Discover how bat size “drop” (bat length minus bat weight) affects performance for baseball and softball hitters in this swing experiment. It’ll bring perspective to choosing an adult league, High School, or t-ball bat. CLICK HERE for a fantastic weight-length dimensions chart calculator resource by body weight and age.
Question: How is Bat & Ball Exit Speed Affected by Bat Size?
This was the model I used in the bat size experiment…
In this baseball swing tips experiment using the BlastMotion Baseball app, I wanted to use the Scientific Method to analyze what would happen to Bat Speed at Impact and Ball Exit Speed if I used a Mizuno Generation 33-inch, 30-ounce BBCOR versus a 34-inches, 31-ounces, same model.
Background Research
CLICK HERE for an article titled “The Physics of Baseball”. Read under the subhead titled, “Swing speed vs. bat weight”.
The following information I received from a long time PocketRadar rep. It’s what he does for a living.
In this baseball swing tips Mizuno Generation bat experiment, a good rule of thumb when looking at ball exit speed is:
A 1-mph of ball exit speed (BES) increase, adds 4-feet of distance to a batted ball (a 1:4 ratio).
So for instance, if an 9 year old hits the ball with 50-mph of ball exit speed, then they have the capability of hitting the ball 200-feet (50 X 4 = 200).
On the professional side of things, I’ve heard that scouts are actively looking for 95-mph+ ball exit speed in games because that hitter has the ability to hit the ball at least 380-feet. That’s hitting the ball out down the lines, and to the gaps, at most ballparks.
It’s also interesting to note that you can add about 5-15-mph to ball exit speeds taken off a tee, to simulate what it would be in a game. That extra 5-15-mph will depend on the pitcher’s velocity.
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Based on the above baseball swing tips experiment research, I think swinging with the Mizuno Generation 34/31 will, on average, increase my ball exit speed. I think that my bat speed will come down a bit using the 34/31 over the 33/30 because of the added weight and length. Also, “trading up” a bat size will depend on how much forward momentum a hitter uses. The less FoMo, the harder it will be to trade up.
Baseball Swing Tips Mizuno Generation Bat Size Experiment
A friend of mine, Juan Ortiz, took Ball Exit Speed gun readings while inputting into this Google Doc spreadsheet.
You’ll notice on the baseball swing tips experiment spreadsheet that there are missing numbers, these were radar gun mis-reads (where the radar gun lost coverage of the batted ball’s trajectory). We eliminated ten mis-reads using the 33/30, and thirteen mis-reads using the 34/31. We then adjusted the average swings in each test. For instance, we eliminated 13 mis-reads using the 34/31, so spreadsheet added all swing ball exit speeds for that test, then divided by 87 total swings.
However, the Zepp app readings were all averaged over 100 total swings.
Dimple ball feedback markers were set at the bat’s length plus two baseballs
The two tests in the experiment were counter-balanced. Which consisted of eight blocks of 25-swings done in the following order ABBA BAAB. “33/31 Mizuno bat swings” were letter ‘A’, and
“34/31 Mizuno bat swings” 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.
Now, we took readings with the Zepp app and with the Bushnell radar gun. Please note, these aren’t an apples to apples comparison, so we’ll be looking at them in separate detail.
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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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Check out the little baseball swing tips experiment changes in average Bat Speed Impact & Time To Impact…
Data Analysis & Conclusion
Zepp app findings – as you can see, there was an average increase of 1-mph in Bat Speed at Impact using the 34/31 Mizuno Generation bat.
Zepp app findings – there was also average 0.057 sec drop in Time To Impact with the 34/31 Mizuno Gen. bat.
Bushnell BES radar gun findings (Google Doc) – there was an average Ball Exit Speed increaseof 2-mph when using the 34/31 Mizuno Gen. bat.
Notes
I did not expect to see a major difference in Time To Impact like we did in the baseball swing tips bat size experiment.
I thought that average Bat Speed at Impact when using the 34/31 Mizuno Gen. bat was going to be less than the 33/30, but it actually increased by 1-mph!
In looking at the BES Google Doc spreadsheet, I topped out at 95-mph (twice) using the 33/30. And topped out at 94-mph using the 34/31. Btw, a week prior, one of my 12yo hitters wanted to see what “Coach Joey” could hit in ball exit speed. And after about 5-6 swings, I hit 92-mph off the tee with wood. Not tooting my own horn here, just interesting to see a ballpark difference between wood and the Mizuno Gen. BBCOR bats. Also, I’m only 5’10” on a “good day”, and 165-pounds. Add about 10-mph in a game, and I’m hitting 102-mph BES, which translates to 408-feet of batted ball distance. My point is, you don’t have to be a big hitter to crush the ball B-)
What else is interesting in looking at the baseball swing tips experiment spreadsheet, that after about 75 total experiment swings, I started to consistently hit more 90+mph’s and find my highest BES readings. Similar to how many pitches it takes a pitcher to actually “get warm”. This is why we counter-balance the experiments now, to sidestep the “warm-up factor”.
The Bottom Line?
In this baseball swing tips experiment, using two different sized Mizuno Generation -3 BBCOR bats, we found that (for me), the 34/31 added 1-mph of Bat Speed at Impact and 2-mph to Ball Exit Speed, on average. I was amazed to learn that using the bigger bat actually cut down on Time to Impact. Some interesting findings and ones I hope others will test for themselves in the future. My parents ask me the “bat size” question all the time. So, by investing in a Bushnell radar gun or PocketRadar gun, you can gather some pretty convincing data as to which bat to use.
'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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How Much Ball Exit Speed Does Lower Body Contribute To A High Level Swing?
In this baseball and softball video post, we’ll be looking at whether preloading upper body hitting torque or using lower half hip rotation contributes for more power. Check out this swing drills over rotating experiment…
Do you consider yourself an open minded coach? If not, then this post MAY NOT be for you.
Do you consider yourself a coach willing to try new movements before criticizing them? If not, then this post MAY NOT be for you.
Fair WARNING…this video will make most feel uneasy because it strikes at the heart of their teaching. I believe the quality of our lives and the success we experience in it, depends solely on the questions we’re willing to ask our-self.
In this video, the Backspin Tee Gardner Brothers (Taylor & Jarrett Interview here) did a small thought provoking swing experiment that looked at how much value the lower half contributes to the swing. Most popular hitting instructors treat the lower half like a JoBu shrine in the movie Major League. Don’t get me wrong, the lower half has a role, but I disagree on the importance most put on it.
Using the Scientific Method…
Question
Taylor Gardner doing a Jumping No Hips Swing
They looked at how much value (measured in Ball Exit Speed) the lower half contributes to the swing by restricting its movement.
Background Research
Taylor read my book The Catapult Loading System: How To Train 100-Pound Hitters To Consistently Drive The Ball 300-Feet, and it got him thinking about how much the lower half actually contributes to power compared to the shoulders? Earlier I mentioned how much the movement of the pelvis in the swing is worshiped by so many hitting coaches. “Fire the hips!” “Hip Thrust baby!” Sadly, the torsional forces are taken to the point of being unhealthy for a young hitter’s low back.
Consider what Charlie Weingroff, DPT, CSCS, a physical therapist and trainer in New York City said this:
“Only your thoracic spine (which consists of the 12 vertebrae in your upper and middle back) is designed to rotate significantly — about 40 degrees in each direction, according to Weingroff — when under compression. The lumbar spine (lower back) should rotate no more than about 12 degrees.”
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Let me give a clue, coaches want better separation, torque, lag, etc. in their hitters right? We see that a high level right handed hitter’s pelvis starts rotating counter-clockwise at the start of the turn, leaving the shoulders temporarily behind, this is the essence of “lag” or “torque”. But what coaches aren’t seeing is what’s happening before the ‘hips lead the way’? The compression and tension forces happening in the torso beforehand, to make that move possible.
If hitting coaches would do their homework on basic bio-mechanical locomotion and function of the spinal engine as a whole, then they’d find they’re missing 60-70% of the performance puzzle (as you’ll soon see), and quite possibly wearing a hole in the lower backs of their hitters.
I constantly see well intention coaches posting videos on Twitter of their young hitters savagely twisting the pelvis and low back (lumbar), in addition to the hyper-extension of the lower lumbar. Quite frankly, it’s painful to watch. CLICK HERE for an exercise to correct this.
Did you know there’s a much safer way to achieve those high BES numbers and more? Some books to get you started on the right track:
By the way, Dr. Serge Gracovetsky is a Physicist and Electrical Engineer. He said the Spinal Engine can operate in space without Gravitational Forces. His research shows arms and legs aren’t necessary for locomotion, they’re an improvement. Please read that sentence again because it’s important to understand locomotion.
Can explosive high level athletes perform without the aid of Gravitational Reaction Forces? Check out the following videos:
Derek Jeter makes jump throw…
Jeter is jumping up and away from his target, taking his momentum in the opposite direction of first base. This should put him at a disadvantage, but it doesn’t hurt him too much, as you can see.
Big air motocross freestyle jumps…
Notice how these athletes use the head to control their body. No Gravitational Reaction Forces to help here either. But man can these athletes put a big smile on your face while watching this video!
Don’t seek the footsteps of others, seek the footsteps they sought.
Hypothesis
The Gardner brothers thought this mini swing experiment would show more of a minimal role of the lower half in the swing, compared to the “lower half worshiping” hitting coaches out there.
'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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4 different hitters (Taylor – High School level hitter College Track & Field athlete, Jarrett – professional pitcher, Rookie in pro ball, home-run record holder at Div-1 college)
Took Full Swings prior to experiment swings (the Control group), so they could compare to when the lower half was restricted
Backspin Tee used on all swings (I know, shocker!)
Every one used the same metal bat, a Copperhead C405 34 inch, 30 ounce (-4)
Data Collected
Based on control swings, this graph shows average BES as % of the control swings, Highest BES as %, & Lowest BES as % of each of the four hitters. Photo courtesy: BackSpinTee.com
Graph shows top BES per hitter on control swings, when Stationary No Hips, when Jump Float No Hips, Falling Float No Hips, Lead Leg Only No Hips, and Avg. BES. Photo courtesy: BackSpinTee.com
Data Analysis & Conclusion
Small sample sizes can cause a lot of problems, so there definitely needs to be more data points to make a conclusive decision. However, with the data we have, the fact four different hitters participated on all swing experiments, in looking at the last graph, you can see that when the lower half was restricted, Ball Exit Speeds were around two-thirds of top exit velocity of control swings (normal swings). Think Jeter making his jump throw! So from this small sample size, we can say the lower half contributes about one-third to the Exit Speeds of these four hitters.
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the Comments section below. Be nice, be respectful.
'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/2017/12/backspin-tee-swing-experiment-e1513375051238.png296500Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-05-23 09:00:322022-05-25 17:06:34Baseball & Softball Preloading Hitting Torque OR Use Lower Half Hip Rotation For Power? | Swing Drills Over Rotating Experiment
Baseball Swing Mechanics Experiment: Squash The Bug Ineffective?
This post discusses youth hitting fundamentals of why squishing the bug is bad for baseball and softball players in 2022? Learn basic how to hit the ball in a certain direction beginner swing tips experiment. This information is great for 10-year old’s and younger.
Question: Do “Squish the Bug” Baseball Swing Mechanics Depress Bat Speed?
Here are the two test swings from my intern for the summer, redshirt college Frosh, Tyler Doerner…
Using the Zepp (Labs) Baseball app, I wanted to use the Scientific Method to analyze if the baseball swing mechanics “squishing/squashing the bug”, during the turn, increases or decreases bat speed. The term “squishing the bug” means rotating the back foot, on the ground, during the turn. Like you’re squishing a bug.
This can be a very sore subject, and hotly debated with a passion, in the Church of Baseball. Surprisingly, it’s still widely taught throughout the lower levels. Although a few images off the internet of effective swingers like Cano, Bautista, McCutchen, etc. will reveal “squishing the bug” isn’t what the best are doing.
So we wanted to test it…
My intern for the summer, redshirt college freshman Tyler Doerner did this experiment. This post is for you Joe (you know who you are ;-)…
Background Research
One of the main objectives of whether to skip the foot, or keep it on the ground, has to do with transferring linear momentum, better known as un-weighting or forward momentum. Check out these four HPL posts for a baseball swing mechanics background on this:
Now, for you academics, CLICK HERE to watch a short 2-minute PBS video on Circus Physics and the Conservation of Linear Momentum.
So, after reading/watching the above videos and posts, we should be at a common understanding of Forward Momentum.
The next objective of “squishing the bug” versus “skipping the back foot” during the turn, boils down to allowing the body to transfer energy effectively. This has to do with springy fascia in the body…
In Thomas Myers’s book Anatomy Trains, he talks about a cotton candy like springy material that the bones and muscles float it, and what gives muscles their shape called fascia.
Specifically in the book, he talks about the Front & Back Functional Lines. CLICK HERE for a post I did on this, featuring Ted Williams and Matt Kemp.
In the following video, Thomas Myers explains this idea of Tensegrity, or Tension-Integrity. There are compression and tension forces acting on the body at all times. Within the body these two opposing forces are always searching for balance…
For a hitter, if the body moves forward, but the back foot and leg stays behind, then these forces don’t get optimally transferred from body to barrel to ball. In other words, the backside gets “left behind”.
Hypothesis
Based on the above research, I think “squishing the bug” baseball swing mechanics will have a depressing effect on bat and hand speed because it doesn’t allow for full transfer of momentum and release of elastic energy in the springy fascia.
“Squish the Bug” Baseball Swing Mechanics Experiment
Forward momentum was taken out of this baseball swing mechanics experiment byhitting from a 1-2 second pause at landing
Back two “baseball markers” were set at about 3 baseballs apart
The two tests in the experiment were counter-balanced. Which consisted of eight blocks of 25-swings done in the following order ABBA BAAB. Say “squish the bug” was letter ‘A’, and “skipping back foot’ was 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.
Data Collected (Zepp Baseball App):
There were significant changes in Average Bat & Hand Speed, Time to Impact, and surprisingly, the hitter’s Attack Angle in this baseball swing mechanics experiment…
Data Analysis & Conclusion
+8-mph difference in average Impact Bat Speed, siding on “Skipping Back Foot”,
+3-mph difference in average Hand Speed Max, siding on “Skipping Back Foot”,,
-0.019 difference in average Time To Impact, siding on “Skipping Back Foot”, and
+4-degree difference in average Attack Angle, siding on “Skipping Back Foot”.
Notes
I think the “Squish the Bug” baseball swing mechanics experiment results were overwhelmingly clear.
Tyler did not technically keep his back foot posted to the ground during the “squish the bug” tests, so there still was an element of un-weighting going on with his backside.
In which case, measuring Ball Exit Speed (or how fast the ball came off the bat) may have netted interesting data to consider, compared to Impact Bat Speed. However, with the results with the other readings of Avg. Hand Speed, Time To Impact, and Attack Angle, I think we can put the “Squish the Bug” baseball swing mechanics myth to bed 😀
The data and results suggests that when a hitter “leaves behind their backside”, there’s a slowing down of forward momentum, and the body naturally decelerates because the springy fascia is forced to stretch, but not release.
Keep in mind what I call the Goldilocks Syndrome. The back foot can skip too far (porridge too hot), and it can also not skip at all (porridge too cold). We want the back foot to skip just right.
The Bottom Line?
In this “Squish the Bug” baseball swing mechanics experiment, “Skipping the Back Foot” showed a notable difference in average Bat & Hand Speed, Time To Impact, and the hitters Attack Angle. I want to encourage you to tinker and test this for yourself. The objective of these swing experiments is to put modern hitting theory to the test, literally. We NEED to test based on data, not feelings. Share these results with friends.
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/baseball-swing-mechanics-experiment-tylerd.png452755Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-05-10 10:00:412022-05-11 04:04:18Youth Hitting Fundamentals Why Squishing Bug Bad For Baseball & Softball In 2022? | Basic How To Hit In Certain Direction Beginner Swing Tips Experiment For 10 Years Olds & Younger
SwingAway Baseball Swing Trainer: How-To Build A Swing You Can Be Proud Of…
This article presents a general framework to conduct 8th grade science fair project hitting experiment ideas for baseball and softball players. Sweet spot swing experiment topics should include Physics articles, books, facts, and questions. Using the scientific method is key…
I’ve wanted to do a “how-to experiment” post for a long time. But in the past, technology hadn’t quite caught up,
SwingAway Trainer: Pro Baseball Traveler
…and NOW it has!
Mark Twain once said:
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
I want:
…To lay out the landscape, in this Baseball Swing Trainer post, about using the SwingAway for conducting hitting experiments,
…This article to empower you to take up arms with me, and turn conventional hitting wisdom on its stubborn little head, and
…To inspire you to use modern technology to build a swing we ALL can be proud of.
I’m embarrassed to share the following story…
I did my first hitting experiment in the sixth grade with a buddy, for a school project.
My friend and I ran an experiment to see if a wood or aluminum bat could hit the ball farther.
One day after school, we pitched to each other at the Little League diamond we played our games at. We used two aluminum Easton baseball bats and a Ken Griffey Jr. signature Louisville Slugger woody. One aluminum bat was 32-inches and 24-ounces, and the other was 31-inches and 23-ounces. And I can’t remember what the woody measurements were, but it was comparable.
I think we might have hit about 50 balls with each bat (150 balls total) and get this…measured the distance with our feet! 😀 lol
Based on our results, guess which bat hit the ball the farthest? Wood or aluminum? The wood bat!!! Waaa??
Well, it was only because we weren’t being very scientific with our scientific experiment. One of the big reasons we didn’t get a good grade on the project was because we DID NOT isolate the variables…
We threw LIVE batting practice to each other. We should have used a baseball hitting trainer like a batting tee or SwingAway (wasn’t around at the time).
We both took turns hitting, and didn’t separate our individual batted ball distances.
We used different sized bats.
We measured using our own feet…I was a men’s 8/9 at the time, and my buddy was an 11. We should’ve used a rolling tape measure.
We only took a small data sample size. We should’ve hit 100 balls with the wood bat, and then 100 with aluminum. AND we should have only used one of the aluminum bats (preferably the one closest in size and weight to the woody). So 400 swings total (200 swings for me, 200 for my friend). Then compared apples to apples.
Remember, failure is only a detour, not a dead end 😉
The good news is,
You don’t have to be a scientist to run a hitting experiment.
What follows is the exact formula I use now, to run my hitting experiments using the SwingAway baseball swing trainer. My hopes is that you pick up arms, and join me in the fight…
The Definitive Guide to Conducting a Baseball Swing Trainer Experiment
Up until now, here are SIX hitting experiments I’ve run:
You can read the full list at the above swing experiment links. But here are a couple pieces of equipment that will have a drastic effect on bean counting and saving time doing the experiment itself…
Great tool for collecting data. It’s not perfect, but all we need is an apples to apples comparison. Unfortunately, the Zepp app DOES NOT allow you to separate experiment swings from recreational ones. You have to delete ALL swings before doing an experiment, unless you want to do the bean counting yourself.
You’ll also need to create two email accounts with Zepp to separate the two experiment tests. Zepp allows you to “Add a Hitter” in one account, but it doesn’t allow you to separate that data from other hitters or swings and average the data out.
SwingAway Baseball Swing Trainer
I just started using a SwingAway for my swing experiments. I used to hit the ball off an ATEC Tuffy Batting Tee, but it was taking me 2 1/2 to 3 hours to run my experiments. Fatigue could set in and skew the results. Some experiments where you’re looking at ball flight (like Bent Back Knee experiment above) will most definitely need to be done off a batting tee.
Using the SwingAway baseball swing trainer took me only 1 1/2 hours! NO need for:
Ball cleanup,
Ball setup, or
Waiting more than a few seconds for the ball to return to its stationary position.
This saved me a ton of time. All you need is a 10 X 10 space to conduct your SwingAway baseball swing trainer experiment.
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Limit Variables – The main objective of a baseball swing trainer hitting Experiment, is to isolate what you’re trying to test. Like my sixth grade experiment from earlier, there were too many variables that we didn’t control.
Priming the Pump – I always start an experiment by warming up my body with a pre-practice routine, similar to this Dr. Stanley Beekman’s post. You don’t have to do all included exercises, so pick about eight of them. I’ll also take about 10-15 swings focusing on the specific mechanic I’m going to be testing that day. For example, if I was testing showing the pitcher my numbers versus not, then I’d do 10-15 swings both ways, so 20-30 swings total before officially starting the experiment. We prime the pump so nobody can see, “Well, your numbers sucked in the beginning because you weren’t warmed up.”
Counter-Balancing – The two tests in the experiment should be counterbalanced. Which consisted of eight blocks of 25-swings done in the following order ABBA BAAB. Say “showing the numbers” was letter ‘A’, and “not showing the numbers” was letter ‘B’. 200 total swings are to be completed in the experiment, 100 per test. Counter-balancing helps remove the “getting tired” and “not being warmed” up factors.
More Data Points – I take at least 100 swings for both tests in the experiment, so 200 swings total (not counting warm-up swings). So, taking the “showing numbers” as an example, I’d take 100 swings showing my numbers, and then take another 100 swings not showing my numbers. The Zepp App is a useful technology, but isn’t super accurate. But the more data you collect, the closer to the “real” numbers you’ll get.
Break the Swing Apart – If you aren’t confident that you can repeat a specific mechanic consistently for 100 swings, then break the swing apart, like I talk about in this YouTube video. I did this in the showing the numbers experiment above.
Collect Ball Flight Data (optional) – for some mechanics, like testing the back leg angle during the turn experiment, it’s critical to collect ball flight data on the Zepp app. Zepp allows you to manually input where you hit the ball after each swing. Testing the grip on the bat would be another example. Also, adding Ball Exit Speed readings could enhance the baseball swing trainer experiment, Bushnell Velocity Radar Gun (about $80), or Stalker Radar Gun ($500+). ESPN’s HitTrackerOnline.com uses the latter in all MLB ballparks. Just remember, accuracy isn’t as important as an apples to apples comparison.
Recovery – I usually will give my body about 30-minutes rest between the first 100 swing test and the second. I now use supplement timing like Zach Calhoon maps out in these posts. I sip on Zach’s “concoction” throughout the full experiment to keep my muscles fueled. I then take Vitamin C and E capsules afterward to help with soreness.
Brainstorming Experiments – Don’t have any ideas on what to test? I did the heavy lifting for you. And by no means is this an exhaustive list of possible experiments. CLICK HERE for my brainstormed list.
Take Notes – make note of my “notes” in the above experiments. Basically, the notes section are things that you noticed while doing the tests that may not be apparent to the person reading about the experiment.
In Conclusion…
In this baseball swing trainer post about using the SwingAway for hitting experiments, I wanted to lay out the landscape and empower you to help me take up arms. I want to turn conventional hitting wisdom on its head, and use modern baseball swing trainer technology to build a swing we ALL can be proud of.
Let’s revisit the Mark Twain quote from earlier:
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
I need your help and can’t fight this fight alone. I want you to take action…
My challenge to you is let’s band together and conduct 30 Experiments in the next 30 days. If all of us do at least one swing experiment, then we should be able to knock this goal out by July 15th.
Just post your baseball/softball hitting experiment results below in the comments section. Reply with:
What experiment you ran (from the brainstorm list above)?
How many swings per test (i.e. 100/100), and what order did you do the test?
What bat did you use (length, weight, and wood/aluminum)
Hit off tee or Swingaway baseball swing trainer?
What metric changes were significant (bat speed/hand speed/bat vertical angle at impact/attack angle/ball flight/ball exit speed)?
Thanks in advance for your baseball swing trainer experiment comments!
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
Discover some of the best youth batting stance drills for baseball, fastpitch softball, and slowpitch softball. In the video below, Josh Donaldson addresses proper swing hitting mechanics such as power, elbow up or down, closed stances, and hitting lefty or righty.
13 Josh Donaldson Gold Nuggets: You Didn’t Have To Be A Professional, To Teach High Level Baseball Batting Stance & Hitting Techniques
(I apologize in advance…PLEASE set aside about 14 minutes of reading time for the following baseball batting stance & hitting techniques post. It’s a bit of an emotional RANT 😉
Josh Donaldson talks hitting with Mark DeRosa on MLB Network. Photo courtesy: MLB.com
We FINALLY have validation!!! To have 2015 AL MVP Josh Donaldson affirm A LOT of what we teach here at HPL! Some of you may have seen the above video already. If you HAVE NOT seen it, then please watch.
In the following baseball batting stance & hitting techniques post, I go into more depth about the 13 talking points Josh Donaldson mentions about the “NEW science of hitting”, beginning where Ted Williams left off.
I want to address the few ex-Pro and MLB player TROLLS that wrongly tear myself, my colleagues, and my readers down on the socials for bringing up things Josh Donaldson addresses in the above video.
Without further adieu, from my baseball batting stance & hitting techniques video notes…
Note #1: Back knee inside foot or weight inside back knee?
Is Buster Posey’s back knee being prematurely shifted inside his foot in the ‘Float’? Photo courtesy: InWriteField.com
This was a question from Mark DeRosa…
Josh Donaldson responds that he focuses his weight on his back heel and back hip.
I HATE when hitting instructors PREMATURELY force the back knee of every hitter they instruct, inside the foot (even in the stance).
There are phases to the swing, and Donaldson is talking about what my hitters refer to as the ‘Float & Fall’…
Matt Nokes calls it the ‘Ride & Stride’.
During the ‘Float’ or ‘Ride’, the hitter DOES NOT have to prematurely push their back knee inside the back foot…or focus the weight on the inside of the back knee.
CLICK HERE for a baseball batting stance & hitting techniques post I did on this, dealing with a Twitter Troll.
NEWS FLASH…
Self proclaimed elite hitting instruction doesn’t rest on taking a ton of ‘quality hacks in the cage’ and/or debating over millions of hours of video analysis footage of ‘only the best hitters’.
WTF does ‘quality hacks’ and ‘only the best hitters’ mean!!!!!?
Are we suppose to take your word for it that you know what you’re doing?!
Nah.
I’d rather watch The Kardashians.
Okay, back to focusing on where the weight is in the Float…
Prematurely forcing weight on the inside of a ‘dumb joint’, like the knee, can really put undo stress on the ligament material.
Coaches…please DO NOT wear holes in your players’ knees. This is really important for those FP softball hitting coaches.
And on that note,
FP softball coaches, CLICK HERE for a great BreakingMuscle.com post titled, “Women: Protect Your Knees With the Sprinter Stance Squat”.
Note #2: Not thinking about hands going towards the baseball
Derek Jeter is one of the few having a lengthy career with an extreme handsy approach. Not too many hitters could get away with how he did what he did. Photo courtesy: BaseballByTheYard.com
I totally agree!
ALL the following baseball batting stance & hitting techniques coaching cues are destructive for youth swings:
Hands to the ball
Knob to the ball
Be short to the ball
Hands inside the ball
Yes! Especially the last one…
WHY?
Like the others, it gets the hitter thinking about doing something with the path of their hands.
Some of you use this cue when instructing hitters, and may get occasional positive results…
However,
Any coaching cue that requires an extensive explanation or doesn’t get predictably positive outcomes, is INEFFECTIVE.
I’m looking for cues that with a minimal number of words, gets my hitter to do what I want them to do, even if the concept is new to them…over and over.
Note #3: When Josh Donaldson begins his fall forward, that’s when he goes into loading his upper half (his ‘coil’)
Andrew McCutchen ‘showing his numbers’ while his lower half is beginning to turn counter-clockwise. Photo courtesy: MLB.com
YESSSSS!!
I get asked this baseball batting stance & hitting techniques question quite a bit…when does the ‘load’ start?
And this depends on your definition of a load. But in Donaldson’s context…
The timing of Donaldson’s load, or ‘coil’, isn’t necessarily the rule,
It’s one of three options…
Option #1: Some hitters start in the ‘coiled’ position (highly recommended for younger hitters):
Yoenis Cespedes,
Hunter Pence, and
Ben Zobrist (from the left side)…
Option #2: Some hitters move into the ‘coiled’ position similar to Donaldson:
Bautista,
Cano, and
McCutchen…
Option #3: Some hitters move into the ‘coiled’ position later, like Dustin Pedroia.
The objective is that at landing, or what Josh Donaldson refers to as ‘heel plant’, the hitter is in this ‘coiled’ position.
And it requires the lower half to be open at landing (pelvis on down), and the upper half (above pelvis), to be closed.
Additionally, I LOVE Jose Bautista’s timing cue of loading ‘slow and early’ (CLICK HERE for a post I did on that).
More on the lower half landing open a bit later…
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Note #4: Creating bat speed with shoulders, NOT hands (effortless bat speed)
Josh Donaldson’s swing illustrating the spinal engine and Springy ‘X’ Pattern discussed in the next section. Photo courtesy: PicPlayHost
This is VERY important…
WHY?
Because EVERY human movement is driven by the spinal engine…pelvis-spine-shoulders.
According to Dr. Serge Gracovetsky in his book The Spinal Engine, the spinal engine can move in a vacuum.
However, it’s the relationship between arms, legs, and Gravitational Forces that amplify how explosive an athlete can be.
Quite a few hitting instructors talk about hip thrust or loading and exploding the hips.
But what are the shoulder’s function in all this?
Being passive?
I don’t think so.
Some would say a right handed hitter’s front shoulder at landing should be pointing at the pitcher.
This is an ineffective hitting mechanic, shown in this Zepp swing experiment (CLICK HERE) where I observed an average 6-mph boost in Bat Speed at Impact showing my numbers to the pitcher versus pointing the front shoulder at the pitcher (not showing numbers), over 200 swings.
Don’t get me wrong, YES, the pelvis does ‘lead the way’ as Ted Williams said in The Science of Hitting.
But it plays a much smaller role than coaches believe.
Think about how we walk…
If I told you to fire your hips as you walked, what do you think your shoulders would do?
They’d FIRE also!
How about if I told you to fire your hips while walking, but don’t let your shoulders move…
Would that feel awkward?
Dr. Serge Gracovetsky talks about the coupled motion of the spine…
Meaning, while the hips rotate when we walk (albeit small to the naked eye), the shoulders counter-rotate the pelvis.
This is why your right arm and left leg swing forward at the same time.
To have effortless bat speed, like Josh Donaldson says, you MUST teach your hitters to take advantage of these natural laws of human movement.
DON’T use baseball batting stance & hitting techniques to coach them out of them.
Note #5: Rubber band effect, ‘stretching’, creating tension at the finish of his load
Another YESSSSS!
Although Josh Donaldson uses different baseball batting stance & hitting techniques terms, he’s talking about the compression/tension forces in the body via connective tissue called fascia.
Thomas Myers in his book Anatomy Trains describes, what he calls Tensegrity (Tension-Integrity), like this:
I don’t like to think of the body as a rubber band, but rather like a spring.
But what Donaldson is describing is correct.
I refer to this as the Springy ‘X’ Pattern.
CLICK HERE for this video post describing this using Adrian Gonzalez’s swing as a model.
Note #6: Creating the timing to hit the pitch
Most people probably missed this point in the video…Donaldson briefly mentioned it, but I find it VERY important.
TIMING FOR HITTING IS EVERYTHING.
This is why I don’t like rapid fire soft toss OR 15-pitch marathon rounds batting practice.
It’s NOT about quick hands either.
Look, a baseball player may only see one pitch every 12-20 seconds.
A fast-pitch softball player may see one pitch every 8-15 seconds.
In games, swing intensity EVERY swing matters.
I can take a hitter with seemingly slow hands, adjust his or her timing, and have them barreling the ball more.
Of course, we’ll have to address their still ineffective mechanics at some point in the future, but the point is, it’s not about fast hands.
It’s about using the shoulders to speed up the hands.
The opposite IS NOT true.
Coaches handicap hitters by using ineffective drills like rapid fire soft toss, drop toss, and/or marathon B.P. sessions.
Again,
TIMING IS EVERYTHING IN HITTING.
CLICK HERE for “The Dead Simple Guide To Optimizing A Hitter’s Timing In Games”.
Note #7: Front foot is open…hips can’t separate from upper half
Miguel Cabrera is one of my favorite swings to model, except for landing closed (less than 45-degree angle). However, he’s a physical beast, and most definitely succeeds despite one ineffective mechanic. Photo courtesy: MLB.com
Another baseball batting stance & hitting techniques golden nugget from Josh Donaldson.
However, there are quite a few other coaches getting their panties in a bunch about this comment.
CLICK HERE and follow the thread of one of my Facebook posts.
CLICK HERE and follow a Facebook post thread of my friend and colleague Taylor Gardner, founder of the BackSpin Tee. Actually a lot of really good discussion happening on this one.
They’re reinterpreting it as Donaldson is saying to ‘point the landing toe at the pitcher’.
This may be what it looks like in the video, which we also have to be careful of camera angles…
But the point of the matter is, that Donaldson is saying to ‘land open’.
And this is where, us coaches, must define terms.
I say if the landing foot is opened less than 45-degrees, the foot is closed.
If the landing foot is opened more than 45-degrees, the foot is open.
Chris Welch at ZenoLink says the front foot should land open, roughly around 65-degrees (at about 2-min mark):
And I agree.
I do think hitters like Donaldson and Bautista are more on the open side than others.
With my definition of landing foot closed versus open, I’d rather have my hitters err on the side of open, than closed.
CLICK HERE for another Zepp swing experiment where I tested this and found an average bat speed boost of 3-mph boost when landing open, over 200 swings.
Kyle Harrington, dad of one of my online hitting lesson students Stephen, who’s currently 13yo, 5’7″, 130-lbs…
Recently, increased his Ball Exit Speed 5-mph in the last 5 months off the tee, to now 77-mph.
I asked Kyle, what were the two biggest contributors to the increase…and he responded with:
“He grew about 2″ but he’s only 5’7”. I think the main thing is that he is not stalling the bat. In the 3D testing with Chris Welch [of ZenoLink.com] his peak bat speed slowed almost 10 mph before impact, which is common. So he is decelerating the barrel less coming into impact. He was blocking with the front hip and all the speed was too early . So he’s actually moving the bat speed forward in his swing more (where impact is) rather behind the ball before impact. That’s the main reason.”
This can happen for a few reasons:
Too much forward momentum (yes you can have too much),
Landing closed with the front foot, and
Inward turning (coiling) the pelvis towards the catcher (shifts our 45-degree optimal impact zone too deep into the swing).
When the hitter lands closed, as Donaldson said, it’s more challenging to optimize the body’s natural springy fascia.
It’s also worth noting that the front ‘foot shape’ will change depending on pitch location at impact.
For instance,
On an outside pitch, we’ll see the foot more flat, and possibly more closed, than on an inside pitch.
Note #8: 10yo kid told to get on top of the ball, tell them NO…don’t get paid for hitting ground-balls
Ground-ball Coaches, if you spent more time instructing 10-degree launch angles and boosting Ball Exit Speeds, than you do telling hitters to always hit the ball on the ground, our hitters will be in a better position to crush pitchers.
For me, this tip was definitely the highlight of this video.
There was a comment on my baseball batting stance & hitting techniques Facebook post that is worth noting:
Reader A: “If I’m coaching a team of 10 year olds, and either the kid (or parent) tells me no, they ought to start looking for another team to play for. If you allow a kid to tell you no at that age, the kid will become uncoachable when he gets older.”
And here was a great response from another readers to this person:
Reader B: “If a teacher tells your kid 2+2 is 5, you don’t want him to have the courage and character to question the teacher? This society man, anyone that questions authority is deemed to be at fault…how dare they!!!”
I agree with Reader B…however, I understand there are ignorant parents, as well as players, out there as well.
However, speaking in the context of what Donaldson is saying, I agree with Reader B on this.
If you’re a coach that’s teaching hitters to ALWAYS hit the ball on the ground, you’re being ineffective as a coach. And you MUST get educated because if you’re aren’t growing, then you’re dying.
Note #9: Relaxed in stance…time that arms get engaged with the body is during his ‘coil’ (mentions ‘scap load’)
Jace, one of my 11yos, weighs 67-lbs, and hit his first homer over a 180-foot fence. We fixed his racing back elbow bat drag with connecting his hands to his spinal engine through finger pressure.
I totally agree.
There’s a time to be relaxed, and then there’s a time to connect the body (driving engine) to the “things” holding the bat…the hands.
CLICK HERE for another Zepp swing experiment that talks about what I teach to my hitters as ‘finger pressure’, and how we’re banishing racing back elbow bat drag with this technique alone.
It’s ALL about “connection” folks. Quite a few of the young hitters I see just aren’t connected.
But when they get connected…this is when we can triple their body-weight in distance (see Jace image above).
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Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
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Note 10: Hands load it (versus shoulders), then barrel tips too much…leads to getting underneath balls
Josh Donaldson is talking about getting into his load (or ‘coil’) with his shoulders and not his hands.
When he uses his hands to get there, he feels it leads to an excessive ‘barrel tip’ (click following link), and to getting under the ball too much.
CLICK HERE for an AthleticsNation.com article titled, “Josh Donaldson: Changes in Approach & Mechanics”.
In this article, Jerry Brewer from East Bay Hitting Instruction compares Donaldson’s swing and metrics from 2013 to 2014.
The one big difference being an excessive barrel tip in 2014, leading to drops in his BA, OBP, & SLUG metrics by something like 50 points EACH.
By the way, Jerry is right on with the swing as well.
Note 11: At landing, wants bat to be at 45-degree angle, and to split his head from behind
I agree.
I don’t really want to get into this, but I thought it was a good little baseball batting stance & hitting techniques nugget from the video.
Note 12: Swing down to create backspin
This is where I see Josh Donaldson picking up where Ted Williams left off. This is a well known graphic from Williams’s book The Science of Hitting.
This is something Josh Donaldson is against, and I agree.
Yes, every once in awhile, a hitter can swing down on a ball and launch one.
Did you read the keywords there…? “Every once in awhile.”
Do you know what the majority outcomes will be doing this?
Ground-balls.
And if you read my Ground-ball RANT, then you know how inferior default teaching your hitters to hit them is, unless of course you have hitters who run like greased lightning, or in a Hit & Run type scenario.
The biggest argument here, comes from Little League coaches saying, but the ground-ball is the hardest hit ball to field, throw, and catch.
And my rebuttal is, what happens when your ground-ball hitting team meets a team that can play catch?
It doesn’t matter anyway, because a majority of pitches are taught to keep the ball down in the zone to hitters.
WHY?
Because PITCHERS WANT HITTERS DRIVING THE BALL INTO THE GROUND.
Note#13: Intent – damage at all times
I thought this was a HUGE baseball batting stance & hitting techniques gold nugget.
When asked if Donaldson makes educated decisions to commit on pitches or against pitchers, he says, yeah it depends…
BUT,
His intent is to do damage at all times.
“Why wouldn’t I?” He smirks to Mark DeRosa 😛
Double and Dinger damage.
That’s what the Blue Jays pay him for.
Our objective as hitting coaches should be to get our sluggers hitting the ball as hard as their physical ability will allow them…as frequently as possible.
To return this baseball batting stance & hitting techniques post full circle, let me repeat:
You Don’t Have To Be A Professional, To Teach High Level Baseball Batting Stance & Hitting Techniques Today
You just have to understand human movement principles that are validated by science, and apply these “rules” to hitting a ball.
Circling back to the headline of this post, looking at proper swing hitting mechanics: power, elbow up or down, closed stances, and hitting lefty or righty…
Power – at HPL we believe 70-80% of consistent power comes from properly moving our spinal engine, power doesn’t mostly come from the lower half as some would believe.
Back elbow up or down – what’s important is hitter gets a slight downhill shoulder angle by stride landing(6-10 degrees down). Lifting the back elbow can help with this, but if lifting the back elbow keeps shoulders level, then it doesn’t matter.
Closed stances – I know Donaldson and I differ on this, but I like the closed stance to restrict hip movement. Some hitters OVER rotate their lower half and lose out on directional force.
Hitting righty or lefty – I don’t have a preference for this. The hitter will figure it out either way. However, I do have an opinion on switch hitting…I don’t believe switch hitting is all it’s cracked up to be because they get waaay more at-bats on the left side early on because there aren’t that many lefty pitchers, so the righty swing significantly suffers. Evidence of this lack of lefty pitchers is shown in the majority of lefty hitters struggling against lefty pitchers.
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
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Zepp Swing Experiment: Here’s a Quick Way to Fix a Flat Bat at Landing (and WHY!)
Discover fundamental how to coach quick hands, contact, and power hitting drills, techniques for beginners, and basic youth drills for baseball and softball players in the 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 year old age range, in 2022. This Zepp swing experiment targeting a ‘flat’ bat at stride landing is VERY age appropriate for the ages previously mentioned.
Fundamental Baseball Question: How Does a Flat Bat at Landing Effect Bat Speed, Ball Exit Speed, & Time To Impact?
Using the Zepp (Labs) Baseball app and Pocket Radar Ball Coach, I wanted to employ the Scientific Method to analyze how a hitter’s “Flat Bat at Landing”, or toe touch, adds or takes away from keyswing performance metrics including Bat Speed at Impact, Time To Impact, Attack Angle, and Ball Exit Speeds.
Let me define what I mean by ‘Flat Barrel’ versus a ‘Vertical Barrel’…
A ‘Flat Barrel’ at landing is anything less than a 30-degree angle (like Cargo in the above video as an example),
A ‘Vertical Barrel’ at landing is anything more than a 30-degree angle.
Now that we’ve defined the parameters, let’s look at the…
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.
Notice where the “dot” is drawn on the two static images left side, and where it’s drawn on the two dynamic images right side. Photo courtesy: GymSmartsCommunity.com
My background research is more experiential, rather than academic.
I have hitters do a mini-experiment by holding the bat in their bottom hand, laid flat (parallel to ground) over their back shoulder. And then ask them to hold the bat, using the same hand, but vertical. I then ask them which bat position is heavier/lighter? Of course they say the vertical bat is lighter. I then ask WHY? And I get a few different answers…
What is the fundamental baseball answer? Because we’re not adding or taking weight away from the bat by doing this…
It has to do with center of mass of the bat in relation to the hitter’s. A ‘Flat Bat at Landing’ pushes its center of mass behind the hitter’s. A human’s center of mass is generally around the belly button. To find the bat’s center of mass you can balance it between your thumb and forefinger.
I’ve also observed when adjusting a hitter’s ‘Flat Bat at Landing’ to a more ‘Vertical Bat at Landing’, there’s a bump in Ball Exit Speed, which I measure at the beginning (before instruction is given) and end of a hitting lesson. My hitter’s also share they feel quicker to impact, have a little more ‘pop’, and that it’s easier getting the ball in the air.
It’s also interesting to note that I see quite a bit of early barring of the front arm when the hitter lands with a flat barrel. I also see the hitter “wrapping the bat” around their head. In my opinion this is a compensation to manipulate the shifted center mass of the bat from behind the hitter.
CLICK HERE to watch this fundamental baseball video on how to fix a ‘Flat Bat at Impact’.
Hypothesis
Look at the difference in bat angle at landing between Carlos Gonzalez (left) – “Flat” and Cody Bellinger (right) – “Vertical”. Just because a Big Leaguer does it doesn’t mean it’s effective or optimized. Oftentimes they succeed despite ineffective mechanics. Photos courtesy: MLB.com
In support of the Background Research above, I’m hallucinating that we’ll see a bump in Bat and Ball Exit Speeds, in addition to a reduction in Time To Impact. I also think that we’ll see a more positive move in the barrel’s Attack Angle.
Flat Versus Vertical Bat at Landing 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.
Backspin 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.
I broke each swing down into a couple steps: 1) Get to landing, 2) Pause for 2-secs, and 3) Swing. The reason for this was to control the bat either flat or vertical at landing.
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. ‘Flat Bat at Landing’ was letter ‘A’, and ‘Vertical Bat at Landing’ 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.
Fundamental baseball Experiment Day-1 on 7/5 we completed 150 total swings (75 ‘Flat Barrel at Landing’ & 75 ‘Vertical Barrel at Landing’). Experiment Day-2 on 7/10 we completed 50 swings (25 ‘Flat Bat at Landing’ & 25 ‘Vertical Bat at Landing’).
We had to break the 200 total swings into two days, with the second day coming 1 week later, because of time constraints.
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
Data Collected (Zepp Baseball App & Ball Exit Speed Readings):
‘Flat Bat Swings’ Days 1 & 2 side by side…
Flat Barrel at Landing swing averages of the averages: 76-MPH Bat Speed at Impact, 26.5-MPH Hand Speed Max, .209 Time To Impact, -32* Bat Vertical Angle at Impact, & 8.5* Attack Angle.
‘Vertical Barrel Swings’ Days 1 & 2 side by side…
Vertical Barrel at Landing swing averages of the averages: 76-MPH Bat Speed at Impact, 27-MPH Hand Speed Max, .206 Time To Impact, 30.5* Bat Vertical Angle at Impact, & 8.5* Attack Angle.
CLICK HERE for the Ball Exit Speed Google document. The findings?
Flat Barrel at Landing AVERAGE Ball Exit Speed = 79.01-MPH
Vertical Barrel at Landing AVERAGE Ball Exit Speed = 81.08-MPH
Difference = 2.01-MPH Ball Exit Speed bump with more Vertical Barrel at Landing
Data Analysis & Fundamental Baseball Conclusion
Zepp data analysis comparing the averages of averages:
We saw NO change to Bat Speed at Impact between the two swings,
We saw a 0.5-MPH boost to Hand Speed Max when holding a ‘Vertical Bat at Landing’,
We saw a .003 second reduction in Time To Impact when holding a ‘Vertical Bat at Landing’,
We saw a +1.5-degree increase to Bat Vertical Angle at Impact when holding a ‘Vertical Bat at Landing’,
We saw NO change to the Attack Angle between the two swings, and
We saw a 2.01-MPH increase in Ball Exit Speed when holding a ‘Vertical Bat at Landing’.
Based on the above Data Analysis it looks like my Hypothesis was proved right when it came to a boost in Hand Speed Max and Ball Exit Speed, and decrease in Time To Impact, but wrong when it came to Bat Speed at Impact and Attack Angle. I think the increase in Ball Exit Speed can be attributed to the decrease in Time To Impact.
When we see ineffective movement at the Big League level, we have to understand that these high level hitters are succeeding despite ineffective movements, not because of them.
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/carlos-gonzalez-cody-bellinger-flat-versus-vertical-bat-e1499868435121.png265450Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-04-20 09:00:492022-04-20 19:51:21Fundamental How To Coach Quick Hands, Contact, & Power Hitting Drills, Beginner Techniques, & Basic Drills For Youth Baseball And Softball 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Year Olds In 2022
STOP Pulling Off The Ball, Increase Batting Average, and Boost Power By Using The Closed Stance?
What’s the best batting stance for power? How do we STOP a hitter from stepping in the bucket (out of the box) when hitting a baseball or softball in 2022? This post will shine light on how to see the ball better, keep the front shoulder in during the swing, and will suggest the best batting stance for power…
I know, I know,
Some well meaning coaches will think, “Well, a closed stance cuts off a hitter’s vision, and/or restricts hip movement”…
I get it. I used to believe the same thing a couple years ago,
…But what I found in my research was counter-intuitive, yet very promising for hitters.
Giancarlo Stanton using his “closed stance”. Photo courtesy: MLB.com
You don’t know what you don’t know, right?
My process is to chew and digest the science, observe how elite hitters apply the movements, and then try it out!
As you’ll soon find out, Giancarlo Stanton did his homework before making this particular change in his swing.
Since there may be many of you raising the same objections I started with, I wanted to discuss:
Addressing the above “Study of Planes” video, then we’ll move on to…
Analyzing the small change that has netted BIG results for Giancarlo Stanton this season.
Study of Planes
My good friend Seo Perales shared the above video with me a few years ago. By the way, he’s a multiple level black belt in Brazilian Jujitsu.
We love comparing notes because we both like to seek and explore human movement principles that are validated by science. The only difference is, in his line of work as a Jujitsu instructor, he wants to learn how to break down the body, and I’m into maximizing its effect.
The above video demonstrates the science of movement planes. What are considered weak and strong planes of movement from a Judo perspective.
I think you’ll find the video enlightening.
Now, you may be thinking, “A Judo video? Really?! What can I learn from a video about Judo?”
If you find yourself camped out in ONLY baseball or softball circles, then you’re missing out on A LOT of useful information that will take your hitters to a whole other level.
The video is very applicable to hitting.
Furthermore,
My good friend Lee Comeaux from Texas, who teaches professional and amateur golfers, also brought the power of movement planes to my attention about a year ago…
He told me draw an “X” in the batter’s box from opposite corners, and have the hitter stand on either line when hitting. He’s very versed in Thomas Myers’s book Anatomy Trains. He says hitters standing on one diagonal leg of the “X” encourages the springiness of fascia. He taught this to his 15yo daughter, who has hit over .600 the last couple years playing Fast-Pitch Softball in Texas, which is one of the hotbeds for both baseball and softball competition in the country. Oh and by the way, she also hit a half dozen homers as well.
The second part of this post, I wanted to share the tipping point in addressing Giancarlo Stanton’s new closed stance…
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You can go there and read the full article, but I wanted to tease out the quotes from Giancarlo Stanton (and some of David Adler’s commentary), and how Stanton arrived at the batting stance change…
“I just said I was going to try it. Honestly, I had about 30 minutes of work, maybe 45 minutes, before the game,” Stanton told MLB.com Sunday, when he crushed his Major League-leading 45th home run against the Mets at Citi Field. “And then 10 minutes before the game, I was like, ‘This feels more comfortable.'”
Stanton was already having a helluva year, so it’s interesting to me that he made the change when he did, typically a change like this follows a slump. However, this wasn’t a spur of the moment decision – like it sounds from that quote – he did his homework, which you’ll read about shortly…
“My best striking position is closed,” Stanton said. “It’s not smart to try to completely change something in the middle of the season. But if you are 100 percent committed to it … well, you’ve got to be. You’ve got to trust what you’re trying to do. If you change something, you want results right away, otherwise you try to go back. But I trusted it completely and let it ride.”
Sounds contradictory doesn’t it? To have the attitude that you can’t completely change something in the middle of the season – especially when you’re already doing well!! But then he says you MUST commit to giving the change time – that is – IF you’ve done your homework beforehand.
I’ve heard some parents and coaches say mid-season changes aren’t smart. I don’t like to think that way…WHY? Because if you don’t guide the hitter, the hitter will make changes on their own. And if they don’t get highly resourceful on the subject, then this could lead to DISASTER with all the junk hitting info on the net these days.
David Adler did fantastic research illustrating the evolution of Giancarlo Stanton’s closed stance in this Tweet:
You’ve seen how Stanton’s closed his stance by now. But it’s still cool to look at the different stages this season. All these are home runs pic.twitter.com/1xxFGgwIUL
“Stanton’s closing of his batting stance has correlated with his massive power surge. On June 18, he had 17 home runs in 282 plate appearances; since June 19, he has 28 in 236.
When Stanton hits from those positions [open or straight up], his front side can come open before the pitch arrives, leaving him exploitable.
The closed stance is a natural counter. When Stanton is already turned inward to start, his rotation drives him into the pitch, instead of causing him to fade away from it.”
By the way, for those not doing the math:
From start of season to June 18th, he hit 1 homer every 16.5 plate appearances, and
From June 19th on, he hit 1 homer every 8.4 plate appearances…
He cut his rate in half!!!! The closed stance was the ONLY change to his swing in that time frame, so this makes an interesting case study with a decent sample size of plate appearances. See for yourself with the following David Adler Tweet:
Even w/ Giancarlo Stanton’s new closed stance, his swing’s the same. But his feet force him in, help him stay on the ball. L: Aug. R: April pic.twitter.com/v5eXYpq5YB
David Adler adds some terms of comparision you may be familiar with…
“With his adjusted stance, Stanton has been driving the ball in the air more often. His rate of fly balls and line drives, per Statcast™, has risen from 41.5 percent prior to June 19 to 50.3 percent since. Stanton’s average exit velocity on those balls has increased from 97.6 mph to 100.8 mph, the highest in the Majors over that time.”
I don’t care that Stanton is a beast, if you increase your Line Drive and Fly Ball Rates (Launch Angle), and Ball Exit Speeds that much, you’ll make a lot of Ground-ball teams VERY VERY upset. Small hitters CAN and DO take advantage of this formula too. Statcast has given hitters the cheat codes to increase offensive productivity!
Furthermore, in the Adler article…
“[His stance] gets him in the position he wants to be in. It looks like it’s keeping him on the ball more, and he seems like he’s seeing it better,” said Christian Yelich, who’s played alongside Stanton as long as any current Marlin — since 2013, when he was 21 and Stanton 23. “Some guys have different problems than others. You go about fixing them or covering them in different ways. It’s all about feel. That’s what works for him, that feel.”
Look at that bold sentence once more because that is one of the most critical keys to this whole thing. Yelich is also tapping into making extreme adjustments, for example, Stanton’s challenge in the past has been pulling off, maybe because of when he tragically got hit in the face a few years ago. Whatever the reason, the extreme adjustment (a closed stance), helps him stay on the ball longer.
CLICK HERE for a video I did on how to make adjustments…the scientific term for this is “Paradoxical Intention”.
Now, here is where the article gets into the research that brought Giancarlo Stanton to the point of taking the stance change seriously…
“But at a level of the game where emulation is fundamental, success begetting imitators, Stanton found his prototypes: Nolan Arenado, Matt Kemp, Adrian Beltre, prominent hitters who do close off. He recognized past greats, too: Hall of Famer Andre Dawson works as a special assistant to the Marlins, and he hit with a closed stance in his playing career. Stanton didn’t copy the technical aspects of their batting stances, but their accomplishments gave him precedent to actually make the change himself.“
Some on Twitter have written this change off as a band-aide, avoiding a true fix. A true fix? Are you kidding me?! Cutting his home-run per plate appearance rate in half IS NOT a true fix!? Dude!! Success leaves clues. These people are saying Giancarlo Stanton is “playing to the slice”, where a golfer who chronically slices the ball will angle his body at setup so they don’t have to fix the real problem…which is not squaring up the club face at impact.
This is a poor attempt to protect an inflexible teaching philosophy, and sheer laziness on their part to get educated on their craft they claim to know a lot about. You instructors seriously think Giancarlo Stanton is not “squaring the ball up” at impact since June 19th and is just “playing the slice”? That is laughable. You don’t know what you don’t know, right?
This is the problem I have with instructors with inflexible hitting systems…they’re WILLFULLY IGNORANT to experimenting with things that could push their hitters forward, especially movements validated by science. We’re ALL in this together, and we’re ALL helping hitters. It’s NOT about your ego or protecting “your brand” coaches.
But I digress…
Here’s some insight into Giancarlo Stanton’s thought process with the change…
“I just know the guys with success,” Stanton said. “Arenado and Kemp, those guys, you know you can have a high average with it. So that kind of gave me the green light to try it…I knew it could work. Not very many people did it. But I know people like Hawk and them did it in the old days — and it worked for them, too.”
The Bottom Line…
A day or two after re-tweeting Homer Bush’s Tweet about Giancarlo Stanton’s closed stance, I received this response from @Omaha_Outlaws4…
I understand your objections that a closed stance may cut off a hitter’s vision, and/or restricts hip movement. You’ve heard me talk a lot about “keeping the back foot sideways”, well, this plays right into that.
Matt Nokes is religious on restricting hip movement to the point of impact with keeping the back foot sideways. Homer Bush agrees in this interview. So are the Backspin Tee guys Taylor and Jarrett Gardner. LIGHT BULB! The closed stance does this naturally.
The main benefit of restricting hip movement at impact (includes keeping back foot sideways) that you’ll hear from Nokes, Bush, and the Gardner Brothers, is to keep the barrel in the hitting zone longer. This increases BA and Slug%.
Here’s my advice:
Chew and digest the science,
Observe how elite hitters apply the movements, and then
Try itout!
If it doesn’t work after giving it the ol’ college try, then toss it.
As many of you know, I will gladly eat crow and change my hitting system IF you can show me the science, swing experiments, and many elite hitting examples that I can’t ignore the issue.
This is an informal Part-1 to a Zepp swing experiment I’ll be doing on the Giancarlo Stanton closed stance in the near future. So stay tuned…
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/giancarlo-stanton-closed-stance-e1503613446475.png338500Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-04-04 09:10:442022-04-05 20:52:52STOP Stepping In The Bucket & Out Of The Box When Hitting A Baseball Or Softball 2022 | How To See Ball Better, Keep Front Shoulder In During Swing, & Best Batting Stance For Power?
In the above baseball showcase video, I answer the following question from one of our readers…
PBR Baseball Showcase: Tyler Davis (one of my local hitters). Photo courtesy: PrepBaseballReport.com
“What are your thoughts on scouting services like PBR, Perfect Game, etc. who base their player rankings almost exclusively on numbers – EV, batted ball distance…”
If you’ve thought this, then you’re not alone. I’ve heard some of the same concerns from other coaches and parents.
Let me ask you this…would you take a hitter who can’t hit in a game, but can light up Pocket Radar with a 100-mph ball exit speed …OR, would you take a hitter who can hit in games, but can only reach 80-mph ball exit speeds?
I know, not a tough choice.
Unfortunately no grading system is perfect. And as many of you know, I love data and numbers. But numbers don’t have brains. Humans do. Look, ultimately players MUST perform in games. Analyzing things like game stats, division played in, strength of schedule, accolades collected, etc. are very relevant to a balanced scouting service.
The purpose of baseball showcase evaluations should be to forecast the probability of that player performing well in games. Period. Is that possible? To create evaluations that can truly test a hitter, reflecting how they will do in a game?
Some of the things we cover:
Are Ball Exit Speeds and Launch Angles enough?
How can you test a hitter’s barrel control when it comes to restoring balance to ground-balls, line drives, and fly-balls?*
What value would knowing whether a hitter can adapt from pull to oppo? Can you test that?
What’s the ultimate timing test you could throw at a hitter that would give you a glimpse into their adaptability?
And finally, can you effectively evaluate a hitter’s approach against mixed pitches?
*CLICK HERE for a post Perry Husband shared his ‘Launch Angle’ test chart. This is a great start to getting more accurate performance information about hitters.
Is this all doable for a baseball showcase like PBR to do? Maybe. It will take more time than what they’re doing now. But how much value will it add to their showcases? How much credibility would their programs gain from the extra time spent? How much more trust would they get from parents and coaches?
I dunno, you tell me…
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How to know “who/what” to follow – by doing swing experiments
Swing eval at home & future case study Jam Sessions
Q/A
You can also CLICK HERE to view the original video and comments from the Jam Session on Facebook.
Show Notes
At about the 30-sec mark, the whole point of these Jam Sessions, equipping coaches to do petri dish evaluations at home collecting data, bringing us this data, and we can help coaches get their hitters better using real data and human movement principles validated by real Science.
At about 5-minute, 30-sec mark, Perry answers what he thinks is the biggest mistake coaches make in boosting ball exit speed, watching videos on YouTube, the lead arm shape (bend or straighten?), locking out beforehand causes a chain reaction that stretches out rubber bands, going from bent to straight right at impact doesn’t optimally stretch out rubber, not most important thing – is a piece of the machine, a bunch of things pieced together.
At about 8-minute mark, addressing why a barred front arm gets a bad rap on causing “longer” swings, correlation DOES NOT equal causation in this case, a consistent front arm shape equals consistency at bat-ball contact, Perry talks about “laser” experiment comparing a bent lead arm versus a barred out front arm(about 11-min mark), interestingly laser was all over with bent arm versus closer to “line” with straight front arm, getting barrel in line and keeping it there, with front arm bend there’s too much free play, at least twice as good arm bar versus bend when it comes to consistency.
At about 13-minute mark, talk about the main benefits to a front arm bar, longer levers multiply force at the end of the lever, a longer swing IS NOT about a bent or straight front arm – it’s about when the barrel leaves the rear shoulder, end loaded heavy bats are fantastic for training barrel path for different pitch depths, look at hitters hitting 95-mph inside – they use shorter more compact swings (the barrel leaves the shoulder later).
At about the 17-minute mark, Perry shares another experiment where he used a ball attached to surgical tubing attached to an anchor, pulling ball back 8-feet, then letting go and measuring speed, then stretching the tubing back further, speed increases and ball hits wall sooner than the shorter pull back, Perry explains shortening front arm can help get on time but hitter gives up hard ball contact (70% their 1-arm max).
At about 20-minute, 30-sec mark, talking about when you’re teaching hitters, what is your hitting “operating system”? Is your goal for hitters to increase hard ball contact? Is it to reduce strikeouts? Based on your hitting operating system, you’ll choose specific hitting mechanics that organize that support the specific operating system, barrel path will change based on pitch depth, swing to match timing – reactionary hitting, the other side of the coin is to max out 100% on-time, 100% swing effective.
At about 25-minute, 30-sec mark, how do we know who to follow or what to follow, Perry goes over swing evaluation you can do at home (CLICK HERE for a PDF spelling this out), build a target – Home Depot tarp, 2-foot diameter circle, cut hole in middle of circle (1-foot) creating donut, bottom of target is inline with bottom of ball on tee, target is 10-feet in front of hitter, hit top of target roughly 20-degree, middle roughly 10-degrees, measure ball exit speeds, give points: 1-point for hitting it through the middle, hits outside ring 0.5-point, miss target = 0. Out of ten swings good is 4/10 (or .400). If not at .400, then something is missing. Average ball exit speed should be around 90% of your 1-rep. max. Plot where the misses are, and number which hits they were. (Ask Perry for blank diagram on this). Measuring ball exit speed with Zepp, SwingTracker, BlastMotion, PocketRadar, Bushnell Radar gun,
At about 33-minute mark, Perry talks about use of imagination or visualization, physical changes are tough under competitive pressures of a game, practicing your game swing, changing intent changes the swing, i.e. hitter hitting pop ups, changing intent to hit a low screaming line drive helps brain organize body to change the swing without thinking internal cues.
At about 39-minute mark, imagine a bendy tube attaching the pitcher’s release to contact, we want the hitter to hit the ball back through tube the pitch came from, external cues versus internal cues, getting a ballpark of what the hitter is doing by setting hitter up on a tee that is positioned as a middle middle location, if hitter is pulling all the time or going other way too much or popping ball up too much or hitting a lot of ground-balls, along with ball exit speed measurements.
At about 42-minute mark, Perry asks me about the springy fascia, the idea of a “rubber suit” creating stretch in the suit as you twist up, springy ‘X’ pattern – ‘X’ on chest and back, compression and tension forces, Granite has a high compression rate but has a terrible tension rate, Boom crane tension forces can be found in the cable holding the wrecking ball, body uses both compression and tension forces, hitter’s front shoulder comes in and down (shortening chest leg of the ‘X’), other leg of the ‘X’ on the chest lengthens, on the backside – the corresponding legs of the ‘X’ does the opposite, Scapula Row? Biggest mistake coaches make is forcing hitters to keep front shoulder straight instead of protracting the front Scapula, Arm barring front arm helps with ‘showing numbers’ AND ‘hiding hands’.
At about 60-minute mark, hitter lets go of bat hits 370-foot homer, while holding on hits ball 480-feet, pitch velocity and location were same, timing was a little different, Physicist Dr. Alan Nathan says once bat is in motion hitter doesn’t have to hold onto bat at impact – force is already there, locking out at impact helps transfer energy better, look at all the data on batted balls that go the farthest – they look the same, arm is locked out, test hitting a fully inflated basketball exit speed should be around 80% of 1-rep max – if not then losing swing effectiveness, Newtonian Physics v. non-Newtonian Physics, Physics is limited to Physics (external forces), Bio-Mechanics is limited to Biomechanics, etc.
About about 57-minute mark, Perry answers question: “Best drill for being out in front all the time, always makes contact way out in front, weak hits and no power?” Every pitch location has one ideal contact point, make swing in slow motion to find what’s optimal, body is reaching too much, one drill: the “Riiiiiight-Now!” Drill (“Right” is at release, where impact is the “now”).
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/2019/02/perry-joey-jam-session2-e1551215625485.png279500Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2019-02-28 06:33:062019-04-08 04:24:06What’s The BIGGEST Mistake Coaches Make In Boosting Ball Exit Speeds?
How Your Central Hitting “Operating System” May Be Causing You To Lose Out On Scoring More Runs
Photo courtesy: MopUpDuty.com
Recently, I had a conversation with a coach on Facebook who thought the following quote from Josh Donaldson was “horrible advice”:
“If you’re 10-years-old and your coach tells you to get on top of the ball…tell him NO.”
I’m not getting into the positive or negative of Donaldson’s statement, but the coach’s responses that followed his “horrible advice” comment got me thinking. Come to find out, the loud and clear message was this coach despises when hitters strikeout. Often referring to this offensive outcome as “disgusting”. What was interesting was this one principle was central to how and what he teaches his hitters.
So I wanted to do a hitting “operating system” thought experiment. In reading what follows, please keep in mind what the main objective to offense is, according to FanGraphs.com
“In baseball [or softball], we care about run scoring (and prevention) and so when looking at offensive statistics, we want to find statistics that tell you something about how much a player contributes to the run scoring process…again, we care about a player’s contribution to run scoring and if you treat everything equally you’re not getting a very accurate measure of those contributions.”
In this thought experiment, we’ll discuss…as a hitting instructor, what would happen if:
The Time To Impact Metric was Central to the “Operating System”?
Minimizing a Hitter’s Strikeouts were Central to the “Operating System”?
Maximizing Batting Average were Central to the “Operating System”? And,
Maximizing OPS were Central to the “Operating System”?
Now, that being said…as a hitting instructor, what would happen if…
The Time To Impact Metric was Central to the “Operating System”?
If you’re new to this term, here’s the definition of Time To Impact according to Zepp:
“TIME TO IMPACT is the amount of time (in seconds) from the start of the downswing until impact of the bat with the ball. The closer to ZERO your swing is, the quicker your bat is to the ball. The faster the time to impact, the longer the hitter can wait to start the swing. Time to Impact also measures how short a player’s swing is. Time to Impact measures their coordination of both their hand and the bat barrel to maximize swing efficiency to the ball.”
CLICK HERE for amateur, High School, and Pro ranges for both baseball and softball. What would be the top 2-3 priority hitting concepts guided by this principle?
Point-A to B barrel path (shortest distance between two points). Default hitting strategy would be “Knob to the ball”. “Swing down”. “Barrel above the hands”.
Most likely using more linear elements in the swing for both upper and lower half (i.e. ‘showing numbers’ will be a no-no). Maybe similar to a Charlie Lau style of hitting.
Minimalist view of the swing…wide feet, no stride, minimal hand and head movement, etc. May not believe a hitter can train timing, so the view is that it’s all about bettering the hitter’s reaction time.
Look, there’s a healthy range for Time To Impact, not taking too long, and not being so quick the barrel is not in the impact zone long enough. You can see that range in the previous Zepp link. Remember, we want to formulate hitting principles that encourage how to maximize a player’s contribution to the run scoring process.
Moving on,
As a hitting instructor, what would happen if…
Minimizing a Hitter’s Strikeouts were Central to the “Operating System”?
What if you despised hitters striking out so much, you often referred to this outcome as “disgusting”, like our coaching friend above. What would be the top 2-3 priority concepts guided by this principle?
Protecting hitters from swing and misses at all cost. Very defensive just make contact swings, especially with 2-strikes. May subscribe to barrel on plane of pitch early and stay on plane longer. Less margin for error.
Believes in hitting ball hard and on a line. However, low liners and ground-balls are preferred, especially with 2-strikes. Don’t care as much about extra base hits, doubles maybe, but not homers. They aren’t worth the risk. Swings taught at the advent of astro turf fit this type of hitting perfectly. Hard and on the ground.
Mechanics may look like: wide no-stride feet, bug squishing, minimal head movement from start of swing to finish, choking up (especially with two strikes). Very defensive type of swing. On board with boosting Ball Exit Speeds, but will not agree with optimizing Launch Angles. Besides hitter strikeouts, this coach absolutely hates getting the ball in the air (too much of an out risk for them), unless it’s a low level line drive. High batting average and low strikeouts are very important to this coach.
Listen, if this is you, I’d highly advise checking out this VERY popular post titled, “The UGLY Truth About Hitting Ground Balls”. I’m not going into every argument here, but the math and geometry don’t lie in demonstrating ground-balls are gross. The main reasons are:
Ask any pitcher, and most (if not all) will tell you they’re taught to keep the ball down in the zone, to get the ground-ball. So, if the default strategy – or safety net to the line-drive – is to hit ground-balls, then you’re teaching hitters to do what pitchers want them to do.
Because of reason #1, there are 5 fielders on the infield (yes, the pitcher is considered a fielder) with less space to cover. There are only 3 outfielders with A LOT of space to cover. And lastly,
Most double plays are turned on the infield (probably THE WORST hitting outcome in the sport), and if you’re pinning hopes and dreams on an infielder making an error or ball taking a weird bounce, then you’re focusing on things you can’t control. High level coaches and players don’t think that way. WHY? Because it’s silly.
Again, we want to formulate hitting principles that encourage how to maximize a player’s contribution to the run scoring process.A defensive swing doesn’t do this.
Next, as a hitting instructor, what would happen if…
Maximizing Batting Average were Central to the “Operating System”?
In Golf, precision is key. The least strokes possible. Being able to control the club head has a lot of value because one small deviation at impact is exponentially compounded hundreds of yards from the tee box. The last hitter to hit .400 was Ted Williams in 1941. Tony Gwynn came close in the strike shortened year of 1994, hitting .394, and hitting around .370 in three separate full seasons. And Gwynn had a mere fraction of the power Williams did.
Before I get to what a hitting coach would focus on here, I wanted to address the elephant in the room. In the day and age of Sabermetrics, Batting Average isn’t a useful statistic in deciding a player’s value. In a FanGraphs post titled, “Stats to Avoid: Batting Average”, they put forth two reasons to avoid looking at BA as a useful metric:
“Batting average ignores a segment of offensive actions just because they aren’t “hits,” and 100 years ago, someone decided a hit and a walk were fundamentally different.” And,
“The second major flaw is that batting average treats every hit equally even though certain hits are more valuable than others. Batting average treats a single and a double like the same thing, even though a hitter who only hit doubles would help his team score a lot more runs than a hitter who only hit singles.”
That being said, maybe a better stat would be Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP). Not the best, but better than BA. FanGraphs.com defines BABIP as:
“Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP) measures how often a ball in play goes for a hit. A ball is “in play” when the plate appearance ends in something other than a strikeout, walk, hit batter, catcher’s interference, sacrifice bunt, or home run.”
Okay, so what would be the top 2-3 priority concepts guided by this principle?
Getting on the plane of the pitch early with the barrel, and maximizing that time.
Place a high emphasis on barrel control, both horizontally (across the field) and vertically (optimizing Launch Angles). The best hitters in the world can put the ball where they want, when they want, during batting practice.
I LOVE this approach, and I feel coaches have done a poor job of training their hitters in it in the past (including me). Teaching hitters to hit the ball where they want, when they want. Why can’t we have hitters in High School batting .600 to .800? Or Little Leaguers hitting .880? I know it can be done because I did it when I was 12yo, in addition to hitting 30+ homers. Using Batting Average (BA), or better yet Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP), is a great start to encourage how to maximize a player’s contribution to the run scoring process.
The challenge I have with it though, neither of the BA or BABIP metrics take walks and/or homers into account. Remember “contribute to run scoring process”. Which leads me to, as a hitting instructor, what would happen if…
Maximizing OPS were Central to the “Operating System”?
Have you read the book MoneyBall by Michael Lewis, or watched the movie with Brad Pitt? If you haven’t…THEN WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU!!!! lol, kidding. OPS stands for On-Base Percentage PLUS Slugging Percentage. There are better metrics, but this is a good one to start with if this is new to you. FanGraphs.com defines it as:
“On-base Plus Slugging (OPS) is exactly what it sounds like: the sum of a player’s on-base percentage and their slugging percentage. Many sabermetricians don’t like OPS because it treats OBP as equal in value with SLG, while OBP is roughly twice as important as SLG in terms of its effect on run scoring (x1.8 to be exact). However, OPS has value as a metric because it is accepted and used more widely than other, more accurate statistics while also being a relatively accurate representations of offense.”
It’s one of the best metrics to formulate hitting principles that encourage how to maximize a player’s contribution to the run scoring process. On-Base Percentage (OBP) measures how often a player gets on base. And Slugging Percentage (Slug%) measures how many extra base hits a hitter hits. ISO, or Isolated Slugging (aka “raw power”, takes singles out of the equation), is better than Slug%, but I don’t want to complicate matters. Remember, the object of this game is to get runners on, and knock’em in.
Okay, so what would be the top 2-3 priority concepts guided by this principle?
High frequency of hitting the ball hard. Increase Ball Exit Speed, or how fast the ball comes off the bat. However high Ball Exit Speeds with low Launch Angles are no good. A few years ago Giancarlo Stanton hit a ball 123.8-mph…on the ground, one-hopper to the second baseman…double play. Ouch.
Optimize launch angle range between 15 to 25 degrees. This is the ideal line drive range, and optimizes batted ball distance. Some hate talking about Launch Angles, but every batted ball has a launch angle, even bunts.
Mechanics that optimize both of these are key. How do we optimize Ball Exit Speeds? (Hint: that’s what Power Hitter 2.0: Engineering The Alpha does). What mechanics optimize Launch Angles and hitting more line drives? (Hint: that’s what The Pitch-Plane Dominator does). And importantly, my hitters don’t sacrifice swing quality for power. We get both! My hitters lower their strikeouts, mis-hits, fly-balls, and gross ground-balls with these online video courses.
I think there’s success on whatever part of the spectrum coaches find themselves on. However, what if you lived on a planet that used forks and knives to eat soup? What would happen if an alien came down and surprised them with a spoon? Teaching hitting is the same. There may be thousands of ways to teach hitters, but one way is most effective. What is that way? Applying human movement principles validated by REAL science, NOT “because-I-said-so ‘bro-science'”, to hitting a ball. Have a higher standard for your hitters.
We as coaches have to reverse engineer the our swing strategy based on what the game values, which are runs! The more runs your team can score (and prevent), the more WINS you get. Don’t lose sight of that coaches.
'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/2018/03/simpsons-sabermetrics.jpg306535Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2018-03-23 17:18:552018-09-17 04:35:13How To Maximize A Hitter’s Contribution To Run Scoring Process
, I wanted to use the Scientific Method to analyze what would happen to Bat Speed at Impact and Ball Exit Speed if I used a Mizuno Generation 33-inch, 30-ounce BBCOR versus a 34-inches, 31-ounces, same model.
,
,
,
, and
(-3) Model #340252, sizes: 34/31 & 33/30
or PocketRadar gun
, you can gather some pretty convincing data as to which bat to use.
: How To Train 100-Pound Hitters To Consistently Drive The Ball 300-Feet
, by Thomas Myers
, by Dr. Serge Gracovetsky
, by Dr. Erik Dalton
to measure BES
, he talks about a cotton candy like springy material that the bones and muscles float it, and what gives muscles their shape called fascia.
(about $80), or 
($500+). ESPN’s 
, the spinal engine can move in a vacuum.
.
describes, what he calls Tensegrity (Tension-Integrity), like this:
, I wanted to employ the Scientific Method to analyze how a hitter’s “Flat Bat at Landing”, or toe touch, adds or takes away from key swing performance metrics including Bat Speed at Impact, Time To Impact, Attack Angle, and Ball Exit Speeds.
to measure Ball Exit Speeds,
to record swings, and
. He says hitters standing on one diagonal leg of the “X” encourages the springiness of fascia. He taught this to his 15yo daughter, who has hit over .600 the last couple years playing Fast-Pitch Softball in Texas, which is one of the hotbeds for both baseball and softball competition in the country. Oh and by the way, she also hit a half dozen homers as well.
with a 100-mph ball exit speed …OR, would you take a hitter who can hit in games, but can only reach 80-mph ball exit speeds?
, 
, 
, 
, 
,
by Michael Lewis, or watched the movie with Brad Pitt? If you haven’t…THEN WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU!!!! lol, kidding. OPS stands for On-Base Percentage PLUS Slugging Percentage. There are better metrics, but this is a good one to start with if this is new to you. FanGraphs.com defines it as:
