Posted by: Marcus Boyd () on Mon Jul 5 11:19:08 2004

I just did some BP and I noticed that I had a very very short arc in my swing, what seemd like a linear handpath combined with the shoulder's rotation. As a result my swing was too short and I was hitting everything on the end of the bat. When I did lengthen my swing to a wider arc I made solid contact. So is a wider circular handpath the way to go? Wasn't it Mark McGwire who said you should be as short as possible?
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> > Doug,
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> > That depends on where the pitch is in relation to your body. The more outside the pitch is, the more the hand path widens. I think the key words in McGwire's statement are "as possible." On an inside pitch, it's possible to keep the hand path very close to the body...not so with a pitch further out over the plate.
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> > Marcus
> Forgot to mention that. I'm hitting inside pitches on the tip of the bat too.

Doug,

Either your arms are shorter in proportion to the rest of your body (than the average person), you're stance is too far from the plate, or your contact point is off (or some combination of the three).

As for your positioning to the plate, that is a matter of your body's dimensions (arm length, etc.) and personal preference. A little experimenting will help you determine where you should be standing in the batter's box. You should be able to cover the entire plate with the barrel of the bat.

This is where contact point comes into play. Where are you making contact with the pitch? If you are positioned properly where you can easily reach both inside and outside pitches with the "good part" of the bat, you are likely swinging too early, i.e., making contact too far out in front of your body for outside AND inside pitches. Note that if you were "getting jammed," i.e., hitting the ball off the handle of the bat, you are making contact too far back toward the catcher.

Now, exactly where to make contact will vary depending on the location of the pitch, distance of the batter from the plate, arm length, etc. One thing people will generally agree on, though, is that in order to make contact with a pitch on the inside third of the plate (and hit it on the sweet spot of the bat), the hitter will hit the ball on a vertical plane slightly in front of the front foot. Middle of the plate pitches will be hit on a vertical plane somewhere almost exactly even with (or slightly behind) the front foot. A pitch on the outside third of the plate requires contact a little further back toward the catcher than middle of the plate pitches.

Imagine a diagonal line drawn over home plate starting on the inside part of the plate (and on that vertical plane in front of the front foot) then going through the plate to (likely behind the plate) where you would make contact on that outside pitch on the sweet spot of the bat. A vertical plane through that line is about where you would have to hit any pitch to hit it on the good part of the bat.

Of course, the proper chp and torque will force you to adjust the distance of the hand path from your body.

Sorry about the long answer...but this is it as I see it and practice it on the field.

Marcus