Mechanics Update - Hitting and Pitching
Here’s a still frame from live batting practice in a cage:
There’s a lot of ugly stuff going on in the video I took, so I don’t want to totally embarrass myself, but this is a major problem in my swing. It’s called “bat drag,” and it occurs when the swing gets too long or when the elbows get out in front of the bat. The malfunction in the swing is caused by torquing the hands/arms too early, rather than getting the bat out in front by cutting it across your chest. I hate the phrase “take the knob of the bat to the ball,” since it defeats a ton of rotational hitting theory (which is what I subscribe to and see in most good MLB hitters), but nevertheless it is applicable here.
Other flaws in my swing include hip slide after footplan. This will cause lost power and poor perception of the baseball in flight.
But enough with the bad (for now), on with the good! I have been trying to change a lot of my pitching mechanics for the past few weeks to help my control and my velocity, and I finally have clicked a bit on both issues. I’ll post a detailed gamelog later, but I went two innings the other day, striking out one, walking two, and allowing no hits while throwing almost all fastballs. The hitters were telling me that they were behind the fastball because all of my outs occurred on weak popups to the infield or short outfield. It was a real good shot to my confidence.
Without further ado, here’s a clip that I liked that showed improved velocity:
This clip is slowed down to 1/10 seconds per frame (I think). Here’s what I changed:
- Carry more momentum from leg kick apex to footplant
- Drift through the balance point
- Delay the arm and feel the disconnection between the body and the arm to produce the “whip” effect
Now, is this image perfect? Definitely not. My long, loopy arm action sucks, and I’m still getting into the high cocked position too early. However, the improvements are significant - I’m throwing much harder and my curveball grip is coming along nicely. What I need to work on in the future is breaking the hands later, speeding up the body more, drifting through the balance point more, and developing a more “elbowy” arm action instead of taking it straight back.
After studying this animated image sequence, it’s also very evident that I pronate extremely well after throwing the ball, which is really good news for my elbow. I’m happy I don’t have to teach myself this.
Here’s the full side session video. I think the increase in velocity on the fastball is markedly improved. Yes, I am telegraphing the off-speed pitches, but that’s the least of my concerns at this point.Pitches in order:
- Four-seam fastball
- Overhand curveball
- Two-seam gyroball
on August 18th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
I took thousands of swings in high school refining my swing. I used my mind’s eye to imagine a pitch being delivered and focused on putting a perfect swing on it. I would step in to pitches away, step away from pitches inside, and pick up my heel and set it back down for pitches down the middle. I never worried about where the ball went, just the swing. Since you see live pitching, I think you’ll be able to use this technique. I focused on getting the bat into to hitting zone as quickly as possible and getting my arms extended at the moment of impact. If you look at the Bonds video you’ll see that he does exactly that. After grooving my swing I went from bottom of the order to lead-off in no time flat and settled in at clean-up. I weighed 155 soaking wet and none of the big boys on my team could touch me as a power hitter. Work on shortening up your swing and timing arm extension with ball contact and next year will be lots of fun.