Who has not dreamt of hitting a homerun? Who is the player, the parent or the coach that is not frustrated with infield pop-ups and soft grounders? Let me tell you a secret, teaching to hit a ball hard or to increase exit speed is all about science.
When batting, power is reflected in exit speed. In physics, you can calculate power based on force and speed if the force acts along the direction of travel. In that case, Power is Force times Speed: P = F x V. Simplifying, Force correlates to Mass and Speed must account for initial acceleration and sustained acceleration over time.
Let me break it down.
The exit speed of a ball is based on the speed and mass of the ball and speed of the bat (barrel speed) and force/mass behind the swing. There are other numbers to plug in this in this equation because the ball and the swing travel in opposite directions. But since the hitter can only control the speed and direction of the swing and her/his force, we are going to focus on this side of the power equation to increase exit speed.
When I am working on increasing the exit speed of one of my players, I start by creating a baseline profile of that player. I hook her/him up to a Diamond Kinetic Swing Tracker, use a pocket radar, and film them in slow motion to capture the little things that my instincts can only guess in the few milliseconds that takes to swing. Then, I develop individualized drills to increase barrel speed based on the player's age and physical strength, bat angle, hand speed, and maximum acceleration. Other factors might influence exit speed, but these are the ones that I see the most:
Player's Physical Strength
This is a no brainer. The easiest way to increase exit speed is to get more muscle mass. A stronger player can apply more force to create maximum acceleration at contact. Of course, exit speed will increase naturally as a young player grows. Success is about hitting at the average or above exit speed at her/his division level though. If a player is not physically gifted and does not work out, there is so much that working on swing mechanics can do.
Bat Angle
Initial acceleration can be decreased by an improper bat angle when loading and launching. Besides creating all sorts of swing path issues, a hitter rarely reaches her/his power potential when the bat is too flat on the shoulder, bat is too straight up, the knob is point towards the pitcher or straight down to the ground. I am not saying that a ball cannot be put in play with certain power at such bat angle, or that it is not a good strategy when slapping or punching through a hit-and-run play. I am talking of maximizing power. The bat at 30–45-degree angle with the knob towards the catcher at launch creates more torque, thus more speed. Try to find a pro hitter that does not move the knob towards the catcher at launch.
Hand Speed
Power is Force times Speed. A big player with slow hands might generate the same amount of power than smaller player with faster hands. To improve their exit speed, players must alter the numbers of this equation by generating more force or more hand speed.
There are several reasons for slow hands, but the most common ones are: improper bat weight and/or balance, hand casting, hands dropping, back elbow tucking, and barrel dumping. For the sake of keeping this post short, I'll devote another post to explain all these issues later.
Maximum Acceleration
The swing is a chain of sequential, concentric movements that uses our spine as a rotational axel. We do not rotate our full body at once during the swing. As an upside-down tornado, the sequence of these rotations generates power from the ground up initiating and accelerating the next movement. To achieve maximum acceleration, our legs must transfer our weight balance from back to front while our front foot and back knee most rotate towards second base (right-hand hitter) to trigger and allow our hip full horizontal rotation. The hip rotation triggers and powers the shoulders tilted rotation. The tilt of the shoulders starts the rotation of the elbows and the connection of the back arm to the back, initiating the hands and the centrifugal movement of the bat swing from launch to finish. The more force that each of these rotations generates from the legs up, the more speed the next movement gains adding to barrel speed metrics, thus more exit speed.
Players that have problems with their swing sequence, have unbalanced launch positions, or have weak legs hit the ball with the upper body or just the hands leaving behind the power created by the rotation of the lower body.
Fortunately, there are many drills too correct all these problems and increase exit speed. The trick is to find a couple of them that are right for a particular player based on her/his age and skill level. I find useful to explain these scientific concepts to my players. Of course, I use other terms when talking to the very young ones. I found that all players are more focused when they understand the logic and goals of hitting drills, plus I have tons of hitting toys to demonstrate the physics of some issues and make hitting drills fun.
Yes, I am a nerd. I know.
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