How do you enhance upon a season wherein you had been named an All-American? In his freshman 12 months at Oregon State, Travis Bazzana hit .306/.425/.478 with 16 doubles and 6 house runs enroute to Freshman All-American and All-Pac-12 honors. Whereas most gamers and coaches would use the previous “if it ain’t broke, don’t repair it” mantra, Travis got here to Driveline this summer season with the aim of hitting the ball tougher and making higher contact with pitches up within the zone.
With the ability to measure how a hitter’s physique strikes all through the swing is crucial for understanding tips on how to enhance hitting efficiency. No two athletes share the very same motion sample, however there are widespread positions and actions that the very best hitters within the recreation routinely show. Elite degree hitters even have a superb really feel for what their strengths/weaknesses are and the way they will tailor their recreation to deal with them. However how does one strategy improvement with elite hitters in order that they enhance their deficiencies with out sacrificing the traits that make them particular?
Whereas using applied sciences like Blast Movement and HitTrax to trace the bat and ball-flight is an effective way to observe the result of the swing, movement seize is invaluable as a result of it permits one to know the underlying mechanisms resulting in these outcomes. Prior to now, coaches and athletes have used 2D video as a technique to establish and monitor adjustments to a hitter’s swing however that is subjective and doesn’t inform the total story of how the hitter was producing the swing, particularly in elite hitters when the margins are smaller. That is why we use movement seize, which permits us to quantify the motion of the swing and get on the smaller coaching margins that exist when working with elite-level athletes. To see how movement seize can be utilized to assist elite hitters improve their swing, let’s check out information from Travis’s evaluation in June of 2022 and his retest in August.
WHAT CHANGED AND HOW DID IT CHANGE?
Previous to coming to Driveline, Travis already possessed elite-level skills in two of the three elements of Driveline’s “Massive 3”: bat-to-ball expertise and swing choices. In different phrases, Travis was already nice at realizing when to swing and making stable contact when he did, so rising his bat velocity and decreasing his assault angle would enhance his potential to hit for energy and canopy all components of the zone.
That is the place leveraging biomechanical information from movement seize assessments makes all of the distinction in monitoring motion adjustments and guaranteeing that the hitter isn’t creating new issues for his or her swing throughout coaching. When evaluating the information from Travis’s preliminary movement seize evaluation to his retest evaluation, some evident adjustments in his swing depth, posture, and the way he was “turning” the barrel seem, which possible performed a job in his improved bat velocity and assault angle.
Posture:
One of many first changes Travis’ hitting coach, Andrew Aydt, steered for Travis was to deal with sustaining a extra upright posture in his stance and swing. The thought was that this is able to produce much less facet bend in Travis’ swing, making a tighter rotation and permitting him to make higher contact with pitches up within the zone or pitches with decrease vertical strategy angles. Utilizing movement seize information, we are able to have a look at the angle of the torso all through the swing to quantify facet bend.
When evaluating Travis’s preliminary evaluation in June along with his 6-week retest, the lower in facet bend is straightforward to see and permits him to be in a extra upright place that will get his lead arm to take care of a extra flat swing path as he rotates by way of contact. As you’ll be able to see, the 6.98 diploma lower in facet bend was all it took for Travis to position his physique ready to generate a flatter swing airplane.
Swing Depth:
With the ability to measure the quantity of facet bend a hitter has can inform you a large number about how flat or steep their swing is, however to know for positive we have now to have a look at how the barrel is shifting by way of house. To try this, we are able to have a look at the entire vertical displacement of the candy spot (a degree measured 6 inches from the tip of the bat) throughout the swing to see how flat or steep it’s. In different phrases, we’re trying on the distinction between the best & lowest vertical positions of the candy spot throughout the swing. When evaluating Travis’ two movement seize classes, his common vertical barrel displacement decreased by over 5 inches, indicating a flatter swing arc. As you’ll be able to see, his bat traveled a higher distance vertically in his preliminary evaluation (crimson), making a steeper swing profile that doesn’t enable him to match planes with pitches up within the zone.
Which means Travis was in a position to set up a extra environment friendly swing sample through the use of much less house and swinging the bat sooner. And a flatter, extra environment friendly swing sample led to outcomes like this:
Barrel Flip:
Swinging the bat sooner and producing a flatter swing airplane is nice, but it surely doesn’t actually matter if the hitter is “pushy” with their fingers or lacks adjustability and the power to show the barrel appropriately. There are possible a number of various factors that may result in a pushy swing, however we are able to quantify this with movement seize information. By taking a look at high hand max wrist supination in tandem with the speed at which the hitter is supinating their wrist from the loaded place till contact, we are able to get a fairly good sense of a hitter’s potential to withstand releasing their barrel too early. Extra high hand wrist supination might inform us that the hitter is popping the barrel too early. As we are able to see, Travis decreased his wrist supination, demonstrating that he wasn’t releasing the barrel too early. This may be seen within the picture beneath with a better total worth on the finish of the graph or round contact.
CONCLUSION:
So, let’s do a fast recap of what precisely Travis Bazzana was in a position to do throughout simply six brief weeks of coaching at Driveline this summer season: he elevated his bat velocity by 5 mph, elevated his high 8th exit velocity by 4.3 mph, and developed a flatter swing that may enable him to match his swing airplane to pitches up within the zone. We will quantify these issues and rather more, particularly as the mixing of ball-tracking programs into movement seize programs improves. Monitoring a participant’s exit velocity and bat velocity reveals what an athlete’s potential is and the sort of know-how has turn out to be rather more prevalent in participant improvement due to commercially accessible programs, the identical can’t be stated of the kinematic variables that assist clarify to athletes and workers the how of their improvement. As we’ve seen occur with the event of pitchers, the day will come the place movement seize and biomechanical information are conditions for any group that’s critical about creating hitters.
