do baseball players have one-plane or two-plane swings?

[bryan@nobackswing.com]

it looks (at least at a glance) that most baseball players swing in two distinct planes, with their bat starting perpendicular to the ground and then leveling out to parallel at the point of contact. i'd think this would be terribly inefficient as far as making contact with the ball, at least compared to a swing that started and ended on the same plane as the incoming pitch.

but try making a one-plane swing with a baseball bat (ie: starting with bat parallel to ground) and it's hard to get much speed. certainly no power hitters i've ever seen do it. they drop into a slot, similar to golfers. and this is with a 90+ mile projectile coming at them.

below link is a youtube video with some MLBers: Adrian Gonzalez, Chipper Jones, Ken Griffey Jr., Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, Mickey Mantle, etc.

MLB Swings - YouTube

thoughts?

 

[spktho]

There is no set plane to swing on in baseball, it is constantly changing even if hitting off a tee. Maybe, and this is stretching it, it is ideal to be on the same plane as the incoming pitch at the impact interval. That is very debatable too.

 

[hp12c]

it looks (at least at a glance) that most baseball players swing in two distinct planes, with their bat starting perpendicular to the ground and then leveling out to parallel at the point of contact. i'd think this would be terribly inefficient as far as making contact with the ball, at least compared to a swing that started and ended on the same plane as the incoming pitch.

but try making a one-plane swing with a baseball bat (ie: starting with bat parallel to ground) and it's hard to get much speed. certainly no power hitters i've ever seen do it. they drop into a slot, similar to golfers. and this is with a 90+ mile projectile coming at them.

below link is a youtube video with some MLBers: Adrian Gonzalez, Chipper Jones, Ken Griffey Jr., Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, Mickey Mantle, etc.

MLB Swings - YouTube

thoughts?

The plane, the plane, no this is not fantasy island, if you remember fantasy island we are close in age if not then u are much younger. When I was playing ball and was really into it I didnt hear about the plane of the bat, hand ect. but what I did hear alot was tapplying torque to the bat via the hands to get the bathead through the hitting zone. Mr batspeed talks alot about on his website very interesting. From those swings I did notice how much the bat moves away from the batter and how much higher the lead shoulder goes up and the rear shoulder goes down, on the top view of PeteRose you see how much right wrist bend he loses as he gets to through the ball, so similar to golf. Swinging/hitting with a stick is so similar.

 

[Brian Manzella]

That's why I don't teach such a ridiculous idea.

 

[bgoodyear]

You can't have a single plane when you don't know where that plane needs to be. They get the bat up high in order to drop the head at different locations. Apples and oranges.

 

[Jwat]

I never dropped my bat into a swing plane during the swing and neither do most hitters. We may all drop our bat into a position before we START to swing but never during the swing. Totally different than a golf swing which is why most baseball players suck at making a golf swing, unless you are a pitcher.

 

[BIGBALL]

I never dropped my bat into a swing plane during the swing and neither do most hitters. We may all drop our bat into a position before we START to swing but never during the swing. Totally different than a golf swing which is why most baseball players suck at making a golf swing, unless you are a pitcher.

Sigh... as a former baseball player myself, I can vouch for this all too well

 

[willgolfer]

This guy would probably know.


The Physics of Baseball