Making Adjustments cont

Continuing with the adjustments theme, if we create a swing which can make adjustments efficiently, it will yield better results. From the previous post we learned that loading your hands back away from the pitcher creates a more gentle slope downwards, thus making it easier to bring them back up as an adjustment. Loading also lets the back elbow be in the right position close to the body when the hips and shoulders rotate around, called "slotting the elbow." This position lets your hands stay still relative to the body for as long as possible. This is an efficient movement because your body can replicate it for every swing no matter where the pitch is, rather than "throwing your hands" at any different pitch in the strike zone, which has a much larger margin for error.

So how do we hit pitches in different locations? We do this by adjusting shoulder and torso angles. Changing the angle of your torso and/or shoulders by a few degrees translates into a much larger change in the angle of your bat as shown in Figure 1. By changing the angle of your torso, your hands don't have to move as far up and down to hit pitches at different heights.


a)


b)

Figure 1: Adjustment of shoulder and torso angle to low a) and high b) pitches. Note how the hitter's back elbow is slotted, close but not touching the body, and pointing to the pitcher, not over the plate. Click to enlarge images.

Figure 1 a) and b) shows how much of range you can get with your bat just with changing the angle of your torso and shoulders. This angle is first initiated in the hitter's stance, and refers to the line from the belly button to the head leaning in towards the plate as shown in Figure 2. More lean is better for dropballs, less lean is better for riseballs. Referring back to the 5 questions, we know that pitch height is one of the first questions we can answer. Approximately within the first 10 feet the ball has traveled, we can already tell where the ball will end up. At this point, the brain has already decided how much lean the torso needs, and from here adjustments are made by the arms.

a)


b)

Figure 2: Differences in angle of torso in a hitter's stance. More lean a) is better for dropball pithcers, less lean b) is better for riseball pitchers. Click to enlarge images

Note #1: To make life easier, it's a good idea to start with a lean in your stance like in Figure 2 a), giving you less of a distance to go as the pitch is coming. Trying to lean in and rotate at the same time causes the batter to have too much weight on their toes and fall over. Having a lean in your stance also helps in getting your elbow slotted.

Note #2: By having a stance like this we are somewhat sacrificing not being able to hit the riseball very well. But since the strike zone is from the bottom of the sternum to the knees, we need to be able to hit more low pitches than high. Leaning over in your stance makes hitting dropballs easier because your hands don't have to drop as much to hit the ball. However, to hit a riseball, your hands and elbow must extend upwards faster in order to straighten your shoulders out and get the bat more level with the ground. So, if you're facing a riseball pitcher it would be a good idea to start more upright, making it easier for your hands to get above the ball.

The horizontal plane is much more simple. The only difference in hitting an outside to an inside pitch is how far you let your shoulders rotate before snapping your wrists. Again, see how much range the bat head has just by rotating your shoulders and not moving your hands <here>.