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How To Correctly Position Your Head When Batting To See the Ball Better

Correct Head Position While Batting To See Ball Better During Baseball & Softball Swing Drills

Learn how to correctly position the head while batting to see the ball better during baseball and softball swing drills.

Baseball Hitting Mechanics: Snapping Towel

…I analyze one of my eighth graders Zack, and we uncover the #1 simple tip can overcome bad hitting technique:

“How to make your everyday stance your fight stance, and your fight stance your everyday stance” – Musashi, a famous Japanese Samurai swordsman
The Snapping Towel Effect: getting the body moving,
The Snapping Towel Effect: the snap back, and
How Zack can improve…

CLICK HERE for an MLB case study YouTube video I did on David Ortiz looking into how Big Papi used the same Snapping Towel Metaphor in the 2013 Playoffs.

I’ll be doing a lot of baseball hitting mechanics video case studies of my own hitting students. Some where I do before and afters of their own swing. And other times, comparing their swing to a small bopper I think is relevant to them. I think these case studies help coaches and instructors eliminate the excuse of how young hitters can’t develop high level mechanics.

The main objective of the Hitting Performance Lab is to show we’re not arguing about linear versus rotational mechanics. It’s that we’re discussing human movement. It doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female. Young or mature. Baseball or softball. We’re talking about how the human body is designed to efficiently move.

5 Comments/by Joey Myers

How To Increase Bat Speed & Improve Hitting Power With Tee Drills for Baseball & Softball

Increase Bat Speed And Improve Hitting Power With Tee Drills For Baseball & Softball Youth

Build More Power, Hit More Line Drives, Swing Experiments

Discover how to increase bat speed and improve hitting power with these tee drills for baseball and softball youth players as young as 8 years old.

“Blocking” Like Jose Bautista: A Baseball Hitting Drills For Bat Speed Experiment

Question: Does Landing Bent with the Front Knee & then Straightening it, Add Bat Speed?

Using the Zepp (Labs) Baseball app, I wanted to use the Scientific Method to analyze if “Blocking”, or using Ground Reaction Forces (GRF), produces a significant gain in bat speed.

Background Research

Check out this YouTube video from ZenoLink about “Blocking”, or GRF:

CLICK HERE for a Wikipedia article defining Ground Reaction Forces. Quote from post:

“The use of the word reaction derives from Newton’s third law, which essentially states that if a force, called action, acts upon a body, then an equal and opposite force, called reaction, must act upon another body. The force exerted by the ground is conventionally referred to as the reaction, although, since the distinction between action and reaction is completely arbitrary, the expression ground action would be, in principle, equally acceptable.”

CLICK HERE for another baseball hitting drills for bat speed post I did about Edwin Encarnacion: A How-To “Blocking” Guide.

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Hypothesis

Based on the above baseball hitting drills for bat speed research and study, I think “Bent Knee Blocking” will produce more bat speed than “Straight Knee Blocking”. For some of you, this may be obvious. But the data comparing the two is quite interesting to see.

Baseball Hitting Drills For Bat Speed Experiment: “Blocking”

Equipment Used:

Zepp Baseball app,
SwingAway MVP Bryce Harper model,
Two yellow dimple baseballs (feedback markers),
Flip Video Camera and Tripod, and
33 inch, 30 ounce Pinnacle Bamboo bat.

Setup:

Yellow dimple ball feedback markers = my bat length, plus two baseballs
Distance from plate = end of the bat touching inside corner of plate, and knob of bat touching my mid-thigh.
SwingAway was set slightly behind the front feedback marker, and ball height was about the hip.
First 101 baseballs were hit with a landing leg angle of about 170-degrees.
Second 101 baseballs were hit with a landing leg angle of about 146-degrees.

Data Collected (Zepp Baseball App Screenshots):

Baseball Hitting Drills For Bat Speed: Blocking Experiment

Check out the differences in average bat speed and hand speed (red arrows)…

Data Analysis & Conclusion

6-mph average bat speed difference between “Straight Knee Blocking” versus “Bent Knee Blocking”,
2-mph average hand speed difference between “Straight Knee Blocking” versus “Bent Knee Blocking”,
The Average Time to Impact was about the same,
The average Bat Vertical Angle at Impact had a 6-degree difference, and
There was only 1-degree of difference between the Attack Angles.

Notes

I broke my swing into two steps (stopping momentum), to make sure I could accurately isolate the difference in the front knee action.
The “Bent Knee Blocking” 6-mph average increase is equivalent to 24-48 feet of batted ball distance (depends on the speed of the pitch).
What was interesting was the huge shift in Bat Vertical Angle at Impact. I suspect it’s because of the higher landing position, and the barrel compensated down to accommodate hitting the sweet spot.
Looking at the nominal increase in Attack Angle and the wide degree shift in Bat Vertical Angle at Impact, it looks like “Straight Knee Blocking” would lead to more mishits.
Like in this “Blocking” Experiment, baseball hitting drills for bat speed need to be put to the test. We can’t just feel something will increase bat speed. We must look at what the data says.

In Conclusion

From the Baseball Hitting Drills for Bat Speed Experiment data, we can see that “Bent Knee Blocking” produces more average bat and hand speed than “Straight Knee Blocking”. The other thing that landing with a bent knee does (approx. 146-degrees), is shrink the strike-zone. Or at least create an illusion that it’s shrinking, to the umpire. I call this “Getting Shorter”.

Coupled with forward momentum, the hitter is making a “cut”, much like a wide receiver would on an “L” route. Except instead of the wide receiver changing from the Sagittal (forward/backward) to the Frontal (sideways) Plane of motion, the hitter changes from the Frontal to Transverse (twisting) Plane of motion. And in order to do this, the “plant leg” needs to be bent in order to transfer Ground Reaction Forces efficiently. You’ll NEVER see an NFL wide receiver “cut” with a straight plant leg…they plant bent, then push into the ground to change directions.

6 Comments/by Joey Myers

3 Tips To Hit Line Drives Farther With Power And Square Ball Up Instead Of Hitting Ground Balls For Baseball, Fastpitch, & Slow Pitch Softball

Build More Power, Case Studies, Hit More Line Drives

Discover 3 tips to hit line drives farther with power and square the ball up instead of hitting ground balls for baseball, fast-pitch, and slow pitch slow pitch softball players.

Like Anthony Rizzo Swing Mechanics, You Too Can Optimize ‘Line-to-Line’ & Launch Angles By “Bending The Knee”?

We’ll be chatting about the following 4 things in the above Anthony Rizzo swing mechanics video:

Anthony Rizzo quick stat chat,
Bent front knee,
Sideways back foot, and
Spinal engine – pelvis opens, shoulders block…

There is a lot of misinformation out there that in order to have power, a hitter must straighten the front knee. When it comes to power, the causation-correlation of this is very vague. I’ve seen Rizzo hit a ball 460+ feet during batting practice with a bent front knee. He never straightened it.

Look, 70-80% of power is the spinal engine. Click Here if you don’t believe me. I go over a thought experiment where we look at a water polo athlete with the fastest throw in water, and compare him to fastest velo pitcher on the planet. Remember, the water polo thrower doesn’t have the luxury of Gravitational Forces.

Now, it can be argued the lower half (including and mostly because of the pelvis) is responsible for 20-30% of the power equation. Since the lower half rotates the least, I say the it’s priority is setting the direction of the hitter’s force. We achieve this through keeping the back foot sideways.

The spinal engine is at the heart of consistent power. The Thoracic and Cervical vertebrae act against each other like a wringing towel to pre-load the torso before stride landing. Then as the lower back and pelvis begin their limited rotation, they will complete the wringing towel effect on the lower half of the spinal engine – Lumbar and Thoracic.

4 Comments/by Joey Myers

Hitting Training For Baseball & Softball Swing Trainers | Hitting Performance Lab

Top-6 Baseball Quotes From John Wooden & Michael Jordan About Failure, Learning, Not Giving Up, And Success

Sticky Coaching

Discover our top-6 non-baseball motivational quotes from John Wooden and Michael Jordan about failure, learning, not giving up, and success.

Baseball Batting Quotes: Hacking “Failure” With Michael Jordan

It’s a blessing and a curse. It empowers people to do GREAT things, while others, it imprisons to mediocrity. One word can offer us a detour, and at the same time can make us feel like we’re at a dead end.

How we look at this one word can make suffering feel like a learning process. Or can make us want to quit, and never try again. What’s ‘the word’?

We’ve heard Ted Williams say that “Hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things to do in sports.” The word, ‘Failure’, has separated Hall Of Famers from players getting just one cup of coffee in “The Show”.

What follows are SIX of my favorite inspirational quotes on Failure. I wish this was something that was put in front of me when I felt my struggles were insurmountable during my playing days. So, please share this baseball batting quotes post to your social media, to spread the word, you never know who they’ll help.

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What’s more…

Not only are these my favorite quotes on the topic of Failure, but they were the TOP-6 baseball batting quotes when I posted them to my Hitting Performance Lab Facebook fan-page and Twitter page. “Like” and “Follow” me there (if you haven’t already) because I posting more great hitting content daily.

The baseball batting quotes are arranged from least to most engaged with on my Facebook fan-page. Let’s start with…

#6:

#5:

#4:

#3:

#2:

And #1!

Here’s what I feel the #1 mistake is…we treat Failure like it’s a terrible thing. When we are conditioned to look at Failure as a bad thing, then we stop trying. Or at best, become standoffish when giving it another shot because the pressure begins snowballing. There’s no release, just build up.

Young hitters NEED to be encouraged to tinker and test. To make their own adjustments. To look at Failure as feedback. To question the status quo. This is where creativity and problem solving flourish!

Here are FOUR other articles or books that I love, related to the topic of Failure:

“5 Reasons To Stop Saying “Good Job!” by Alfie Kohn – blog post that the title is self explanatory. After reading, you’ll see why this can lead kids to the “Failure as a dead end” mindset.
Golf Flow by Dr. Gio Valiante – sports performance psychologist, Dr. Gio, who works with the top PGA tour players. This book has nothing and everything to do with the baseball.
The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle – how the body learns, and that greatness isn’t just in our DNA code.
Brain Rules For Baby by John Medina – John brings up some great research and study, and one in particular says that telling a kid, “You’re so smart!” will handicap them, rather than saying, “You must’ve worked hard for that.”

As Tony Robbins says, “Where focus goes, energy flows.” So focus your attention on Failure as only a feedback mechanism.

4 Comments/by Joey Myers

Learn Correct Head Position, Keeping It Still, & Seeing Ball Better While Hitting A Baseball

Learn Correct Head Position, Keeping It Still, & Seeing Ball Better While Hitting Baseball Or Softball

Case Studies, Get On-Time

Learn the correct head position, keeping the head still, and seeing the ball better while hitting a baseball or softball. Discover how in this Albert Pujols swing breakdown.

Albert Pujols Swing Breakdown: A Big Misunderstanding

People always want to know how to hit the ball harder, with more consistency. And it all starts with how the head moves during the swing. Who better to look at for consistency than Albert Pujols, AKA “The Machine”…

According to Baseball-Reference.com, a few key offensive stats based on his 162-game average are:

On-Base + Slug% (OPS) – .991…league average is .730
Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP) – .303 (Fangraphs.com)…league average is .300
Homers – 40
Doubles – 43

Albert Pujols may not be the same hitter he was with the Cardinals…BUT…what he has working for him is friction-free head movement during the swing. An oftentimes, misunderstood topic.

In this video post, we’ll hold head movement during the swing to the fire of science:

Albert Pujols: understanding the 1/3 Vision Rule,
Why breaking the One-Joint Rule bleeds force at impact, and
Two most common head position mistakes & how to fix…

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Albert Pujols: Understanding the 1/3 Vision-Rule

One of my readers, Blake Blackwell, took his son to a Tom House pitching camp. For those who don’t know Tom House, he’s the founder of the National Pitching Association. Blake said that Tom House was teaching his pitchers to gear pitch movement for the last 1/3 of the distance to home-plate.

Why?

Studies show that Professional hitters lose sight of the ball within the last 5-7 feet of ball flight. Consider the 1/3 Vision-Rule…

First 1/3 Distance to Plate – hitter sees the pitcher’s release point out of the corner of the front eye,
Middle 1/3 Distance to Plate – hitter sees the ball with both eyes, and
Last 1/3 Distance to Plate – hitter sees the ball with the corner of the back eye.

Late breaking movement adds to the pitcher’s deception because a hitter like Albert Pujols isn’t picking up pitch detail during the last 1/3 of ball flight. You see, peripheral vision (out of the corner of the eye) is about picking up motion, not detail.

Understanding this is important to hitting because you’ll learn…

Why Breaking the One-Joint Rule Bleeds Force at Impact

And upsets vision…

CLICK HERE to watch a demonstration of the One-Joint Rule I did with Shak, a Kansas University Jay-hawks wide receiver. Dr. Kelly Starrett from TheReadyState.com says this about the One-Joint Rule:

“The musculature [in the spine] is designed to create stiffness so that you can effectively transmit energy to the primary engines of your hips and shoulders. If you don’t preserve trunk stiffness while moving from your hips and shoulders, you will lose power and force. The is the basis for the one-joint rule: you should see flexion and extension movement happen at the hips and shoulders, not your spine.”

He then adds…

“Hinging at one of the segments [vertebrae in the neck]…when we put a hinge across the central nervous system, the body recognizes that as a primary insult, or threat to the body, because you’re basically guillotining or kinking the nervous system. You’ve kinked ‘the tube’, so it [force production] just drops off.”

Two Most Common Head Position Mistakes & How-to Fix…

Here they are:

Chin to chest (a la Andrew McCutchen), AND
Ear to rear shoulder (a la Bryce Harper).

How do we fix these?

First you have to understand the spine can move Globally or Locally…CLICK HERE to watch this demonstration.

Then, the hitter must understand that their head can ONLY move like it’s rotating on a “spit” (the spine), from side to side. Unless we’re talking about Global Extending or Flexing. In other words, the spine can Globally Flex towards the plate – say on a low pitch – but the head MUST stay in line with the spine as it turns towards contact.

At lastly, train this head movement with variance:

Setup up five swing rounds,
On swings 1-3-5, practice keeping the head on a “spit”, turning the head to get the nose behind the barrel (the right way), and
On swings 2-4, practice moving the chin to chest OR ear to rear shoulder (the wrong way).

Note the difference. I guarantee Albert Pujols makes a conscious effort to keep efficient head movement during his swing. Can you see why pitchers armed with the 1/3 Vision-Rule, and hitters getting excessive head movement by breaking the One-Joint Rule can really affect repeatable power?

2 Comments/by Joey Myers

Is Hitting For Power: Hips Before Hands, Hip Rotation, Legs, Or Lower Body Mechanics For Youth Baseball & Softball Swing? | Drills To Do At Home

Build More Power, Swing Experiments

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.

Right Course For You? Take Quiz Now