Posted by: Sly (silvas-36176@mypacks.net) on Sun Feb 13 10:22:40 2011

> > Hi Jack,
> >
> > I'm trying to create a graphic which shows how the phrase "match the plane of the bat
to the plane of the pitch" can cause confusion in the mind of the reader or a hitter.
> >
> > My question is: If you are playing a game of catch with someone and they throw a
baseball to you -- and for sake of the discussion we will say it's a fastball and gravity has
no effect on it -- what is the "plane" of the pitch?
> >
> I agree it's hard to get young hitters to understand that the ball is coming downward,
and to hit it hard consistently they've got to square it up. Most of them think it's level, like
if there was no gravity AND the pitcher wasn't on a mound. Then the plane would be much
less slanted and would only go down from the pitcher's release point to the strike zone a
couple of inches, appearing flat to a hitter.
> One idea we try to put in their mind is "get the hands above the ball and bat head below
the ball" when they swing. Thoughts on that?

Hi Steve,

Yes, I like "get the hands above the ball and bat head below the ball". It's a short and
snappy and does not seem to be something that would be open to misinterpretation. It is
my understanding that with this approach, its possible for the bat to travel along the flight
line of the ball longer than with other types of swings. On a low pitch the swing plane will
be tilted/angled more diagonally and with a high pitch less diagonally.

I asked Jake at the Mike Epstein Hitting website about this the other day, and he basically
said when he does video analysis, he traces the pitch on a "line" as it enters the hitting
zone -- then he looks to see how long the bat stays on that line.

Thinking of the ball as coming in on a string, angled from pitcher's release point to the
catcher's mitt makes sense to me. The longer the hitter can keep his bat traveling along
this line, through the hitting zone, the better the batter's chances for solid contact.
(Contrast this swing to the "chop style / A to B / shoulder strap" swing, in which the bat
goes directly down to POC and continues through the flight line of the ball).

Back to the original point about "matching the plane of the pitch to the plane of the swing".
This phrase, (in comparison to your "hands above/bat head below") is short and sweet, but
is open to misinterpretation (Does a moving sphere or ball create a plane?/ What does
"match" mean exactly?) Of course, the line of flight "could" exist on a plane, but rather than
telling the batter to match two different planes -- why not tell them to make sure the line
of the ball is on (or contained) in the bat's swing plane? Is there is a simple phase that says
that?