Something I’ve been looking at lately is the movement of the barrel before the barrel starts the arc to the ball. More specifically, I’m looking at HOW the bat is moving prior to the turn. In the “elite” pattern, the barrel will arc deeper, on plane and turn behind the rear forearm. With some hitters, there is an interesting flow of energy with the barrel. The bat will move “along the length” before starting on the arc to the hitting zone. This certainly falls under style, but I feel it is something worth considering and testing out for yourself or with your hitters.
For an example, let’s look at a clip of Albert Pujols.
In this isolated version, we can see how the bat works “up” along the length of the bat for a few frames before the turn is initiated.
We can also see the hip action initiating during the movement in the swing. When trying to build swing cues, something like “Make the tip of the bat go back as the front hip goes back” is the first thing that comes to mind. Study the clip above and see how the front hip and the bat are working in the same direction. It makes for a really cool visual.
This is our next swing challenge! I would love to see some clips of members attempting this movement. I think it will make for an interesting case study! So submit your swings via email and we’ll look over the video once we have enough submissions.
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