Posted by: Matt Schirm (coachschirm@hotmail.com) on Thu Mar 22 21:00:36 2007

Ian,

Power equals work divided by time where work equals force multiplied by distance. Therefore, to increase your power, you need to increase force, increase distance, decrease time, or a combination of these changes.

To increase force, first you should perfect, as closely as possible, the proper force application techniques for baseball batters. Second, you should train the muscles that apply force by practicing the force application techniques daily.

Because successful batting requires great timing, the distance over which you accelerate the center of mass of your bat should be a short as possible. Therefore, I do not recommend increasing distance in order to increase power.

Finally, to decrease the time that it takes you to produce maximal force, I recommend underloading (i.e. swinging implements lighter than your game bat).

I hope this helps.

Matt Schirm