Bat speed vs distance ball is hit

quote:

Originally posted by showme:
Because they have been taught to swing down and cut the ball for back spin. Hitting has a hard time moving out of the this is what I've been taught by such and such and this star say to do this staged.

Video camera and technology will throw a lot of the bad information out the window and help improve how hitting is taught. I think it will prove guys right too like Ted Williams. The hard thing is to change your mind about what you previously accepted as fact. A lot of people struggle with changing their mind when presented with facts. Personally, I'm glad all the technology is out there to clear up the confusion.

quote:

Originally posted by Leverage:

quote:

Originally posted by showme:
Because they have been taught to swing down and cut the ball for back spin. Hitting has a hard time moving out of the this is what I've been taught by such and such and this star say to do this staged.

Video camera and technology will throw a lot of the bad information out the window and help improve how hitting is taught. I think it will prove guys right too like Ted Williams. The hard thing is to change your mind about what you previously accepted as fact. A lot of people struggle with changing their mind when presented with facts. Personally, I'm glad all the technology is out there to clear up the confusion.

yeah so much for that...

Last week mine asked the owner of a facility Do you think MBL players swing up and he said no, they all swing down... and when I get my Right View pro software you'll see.

I then told him Slaught concludes the 162 MLB players he uses in his software swing up to contact... it wasn't pleasant. The problem is there's no graceful out.

As stated previously I beleive that the Swing plane must meet the plane of the pitch. Most pitches are thrown downward at approximatley 8-10 degrees so a line drive swing would have to swing on an similar upwards angle to hit the ball squarely. Ted Williams has a great illustration in his book, "The Science of Hitting" to show this. He was way ahead of his time stating that this was the "best" type of swing to hit a baseball squarely. And he did this without a lot of video analysis or modern technology. No wonder he was arguably the best hitter ever!

Now assuming the batter holds his hands at the top of his strike zone near the top of the shoulders he may swing "down" and then adjust upwards to match the plane of the downward traveling pitch. For example if the pitch is belt high the swing has to go down in some degree to enable the batter to match the plane of the pitch.

IF your facility owner/manager/instructor referenced the swing in this manner his statement is somewhat plausible. But to generalize that you must swing down on every pitch is not a good way of validating his statement. If he cannot communicate this to you then I would find another instructor who studies the game and is willing to adapt/accept information, as the analysis of the mechanics of baseball continues to evolve. As I state to all my students and other instructors, "It's what you learn AFTER you know it all that counts." LOL