Posted by: Sandman () on Wed Feb 19 05:05:28 2003

So Teacherman - plane is not plane it is a UPSWING and the bat is not on plane it is going UP. I understand that - but why use the word plane if you are talking about upswing. PLANE just means something different to me.

plane n. (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=plane)
1. Mathematics. A surface containing all the straight lines that connect any two points on it.
2. A flat or level surface.

On another board, I had tried to help someone visualize this plane by drawing (freehand) some planes on two guys swings:
http://www.eteamz.com/baseball/boards/baseball/message.cfm?id=665058&action=display&display=threaded

If you were to view the video clips of these swings w/ the planes over them, you'd see that they're pretty close to each player's swing plane. FWIW, I've also measured (w/ V1 Home Ed.) the angle of the incoming pitch on the guy on the right, and it is 12 degrees. Not-so-coincidentally, his swing plane is very close.

And BTW, at only 5'4" 135lbs 28 yrs old, he absolutely CRUSHES the ball! When he was an even much smaller LL age, he was the short guy hitting them over the fence. People always used to ask him: "for being so small, how do you hit it so hard?".

Anyway, hope this helps.

Regards,
Sandman