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Discover how to hit more line drives using swing bat path mechanics science to hitting on the plane of the pitch like Joey Votto.

How To Hit More Line Drives Swing Bat Path Mechanics Science To Hitting On Plane Like Joey Votto

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Discover how to hit more line drives using swing bat path mechanics science to hitting on the plane of the pitch like Joey Votto.

Baseball Swing Slow Motion Analysis Of Joey Votto

 

 

This is Part-2 of a 3-part baseball swing slow motion analysis video series coming straight out of the Pitch-Plane Dominator online video mini-course…

Hitting Training - Pitch-Plane Dominator

Sick of struggling to reduce your hitters ground balls, swing and miss strikeouts, and non-productive weak fly balls?  This simple 4-Step online video mini-course (7-modules total) will help hitters weighing less than 100-pounds, barrel the ball more consistently.  Dramatically decrease ground balls, strikeouts, and weak fly balls (no matter the pitch location or speed) by applying human movement rules validated by science.

If you haven’t already, then CLICK the Link below to…

Get Access to The Pitch Plane Dominator Online Video Mini-Course

“If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results.” – Tony Robbins

I received the following reader question:

“If you could only teach one swing, whose would you teach?”

And what follows in this baseball swing slow motion analysis of Joey Votto video, is my answer, as it relates to getting the barrel on, and staying on the plane of the pitch for as long as possible.

We’ll discuss Joey Votto’s:

  • Pitch-Plane consistency metrics,
  • 2015 ESPN’s HitTracker spray chart, and
  • Mechanics as they apply to Pitch Plane Domination.

Let’s build Joey Votto’s case as the best to copy for Pitch-Plane Domination…

 

Joey Votto Pitch-Plane Consistency Metrics

According to Baseball-Reference.com, Joey Votto’s 162-game averages (over 9 years in the League) are as follows:

Baseball Swing Slow Motion Analysis: Joey Votto Metrics

Look at the “yellow” highlighted line…

Here are the Joey Votto Metrics to pay particular attention to (definitions are according to FanGraphs.com):

  • On-Base% (OBP) – measures the most important thing a batter can do at the plate: not make an out…Joey Votto: .423, League Average is: .320
  • Isolated Slugging% (ISO) – measure of a hitter’s raw power and tells you how often a player hits for extra bases…Joey Votto: .223, League Average is: .140
  • OBP + SLG (OPS) – the sum of a player’s on-base percentage and their slugging percentage…Joey Votto: .957, League Average is: .710
  • OPS+ – This statistic normalizes a player’s OPS — it adjusts for small variables that might affect OPS scores (e.g. park effects) and puts the statistic on an easy-to-understand scale…Joey Votto: 156, League Average: 100

As you can see, Joey Votto is well above average in “not making an out”,  and “raw power”.  What’s also interesting is Joey Votto’s strikeout and walk percentages (averaged over his career):

  • Strikeout% – Joey Votto: 18.6%, League Average: 18.5%, and
  • Walk% – Joey Votto: 15.9%, League Average: 8.5%.

Joey Votto 2015 ESPN’s HitTracker Spray Chart

Check out the HitTrackerOnline.com spray chart of Joey Votto’s 29 homers in 2015 (keep in mind he’s a left handed hitter):

Baseball Swing Slow Motion Analysis: Joey Votto spray chart

Joey Votto 2015 spray chart courtesy: HitTrackerOnline.com

CLICK HERE for a FanGraph.com article titled, “Joey Votto on Hitting”. It goes into how:

  • Cerebral a hitter he is about his mechanics,
  • He purposely tools his swing to limit defensive shifts, and
  • He’s given up some power (dingers in particular) to cover the Pitch-Plane more effectively.

The aforementioned link is a GREAT read.  From the above spray chart and metrics, I’d say he “NAILED IT!!”

 

Joey Votto Mechanics as They Relate to Pitch-Plane Domination

In the above 17:23-minute baseball swing slow motion analysis video of Joey Votto’s swing, we go into more detail about the following FIVE human movements rules for Pitch-Plane Domination:

  1. Front Knee bend before swing initiation, and during the Final Turn,
  2. Back Knee bend during the Final Turn,
  3. Back foot skip during the Final Turn,
  4. Barrel matching the plane of the pitch early, and
  5. Barrel ‘chasing the ball’ passed impact getting to ‘Power-V’ after impact.

As Tony Robbins said,

“If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results.” 

Joey Votto is your hitter to dominate the Pitch-Plane when looking at baseball swing slow motion analysis.

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

Flat Swing Bat Path Trainer Drills To Square Up Baseball Or Softball & Hit More Line Drives Instead Of Swinging Under Fly Balls And Hitting Top Half Chopping Grounders

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Discover flat swing bat path trainer drills to square up a baseball or softball and learn how to hit more line drives instead of swinging under fly balls and hitting top half chopping grounders.

Hitting Tips To Boost Barrel Time On Pitch Plane

Ryan Braun early on pitch-plane

Ryan Braun early on pitch-plane. Photo courtesy: JTA.org

I often get caught up in my own ways of doing things that I sometimes lose sight of better hitting tips others are using for the same outcomes.  I’m not perfect.  And I’ll readily admit that I don’t know all the answers.  This my wife will surely echo 😉

But I do take pride in submitting and standing on the shoulders of giants.  This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson changed my life:

“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

Think of methods as “the drills.”  This post is for you hitting instructors or coaches who’re applying human movement principles, and successfully selecting your own methods.  I want to pick your brain, and hear your thoughts below.

But first, here’s the gist of the hitting tips assignment…

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

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Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.

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Hitting Tips from the Collective Few…

Ryan Braun Hitting Tips: staying long on the plane of the pitch

Ryan Braun staying long on the plane of the pitch. Photo courtesy: SportsWorldNews.com

I want to focus on efficiently increasing barrel time on the plane of the pitch using the Conservation of Angular Momentum.  By the way, it doesn’t matter if you come from baseball or softball.  So drawing from your teaching experience, what are your thoughts on the following (PLEASE leave your pearls of wisdom in the hitting tips comment section below):

  • Your go-to hitting drill for boosting barrel time on the pitch plane (pics or vids are welcome),
  • The best sticky coaching cue (or cues) that you use with young hitters, and/or
  • Any kind of underground (i.e. DIY) hitting aids that help with boosting barrel time on the pitch plane.

Keep in mind, inefficiencies such as arm barring, bat drag (racing back elbow), rolling over, and staying “attached” through the finish are issues you can address.   After a week, I’m going to have my readers vote on the best approach, and we’ll announce a winner.  Please share your thoughts in the “Leave a Reply” section below…

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

Cut Down On And Strikeout Never Again Baseball Softball Perfect Swing Path Breakdown Hitting Drills To STOP Striking Out & Struggling At Plate

Learn how to cut down on and strikeout never again baseball and softball perfect swing path breakdown hitting drill to STOP striking out and struggling at the plate.

Baseball Swing Path: How-To Increase A Hitter’s Strikeouts?

Baseball Swing Plane: Chris Davis

Notice the Chris Davis baseball swing plane is up, up, UP. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

Is Chris Davis taking more of an extreme uppercut on the baseball swing plane?

Is he not cutting down on his swing with 2-strikes?

Is he using an excessive barrel tilt, before he launches into the turn, much like Josh Donaldson did between the 2013 and 2014 seasons?  CLICK HERE for this Athletics Nation post titled, “Josh Donaldson: Changes in Approach & Mechanics”.

Is he more susceptible to swinging at pitches out of the strike zone than say a Joey Votto?  CLICK HERE for this great “Joey Votto on Hitting” FanGraphs.com article about the changes he made to his baseball swing path in 2013.

Or, is his baseball swing plane so stubborn as to not adjust to higher Effective Velocities (EV), according to this fantastic analysis by Perry Husband…

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.

Right Course For You? Take Quiz Now

 

 

Also, CLICK HERE for a Joey Votto video analysis I recently did.  He is the ultimate Pitch-Plane Dominator!

Here’s another perspective, from a guy I admire because he will readily admit he was wrong – on national television!!

Check out the following video of Carlos Pena offering an explanation to the increase in MLB hitter strikeouts…

 

 

Look, hitter’s are dealing with hitting a pitch that, beforehand, they DO NOT know what:

  • Pitch it is,
  • Speed it is, and
  • Location it is.

Sure, there are probabilities, but they’re almost NEVER 100% sure (stealing signs and/or a pitcher’s ‘tells’ aside).

Baseball Swing Path: Ted Williams The Science Of Hitting

Illustration from Ted Williams’s The Science Of Hitting book on matching the plane of the pitch. The bottom image can even serve as the extreme uppercut if flipped upwards.

Hitters have to build a large margin for error into their swings, if they want to succeed.

Then it got me thinking…

Sometimes we can learn more from what not to do, than what to do.

Coaches & instructors, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Please ‘Leave a REPLY’ in the comments section below to the following question…

What are the 2 biggest baseball swing path mistakes you think hitters make that lead to higher strikeouts?

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

Perfect Baseball Softball Swing Plane Trainer, Bat Path Truth, And Barrel Turn Hitting Drills For Contact, Power, & Quick Hands

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Discover the perfect baseball and softball swing plane trainer, bat path truth, and barrel turn hitting drills for contact, power, and quick hands.  Does a one size barrel path fit all pitches?  What is the performance consequence of a deep barrel turn on an inside pitch?  Or what is the effect of swinging up to an elevated pitch?

Best Hitters Baseball Barrel Path – Do We Have It All Wrong?

 

 

 

…And I’m sorry.  But I will say this, most are being misled on the best hitters baseball bat path.  The principle you’ll discover shortly also applies to fast-pitch and slow-pitch softball.

In this best hitters baseball barrel path post, we’ll look at:

  • How the best hitters are using the Catapult Loading System,
  • WHY current one-size-fits-all SUPER deep barrel path approaches are losing, and
  • Hitting different “catcher’s glove” examples of inner, middle, and outer third of the plate pitches…

 

How the Best Hitters Baseball are Using the Catapult Loading System

…according to Diamond Demo video above: “Breaking down Khris Davis”.

We published last week’s Khris Davis swing analysis post because of the Diamond Demo “Breaking down Khris Davis” video.  The overwhelming response I received from readers sharing this video with me truly validates the Catapult Loading System seen in the best hitters.  Don’t think so?  Take a look at the following split screen snapshots from the above video (recognize ANY of the hitters??)…

Best Hitters Baseball Swings: JD Martinez, Aaron Judge, & Jose Altuve

Observe stride landing positions of JD Martinez, Aaron Judge, & Jose Altuve – ‘showing numbers’, ‘downhill shoulders’, & ‘hiding hands’. Photo courtesy: Diamond Demo video “Breaking down Khris Davis”

And,

Best Hitters Baseball Swings: Mookie Betts, Nolan Arenado, & Mike Trout

Check out stride landing positions of Mookie Betts, Nolan Arenado, & Mike Trout – ‘showing numbers’, ‘downhill shoulders’, & ‘hiding hands’. Photo courtesy: Diamond Demo video “Breaking down Khris Davis”

We won’t spend a lot of time rehashing last week’s post, BUT I do want to bring up an important point that was talked about in the above Diamond Demo segment.  And it has to do with best hitters baseball barrel path…

Starting at about the 2-min, 15-second video mark, and continuing to the end, they talk about this idea of Khris Davis getting his barrel in the zone early, and keeping barrel in the zone late.  And this is where I’ve lied to you for the last 5-years!  I used to teach my hitters this same one-size-fits-all SUPER deep barrel path.  But what I found was this IS NOT true of the best hitters baseball bat paths…

 

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.

Right Course For You? Take Quiz Now

 

WHY Hitters Baseball Current One-Size-Fits-All SUPER Deep Barrel Path Approaches are Losing

Let me tell you a story of how I stumbled onto this principle…

In January of 2018, I was working with one of my hitters, who has been working with me since he was 7 years old.  He’s 15 years old now, in the 8th grade, and consistently hits with a low to mid 80’s Ball Exit Speed off the Backspin Tee, using a wood bat.

His mechanics are pretty clean compared to my other hitters.  At the time, I was teaching my hitters the same one-size-fits-all SUPER deep barrel acceleration path, as many of you are now.  One day, we were working on hunting pitch zones, inner third pitches specifically, and he responded,

“Coach, I don’t feel like I can get to that inside pitch effectively.  Am I showing my numbers too much?”

This got me thinking, so I jumped on Twitter to look at the best hitters baseball bat paths.  Specifically, I was looking for hitters, like the ones on the split screen images above, crushing 94-mph+ on the inner third of the plate, and guess what I saw??

The ones who demonstrated the Catapult Loading System principles well (namely ‘showing numbers’), still did so at stride landing on inside heat! Did you catch that?!  ‘Showing numbers’ was irrelevant to crushing the inside pitch.  CLICK HERE for a post I did debunking that.  So what were they doing different on the inner third?

It had to do with what we call hitting a different “catcher’s glove”.  I won’t go into the details of that here because I already did at the following post titled: “Accelerate Barrel Rearward Like Mike Trout”.  The best hitters baseball barrel path isn’t about a one-size-fits-all approach to all pitches and timing.

Here’s the DANGER for hitters using a one-size-fits-all SUPER deep barrel acceleration approach…

Signs that pitcher’s are smartening up to countering this seemingly effective low in the zone barrel approach?  Pitchers are now using this, which Perry Husband calls Effective Velocity (EV), to exploit hitters with longer barrel paths.

In short, 2018 homers are down, in addition to having a few months in the season where overall offensive strikeouts outweigh hits in the Big Leagues.  This is troubling.  To give a clue, check out Perry’s video explaining why Chris Davis (Orioles) is having issues with this one-size-fits-all barrel path…

 

If hitting coaches don’t smarten up to this soon, then they’ll be rendered obsolete, irrelevant to the hitting community, and ultimately out of a job.  That’s not an exaggeration, and is where the puck is going, believe me.  Now, let’s look at the behavior of different “catcher’s glove” approaches on inner, middle, and outer third of the plate pitches…

Hitting Different “Catcher’s Glove” Examples of Inner, Middle, & Outer Third of the Plate Pitches

Inner 1/3 Pitch Barrel Path (“Belly Button” Catcher’s Glove)

Mike Trout Homer #38 – 88.1-mph Front View

Chest View

Mitch Haniger Homer #26 – 95.9-mph FF Front View

Chest View

Trevor Story Homer #34 – 93-mph in Front View

Chest View

Middle 1/3 Pitch Barrel Path (“Back Foot” Catcher’s Glove)

Matt Carpenter Homers #36 – 84.9-mph Change-up Front View

Chest View

Javier Baez Homer #33 – 87.4-mph SL Front View

Chest View

Khris Davis Homer #42 – 93.9-mph FF Front View

Chest View

Outer 1/3 Pitch Barrel Path (“Real” Catcher’s Glove)

Mookie Betts Homer #31 Front View

Chest View

Christian Yelich Homer #32 – 88.7-mph Slider Front View

Chest View

Michael Conforto Homer #27 – 94.4-mph FF Front View

Chest View

Now, how do we train this?  I’m going to give you two complimentary drills we use to sync the optimal “catcher’s glove” with the proper direction of force (See – aren’t you glad you read my post to the bitter end!?):

  1. “Shorten Swing” Like An Elite Hitter (Not What You Think), and
  2. How To Optimize Directional Force Using The “Pounding Nail” Drill.
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Barry Bonds: Hitting Training To Get More Power For Baseball & Softball | How To Swing Plane Barrel Turn Vs. Hands Tipping Drill

Barry Bonds: Hitting Training To Get More Power For Baseball & Softball | How To Swing Plane Barrel Turn Vs. Hands Tipping Drill

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Check out this Barry Bonds swing training to get more power video for baseball and softball hitters.  Learn how to use swing plane barrel turn versus hands tipping* drill.

Baseball Hitting Tips Video: #1 Long Ball Secret

 

 

…we’re going over how

  • To use the body – not the hands – to get “on-plane” with the pitch,
  • Barry Bonds makes hitting the long ball look easy, and
  • Most young hitters get the #1 long ball secret wrong (and how to correct it).

A few weeks ago I worked with a 12-U Little League team from Bakersfield California called the Sliders.  They recently came to Fresno for a tournament and DOMINATED.

One of the moms Sheri – her son is Alex in the above video – emailed me a testimonial:

“The boys won first place! Ben, Paul and Dylan hit their first home runs ever! They went undefeated for entire tourney! We’re going to round table pizza to treat all the boys!”

The three young men who hit their first home-runs had worked with me for the first time, a week before the tournament.  Now, this wasn’t all me, but wasn’t a coincidence either.  Before I worked with them, all three boys naturally had a little forward momentum working for them.  And, Sliders Coach Justin Karr has been working the baseball hitting tips system with his team for over a year now.

In the baseball hitting tips video, Barry Bonds gets on plane with the pitch very well by lowering his body.  He does this by creating an “L” with his back leg to and through contact.  Whereas the moment Alex’s front heel hits the ground, he ‘stands up’ causing ball flight to be low.  Alex would have to get “on-plane” with his hands, which is very inconsistent.

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.

Right Course For You? Take Quiz Now

Snapping Towel (Lean) Drill Setup:

  • NEED: light exercise band with handles, AND decent sized carabiner,
  • Loop exercise band handles to carabiner, then to chain link fence, OR
  • Parent/Coach holds exercise band handles, and finally
  • Have hitter loop band under armpits.

In the baseball hitting tips video above, I mentioned breaking the swing apart into two steps:

  1. To the Fight Position (landing), and
  2. The Final Turn.

You’ll see Olympic Hammer Throwers lower their backside as well.  This enables the release of the hammer at an optimal forty-five degree angle.  CLICK HERE to watch a World Record holding Hammer Thrower lower his backside while rotating.

*On the hands tip drill…  As my dad always told me growing up to not jump for the bells and whistles of a new car because it’s another thing to go broke and you have to fix it.  Just the bare essentials.  Consider this AthleticsNation.com post titled: “Josh Donaldson: Changes in approach and mechanics”, where they compare his 2013 to 2014 seasons.  The conclusion as to why his 2014 numbers were down versus 2013 was because of the barrel tip (over-emphasized in 2014).

Sure the hands barrel tip can get momentum going, but I have yet to be convinced that the risk is worth the reward.

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