Posted by: Mister X () on Fri May 9 07:39:22 2003

Just some more thoughts on the batspeed at full extension vs. at the "L" position.
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> I had the great privaledge to see the long drive competition on ESPN tonight. Obviously, the goal of the competition is to hit the ball the farthest (also somewhat the straighest, but mostly the farthest). And to hit the ball the farthest there are two things involved.
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> 1) hit the ball squarely on the sweet spot.
> 2) hit the ball with a lot of batspeed.
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> If you would have watched the competition, you would have seen that nearly all of the players hit with clubs that had 50 or more inch shafts AND all hit at extension. Why is that? The laws of circular motion tell you.
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> If you put a bat, golf club, or anything with a length into circular motion, which part is moving the fastest? The farthest most part on the object (the bat head or golf club head). That is because the end of the bat or club is covering more distance in the same about of time.
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> So what does this mean. It tells me that the long drivers know that they need to get max club speed to hit the ball the farthest. And they know they have to use long clubs and hit at extension to do this.
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> Same thing in baseball. To hit the ball the farthest, the same two factors apply. But in baseball, the ball is not sitting still on a tee. It is moving at high speeds and comes in at different locations. So players choose to hit in the "L" position because it allows them to make better contact, at the cost of losing some batspeed.
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> Max batspeed (club speed) occurs at the farthest point out (at the tip of the bat/club with extension). Long drive golfers know that, and we baseball players should know it as well.



This is a post made by Coach C that I copied directly from the "power hitting" thread above. Thank you Coach C for proving my point (if you meant to or not).

"Batspeed before contact, not post contact. I've seen plenty of people who can generate great batspeed....85+ Mph, but couldn't hit very far, unless they hit the ball way out front and pull or push it. I've seen people look effortless at 80 Mph or less and hit bombs regularly. The difference is that the great hitters get to that speed prior to contact, the poor hitters get that speed at post contact. Taller people have longer limbs as well and with mechanics that are executed correctly, the arc of the swing would be longer creating more speed on the end. Think of a ball on the end of a string.....The longer the string the faster the ball will go when it's released.

I don't know if you golf, but the radius of Ernie Els' swing is extremely long, this allows him to generate more club head speed than most, thus hitting the ball a ton. Look at how long John Daly's swing is. Now I'm not advocating we preach length......but when your limbs are longer (and the mechanics correct) you have no choice. Tall guys anatomically should have an advantage in batspeed, but their strikezone is larger and that's the trade off.

There are either key elements as well, such as core strength and leg stability, but all things being equal, length builds speed (a good thing), but takes more time (not a good thing).


Respectfully,

Coach C"

I know that the golf swing is not exactly identical to the baseball swing, but they are very similar. And the same laws of motion apply to both sports. One obvious "Ernie Els" or "John Daly" example in baseball would be Ken Griffey Jr. He is tall with long arms and has a very smooth effortless looking swing. I don't know MLB players exact batspeeds, but I wouldn't be surprised if his is actually one of the best because of his long arms even though he doesn't seem to put as much effort into it as others. And he does crush the ball. Another quick example might be Valdimir Guerrero.