are chasing each other instead of doing the opposite in what we would find in a wringing towel type of scenario, whereas one hand being the shoulder, the other hand being the pelvis.
We’re seeing a lot of these coaches that will say if and when the pitcher shows you his back back pocket, then you show them yours. This is clearly what Javier Baez is doing in this swing analysis. You can see him really showing his back pocket versus this neutral position that he starts off in, really rolls in with that hip.
Now, if we take a look at another hitter, Khris Davis of the A’s, this is the 2018 swing of his. But he actually steps in the bucket a little bit. You’re going to see a little difference to the hip positioning. Khris Davis really doesn’t waste any motion pulling that belt buckle, this flashlight on the belt buckle, trying to shine it in the catcher’s eyes. He actually keeps it in a neutral position and steps out. Into the bucket.
What both of these players do really well, and I think, Khris actually does better than Baez is because of the lower half over rotation in the pre loading phase of the swing before stride touchdown, we see Khris will keep his hips in a neutral position … but will use this neck tension, which we’ll talk about here in a second to counteract. And he’s really good, Khris, at going the other way, where he hits this one. This is a 94 mile an hour fastball somewhat up in the zone. And he hits this to straight away center.
He does very well going to the opposite field, even though he’s stepping out now, I wouldn’t advise young hitters to do that. And we have a stride drill that fixes getting the stride more in line.
Khris makes this work because of the way he uses his spine. Here’s a chest view of Javier Baez swing analysis, it’s a little angled here, but you can see that kind of over rotation pre loading phase of the pelvis, the lower half versus what Khris Davis was doing.
You can see him really coiling up with the lower half, which he really doesn’t have to. And you’re seeing the what I was talking about is taking this front shoulder down and in towards a back hip and we should actually see this front hip move away from the back shoulder.
When you bring that front hip in, you’re chasing the back shoulder instead of moving away from it, which that’s how springy fascia works, how we load the body like a spring or a catapult. And we want to bring that front shoulder down and in which he is doing. But when you turn the pelvis, it’s almost like the corresponding shoulder is chasing the corresponding diagonal hip bone.
Now, if we look at Khris Davis on the same swing, you know, this view’s a little bit more chest view than the angled version we’re getting with Javier Baez. But you can see that that hip stays in neutral and then you’ll see him bring his front shoulder down and in towards the back hip and you’ll see this front hip move away from the back shoulder.
Some people might call this the scap load that is covering this line here, this diagonal line to scap load. But we also that’s a retraction of the back scap. What we should see is a protraction of the front scap or the front shoulder moving down and in. So, we’re going to see the hitter’s numbers when the hitter does that. We should see both moves, not just one. And you’re seeing Khris Davis do this very well because he keeps his pelvis in neutral.
You can see here and just lets his upper half preload and let his lower half just do what it does and let it open as it does to take the rest of the slack out of the spinal engine.
And one more quick thing before we move on from this in this Javier Baez swing analysis … as you can see, as he coils up him in Davis, pretty much end up in the same spot, at landing. Look at where his pelvis is at landing. So, it’s almost like he gets a running start with his pelvis. I don’t think it really relevant because we’re getting the same effect with the bounce effect with Davis as we are with Baez. It’s just I think Baez’s closing himself off more. And I wouldn’t teach this to young hitters.
I wouldn’t over rotate the pelvis or turn the pelvis inward towards the catcher to landing, because at landing, you see he’s in the same position. And as long as he’s getting his neck pressure, which will be transitioning to here, as long as you get into neck pressure, he’ll be wound up top. And then once the lower half starts to open, as he starts to swing that rest of that slack, will get taken out and then everything will go as it’s supposed to.
'Add 40-Feet' To Batted Ball Distance
Swing Study reveals how tens of thousands of hitters are adding 40-feet to batted ball distance by using one simple strategy.
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Now, let’s talk about creating neck pressure. The idea of this is like wringing a towel out except for one hand represents the head, the other hand represents the shoulder. So, the hand’s turn in opposite directions. And what we’re trying to do is it’s not so much about how much of the numbers the hitter shows, although Javier Baez in the swing analysis, you can see you can see everything. If he had a triple digit number, you could see three digits on his back. You can see his back elbow. You can see all the way across the shoulders. If he had a 20-word last name, you could see it from armpit to armpit. You can see pretty much everything, almost his rear oblique. You can see because he’s shown his numbers so much.
Whereas we look at a Khris Davis on this one. Similar, but not quite as turned in because he’s not turning the pelvis in. He doesn’t have to. He can create this Catapult Loading System just by keeping the pelvis in neutral and let the pelvis open when it does. He needs to create that bounce with the lower half, create that neck pressure up top.
You can see that he’s locked in, his head is anchoring a tracking position so he can track the ball and keep vision on the ball. It’s not this idea of what some of these coaches call “false separation”, which when these coaches show on video, what false separation is there over rotating the upper half. Now, we don’t want to over rotate. We can’t lose sight with the back eye. And that’s not Davis here. Maybe he is. He is clearly along with Baez. They are clearly showing their numbers, showing their last name. You can see that is clear as day.
There is a pro attraction of the front scap. There’s a retraction to the back scap. You’re seeing both of those things happen in two different hitters on two different teams. And what both of them do are doing and having common is they are wringing the towel out head and shoulders. The head creates an anchor point. Their shoulders rotate under the chin as far as they can while creating this neck pressure in the T1 (Thoracic section of spine, vertebrae-1) and C7 (Cervical section of spine, vertebrae-7) area.
So there’s like a two, three-inch area that if the hitter does this right, they create that pressure there with the head anchored with the shoulder pulled under as far as it can do. And they’ll feel this pressure up until the turn and they can go from there. That’s taking slack out of this system early. If this doesn’t happen, there is going to be compensation somehow in that there may be a front shoulder pulling out early. There might be a barrel that’s dumping deep and early into the zone to try and hurry up, get the barrel to the ball.
But above all, hitters must, even hitters as young as eight, nine, 10 years old need to feel that pressure if there is going to be power the minute that pressure is taken off between the head and the shoulders, that is when we’ll be letting air out of the balloon.
The reason that I’ve moved to more of a neck pressure, creating neck pressure versus showing numbers is that every hitter is going to be different when it comes to their mobility in their neck and their thoracic spine or their shoulders being able to turn the head this much as much as Baez or Davis. Davis isn’t quite as much there. Maybe it’s just with Baez because he’s inward rotating his lower half. It’s allowing him to turn more.
I think that again, hinders it can take our vision and tracking off the ball if we do this with younger hitters, what Baez is doing. So, I would recommend more of what Davis is doing, albeit without the stepping out part of it. But we want to create the neck pressure. That is the rule. That is the principle, the movement principle, the wringing towel principle to the Catapult Loading Systemin spinal engine, springy fascia.
It is not so much to show both numbers. The numbers will probably show, but it will depend on the hitter’s mobility in their neck. So, every hitter might be different.
Barrel Tilt
One last thing in this Javier Baez swing analysis is the barrel tilt. There are some coaches out there that like this barrel till where you can see where Baez tilts the barrel towards the opposing batter’s box or kind of off towards first base and to get the barrel momentum going into the swing.
Now, this might be something that Baez needs to do because he is rotating that lower half inward towards the catcher. And to get some barrel momentum is going to help him to get around, especially on pitches in pitches up in the zone.
I don’t teach this per se. I don’t think it’s a bad or good thing it can be a bad thing. If they tilt too much and I think Baez in the past has tilted too much and it’s got him in trouble, it causes more of an uppercut type of swing. I’ve had hitters that do this and they hit the ball in the air more often than the hitter that doesn’t tilt the barrel this much.
We’ve seen Donaldson from I think it was 2013 to 14. He was tilting too much and we saw his fly ball percentage go up and his batting average go down. So, I would not really mess with this too much as long as we are creating that wringing towel effect between the head and the shoulders, creating the neck pressure.
And we are what I like to tell my hitters is to act like there’s a skewer going through their hip bones that is keeping him on a straight line, keeping hip bones on a straight line towards the catcher. And they just slide along that skewer until the front foot hits the ground and they can turn out of it, but they can’t turn into the skewer up until landing … has to stay in a neutral position and they manipulate the neck pressure at the top to create the tension that we need to be able to instantaneously swing the bat and increase our ball exit speeds.
The barrel tilt is just not something that I would teach my hitters. I would let my hitters do it. But if it’s affecting their fly ball, line drive, ground-ball ratios and we would definitely change it. Now, I hope you like this Javier Baez swing analysis. Make sure that you’re swinging smarter by moving better.
And before I let you go…
'Add 40-Feet' To Batted Ball Distance
Swing Study reveals how tens of thousands of hitters are adding 40-feet to batted ball distance by using one simple strategy.
Click the button below to access the FREE video that's been downloaded over 30K times!!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Increase-Bat-Speed-Hitting-Power-Hit-Baseball-Or-Softball-Harder-Every-Time-Like-Javier-Baez.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2023-01-09 09:15:452023-01-10 05:47:23Increase Bat Speed, Hitting Power, & Hit Baseball Or Softball Harder Every Time Like Javier Baez
Discover how to increase hitting power, bat, and hand speed like a Mookie Betts baseball or softball swing using the Catapult Loading System. In addition, learn how to square the ball up and hit more consistent line drives instead of ground balls in this swing analysis…
Mookie Betts Swing Analysis: Build Massive Power For Small Sluggers Like Mookie Betts & Trea Turner…
What we’ll be contrasting in this Mookie Betts swing analysis compared with Trea Turner:
Few out there think power comes from the snapping of the back hip and barrel. These people are only one-third of the way there. The pelvis (including hip), spine, and shoulders as a complete unit is where to find consistent power.
There are three pieces of our spine:
Cervical (neck)
Thoracic (shoulders and middle back), and
Lumbar (lower back).
Imagine each section as a hand. Now imagine three hands wringing a towel out. The top (Cervical) and the bottom (Lumbar) are wringing in the same direction, while the middle (Thoracic) is wringing in the opposite direction of its “bookends”. Mookie Betts does this just as well as anybody.
When it comes to barrel path, these same “snapper” hitting instructors promote a one path fits all barrel path. And they claim teaching a high level pattern. This is the exact opposite of what a higher level pattern is. The best hitters’ barrel enters the hitting zone at different points depending on pitch depth. You don’t see Mookie Betts knocking off the “real” catcher’s glove when hitting 97-mph inside. If he did, he’d be picking up his thumbs. Or he’d have to bend his front elbow so significantly that it would drop his average ball exit speeds by 20-mph, which equals at least 80-feet of batted ball distance.
Shorten the lever, you shorten power amplification. The “snappy” pattern has its consequences.
'Add 40-Feet' To Batted Ball Distance
Swing Study reveals how tens of thousands of hitters are adding 40-feet to batted ball distance by using one simple strategy.
Click the button below to access the FREE video that's been downloaded over 30K times!!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/How-To-Increase-Hitting-Power-Bat-Hand-Speed-Like-Mookie-Betts-Using-Catapult-Loading-System.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2023-01-09 09:00:182023-01-10 00:12:49Increase Hitting Power, Bat, & Hand Speed Like Mookie Betts Baseball Or Softball Swing | Square Ball Up & Hit Consistent Line Drives Instead Of Ground Balls
Does a Modified Bat Handle Increase Bat & Ball Exit Speeds?
ProXR bat knobs are similar to an axe handle, but are more rounded…
In this baseball hitting drills for contact bat knob experiment using the Zepp (Labs) Baseball app & Bushnell radar gun, I wanted to use the Scientific Method to analyze what would happen to Bat and Ball Exit Speeds when using the same model and sized wood bat, but the only difference being that one bat has a regular knob, and the other a ProXR knob.
Background Research
A Washington University study found there was a 20% to 25% reduction in compression forces in the hands when using a ProXR technology.
My fascination with this all started when Grady Phelan, the Founder and President at ProXR, LLC, wrote this LinkedIn post titled, “Baseball’s Broken Hamate Plague“.
After I reached out, Grady was open to the idea of doing a Zepp and Ball Exit Speed baseball hitting drills for contact experiment.
Grady shared the following research about his ProXR technology over email…
“One of the experiments we did early on with ProXR, as part of our due diligence before we went to market, was to measure the compression forces in the hands during a swing. I was fortunate enough to be able to work with some researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, Bio-Mechanics lab here in St. Louis. We connected a conventional bat and a ProXR bat to digital pressure sensors and had a batter take some swings. We were able to dial into the area of the hypothenar (the heal of your hand below your pinky) and compare the difference in compression.
What we found was a 20% to 25% reduction in compression forces when using a ProXR technology. The peak compression happens immediately AFTER intended contact when the hands roll over the central axis of the bat and the knob. The smaller peaks in between the high compression peaks are from the batter getting the bat back into the load position and we took out the time in between swings to condense the chart.”
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“Pedroia is actually using something called an axe that is being put on a Victus bat. There is some minor confusion in the market given the axe’s similar look with ProXR.
Here’s the top-line difference between ProXR and the Baden product: if you’ve ever swung an actual axe (chopping wood), which the Baden product is based on, you know that the swing path is linear, meaning it drives the hands to the point of contact AND (this is probably the most important point) the swing ends at contact. This is critical. The oval shape of an axe handle and the general configuration of the axe handle evolved over thousands of years specifically to drive the axe head to the point of contact (this also applies to swords, hammers and other linear-path swing implements). The oval shape locks the hands into alignment with the swing path and PREVENTS the hands from deviating from that swing path. In sharp contrast, you know a baseball swing is rotational – meaning the bat must fully rotate around the batters body and the hands MUST roll over the central axis of the bat to compete the swing. This gives hitter the ability to both, make adjustments during the swing and complete the rotational swing path. Putting an oval axe handle on a baseball bat is counter-intuitive to the requirements of a rotational baseball swing. Imagine trying to adjust your swing on a breaking ball or change-up when the shape of the handle is resisting those adjustments.
In contrast, ProXR was designed from the ground-up specifically for a rotational baseball bat swing. It reduces compression in the hands and gives batters improved performance. Additionally, we tested our designs before we went to market and continue to do ongoing research and testing. As a side note, ProXR was accepted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011 because it is the first angled knob bat ever used in regular season games.”
Hypothesis
Based on the ProXR technology research, I was convinced the bat would alleviate compression forces in the hands, particularly the hitter’s bottom hand. However, my biggest question was, are we sacrificing performance to be safer? I think the ProXR technology, although safer, will sacrifice some performance.
The reason I labeled this a “baseball hitting drills for contact” experiment will become clear in the “Notes” section of the post, so stay tuned…
Baseball Hitting Drills for Contact: ProXR Bat Knob Experiment
33-inch wood bat model 243A with regular knob, and
33-inch wood bat model 243A with ProXR knob
Setup:
All swings for the baseball hitting drills for contact experiment were taken off the tee.
I used two yellow dimple ball markers to make my stance setup consistent…one was placed inside my back foot, close to the plate. The other was placed one bat’s length plus two baseballs in front of the back marker.
CLICK HERE for the Google Drive excel document with all the Ball Exit Speed (BES) readings and calculations.
We deleted radar gun mis-reads that registered below 30-mph on the gun.
Therefore, we deleted 3 mis-reads from the ProXR bat knob data, and averaged all ProXR BES readings to 97 swings.
Also, we deleted 2 mis-reads from the regular bat knob data, and averaged all regular bat knob BES readings to 98 swings.
The two tests in the baseball hitting drills for contact experiment were counter-balanced. Which consisted of eight blocks of 25-swings done in the following order ABBA BAAB. Swinging the “ProXR Knob” were letter ‘A’, and
“Regular Knob” were letter ‘B’. 200 total swings were completed in the experiment, 100 per test. Counter-balancing helps remove the “getting tired” and “not being warmed” up factors.
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A slight baseball hitting drills for contact advantage goes to the ProXR Knob…
Data Analysis & Conclusion
ZEPP READINGS:
Avg. Bat Speed at Impact increased by 1-mph using the ProXR knob bat,
Avg. Max Hand Speed didn’t change,
Avg. Time to Impact decreased by 0.004 swinging the ProXR knob bat,
Avg. Bat Vertical Angle at Impact decreased by 2 degrees using the ProXR knob bat, and
Avg. Attack Angle decreased by 4 degrees using the ProXR knob bat.
BUSHNELL BALL EXIT SPEED READINGS (CLICK HERE for Google Excel Doc):
Avg. Ball Exit Speed decreased by 0.4-mph using the ProXR bat knob, and
Top out Ball Exit Speed was 93-mph using both the ProXR and conventional bat knob.
Notes
In ProXR founder Grady Phelan’s initial testings of professional players, some of the players recorded a 3 to 10-mph bat speed increase using his ProXR knob. Now, I have a theory as to why my numbers were much smaller…
For all 208 swings I was playing with two baseball hitting drills for contact mechanical elements in my swing: 1) squeezing the bottom three fingers of my top hand only, from the moment I started my swing (picked up my front foot), through impact. And 2) having more of a “hunched over” posture at the start of the swing. I did this for all swings, so as not to “muddy up” the experiment.
The finger pressure may have neutralized the affect of the ProXR knob, since most of the “shock” at impact was taken by my top hand. Whereas a normal hitter not using top hand finger pressure would absorb the shock in the hamate bone, in their bottom hand, using the regular knob bat.
Playing around with both baseball hitting drills for contact elements of #2 above, I compared the Ball Exit Speed numbers from my previous experiment looking at the difference between the Mizuno Generation ($200 bat) to the Mizuno MaxCor ($400) bat where I wasn’t using the two mechanical changes. Interestingly, my average Ball Exit Speed with the $400 alloy MaxCore was 83.5-mph and top out exit speed was 90-mph. With the wood bats, my average Ball Exit Speed was 89 to 90-mph, and my top out exit speed was 93-mph. That’s a 6.5-mph jump in average & 3-mph boost in top out exit speed using a wood bat over a non-wood!! That’s 26 more feet on average, and 12 more feet in top out distance added using finger pressure and the “hunch”!
By using the two principles in #2 above, I was able to hit the “high-note” more consistently. I also had less “mis-reads” in this experiment, using the radar gun (5 total out of 208 swings), versus the Mizuno bat model experiment (18 total out of 200 swings). This is why I labeled this experiment “baseball hitting drills for contact”.
After about 50 swings in the the ProXR bat knob baseball hitting drills for contact experiment, I could tell you what my Ball Exit Speed readings were going to be after each cut, +/-1 mile per hour. Crazy!
The Bottom Line?
Well, according to the baseball hitting drills for contact ProXR bat knob experiment data, it looks like the ProXR knob holds a slight edge in performance versus the convention knob. Coupled with the fact that the ProXR knob reduces compression forces on the hands by 20 to 25% has me convinced that ProXR bat knob technology is a can’t lose tool for a hitter’s toolbox.
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Here Are 6 Christian Yelich Swing Analysis Hitting Mechanic Strategies Helping Him Dominate (or Not?🤔)
WARNING! This Christian Yelich swing analysis video has been done tongue-and-cheek…sarcastic…mocking…joking…so please don’t send me HATE email because of this cheeky Christian Yelich hitting mechanics video.
We teach our hitters to hit the ball back through the “tube”. Imagine the pitcher throwing the ball through a tube. Our hitters must hit the ball back through the tube. For example is the pitch comes in hitting zone at 4-feet from the ground, then ball comes off bat four-feet off the ground. If ball comes in two-inches off ground, then ball comes off bat two-inches off ground.
Consider this…
Major League average batted ball type percentages:
Line Drives = 20%
Ground-balls = 43%
Fly-balls = 38%
20% of the time the best in the world are hitting a line drive, and 80% of the time they’re miss hitting a line drive. By hitting the ball back through the tube, the hitter matches the plane of the pitch better. If ball is hit above or below the tube, then we use the adjustment principle paradoxical intention to get back to the tube.
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Hit-Consistent-Line-Drives-How-Christian-Yelich-Is-Doing-It-Better-Than-Everyone-Else.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2023-01-02 09:00:162023-01-03 06:00:46Hit Consistent Line Drives Instead Of Ground Balls & Square Up Baseball Or Softball Using Rope Bat?
Discover how to coach footwork hitting mechanics with this Yordan Alvarez slow motion frame by frame swing breakdown. Learn how to teach perfect youth baseball and softball drills for beginners.
Yordan Alvarez Swing Analysis: Where Should Hitter “Adjustability” Be And How To Get It
Before we get to the Yordan Alvarez swing analysis … we MUST …
This is our 300th hitting blog post!!!! 😀
Golly, time has flown since we started HittingPerformanceLab.com back in 2014.
Since 2013, we’ve had almost 20,000 coaches, instructors, and parents – just like you – invest in our books, courses, and resources.
One of the comments we sometimes run into on the socials, is that we’re not credible to talk hitting because we’re “just trying to sell something”…
What these people don’t understand about our Goodwill…
This is our 300th FREE blog post on hitting!! And,
As of today, we’ve given away – for FREE – 8,293+ ebook versions of our books currently being sold on Amazon (majority of those are our Amazon bestselling book The Catapult Loading System).
You don’t know what you don’t know…you know?
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
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And yes, I spend A LOT of time, money, and effort researching, studying, and working with hitters. This is what I do for a living. This isn’t a side hustle for me, like it is for some. 100% of my attention is spent researching, studying, tinkering, experimenting, testing, and talking to others who do the same…
So yes, I deserve to monetize my time, effort, and knowledge. I don’t go to this cotton headed ninny muggin’s workplace or business, and tell their customers not to buy from them because they’re “just trying to sell something”…
And by the way, just because someone sells a hitting product, DOES NOT automatically relieve them of credibility on the subject. Test their theories, philosophies, or products, and if they don’t work within 1-3 weeks, THEN call them a snake oil salesman.
That aside, one more thing…
Today (8/15) is my birthday! 39-years young. For some of you, I’m still a young buck…to others, an old fart…and for those around my same age, what did you think about the Beverly Hills 90210 reboot? 😛 lol
“Okay, I get it, lots to celebrate, so what can you teach me in the above Yordan Alvarez swing analysis video?”
Yordan Alvarez Swing Analysis Video Includes…
This Yordan Alvarez swing analysis video explores where hitters SHOULD build “adjustability” in the swing(HINT: it’s not in the upper half or the front arm). Here’s what we go over:
Sideways back foot,
Skipping back foot,
Front knee used to buy time, and
Back leg bend versus straightening.
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In the first installment of the Hitting Backwards: 4 Common Mistakes Hitters Make video series, featuring Ryan Braun, we’re analyzing why “Sitting Back” is so destructive to friction-free mechanics. The WHY boils down to a strange word…
According to IdeaFit.com,
“Proprioception is the body’s ability to transmit a sense of position, analyze that information and react (consciously or unconsciously) to the stimulation with the proper movement (Houglum 2001).”
The brain does whatever it needs to balance physical movement. Let’s discuss the following compensations caused by “Sitting Back”:
Eyes and head shift forward during Final Turn,
Lunging, and
Front shoulder flies open.
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Ryan Braun’s friction-free swing is like snapping a towel. Throw the towel end towards the intended target, then quickly snap it back. We’re getting eye-head movement out of the way early, then shifting our spine up and back towards the catcher – snapping the barrel into the impact zone. Ryan Braun does this!
Sitting back makes the hitter do the opposite…
Keep the hitter back till the last possible second, then
The hitter has to shift their weight forward to counter-balance because of proprioception, and
As a result, shifts the head and eyes forward.
Lunging
What’s your definition of lunging? When Ryan Braun lands his front foot, his knee virtually floats above his ankle. My definition of lunging is when the front knee continues to float over or passed the ankle during the Final Turn. It’s a very ineffective position to hit in because the head will continue moving forward.
Here’s how sitting back causes lunging:
Hitter shifts weight to back leg,
Reaches out softly with the stride foot, like a cat (and oftentimes too early)
Waits till ball is on the way, then
Because the body isn’t balanced, the brain shifts the hitter’s weight forward with no hope of getting back,
So the hitter continues forward until he or she hits (or misses) something.
Front Shoulder Flies Open
Unlike Ryan Braun, most ‘Sit Back’ hitters:
Have hand dominant swings. Since the shoulders are closest to the hands, they have to start earlier to get the hands working.
Don’t set up the natural rotation counter-rotation relationship of the pelvis and shoulders* before the front foot hits the ground. This causes the shoulders to compensate and open prematurely.
Open their hips and shoulders at the same time. If this happens, a hitter will max out at 60-70% of their ability to transfer energy efficiently from body –> to barrel –> to ball. This put smaller hitters at a disadvantage by dramatically decreasing power output.
Have a difficult time keeping the front shoulder in with off speed and breaking balls. It’s easy for pitchers to disrupt a Sit Back hitter’s timing. Their brain is focused on too many things at once: timing, proprioception, and pitch speed/location (because of late head-eye movement).
*CLICK HERE for an in-depth look at spine engine mechanics according to Dr. Erik Dalton. Read below the subtitle, “The Spring-Loaded Spiraling Spine”.
CLICK HERE for Part-2 to the Hitting Backwards video saga, where we’ll analyze Adrian Gonzalez and Common Mistake #2: loading the swing incorrectly…
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/STOP-Head-Movement-Lunging-Drifting-Front-Shoulder-From-Flying-Open-In-Baseball-Swing.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-12-27 09:45:302024-06-21 16:44:01STOP: Head Movement, Lunging, Drifting, & Front Shoulder From Flying Open In Baseball & Softball Swing
Learn how to improve youth mental game toughness skills training for baseball or softball players using a fixed vs growth mindset psychology by Dr. Carol Dweck…
A Fixed Mindset May Be Dangerous To Your Hitters
Fixed versus Growth Mindset illustration photo courtesy: KaylaCelliott.com
Nothing is more frustrating – and disappointing – than running into a Fixed Mindset coach…
All you get are excuses…excuses…EXCUSES!!
Think about the Fixed and Growth Mindsets, from Dr. Carol Dweck’s book Mindset, like the operating system for your computer or mobile device. Each Mindset (or operating system) will take you down a different path to problem solving.
Some may say, well, the examples you give are reveal “closed minded coaches”, not a Fixed Mindset. I disagree.
Look, I’m sure at times there are some closed minded Growth Mindset coaches, but I’m willing to bet my first born on that there are exponentially more closed minded Fixed Mindset coaches. You see, closed mindedness is a subset of a Fixed Mindset coach, NOT a Growth Mindset one.
Before I get into taking you through the story, I wanted to let you know what I have for you:
An 8-min, 25-sec video from Trevor Ragan outlining the difference between a Fixed v. Growth Mindset (video above)
Address 7 DEVASTATING Fixed Mindset coaching EXCUSES that are killing the progress of smaller power hitters, and
The Fixed versus Growth Mindset Introduction from my new book.
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.
Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.
Particularly, they were commenting that Hudson White, the hitter I covered in this blog post, weighing 130-pounds hitting the ball 398-feet – and that includes wood – was an over-exaggeration.
To their credit, they did concede it’s possible. But then oh man, here came ALL the excuses, taking credit away from the hitter’s dedication to his craft…
“The bat was hot”,
“Isn’t the norm, or has athletic ability – I wouldn’t take credit for that”,
“Average kids don’t use there body’s efficiently as someone with above average athleticism can regardless of training”,
“Only in batting practice and not in games”,
“130-pound hitter wouldn’t make our Varsity team”,
“Working with the exception, not the rule”, and the kicker comment about hitting ground-balls…
“I’ve never played or coached this game from a text book or a state sheet and never will. I do just what I’m doing here, I talk shop with knowledgeable people. Scouts, college coaches, minor league players and coaches and once in a blue moon with hitting instructors. I have very rarely come across any one of them that is as passionate about getting the ball in the air so much. Most of them try to keep things as simple as possible, which means barrel the ball, hit it hard. Period. No emphasis on air v ground, just barrel it.”
Addressing Excuse #1
Hudson White has hit balls over 398-feet with a Hickory wood. My over half a dozen hitters tripling their body-weight in batted ball distance (i.e. 100-pounder hitting ball 300-feet), are not using hot bats, and neither did Hudson at the National Power Showcase Home-Run Derby Competition put on my Brian Domenico at the Texas Rangers ballpark in Arlington in 2016.
Addressing Excuses #2 &3
What does athleticism mean exactly? What are your rules that say one kid is athletic and another is not? I’d hallucinate yours are different than mine. However, the question is, can we make a seemingly nonathletic kid average or even above average athletically? Not all, but I think we can make EVERY kid move better. And next week’s post interview with the founder of the Bosu Ball, David Weck, will shine more light on how to do this.
I brought up examples of Michael Jordan, Tim Tebow, and one of the best cricket players in the world weren’t able to or currently are not doing well enough to make it to the Big League level. It can be argued these are non-baseball athletic examples, but you’re saying above average athletic ability is one of the main causes for young hitters tripling their body-weight in batted ball distance. It’s speculation.
I’d argue “train-ability”, as referenced in the Heritage Study from David Epstein’s book The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance, as a more crucial element than above average athleticism in explaining why my hitters (and other coaches’) can triple their body-weight in batted ball distance. Learning is learning, but they still have to learn the most effective mechanics.
Take for instance my 67-pound hitter blasting a 180-foot dinger – in a game – after working with me for 6-months. When we first started he couldn’t hit his way out of a wet paper bag. So in 6-months did he auto-magically go from below average to above average athletically?
Addressing Excuse #4
I have game footage film of two of my hitters tripling their body-weight in batted ball distance:
Orin H. at age 11, 98-lbs (later found out from dad he was only 94-lbs) hitting a 300-foot double – took 2.5 years with my system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpeXt8SPBVE
By the way, Temo now is around 135-lbs and is consistently driving the ball 370+ feet. Also, Hudson White is driving the ball 400-feet in games as well.
Addressing Excuse #5
Are you KIDDING ME!? To write a player off based on the “eye test” is ignorant. It makes me sad how many of these “under-weighted” young hitters are not being given a chance because some coach DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE how to get educated in all things effective.
Coach, if this is you, then you’re going to love the Introduction to my book that follows, on Growth v. Fixed Mindsets…
But first,
Addressing Excuse #6
This one made me laugh. I responded back with something like, man I must be running into all these exceptions then! Myself and the hundreds of coaches – who’re getting the same, if not better, results than I am by the way – teaching the same system, must be exception magnets!!! lol
Addressing Bonus Excuse #7
Look I agree, line drives and barreling the ball AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE should be every coaches objective for their hitters. However, the question is raised, if you were to have your hitters miss, would you rather have them miss hit the ball in the air or on the ground? I’m not going dive deep into this here, because I did that already in the Ground-Ball Rant, but I do want to say High School coaches (on down) are getting a false sense of achievement with the ground-ball because fielders aren’t what they are at the D1 and Pro levels.
Now, listen closely…
If you’re not teaching your hitters to consistently drive the ball (in the air), then YOU WILL HAMSTRING them at the higher levels, if they make it that far. And by then, it’s too late.
I was just on the Coaching Minds Podcast by host Justin Lewis (Please follow him on Twitter @The_Coach_Mind), our interview I’ll be posting in 3 weeks or so, shared that he works almost exclusively with High School and College level fast-pitch hitters.
The horror stories he revealed the new hitters he’d get in college, reported they were only taught to slap the ball their whole life because of how “tiny” they were. What happens to these girls at the college level? When a hitting situation would come up to drive in runs, you know what the college coach does to these “tiny” slap hitting specialist?
They pinch hit them.
If ground-balls were so great, then why not let this slapping specialist slap?! Ground-balls are her specialty!! Let me give you a clue, ground-balls work less at the college level…and EVEN LESS at the Pro level. Don’t let this happen to your hitters.
And after hearing ALL these excuses, it was refreshing to get this email message from a coach after watching my webinar (I can’t say he uses my system though, but the message speaks for itself):
“The 135-lb pound kid…that is good but not that impressive…not too many kids at the age of 12 and 13 that weigh 135 pounds…he should be hitting the ball that far…now the 67 pound kid…that is impressive (one of my players at 75 pounds can hit the ball 225)” – ulley13usparks (username)
Now, he was talking about my two 13u hitters Eddie S. and Temo C. both weighing 135-lbs and driving the ball 370+ feet, and my 67-lb hitter I spoke of earlier in this post. “…should be hitting the ball that far…”, man, how refreshing to hear.
This leads me to the MAIN ISSUE…the above excuses are from Fixed Mindset coaches. The video above is fantastic education on the Fixed versus Growth Mindset debate in under 10-minutes. Rest assured you’ll be a more effective coach after watching the video. And if you like the video, then you’ll love Dr. Carol Dweck’s book Mindset.
Without further adieu, here’s the Fixed v. Growth Mindset Intro…
—–
“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
– Eric Hoffe
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When it comes building consistently powerful hitters, this book will provide you with the pathway to get there.
However, I think the most important aspect to bridging the gap between what the coach teaches and what the player absorbs has to do with Mindset…
Coaches can be split up into two groups.
Fixed Mindset
Growth Mindset.
According to Dr. Carol Dweck, in her bestselling book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,
“In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort.”
Here are some things you hear FIXED Mindset coaches saying,
You can’t teach a Little Leaguer to hit like a Major Leaguer because they aren’t strong enough.
Hand speed can’t be coached.
Natural hitters are just born.
Hitting is subjective and is different for everybody.
The greatest hitters just have great hand-eye coordination.
That 12u 100-pound hitter can consistently hit the ball 300-feet because they’re hitting with a HOT bat.
He/She can hit the ball hard and far because of their body mass.
All of those are to the contrary of Dr. Dweck’s definition of a Growth Mindset coach:
“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”
These coaches find a way. They ask the right questions. They ask, “Why not?” They don’t rest on elite-level playing experience or decades of coaching experience.
The objective of a Growth Mindset coach is to learn principles first, or “rules”. Then, design methods to stay within those lines, not the other way around. You’ll learn more about this in CHAPTER 1.
I’ll let Billy Murray give Growth Mindset coaches a word of caution in dealing with Fixed Mindset coaches on social media:
“It’s hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it’s damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person.”
Why?
From Henry Ford:
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, then you’re right.”
One puts the forest before the trees (versus missing the forest for the trees), and the other is swatting a piñata with one eye blindfolded!
I get it, we all want to be heard and validated as being knowledgeable in a subject, but high credibility in the wrong place is highly misleading.
Some go to extreme lengths to IMMEDIATELY make their presence known. Here are some Fixed Mindset saying tip-offs:
“I’ve played [X-number] years professionally and I should know.”
“I’ve been coaching for 30+ years, and this is why you should listen to me.”
“I’ve studied millions of hours of video analysis of only the best hitters. I know what I’m talking about”
“I’ve put a lot of work into the cages, and that’s how I know what I’m talking about”
Don’t get me wrong, the last two points above have their place and CAN be effective in learning and seeing success patterns, BUT massive effort going in the wrong direction can be gross negligence.
Besides, it takes A LOT of effort in the cages and hours of video analysis to stumble onto the right answers. But, I have a more elegant solution that will dramatically cut your learning time in half!
You’ll know what to look for, so you can SUPERCHARGE your time in the cages and also for when you’re doing video analysis. You’ll read about this in CHAPTER 2.
Willful ignorance.
I heard this term on Facebook and love it! People online defend their hitting philosophy and theories to the death, even if human-movement principles validated by science, reveal the opposite.
I mentally play the “What if…Strip” game with Fixed Mindset coaches…
WHAT IF this person NEVER…
Played in the Big Leagues…
Coached for 30+ years…
Studied millions of hours of video…
Put a lot of work into the cages…
…IF we stripped them of their primary credibility indicator, THEN I ask:
What do they actually know?
Who or what have they studied? (Physics, Bio-Mechanical, Psychology, Exercise Science sources? Not baseball or softball)
What kind of consistent or inconsistent results do they get with their hitters?
We’ll get deeper into the Credibility Fallacy in CHAPTER 3.
Fixed Mindset coaches are stuck. They regurgitate the same information they’ve been taught in the past without question. They may even say their hitting philosophy is a science, but it’s not. It’s a pseudo-science. Their copy and duct-taped together hitting philosophy reeks of uncertainty. We’ll get more into that in CHAPTER 4.
Here’s one of my favorite quotes by Dan Farnsworth:
“Doing a thing and understanding a thing do not automatically qualify you to teach a thing.”
And it’s so true!
I can tell with 100% confidence that I have not:
Played Professional baseball,
Coached for over 30 years,
Studied millions of hours of only the best hitters on video, or
Put in as much work in the cages as others say they do…
So, why listen to me?
Because of:
What I actually know,
Who and what I’ve studied, and
The results my hitters are getting.
We’ll drill deeper into these points in the following CHAPTERS, but what I think is VERY IMPORTANT for those who never played ball past Little League or 12u softball,
…That you too, can be a hitting expert.
All you need is a passionate curiosity to learn and apply the human-movement principles that are validated by science, to hitting a softball or baseball. I’m going to teach you how to conduct fool-proof swing experiments, so that you can use your findings to show people who won’t take you seriously.
You’ll learn my swing-experiment-blueprint in CHAPTER 4.
And I’m going to break it down for you, so don’t worry if you didn’t do well in science class back in school.
CHAPTER 5 will take you through the science of springy fascia and spinal-engine-mechanics. This is the WHY behind the methods we discuss in the later chapters. You can skip this one, but please return to it later, so you have ammunition for Fixed Mindset coaches who won’t believe the results your hitters are getting.
CHAPTERS 6 through 11 will take you through the practical methods and drills my hitters are using to consistently triple, or at least double, their body-weight in batted ball distance.
Lastly, CHAPTER 12 will walk you through, how to train these newly-learned hitting techniques. I believe the training is as important, if not more critical, than the mechanics you’ll be learning in this book.
I had a third-year pro-hitter drive up from San Diego (about a 7-hour drive for me, one-way), comment that he thought the training by itself was worth the trip! And he spent a fortune in time and money to work through a whole weekend with me.
What You’ll Learn
Here’s what you’re going to learn in the upcoming pages:
Why hitting philosophy fails and principles that are validated by science succeed.
Why you shouldn’t make video analysis FIRST-priority, when modeling elite hitters.
What 30+ year coaching experience and pro players won’t tell you, and how the information source you focus on can dramatically cut down your learning curve.
How to become a hitting expert when you’ve never played higher than Little League.
There’s a BIG advantage to learning how the body actually loads (and it’s not what you’re thinking).
A simple method that helped Babe Ruth to consistently crush the ball with some of the heaviest bats ever used.
Elite-hitters revealing ways to hit balls with High-Exit-Speeds, swing after swing, using three elements even a 4-year-old can understand.
At last, the secret to transitioning grooved batting practice swings into game at-bats is revealed.
WHY is this Important to you now?
There are four reasons…
Most “hitting stuff” we’ve learned is DEAD WRONG. It’s based off philosophy and theory, and with the technology available today, we can test the value of those hitting philosophies.
Nowadays, everyone is a hitting “expert”. How do we differentiate between an effective versus an ineffective approach? This is important because it’s not how PRO someone is, how many years of coaching they’ve accumulated, how many man-hours of video analysis they’ve done, or even how many hours of lessons they do in a given day. You can’t argue with science and powerfully consistent results.
“Confusion” between mechanical causation equaling correlation. Can you put backspin on a ball by swinging down on it (i.e. negative barrel Attack Angle)? Yes, you can. But, will the hitter consistently get the ball in the air that way? No. In this case, swinging down does not consistently put the ball in the air with authority, and IS NOT what the best are REALLY doing on slow motion video.
Big difference between what’s “real” and what’s “feel”. When Mike Trout says he works at ‘getting on top of the ball’, that doesn’t mean Johnny’s coach should go out and share with his team this method. In fact, Mike Trout says this to himself to protect his swing from HIS naturally tendency to upper cut too much, like he says to ‘chicken wing’. The cues that MLB and professional hitters use are often lost in translation with the younger-end user.
Is the Information in this Book for you?
First, we WILL NOT be talking about:
‘Squishing bugs’,
‘Swinging down on the ball’, OR
‘Loading & exploding the hips’.
Second, this is specifically about how to apply human movement ‘rules’ to hitting a moving ball, and not about hitting ‘philosophies’ or ‘theories’ that DO NOT predictably work in LIVE case studies.
Third, the information in this book is based on the success my personal hitters have had both online and locally, plus the hundreds of coaches, who’ve duplicated the results, if not bettered them by using this system.
The House Rules
Here’s what I’m not promising…
No “get powerful hits, quick”.
No “do nothing, and crush the ball”.
My results aren’t remotely typical.
Most people who buy ANY “consistent-power-swing” training, will not have success with getting consistent power in their hitters.
Addressing point numbers one and two above…
Some of my 12-years-old and under hitters, weighing around 100-pounds, don’t start consistently driving the ball 300-feet right away. Some take 2.5 years to get to consistency, whereas before they do it “every once in awhile”. Other hitters, although rare, achieve this in less than 6-months. This seems to be the range for the hitters I work with.
It depends on work ethic and what David Epstein calls ‘learn-ability’, in his book, The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance.
Addressing point numbers three and four above…
I encourage my hitters to work hard on the things we go over, and to keep on trying even after hitting major obstacles.
Most young hitters don’t do that. They just show up for a lesson or gather information and “get ready” to work…or they throw in the towel and quit at the first bump in the road.
It took a lot of hard work for my hitters to start seeing favorable hitting outcomes.
Interestingly, it was the work with my hitters that gave me the inspiration to write this book.
The bottom line is, I have no idea what your results may or may not be.
And it’s not my place to try to predict that. Your success is up to you, as always.
Onward…
—–
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/growth-fixed-mindset.png512362Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-12-27 09:30:392023-01-05 20:55:33Improve Youth Mental Game Toughness Skills Training For Baseball Or Softball Player Using Fixed Vs Growth Mindset Psychology By Carol Dweck
, I wanted to employ the Scientific Method to analyze how much turning the pelvis (some refer to this as the hips) adds to Bat Speed at Impact. The ‘Front Facing Swings’ are an attempt to isolate out the role of the pelvis in the swing, so we can analyze how much the pelvis adds to swing performance.
by Thomas Myers, and
by Thomas Myers, and
by Dr. Serge Gracovetsky.
said the ‘hips lead the way’. This observation is irrefutable when watching slow motion video of elite hitters. A majority of coaches teach primarily a ‘hips only’ strategy, which I disagree with. I feel ‘firing the hips’ is over-taught and over-valued, while the role of the shoulders is under-taught and under valued. The objective of this experiment is to see what benefit the pelvis (or hips) add to swing performance.
to record swings, and
to interact with Gravitational Forces is the pelvis.
– BIG-3.
. And a lot of instructors out there will take this to the extreme. And they think that by turning the pelvis in towards the catcher, so imagine a hitter’s belt buckle turning in to face the catcher. Like there was a flashlight coming out of the belt buckle and that you’re shining the flashlight at the catcher to get the hips some momentum.
just by keeping the pelvis in neutral and let the pelvis open when it does. He needs to create that bounce with the lower half, create that neck pressure up top.
in spinal engine, springy fascia.
, I wanted to use the Scientific Method to analyze what would happen to Bat and Ball Exit Speeds when using the same model and sized wood bat, but the only difference being that one bat has a regular knob, and the other a 
,
,
,
, like the operating system for your computer or mobile device. Each Mindset (or operating system) will take you down a different path to problem solving.
, as a more crucial element than above average athleticism in explaining why my hitters (and other coaches’) can triple their body-weight in batted ball distance. Learning is learning, but they still have to learn the most effective mechanics.
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