Posted by: Chris (cburr@gwu.edu) on Thu Feb 3 08:17:02 2000

The downward plane is used essentially because it is the most efficent, and the most powerful. The downward plane creates backspin and forces a hitter to wait; thus the hips can lead the hands. Hand path becomes elongated and upper arched as the hands get ahead of the hips. This is evident when a hitter slows his bat to hit to the opposite field, often the result is a weak fly or bloop. Train a downward exaggerated swing plane in conjunction with a lead of the hips first. Keep in mind they are virtually simultanous actions, the hips and the hands will move together. The key is to gain bat speed and allow more time for tracking the pitch,while maximizing power in the swing. This is done effectively by most hitters who are rotational and cut the ball from the top down.