Swing changes through Motion Capture-Hitting Biomechanics

How do you enhance upon a season during which you had been named an All-American? In his freshman yr at Oregon State, Travis Bazzana hit .306/.425/.478 with 16 doubles and 6 residence runs enroute to Freshman All-American and All-Pac-12 honors. Whereas most gamers and coaches would use the outdated “if it ain’t broke, don’t repair it” mantra, Travis got here to Driveline this summer season with the objective of hitting the ball more durable and making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 essential for understanding learn 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 sport routinely display. Elite degree hitters even have a wonderful really feel for what their strengths/weaknesses are and the way they’ll tailor their sport to handle them.  However how does one method 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 a good way to observe the end result of the swing, movement seize is invaluable as a result of it permits one to grasp the underlying mechanisms resulting in these outcomes. Up to now, coaches and athletes have used 2D video as a strategy to determine and monitor adjustments to a hitter’s swing however that is subjective and doesn’t inform the complete story of how the hitter was producing the swing, particularly in elite hitters when the margins are smaller. Because of this 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 knowledge 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 “Big 3”: bat-to-ball expertise and swing choices. In different phrases, Travis was already nice at figuring out when to swing and making stable contact when he did, so growing his bat velocity and reducing his assault angle would enhance his potential to hit for energy and canopy all components of the zone.

That is the place leveraging biomechanical knowledge 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 info 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 seemingly performed a task in his improved bat velocity and assault angle.

Posture:

One of many first changes Travis’ hitting coach, Andrew Aydt, instructed for Travis was to give attention to sustaining a extra upright posture in his stance and swing. The thought was that this could produce much less aspect 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 method angles. Utilizing movement seize knowledge, we are able to take a look at the angle of the torso all through the swing to quantify aspect bend.

When evaluating Travis’s preliminary evaluation in June along with his 6-week retest, the lower in aspect bend is simple 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 via contact. As you possibly can see, the 6.98 diploma lower in aspect bend was all it took for Travis to put his physique ready to generate a flatter swing airplane.

Swing Depth:

With the ability to measure the quantity of aspect bend a hitter has can inform you numerous about how flat or steep their swing is, however to know for certain we have now to have a look at how the barrel is shifting via area. To do this, we are able to take a look at the full vertical displacement of the candy spot (a degree measured 6 inches from the tip of the bat) in the course of the swing to see how flat or steep it’s. In different phrases, we’re wanting on the distinction between the very best & lowest vertical positions of the candy spot in the course of 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 possibly can see, his bat traveled a larger distance vertically in his preliminary evaluation (purple), making a steeper swing profile that doesn’t enable him to match planes with pitches up within the zone.

Which means that Travis was capable of set up a extra environment friendly swing sample through the use of much less area 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, nevertheless it doesn’t actually matter if the hitter is “pushy” with their arms or lacks adjustability and the power to show the barrel appropriately. There are seemingly a number of various factors that may result in a pushy swing, however we are able to quantify this with movement seize knowledge. By 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 may 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 the next general worth on the finish of the graph or round contact.

CONCLUSION:

         So, let’s do a fast recap of what precisely Travis Bazzana was capable of do throughout simply six brief weeks of coaching at Driveline this summer season: he elevated his bat velocity by 5 mph, elevated his high 8^th exit velocity by 4.3 mph, and developed a flatter swing that can enable him to match his swing airplane to pitches up within the zone. We are able to quantify these issues and far more, particularly as the combination of ball-tracking methods into movement seize methods improves.  Monitoring a participant’s exit velocity and bat velocity reveals what an athlete’s potential is and any such know-how has turn into far more prevalent in participant improvement because of commercially out there methods, the identical can’t be mentioned 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 knowledge are conditions for any group that’s critical about creating hitters.