Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: John (chippero20@hotmail.com) on Sat Apr 19 08:14:37 2008

I agree with Jack. The bat head should be accelerating through the point of contact. Obviously, the torque will be diminished at contact but a lot of that has to do with the speed of the incoming pitch and the weight of the ball versus the weight of the bat and the torque behind it created by the hitter. Jack's 'welded wheel' theory can also be a factor but that type of swing should be clearly visible as there would be little fluid motion of the body. At 10, I don't know how much the child would understand but one of the concepts I always taught was 'drive the ball'. Although dangerous, chopping down a tree with an axe is the truest visualization of this: driving the axe head through the ball. From a total perspective, it could be the mental approach. A sound mechanical swing is great but a hitter must have an aggressive attacking mentality at the plate. When I was a high school coach, one of the visualizations we tried to create was the window, the tunnel, and the contact. In other words, nothing but the ball and the hitter. The entire process was 1. see the ball in the window (out of the pitcher's hand), 2. see it down the tunnel and 3. attack and drive the bat through the ball. Tunnel vision. At the plate, there is no need to see anything else unless you've got your hitting down to the point to run tactical hitting plays (bunts, hit and runs, etc). I think it is important to remember that drills are just that. It's totally different than being at the plate. Thus, I would be inclined to believe that it's more mental. The downfall to practice is that we don't have enough arms to do more 'live' hitting and do most of it in the cage. Try spending more time in live hitting (on the field) with this child and getting him to focus on attacking the ball without changing his swing. Look to see if he is tentative at the plate. I always taught my hitters that "you're going (swinging) until you're not". The idea is that "I am going to pull the trigger every time until I decide it's not a strike." Just some suggestions.

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> I agree with Jack.  The bat head should be accelerating through the point of contact.  Obviously, the torque will be diminished at contact but a lot of that has to do with the speed of the incoming pitch and the weight of the ball versus the weight of the bat and the torque behind it created by the hitter.  Jack's 'welded wheel' theory can also be a factor but that type of swing should be clearly visible as there would be little fluid motion of the body.  At 10, I don't know how much the child would understand but one of the concepts I always taught was 'drive the ball'.  Although dangerous, chopping down a tree with an axe is the truest visualization of this:  driving the axe head through the ball.  From a total perspective, it could be the mental approach.  A sound mechanical swing is great but a hitter must have an aggressive attacking mentality at the plate.  When I was a high school coach, one of the visualizations we tried to create was the window, the tunnel, and the contact.  In other words, nothing but the ball and the hitter.  The entire process was 1. see the ball in the window (out of the pitcher's hand), 2. see it down the tunnel and 3.  attack and drive the bat through the ball.  Tunnel vision.  At the plate, there is no need to see anything else unless you've got your hitting down to the point to run tactical hitting plays (bunts, hit and runs, etc).  I think it is important to remember that drills are just that.  It's totally different than being at the plate.  Thus, I would be inclined to believe that it's more mental.  The downfall to practice is that we don't have enough arms to do more 'live' hitting and do most of it in the cage.  Try spending more time in live hitting (on the field) with this child and getting him to focus on attacking the ball without changing his swing.  Look to see if he is tentative at the plate.  I always taught my hitters that "you're going (swinging) until you're not".  The idea is that "I am going to pull the trigger every time until I decide it's not a strike."  Just some suggestions.

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