Discover the baseball vs softball swing and learn beginner hitting drills and mechanics to hit bombs further in this swing comparison between Aaron Judge and Sierra Romero.
Aaron Judge Home Run: Same As Sierra Romero?
Let me be up front with you in this Aaron Judge home run post. Some hitting coaches still think the baseball and softball swing are drastically different. I disagree…Bigly. Human movement is human movement. Sure there are undeniable anatomical differences in body type between males and females, and differences in reaction time from sport to sport…
But there’s virtually zero difference in explosive human movement when the swing objective is hit the ball as hard as you can, as far as you can…consistently. In this video analysis, I wanted to compare the swings of Sierra Romero and Aaron Judge. Don’t worry if you don’t know one or the other…you will by the end of this post.
Actually, you know what, if you don’t know either of these hitters, then SHAME ON YOU!!! 😛 lol
Kidding aside, and in my opinion, more baseball players can learn A LOT by watching Sierra Romero swing the bat than any Big Leaguer. It’s a bold thing to say, but it’s true.
In comparing Sierra Romero to Aaron Judge, we’ll compare the following components of an effective swing:
Besides being my favorite swing model for Fast-Pitch Softball hitters, and according to the USSSA Pride website:
5-foot, 5-inches in height.
Sierra finished her rookie professional Fast-Pitch Softball season batting .339 in 109 at-bats with 18 runs scored, 37 hits, 4 doubles, 2 triples, 5 HR, 21 RBI and a .397 OBP.
First player in NCAA softball history (at Uni of Michigan) to record 300 runs, 300 hits and 300 RBI in her career.
Owns NCAA record in career runs (300) and grand slams (11). Ranks fourth all-time in career RBI (305) and slugging percentage (.882) and eighth in home runs (82) and walks (225).
Joined the USA Junior Women’s National Team (2012), ISF Junior Women’s World Championship Silver Medalist (2012).
Who is Aaron Judge?
Besides this guy being a friggin’ BEAST of a human being!? Here are some major talking points, according to Wikipedia.org and FanGraphs.com:
6-foot, 7-inches tall, and 282-pounds (imagine the parents that had to feed this guy!!) lol
Was a three sport athlete in High School (Football, Basketball, and Baseball).
Played at my Alma-mater, Fresno State, from 2010 and got drafted by the Yankees 32nd overall by the Yankees in 2013.
As of April 2017 Exit Velocity metrics, Judge clocked game batted balls of at least 115-mph SIX TIMES!! Joey Gallo was second with two.
Did I mention this guy is a BEAST?!
The Bottom Line…?
In comparing the swings of Sierra Romero and Aaron Judge, there are many BIG WIN mechanical similarities. They both hit for power and precision. The softball swing isn’t any different than its baseball counterpart. Power and precision don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Size doesn’t matter, however if you’re a beast like Aaron Judge the capability of hitting the ball farther with consistently higher Ball Exit Speeds is greater. What is clear however, is if you move better, then you perform better.
In the day and age of advanced technology and access to specific experts on human movement and Physics, there’s no room for coaches who resist getting educated. If you aren’t growing, then you’re dying.
'Add 40-Feet' To Batted Ball Distance
Swing Study reveals how tens of thousands of hitters are adding 40-feet to batted ball distance by using one simple strategy.
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Baseball-Vs-Softball-Swing-Beginner-Hitting-Drills-Mechanics-To-Hit-Bombs-Further.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2023-02-17 09:15:582023-05-06 02:57:50Baseball Vs Softball Swing: Beginner Hitting Drills & Mechanics To Hit Bombs Further
Learn how to increase your hitter’s bat speed, hitting power, and hit the baseball or softball harder every time like Javier Baez in this swing breakdown…
Javier Baez Swing Analysis: Why Inward Turn Of Hips Is Wasted Movement
Hey, what’s going on it’s Joey Myers from the Hitting Performance Lab, and in this Javier Baez swing analysis, we will cover:
Let’s get into the fan graph metrics. As you can see here, look at the six foot, hundred ninety-pound Javier Baez in the swing analysis we’ll be looking at in 2019. You can see his line right here. You can see a .281 batting average, 38 doubles, four triples, 29 homers, and you see a big giant balloon over here, one hundred fifty-six strikeouts and only twenty-eight walks.
Now, if we look at his line when it comes to ground ball, fly ball, line drive percentages, and his fly ball home run ratio and his pull and hard contact numbers, we look at his line drive rate being eighteen point one. You can see his averages over the amount of years he’s been in the Bigs is 19. So, a little bit down from his average.
You can see his ground ball percentage was up quite a bit, fifty point three, which was down in prior years as low as 44 percent and 37.3 percent.
You can see the average line drive rate is 20 percent or so. So as long as they’re around 18 to 22 percent, that tend to be about league average. The ground ball percentage, league average is about 43 percent or around 40 percent. You can see he’s well above average on the ground ball percentage and fly ball percentage typically floats around 37, 38 percent at league average.
So you can see he’s below well below average when it comes to the fly ball percentage homerun to fly ball ratio, the percentage at 24.4, league average is around 9 to 11 percent. So, if he gets the ball in the air or his fly balls, the percentages of his fly balls going out are almost 25 percent.
What’s also interesting to note is if you look over at his soft percentage contact medium and his hard contact percentages, you can see that his medium actually outweighs his hard percentage contact. Some interesting things going on from this Javier Baez swing analysis, might shed a little bit of light on that.
But I thought interesting to note that his hard ball contact percentage at 37.4, you can’t see it on the screen, hard contact percentage. And then you can see as medium here is 44.6.
Over-Rotation of Lower Half During Pre-Loading Phase
All right. Let’s get into the Javier Baez swing analysis, and the breakdown of his mechanics. Let’s give this a little context. This is a two thousand nineteen swing, I think, in May or so. And this pitch looks like a ninety-one mile an hour slider that ends up, as you can see in the K zone in that lower outside quadrant. And he hits this one out to right center a little bit more towards center but right center.
One thing I want you to take a look at is over rotation of the lower half. This is something I think Ted Williams said in The Science of Hitting. And a lot of instructors out there will take this to the extreme. And they think that by turning the pelvis in towards the catcher, so imagine a hitter’s belt buckle turning in to face the catcher. Like there was a flashlight coming out of the belt buckle and that you’re shining the flashlight at the catcher to get the hips some momentum.
Now, I think this is wasted movement when it comes to function of the spinal engine. Not my opinion, but if we look at springy fascia, the spinal engine, what we want is we want to see this front shoulder … we’ll get a chest view here in a second … we want to get this front shoulder to go down in and towards the back hip. And we want this back shoulder to move away from this front hip.
When you move the pelvis in or you move the front hip bone in along with the shoulder, is that now the hip and the shoulder are chasing each other instead of doing the opposite in what we would find in a wringing towel type of scenario, whereas one hand being the shoulder, the other hand being the pelvis.
We’re seeing a lot of these coaches that will say if and when the pitcher shows you his back back pocket, then you show them yours. This is clearly what Javier Baez is doing in this swing analysis. You can see him really showing his back pocket versus this neutral position that he starts off in, really rolls in with that hip.
Now, if we take a look at another hitter, Khris Davis of the A’s, this is the 2018 swing of his. But he actually steps in the bucket a little bit. You’re going to see a little difference to the hip positioning. Khris Davis really doesn’t waste any motion pulling that belt buckle, this flashlight on the belt buckle, trying to shine it in the catcher’s eyes. He actually keeps it in a neutral position and steps out. Into the bucket.
What both of these players do really well, and I think, Khris actually does better than Baez is because of the lower half over rotation in the pre loading phase of the swing before stride touchdown, we see Khris will keep his hips in a neutral position … but will use this neck tension, which we’ll talk about here in a second to counteract. And he’s really good, Khris, at going the other way, where he hits this one. This is a 94 mile an hour fastball somewhat up in the zone. And he hits this to straight away center.
He does very well going to the opposite field, even though he’s stepping out now, I wouldn’t advise young hitters to do that. And we have a stride drill that fixes getting the stride more in line.
Khris makes this work because of the way he uses his spine. Here’s a chest view of Javier Baez swing analysis, it’s a little angled here, but you can see that kind of over rotation pre loading phase of the pelvis, the lower half versus what Khris Davis was doing.
You can see him really coiling up with the lower half, which he really doesn’t have to. And you’re seeing the what I was talking about is taking this front shoulder down and in towards a back hip and we should actually see this front hip move away from the back shoulder.
When you bring that front hip in, you’re chasing the back shoulder instead of moving away from it, which that’s how springy fascia works, how we load the body like a spring or a catapult. And we want to bring that front shoulder down and in which he is doing. But when you turn the pelvis, it’s almost like the corresponding shoulder is chasing the corresponding diagonal hip bone.
Now, if we look at Khris Davis on the same swing, you know, this view’s a little bit more chest view than the angled version we’re getting with Javier Baez. But you can see that that hip stays in neutral and then you’ll see him bring his front shoulder down and in towards the back hip and you’ll see this front hip move away from the back shoulder.
Some people might call this the scap load that is covering this line here, this diagonal line to scap load. But we also that’s a retraction of the back scap. What we should see is a protraction of the front scap or the front shoulder moving down and in. So, we’re going to see the hitter’s numbers when the hitter does that. We should see both moves, not just one. And you’re seeing Khris Davis do this very well because he keeps his pelvis in neutral.
You can see here and just lets his upper half preload and let his lower half just do what it does and let it open as it does to take the rest of the slack out of the spinal engine.
And one more quick thing before we move on from this in this Javier Baez swing analysis … as you can see, as he coils up him in Davis, pretty much end up in the same spot, at landing. Look at where his pelvis is at landing. So, it’s almost like he gets a running start with his pelvis. I don’t think it really relevant because we’re getting the same effect with the bounce effect with Davis as we are with Baez. It’s just I think Baez’s closing himself off more. And I wouldn’t teach this to young hitters.
I wouldn’t over rotate the pelvis or turn the pelvis inward towards the catcher to landing, because at landing, you see he’s in the same position. And as long as he’s getting his neck pressure, which will be transitioning to here, as long as you get into neck pressure, he’ll be wound up top. And then once the lower half starts to open, as he starts to swing that rest of that slack, will get taken out and then everything will go as it’s supposed to.
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Now, let’s talk about creating neck pressure. The idea of this is like wringing a towel out except for one hand represents the head, the other hand represents the shoulder. So, the hand’s turn in opposite directions. And what we’re trying to do is it’s not so much about how much of the numbers the hitter shows, although Javier Baez in the swing analysis, you can see you can see everything. If he had a triple digit number, you could see three digits on his back. You can see his back elbow. You can see all the way across the shoulders. If he had a 20-word last name, you could see it from armpit to armpit. You can see pretty much everything, almost his rear oblique. You can see because he’s shown his numbers so much.
Whereas we look at a Khris Davis on this one. Similar, but not quite as turned in because he’s not turning the pelvis in. He doesn’t have to. He can create this Catapult Loading System just by keeping the pelvis in neutral and let the pelvis open when it does. He needs to create that bounce with the lower half, create that neck pressure up top.
You can see that he’s locked in, his head is anchoring a tracking position so he can track the ball and keep vision on the ball. It’s not this idea of what some of these coaches call “false separation”, which when these coaches show on video, what false separation is there over rotating the upper half. Now, we don’t want to over rotate. We can’t lose sight with the back eye. And that’s not Davis here. Maybe he is. He is clearly along with Baez. They are clearly showing their numbers, showing their last name. You can see that is clear as day.
There is a pro attraction of the front scap. There’s a retraction to the back scap. You’re seeing both of those things happen in two different hitters on two different teams. And what both of them do are doing and having common is they are wringing the towel out head and shoulders. The head creates an anchor point. Their shoulders rotate under the chin as far as they can while creating this neck pressure in the T1 (Thoracic section of spine, vertebrae-1) and C7 (Cervical section of spine, vertebrae-7) area.
So there’s like a two, three-inch area that if the hitter does this right, they create that pressure there with the head anchored with the shoulder pulled under as far as it can do. And they’ll feel this pressure up until the turn and they can go from there. That’s taking slack out of this system early. If this doesn’t happen, there is going to be compensation somehow in that there may be a front shoulder pulling out early. There might be a barrel that’s dumping deep and early into the zone to try and hurry up, get the barrel to the ball.
But above all, hitters must, even hitters as young as eight, nine, 10 years old need to feel that pressure if there is going to be power the minute that pressure is taken off between the head and the shoulders, that is when we’ll be letting air out of the balloon.
The reason that I’ve moved to more of a neck pressure, creating neck pressure versus showing numbers is that every hitter is going to be different when it comes to their mobility in their neck and their thoracic spine or their shoulders being able to turn the head this much as much as Baez or Davis. Davis isn’t quite as much there. Maybe it’s just with Baez because he’s inward rotating his lower half. It’s allowing him to turn more.
I think that again, hinders it can take our vision and tracking off the ball if we do this with younger hitters, what Baez is doing. So, I would recommend more of what Davis is doing, albeit without the stepping out part of it. But we want to create the neck pressure. That is the rule. That is the principle, the movement principle, the wringing towel principle to the Catapult Loading Systemin spinal engine, springy fascia.
It is not so much to show both numbers. The numbers will probably show, but it will depend on the hitter’s mobility in their neck. So, every hitter might be different.
Barrel Tilt
One last thing in this Javier Baez swing analysis is the barrel tilt. There are some coaches out there that like this barrel till where you can see where Baez tilts the barrel towards the opposing batter’s box or kind of off towards first base and to get the barrel momentum going into the swing.
Now, this might be something that Baez needs to do because he is rotating that lower half inward towards the catcher. And to get some barrel momentum is going to help him to get around, especially on pitches in pitches up in the zone.
I don’t teach this per se. I don’t think it’s a bad or good thing it can be a bad thing. If they tilt too much and I think Baez in the past has tilted too much and it’s got him in trouble, it causes more of an uppercut type of swing. I’ve had hitters that do this and they hit the ball in the air more often than the hitter that doesn’t tilt the barrel this much.
We’ve seen Donaldson from I think it was 2013 to 14. He was tilting too much and we saw his fly ball percentage go up and his batting average go down. So, I would not really mess with this too much as long as we are creating that wringing towel effect between the head and the shoulders, creating the neck pressure.
And we are what I like to tell my hitters is to act like there’s a skewer going through their hip bones that is keeping him on a straight line, keeping hip bones on a straight line towards the catcher. And they just slide along that skewer until the front foot hits the ground and they can turn out of it, but they can’t turn into the skewer up until landing … has to stay in a neutral position and they manipulate the neck pressure at the top to create the tension that we need to be able to instantaneously swing the bat and increase our ball exit speeds.
The barrel tilt is just not something that I would teach my hitters. I would let my hitters do it. But if it’s affecting their fly ball, line drive, ground-ball ratios and we would definitely change it. Now, I hope you like this Javier Baez swing analysis. Make sure that you’re swinging smarter by moving better.
And before I let you go…
'Add 40-Feet' To Batted Ball Distance
Swing Study reveals how tens of thousands of hitters are adding 40-feet to batted ball distance by using one simple strategy.
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Learn whether using hip rotation and the lower half increases hitting power or bat speed. Discover at home swing drills that DO improve power (NOT what you think)…
Clayton Kershaw + Roger Federer = Repeatable Hitting Power
Yes, hitters can build consistent explosive rotational power into their swings by learning from tennis players and baseball pitching athletes. CLICK HERE to check out this “Pitching Instruction Secrets for Hitters” video post I did featuring 2014 World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner.
I received an email from a teacher in Portugal named Alexandra Franco. She plays competitive tennis and is also a tennis instructor. She recently purchased my Truth About Explosive Rotational Power online video course to help her teach and play tennis better. She asked a lot of really good questions around how the spinal engine mechanics I’m teaching my hitters related to serving a tennis ball…
In this video, we’re going to explore Dr. Serge Gracovetsky’s Spinal Engine Mechanics, as they relate to:
Moving the spine for performance,
Comparing Alexandra’s serve to Roger Federer’s, and
Apply key baseball pitching & tennis principles to hitting for repeatable power…
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“The spine cannot be rotated axially without flexing. The spinal engine theory requires the lumbar spine to be flexed laterally if an axial torque is to be induced.”
According to Dr. Gracovetsky, there are three possible spinal movements:
Extension (lordosis)/Flexion – standing tall, or arching the lower back. And think of Flexion as rounding the back,
Lateral Flexion or Side bending – standing tall, then flexing the upper body sideways at the waist, and
Axial Rotation – this is the shoulders rotating opposite the pelvis. Think of this as torque or how a gear box works.
He then adds that if two of the above are present, then almost always the end result is the third. All explosive rotational athletes, have to abide by these rules to human movement. Let’s see how Alexandra and Roger Federer use a combination of the above three spinal movements for performance…
Comparing Tennis Serve of Alexandra to Roger Federer
Here are some key differences Alexandra can use to up her tennis serve…Roger Federer tends to:
Bend both knees as he throws the ball in the air, which helps with
Maintaining strict alignment with his head and spine as he globally extends (head & spine as one piece) over his heels,
As he’s doing this, he angles his shoulders up towards the apex of the ball causing an extreme side bend of the spine (in the video, look how low his back shoulder gets compared to his front), and
Going into axial rotation to hit the ball, watch how both elbows move counter-clockwise, at the same time, and on the same plane with the shot.
Apply Key Baseball Pitching & Tennis Principles to Hitting for Repeatable Power
A page out of Dr. Serge Gracovetsky’s book The Spinal Engine…
The tennis serve and baseball pitching mechanics are very similar. Dr. Serge Gracovetsky says,
“The large torque required to propel the baseball demands such a large amount of lateral bending that the pelvis must be rocked as well. It is this requirement that precipitates the characteristic lift of the left leg before the throw.”
One of the key differences to hitting is the shoulder angle (lateral bend). Hitters need to move the front shoulder slightly down to hit the ball up. I get this with my hitters by cuing them to raise the back elbow at or above the top hand (see Trout photo above).
Whereas baseball pitching athletes, like 2014 NL Cy Young and MVP Award winner Clayton Kershaw, and Roger Federer need to angle the front shoulder up before throwing or hitting the ball down.
One last thought from Dr. Serge Gracovetsky about proper spinal engine mechanics for explosive rotational athletes:
“The axial rotation of the spine cannot happen unless the spine is flexed by the right amount on the correct side. Coaching an athlete to throw without a proper spinal position is an invitation to severe torsional injuries.”
'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!!
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Softball Hitting Tips Fastpitch: Is Power ALL In The Hips?
This is Part-3 of a 3-part softball hitting tips fastpitch video series coming straight out of the Catapult Loading System online video mini-course…
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In this softball hitting tips fastpitch video post, we’re going to answer one of my reader’s questions…
“Ways to use your hips to create bat speed?”
Before I get to the #1 Biggest Lie In Hitting, we’ll cover:
Inward hip turn towards catcher to load?
Springy ‘X’ Pattern, and
Landing open with the front foot.
Inward Hip Turn Towards Catcher To Load?
Are Lauren Chamberlain’s hips firing on their own, or was her spine pre-loaded earlier by her shoulders? Photo courtesy: YT user – Paul Arebalo
I picked up on this in High School after reading Ted Williams’s book The Science Of Hitting.
But is this really necessary?
After reading Thomas Myers’s book Anatomy Trains, I don’t believe that it is.
To me, ‘Loading the hips’ by turning the pelvis inward towards the catcher creates more challenges, than benefits.
The biggest challenge is that if the timing isn’t right, the hitter will get stuck landing with a closed front leg at landing (front toe less than a 45-degree angle).
CLICK HERE for a Zepp swing experiment I did on landing closed versus open, and the affect on average bat speed.
Olympic Javelin Throwers, Boxers, and Sprinters do just fine without using an inward turn of the pelvis, away from their target, before throwing, punching, or running.
Springy ‘X’ Pattern
I don’t want to beat a dead horse, so here are two great video blog posts I did, that apply to softball hitting tips fastpitch, talking about the Springy ‘X’ Pattern:
The guys at ZenoLink are awesome! They find the truth behind human movement science. This video discusses how the lower body position or stride setup will dictate how well you create and utilized ground reaction force to initiate the swing process and develop power and bat speed.
They found the optimal degree that the stride foot must be open at landing to be around 65-degrees (watch around the 2:00 mark)…
So WHY are we teaching our young hitters to stride closed?!!
To summarize…
‘Loading and exploding the hips’ by inwardly turning the pelvis towards the catcher can cause the hitter to land closed. If the hitter lands closed, then bat speed WILL go down, according to the results of my Zepp swing experiment, and to the guys at ZenoLink. As a result of bat speed going down, so will Ball Exit Speed.
‘Firing the hips’ is an over-coached cue, if anything, let’s ‘load and explode the shoulders’, not the hips. Us hitting coaches MUST shift our focus above the pelvis, into the shoulders by way of the Springy ‘X’ Pattern.
So, what is the #1 Biggest Lie In Hitting, as it relates to softball hitting tips fastpitch?
That we MUST ‘load and explode the hips’.
You see,
We have to get away from learning inside baseball and softball hitting circles. We must first learn human movement science, then break away, and begin thinking creatively about how to apply these human movement “rules”, that are validated by science, to hitting a ball.
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/STOP-Early-Hip-Rotation-Using-Lower-Half-Correctly-Increase-Power-In-Baseball-Or-Softball-Swing.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-12-06 09:45:072022-12-06 19:12:42Does STOPPING Early Hip Rotation And Using Lower Half Correctly Increase Power In Baseball Or Softball Swing? | Hitting Drills To Do At Home
Discover an online hitting lessons swing science program for baseball and softball players. Learn where to find a remote hitting instruction coach to teach kids how to increase bat speed and power.
Batting Cages May Be Dangerous To Repeatable Power
“Testimonial” from Kyle – Stephen’s dad – the same night (he’s in white, I’m in blue)
I know you what you’re thinking, “Okay, so what’s wrong with hitting at the batting cages?”
We’ll get to that, but before we do, let me set the stage for what I’m about to share with you. A glimpse into an online hitting lesson I gave to my hitter Stephen at The Feedback Lab.
I was granted permission from Kyle (Stephen’s dad), to share his 12-year-old son’s latest online hitting session with me. They’re out of New Jersey…
What Was To Be Corrected
Hiding his hands from the pitcher
“Downhill” shoulder angle pre-turn, and
Maintaining 90-degree back leg angle during turn and finish.
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In the above video, I mentioned the difference between comparing a swing off the tee versus at the batting cages. It’s not really an apples to apples comparison, BUT if they can repeat what we’re trying to get them to do off a tee, then the feeling to repeat it is there. Here’s what his analysis showed:
Great downhill shoulder angle,
Much better with hiding his hands from the pitcher (could polish a little here), and
Much better body angle on his finish.
3-Points Worth Noting…
Dad had mentioned to me, in the past 2-months, that they’ve been testing hand, butt, and hamstring tension, which might have also had an effect on Stephen’s outcomes.
Stephen will be working on a better barrel launch angle using variance training mentioned in the above video. Pay attention to the Bat Angle Experiment I referenced in the video.
I give feedback based on Tony LaRussa’s “Pat & Pop Method”. First give a “pat” on the back (what they did or are doing well), then reveal the “pop” (what they’ll be working to improve their swing).
Coaches, this is critical!! Athletes don’t just need to be broken down all the time. Build them up first, then offer up the constructive criticism.
The Danger in Batting Cages
And I’m not talking about Happy Gilmore style…
Someone smart once said:
“Practice like you play, so you play like you practice.”
Most coaches have their players do what’s referred to as “massed practice” versus “training ugly” at the batting cages. For example, if you needed work on hitting off speed and breaking pitches, a massed practice would look like the following scenario…a pitcher throws each hitter:
15 fastballs, then
15 curve-balls, and
Lastly 15 change-ups…
But this isn’t what it’s like in the game. The hitter rarely knows, with 100% certainty, which pitch, speed, and location they’re getting. So practice MUST reflect this dynamic in training. And hitting at the batting cages limits the amount of variance we can work into our practice.
I do a few things with my more advanced hitters (mechanically speaking), to mix things up:
We may not practice all these at once. Coaches, our objective with our hitters is to move them to the verge of “meltdown” with variance. Then bring them back. Then rebuild. The other thing is, during batting practice, the tendency is to take rounds of 10, 20, and 30+ to get a hitter’s timing and rhythm down. This IS NOT good. This is marathon training. Hitting is more like sprint training. Rounds of 3-6 swings is more like it – with 30+ seconds to rest between rounds.
I hope this helps!
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Discover the hitting a baseball or softball over 300-feet rules using the Catapult Loading System. Learn how to increase power and hit a baseball, fastpitch, or slow pitch softball better, farther, and harder every time.
How-To Hit The Ball Consistently Hard Like Hank Aaron
This is Part-1 of a 3-part little league baseball batting tips video series coming straight out of the Catapult Loading System online video mini-course…
Sick of struggling with getting your hitters to hit the ball hard with more consistency?This is a simple 7-module online video mini-course that will help hitters weighing less than 100-pounds, hit the ball consistently over 300-feet in 60 days. You’ll be able to dramatically increase power without sacrificing swing quality.
CLICK the Link below to…
Part 1 – [You Are Here] How-To Hit The Ball Consistently Hard Like Hank Aaron
In this little league baseball batting tips video post, we’re answering the reader question…
“How does a smaller slugger compete with a bigger one?”
We’ll be going over:
Writing v. Typing speed skills
Effectiveness – doing the right things v. Efficiency – doing things right
Better technique v. athleticism – some athletes succeed despite their ineffectiveness, not because of it
Writing v. Typing Speed Skills
Imagine entering a contest to win a million dollars by copying a simple 1,000 word document…
And you had the choice to either write the essay using pen and paper, OR
Type it on a computer keyboard.
If the contest chairperson crowned the new minted millionaire to the fastest produced document, using one of the two aforementioned methods, which would you choose to compete?
What if, to get ready for the contest, you were given 3 weeks to prepare and practice pacing your writing OR typing skills?
Would this practice time make a dramatic difference on the speed of your writing skills?
How about your typing skills?
Which method do you think you’d make a bigger jump to compete with the best of the best?
Remember, there are no separate categories in the contest. In other words, if you decide to write with pen and paper, you’re still competing with the fastest typers, not ONLY with writers.
Which leads us to…
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In the case of our Writing v. Typing million dollar contest,
Choosing the right method to win the contest is huge. The fastest typer in the world can blow away the fastest writer, any day of the week.
So, effectiveness in winning the million dollars would be choosing to compete as a typer. Then the next step would be to get really efficient at typing during the 3-week practice period.
How does this metaphor relate to little league baseball batting tips and repeatable power?
Smaller sluggers like Hank Aaron (6-foot, 180-pounds) have to be effective with their mechanics, in order to compete with bigger sluggers.
What’s more…
Better Technique v. Athleticism
Bigger sluggers get away with MURDER!
They often succeed despite their ineffective technique, not because of it…
A bent neck position at impact…NOT pre-loading the springy fascia in the body…OR thinking if we ‘load and explode the hips’, then all will take care of itself.
These big slugger examples may seem like valuable little league baseball batting tips, but in reality, young hitters WILL be left with ineffective energy transfers, resulting in inferior results.
Then why are we studying big sluggers like Albert Pujols, Bryce Harper, and Big Papi?
Although these big sluggers do A LOT effectively with their mechanics, at least in the eyes of validated human movement science, BUT they get away with energy leaks most young hitters won’t be able to pull off.
Look, let me put Better Technique v. Athleticism another way…
One of the best athletes to ever walk the earth is Michael Jordan. His short stint in the Minor Leagues never amounted to Major League time. He complained he couldn’t hit the curve-ball. And by the way, Michael Jordan would be considered a bigger slugger today at 6-feet, 6-inches tall.
How about Arnold Schwarzenegger in his heyday using steroids during the 1970’s? Could he beat Jose Bautista or Josh Donaldson in a Major League home-run derby?
Of course NOT!!
It doesn’t matter how big a hitter is, or how athletic they are, or if they take PED’s. All can achieve repeatable power by using effective hitting mechanics. It’s a recipe anyone can follow.
Sure, being more athletic is a component, but is not THE little league baseball batting tips method to hitting the ball consistently hard like Hank Aaron.
'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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Learn how to increase power by hitting a baseball or softball better, farther, and harder. Discover how in this Babe Ruth swing mechanics analysis.
Baseball Hitting Drills For Power That Babe Ruth WOULD BE Talking About
Babe Ruth post impact…notice he’s not ‘squashing the bug’ with his back foot? 😉 Photo courtesy: ABCNews.com
This baseball hitting drills for power video post, featuring Babe Ruth, was recorded on Jun 11, 2013 for my old hitting site Swing Smarter Baseball Hitting Drills dot com (not online anymore). I’m going to revisit the information in this post because…
The coaching cues I teach now are a bit different, but what hasn’t changed are the human movement principles brought to light in the analysis. Since I created the video, it’s amassed over 151K views on YouTube.
Probably more now that you’re reading this. And by the way, the baseball hitting drills for power tips we’ll be covering work REALLY well for softball players too.
Don’t believe me?
CLICK HERE for a recent post I did discussing how similar the baseball and softball swings are. Be sure to read some of the comments at the end of the post, where I asked my readers who coach softball players, to share how these same human movement principles are working for their girls.
In this baseball hitting drills for power post, we’ll REVISIT and ADD information to the above video:
What Forward Momentum looks like in Babe Ruth’s swing,
How The Babe uses the Springy ‘X’ Pattern, and
Compare how WR holding Shot Putter Ulf Timmerman uses the same human movement principles…
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.
Baseball Hitting Drills For Power: What Forward Momentum Looks like in Babe Ruth’s Swing
I mention a few things in the video…
How The Babe seemingly throws his body (or hips) forward, making an aggressive move towards the pitched ball.
This looks very similar to a pitcher falling down the mound.
There was no ‘push off’ with his back leg, just a natural fall forward with his front leg catching him at stride landing.
In the above video, I also mention, how Babe Ruth commits his body weight forward, similar to how we walk…
A person’s body weight is shifted forward to the swing through leg, as the heel approaches the ground.
Unlike a cat taking a tentative step forward as if the ground is going to give way, we don’t walk by ‘sitting back’ at every step forward.
We walk more like dogs! Committing forward with EVERY step.
And this is WHY we shouldn’t be teaching hitters to ‘Sit back’ when hitting. Unless of course, you want to create timid and defensive swinging hitters that WILL reach a ceiling at the lower levels.
Now, using this same Babe Ruth style fall is where baseball hitting drills for power semi-fork away from fastpitch softball hitters.
Because of a shortened pitching distance and reaction time, we’ll see forward momentum look more like Lauren Chamberlain’s shifting foot pressure in the following video:
In this video, she starts super wide with her feet, but you’ll see her shift her weight back, then forward (watch her body move away from the grounded heavy bag behind her).
This is still a form of Forward Momentum. Just more tailored for a fastpitch hitting strategy.
In the above Babe Ruth video, I mention Un-Weighting, or the Un-Weighting Principle.
CLICK HERE for an HPL video demonstrating a test I use to get my hitters ‘buying into’ Forward Momentum benefits.
The bottom line with forward momentum is that it increases a hitter’s reaction time by giving them a head start.
It’s easier to change planes of motion when you’re already moving…rather than standing still like purely rotational hitters.
Does it take more energy to push a car when it’s already moving, or at a dead stop?
We want effortless power, NOT a powerless effort.
Are you concerned about too much head movement?
Check out these FOUR posts that address that issue:
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!!
CLICK HERE for an HPL post talking about the science of tension/compression forces in the body, known as fascia.
CLICK HERE for another HPL post analyzing the swing of Adrian Gonzalez highlighting the Springy ‘X’ Pattern.
I call this piece of my hitting system the Catapult Loading System. This online video mini-course teaches exactly how to manipulate springy fascia for repeatable power.
Here’s one of my favorite YouTube interviews with Thomas Myers, who does a GREAT job explaining the role of springy fascia in the body, so the Layman understands:
Thomas Myers authored the book Anatomy Trains, which I highly recommend as a MUST read to anyone serious about teaching hitting. The information in his book holds the key to how hitting will be taught 5 years from now. BELIEVE IT.
Watch how Josh Donaldson manipulates the Springy ‘X’ Pattern. Photo courtesy: YouTuber PastimeAthletics & PicPlayHost
There a couple baseball hitting drills for power points I’ve recently changed, when teaching hitting, different from the information in the Babe Ruth video above (thanks Lee Comeaux for pointing these out)…
#1 – I don’t focus on the shoulders facilitating the Springy ‘X’ Pattern anymore, but the armpits (view Josh Donaldson RED ‘X’ image to the right). This is where, as Thomas Myers puts it, the Front Arm Fascial Line passes through connecting bottom of the left hand and arm, across the chest, to the bottom of the right hand and arm.
#2 – Notice how Babe Ruth seems to be ‘hunched’ over from the start of his swing into loading the Springy ‘X’ Pattern? Dr. Kelly Starrett calls this global flexion of the spine. This allows the spine to decompress. In his book The Spinal Engine, Dr. Serge Gracovetsky talks about this ‘hunched’ posture as the Posterior Ligamentous System (PLS) turning on, which acts like a harness supporting the spine under load. There’s less muscle activation when this happens. Think about a fishing rod bending under the weight and energy of a fish catching bait. This keeps the spine vertebrae safe through torsion forces.
PLEASE NOTE: the hitter still MUST show numbers and get a slight downward shoulder angle, but we’re using a better coaching cue to get the mechanical outcome.
Compare How WR Holding Shot Putter Ulf Timmermann uses the Same Movement Principles
Ulf Zimmermann holds the World Record in the Shot Put using the Glide technique.
Check out his World Record throw on September 22nd, 1985 at a distance of 22.62 meters (about 25 yards):
What a BEAST! By the way, that iron cannonball he just tossed, almost the quarter length of a football field, weighs 16-pounds!!
Three eerily similar baseball hitting drills for power tips you’ll find with Ulf Timmermann’s record breaking ‘Glide’ technique and Babe Ruth’s swing are:
Ulf Timmermann gets his weight aggressively moving forward with a combination of back leg push off and front leg ‘reaching’ momentum. What Ulf does with his front leg is similar to a Broad Jumper using their arms to build momentum before a jump.
You also see Ulf Timmermann employing the same Springy ‘X’ Pattern, however more extreme than The Babe (track his compressed armpit and opposing hip). Ulf is more extreme with the ‘turn in’ because Babe Ruth still has to keep his eyes forward to hit a ball coming towards him, whereas Ulf has the freedom to look away from his target.
You also see both Ulf and The Babe ‘getting shorter’ before exploding rotationally (compare knee bend). They’re both using Ground Reaction Forces very well.
CLICK HERE for a baseball hitting drills for power video post I did outlining the ‘Back Eye Test’, so hitters don’t turn in too much, like Ulf.
'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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A Couple Interesting Tid-Bits from YouTube Video Comments
“Excellent video. I recommend everyone read The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs. You will be even more amazed with his achievements.” – YouTube user: Gto1927
One commenter said this video shows why The Babe hit for so much power, but also struck out A LOT. However, Baseball-Reference.com puts Babe Ruth’s 162-game batting average at .342 with 86 strikeouts per year. How about Chris “Crush” Davis? Same numbers: .255 BA & 200 K’s/year. I don’t think The Babe struck out that much…what do you think? 😉
Discover how to teach a kid to hit for power by hitting a baseball, fast pitch, and slow pitch softball better, farther, and harder with the Catapult Loading System.
Why I Teach Hitters To ‘Show Numbers’ (And Maybe You Should Too)
Question: How does ‘Showing Numbers’ to the Pitcher Effect Bat Speed at Impact versus ‘NOT Showing’ them?
Aaron Judge (Showing Numbers), unloads a solo home run to center field on 10/17/17 to put the Yankees on the board in the 7th inning.
Using the Zepp (Labs) Baseball app, I wanted to use the Scientific Method to analyze if a hitter showing their numbers to the pitcher at landing adds to or takes away from keyswing performance metrics like Bat Speed at Impact, Time To Impact, and Attack Angle. This swing experiment is revisiting two other experiments done analyzing the same thing.
Background Research
Since we’re REVISITING two previous swing experiments on ‘Showing Numbers’ versus NOT, here are the original posts and data to get you up to speed:
Now, let’s see how the Ball Exit Speed averages compare:
76.02-mph BES when ‘NOT Showing Numbers’,
77.32-mph BES when ‘Showing Numbers’,
That’s a 1.3-mph average INCREASE when ‘Showing Numbers’, and
Translates between 5.2-feet to 7.8-feet of EXTRA batted ball distance – depending on if you calculate using 1-mph BES = 4-feet of distance OR 1-mph BES = 6-feet of distance.
In this experiment, if you look at the ‘NOT Showing Numbers’ swings, they were actually ‘Showing Numbers’. In other words, the subject in the swing experiment, Preston Scott, already shows his numbers well causing a challenge to not show them. Therefore on the ‘Showing Numbers’ swings, he showed them more. I think that’s why we didn’t see as much of a difference in Ball Exit Speeds.
In 2014 ‘Show Numbers’ swing experiment, this was what the averaged out Zepp data looked like:
Bat speed for NOT showing numbers at landing: 73-mph,
Bat speed for showing numbers at landing: 79-mph (+6-mph),
Highest bat speed for NOT showing numbers at landing: 82-mph,
Highest bat speed for showing numbers at landing: 88-mph (+6-mph),
Hand speed max for NOT showing numbers was: 27-mph, and
Hand speed max for showing numbers was: 29-mph (+2-mph).
Between both swing experiments, we saw an average Bat Speed at Impact increase between 5 to 6-mph. In 2016 we saw a .003 second drop in Time To Impact ‘Showing Numbers’, while in 2014 we saw a .003 increase.
The research on increasing bat or ball exit speed can be seen in the following two books on springy fascia and spinal engine mechanics:
For those versed in Anatomy, for explosive movement on the Transverse Plane (twisting), there must be a protraction of the front scapula (‘showing numbers’), and a retraction of the back Scapula (what’s often referred to as ‘Scap Row’). Scap Rowing by itself doesn’t engage full range of springy fascia.
Hypothesis
Based on the above research, I’m expecting to see a dramatic bump in Bat Speed at Impact, Hand Speed Max, and possibly a reduction in Time To Impact. I think Attack Angle and Bat Vertical Angle at Impact will remain unchanged.
'Add 40-Feet' To Batted Ball Distance
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This is the SwingAway Bryce Harper model hitting station used for the ‘Showing Numbers’ experiment.
Zepp Baseball app (to measure Bat Speed, Hand Speed, Time to Impact, & Attack Angle),
SwingAway Bryce Harper model hitting station,
GS6 android phone to record swings, and
33 inch bamboo bat.
Setup:
SwingAway Bryce Harper bungy suspended ball was set equal to the landing foot, and ball height was about knee height.
I broke each swing down into three steps: 1) Get to landing, 2) Pause for 2-secs, and 3) Swing. The reason for this was to better control whether I was showing numbers or not.
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. ‘Showing Numbers’ was letter ‘A’, and ‘NOT Showing Numbers’ 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 ‘Showing Numbers’ swing shoulders were set to about 2’o’clock, if pitcher is 12’o’clock. The ‘NOT Showing Numbers’ swing shoulders were set to about 12’o’clock.
Data Collected from Zepp Baseball App:
Data Analysis & Conclusion
Zepp data analysis comparing the averages:
Bat Speed at ImpactINCREASE of 3-mph ‘Showing Numbers’,
Hand Speed Max DECREASE of 1-mph ‘Showing Numbers’,
Time To Impact INCREASE of 0.014 ‘Showing Numbers’,
Bat Vertical Angle At Impact DECREASE of 4-degree ‘Showing Numbers’, and
Attack Angle INCREASE of 6-degrees ‘Showing Numbers’.
The drop from previous ‘Showing Numbers’ swing experiments was surprising, in addition to a small 1-mph drop in Hand Speed Max. There was also a slight increase in Time To Impact. The interesting numbers were the ones that indicate Launch Angles, both Bat Vertical Angle at Impact and Attack Angle. We hadn’t experienced such a dramatic uptick in those in past experiments.
A couple notes…
The past two experiments were done in a cage, off a tee, so I could see ball flight, and maybe that had an effect on the swing metrics.
Some hitting coaches speak highly of Time To Impact and want to reduce at all cost, but I disagree. There’s a healthy range for that, you don’t want it too short or too long. I’m not going to get into why here, maybe in another post.
To explain the dramatic increase of the barrel’s upward trajectory in ‘Showing Numbers’, I may have been getting more of a downward shoulder angle at landing.
'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/aaron-judge-showing-numbers.jpg295700Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-20 09:00:262023-09-16 05:29:03Teach Kid To Hit For Power By Hitting Baseball Or Softball Better, Farther, & Harder With Catapult Loading System
The following is the Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting mechanics video transcription. After you enjoy this analysis, then check out Part-2 Here.
Enjoy!
0:05
Hey, what’s going on? It’s Joey Myers from the Hitting Performance Lab, and in this Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting mechanics video, we’re going to go over a couple things.
0:13
First, we’re going to start with a couple fan graph points of interest, and then we’re going to go over how Fernando Tatis Jr. uses Catapult Loading System principles. And lastly, we’re going to touch on how he stays sideways using his lower half.
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Fernando Tatis Jr. Hitting Mechanics Fan-graph Stats…
0:30
A couple things worth noting in the fan-graphs article, as you can see that he is 6’3″, 185 pounds. I may be wrong but that’s about what Ted Williams was coming into the league. You could see comparing his 2019 and 2020 seasons, obviously 2020 is going to be quite shortened and 60 games season.
0:53
You can see that with almost half of the amount at-bats, plates appearances. He’s got almost as many doubles, and almost as many homers as he did in 2019, where he played in 84 games. And then you can see in his line drive, ground-ball, fly-ball rates that again, this is about half the amount of games in 2019, he played in, and then he’s got about half or so that he’s played in 2020.
1:24
You can see that, of course, these numbers, the data is going to be a little skewed because there’s lower data points, but you have a 22.4% line drive rate league average is 20. Got 16.3 here this year, ground-ball percentage is about average last year 46.6%, or 43% is average. So he’s a little bit above average. A little bit even more above average of 48.2 this year, and then his fly-ball rate has gone up from last year. He’s at 38, or 30.9%, which league average tends to be, league averages about 34%.
1:58
And then he’s almost about average on his fly ball percentage but increasing about 5% from last year to this year. Again, we’re talking lower data points.
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2:07
Alright, let’s really dig into this Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting mechanics video, we’re going to look at the Catapult Loading System principles. The best view for these, for most of them, is from the pitchers view. Just to give a little context to this pitch, you can see the location is about up and in, up and in part of the strike zone. And the pitch, you can’t see it on the screen. I can’t see it on the screen, but it’s flashing a nine, here. So it’s 90 plus for sure. 92. There you go 92 miles an hour.
Neck Pressure – Showing Numbers
2:34
And now let’s check out and one of the big principles is showing numbers or what we call neck pressure, creating neck pressure where the head becomes an anchor point anchors in a tracking position. That front shoulder scap protraction for those kinetic nerds out there, is coming underneath the front chin, shoulder’s sliding under the chin, head is holding it’s anchored tracking position.
3:01
And you’re going to see Fernando Tatis Jr. in these hitting mechanics, you can see him show his numbers on his back because of what that front shoulder is doing moving underneath to pass the chin.
Hiding Hands – Scap Pinch
3:14
The other thing he’s doing the other big one is the scap pinch. Some of you might know it as a scap row. You can see the back elbow will peek out behind him. Again the head is at an anchor point and he is doing like a rowing motion with that back arm and scap, and you’ll see that back elbow peek out from a pitchers view. Does a very good job.
3:41
We also call this like wringing the towel out, so the head is the top one and the neck, and the shoulders are at the bottom and we’re wringing the towel out. The head anchors in a tracking position and the shoulders rolling beneath and their limitation… They’re limited by how much the head allows them, front shoulder allows the front shoulder to come in, and then it’s also about the back shoulder retracting the scapula retracting back. It’s all limited by the head in the tracking position.
Downhill Shoulder Angle
4:09
The other big principle of the three big Catapult Loading System rules is a downhill shoulder angle. Now Fernando Tatis Jr. in his hitting mechanics, he doesn’t really get a really high back elbow, you see some hitters like trout will do to angle those shoulders down. He actually keeps his back elbow about the height of his back shoulder.
4:32
But you’re going to see this front shoulder dip down a little bit almost like we talk about to our hitters, like the alligator when greater less than signs. So the front shoulder and hip becomes a closed alligator and the back shoulder and hip becomes an open alligator.
4:50
So we want to close the alligator on the front side, so we angle the shoulder slightly down again, slightly down between 6 to 10 degrees down and that goes for both fast-pitch softball and baseball slightly down. If you do it too much, you’re going to end up with a big fat uppercut, slightly down, and then we turn from there. Okay, those are the big three of the Catapult Loading System principles.
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5:13
Let’s touch on, see how he stays sideways with that back foot. In baseball and softball, we’re dealing with 90 degrees of fair territory. So we have to manage our bodies effectively within that 90 degrees.
5:29
To do that we can’t over rotate our lower half rotation is okay, at the lower back but not too much. 7 to 12 degrees of rotation is what the lower back the lower lumbar is allowed. Seven to 12 degrees of rotation. The bones in the lumbar aren’t made to rotate, they’re only made to flex and extend. You can check it out, research it. They aren’t made to rotate. The rotation that you see is from the muscles surrounding the bones.
5:58
So we want to allow the lower half to decide our directional force or guide our directional force between the 90 degrees of fair territory. So we do not want our hitters over rotating. What we commonly see is that back foot over rotating.
6:14
But you’re going to see here, in this Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting mechanics video is, you’re going to see that back heel not rotate all the way over like you see a lot of young hitters do, and he’ll actually push it backwards. You can see it going backwards right here. He gets it almost to vertical, and then he pushes it backwards.
Shifting Foot Pressure?
6:33
We call this at Hitting Performance Lab, shifting foot pressure. So what generally happens is we’ll see foot pressure on the outside of the back foot, at this point at the stride, all the way to the touchdown, inside of the front foot.
6:47
Then when stride touchdown hits, you’re going to see Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting mechanics, he is going to shift his foot pressure to the opposite sides of each foot. So where he’s inside the front foot, outside the back foot. Now you’re going to see him shifting to the inside of the back foot, outside of the front foot.
7:07
Simple move sideways. You can practice this in your bedroom just shifting back and forth like a dance, shifting your footwork back and forth. Each foot sideways is going to be opposite of the other, where the foot pressure is. So as the swing starts, you’re going to see foot pressure outside. Again, back foot. It’s going to shift to the inside of the back foot outside of the front foot. You’re going to see him stay inside, see the back heel, you might see it get close to vertical but you’re never going to see it pop over towards the plate.
7:40
And then you’ll see him actually shift it even farther backwards behind him where we say trying to line up this back butt cheek with the back heel, see the outside of the front foot foot pressure, see it go from inside, to outside, and then the back foot… we’re going from outside to inside. And then as he’s swinging here, you’re going to see that back he’ll push even farther behind him.
8:07
You can see the bottom of his cleat here, again, remember this pitch was up and in. So you’re going to see more the bottom of the cleat, especially when it’s middle in possibly middle up depending on how close the ball is, you’re going to see the ball or the, you’re going to not see as much of the bottom of the front cleat if the ball’s middle away or middle down.
8:26
But you can see that shifting foot pressure beautiful for keeping the hitter effectively between the 90 degrees of the field. Alright, remember in this Fernando Tatis Jr hitting mechanics video we talked about:
Fan-graphs and a few stats there and how he’s 6’3″, 185 similar to the long lanky Ted Williams body back in 1938 or 39 when he broke into the league.
We talked about some examples of the Big Three the Catapult Loading System that Fernando Tatis Jr is using, and
We also ended on how he stays sideways using the shifting foot pressure and using his lower half effectively.
9:09
Make sure that we’re swinging smarter by moving better. And before I let you go…
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/2020/09/fernando-tatis-jr-hitting-mechanics-2.png7201280Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-11 09:00:282022-10-11 21:26:48Increase Hitting Power: Teach Kid To Hit Baseball Or Softball Farther & Harder Using Catapult Loading System Like Fernando Tatis Jr Swing!
Learn how to increase hitting power using the Catapult Loading System to hit a baseball or softball harder and farther like Pete Alonso.
Pete Alonso Swing Breakdown
Here’s what we cover in this Pete Alonso swing analysis:
A quick look into his height, weight, line drive, ground-ball, and fly-ball percentages,
Look at how many Catapult Loading System principles are mixed into his swing: Finger Pressure, Stable Head, Hollow Position, Showing Numbers, Downhill Shoulders, Hiding Hands…and
Look at how many Pitch Plane Dominator principles are a part of his swing: Barrel Path, Distance Between Feet, Back Foot Skip, Forward Momentum…
The Bottom line?
In doing this swing analysis, it looks like there is a little room for improvement that could move the needle in the following 4 ways:
Raising his line drive rate,
Raising his batting average,
Lowering his fly ball percentage, while also
Maintaining, if not surpassing, his current level of power…
Our favorite way to optimize line drives is challenging hitters to hit the ball back through the “tube”. Imagine the pitcher throwing the ball through a tube. We want the hitter to hit it back through the tube. Average line drive rate of Big Leaguers is 20%. This represents the “tube”. How do we accomplish this?
By teaching them to make adjustments using the psychological principle of paradoxical intention. You do the opposite of what you just did. If hitter hits a ball above the tube, then they focus on hitting the ball below the tube. If they hit it below, then they focus on hitting it above. Until they get it through the tube.
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pete-alonso-swing-analysis-e1569905182362.png408500Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-10 09:15:552022-10-21 05:19:26Increase Hitting Power Using Catapult Loading System To Hit Baseball Or Softball Harder & Farther Like Pete Alonso
. And a lot of instructors out there will take this to the extreme. And they think that by turning the pelvis in towards the catcher, so imagine a hitter’s belt buckle turning in to face the catcher. Like there was a flashlight coming out of the belt buckle and that you’re shining the flashlight at the catcher to get the hips some momentum.
just by keeping the pelvis in neutral and let the pelvis open when it does. He needs to create that bounce with the lower half, create that neck pressure up top.
in spinal engine, springy fascia.
says,
.
, I don’t believe that it is.
, which I highly recommend as a MUST read to anyone serious about teaching hitting. The information in his book holds the key to how hitting will be taught 5 years from now. BELIEVE IT.
, Dr. Serge Gracovetsky talks about this ‘hunched’ posture as the Posterior Ligamentous System (PLS) turning on, which acts like a harness supporting the spine under load. There’s less muscle activation when this happens. Think about a fishing rod bending under the weight and energy of a fish catching bait. This keeps the spine vertebrae safe through torsion forces.
. You will be even more amazed with his achievements.” – YouTube user: Gto1927
, by Thomas Myers, and
, by Dr. Serge Gracovetsky.
