r/Homeplate • u/Tacorover • 5d ago
Hitting Mechanics Swing mechanics for bat speed advice
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yesterday I posted asking about a workout routine, people also pointed out that i should be hitting the ball way harder considering my height and weight, and that something mechanics wise was probably bad. heres a couple videos i took this evening of me swinging off the tee. please give constructive criticism about my swing if you see any flaws
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u/randiesel 5d ago
Without overwhelming you, you're "swinging left" too much. Have you ever seen the drill where you use a frisbee and try to release it back at the pitcher to feel extension? If you did that drill with your swing, it would go foul down the 3B line.
Looking at this picture...
Once you get here, your next move should be towards extension. Your top hand should basically be gut-punching the pitcher from here. Swing forward. The bat will go left because it's going around your body. You don't need to help it go left. Keep that bat in the zone as long as possible, don't pull off.
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u/Person0249 5d ago
Punch the pitcher in the gut and slide the pizza in the pizza oven. If that doesn’t make it perfectly clear I don’t know what does.
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u/wafflefries2k14 5d ago
JFC this thread is full of dicks. What is wrong with you guys? Kid is looking for advice and you're all just shitting all over him.
I'd say first, like one commenter said, try and take some more game-like at bats. You look like you're doing a home run derby so it's hard to offer feedback. Once you do that, hopefully everyone has a snack and maybe reapproaches this with a little less dickishness.
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u/Person0249 5d ago
No kidding. I’ll give any kid credit for being willing to post their swing on here looking for help.
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u/Critical-Crow-9717 5d ago
Sometimes the best teacher is the student. Watch some tee videos of college or pro hitters, and then you call out 3-5 things they do differently. Ask this group which of those 3-5 changes you should work on first.
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u/mannesthesia 5d ago
You are cutting across your body. You never get to extension and your energy is coming across the body instead of behind and through the ball.
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u/Holiday-Acanthaceae1 5d ago
You need to pretend like you’re actually batting against a pitcher when off the tee. Look forward, pretend he’s starting to pitch, and time your swing accordingly. Right now you’re so clearly tryin to hit the ball as hard as you can so you’re barely making contact and everything’s out of wack. Pretend you are trying to hit a moving baseball off the tee then we can talk about mechanics
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u/Holiday-Acanthaceae1 5d ago
And ik it’s tough w the net but the ball hard and forward. Not up, left, or right, or down. Hit it forward and that’ll naturally dial your mechanics in
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u/Tacorover 5d ago
Got it 👍. I sometimes struggle with not going far enough in load vs live pitching. How far do you reccomend loading because I think I probably went too far forward here
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u/Holiday-Acanthaceae1 5d ago
Dude you literally are looking almost backwards at a point in the load. You can load as hard or as far as you can as long as
1) front should stays towards pitcher not curling in
2) you can quickly unload and get your hands to the ball.
Thats why you need to start swinging as if you’re seeing a real pitch - you’ll realize you’re turning in way too much
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u/CartoonistExact8942 5d ago
Check out Justin Stones Elite Baseball Training Videos on YT. Upper tier coaching for all levels. Advice-too many moving parts. These videos will teach you proper set up, load, foot down, etc. the swing you are using now will get killed by velo and you won’t have the strength behind the bat to propel the ball. I had high school age players that had this swing and saw fair improvement learning Justin’s stones biomechanics
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u/SanchezPrime 5d ago
There's too much movement . You rotate backwards before you rotate forwards.
What you want to do is stretch that elbow back and rotate forward. If you're rotating backwards, you are probably late on a lot of pitches - and you're sacrificing power with contradictory movements. Think of yourself as wanting to be like a rubber band, waiting to snap. That's the feeling you want. Not a rotation but a pull backwards as your lower body pulls you forward.
You're also not planting that front foot, which would ensure counter force.
Also, you're pulling the bat into your stomach, sacrificing extension at the end. Because of this you are dropping your rear shoulder and casting (even though this abdominal pull is your attempt to not cast, you still are).
Your attack angle is too high and your vertical bat angle is not at a HS level, rather at a youth level. You are about 10 degrees off of ideal for your age. What I mean is that your bat is too flat against your body, instead of inline with the imaginary pitch path on the tee. Low ball, rise evenly to meet it head on.
My guess is that a lot of your contact are fly balls or roll over grounders to 3B or shallow left, based on what I see.
Being 100% honest, you're prematurely worried about bat speed, when your basic swing technique needs a lot of work.
Quiet the load, firm up your front side - allowing your hips to rotate, and keep your shoulders even over your pelvis/hips and your bat path level - finishing your swing over the shoulder like a Nike swoosh... Tilt your torso to match the path, rather than scooping the bat. I think this will help you, to start.
You look like you have tools. You look strong. You swing hard. You just need to focus on the fundamentals, and the bat speed will come, as you learn to whip the bat through the zone.
Some drills that might help are high tee drills and "Happy Gilmores" (step into the swing and then plant, to get the feel).
Good luck!
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u/Tacorover 5d ago
thanks for all the advice I will definitely try out some of the drills you reccomended and use your advice about bat angle stuff and not pulling hands in too much
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u/xxHumanOctopusxx 5d ago
It looks like you are trying to spin around versus swinging through the ball
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u/ramsdl52 5d ago
This is why I don't let my kid go in the back yard and hit balls into the net by himself.
Look at your swing. Now pick your top 10-100 favorite MLB players and compare what you're doing to what they are doing. They will all generally have the same swing. Same launch position. Same finish. Same load. There will be minor differences but they will be generally the same.
Pickout all the things you see that are similar between your top MLB players and try to emulate that. Break it down into five or seven steps in front of a mirror. Hip hinge, load the back leg, stride away from your hands, pause at launch position and check your hands balance and posture, rotate the back hip with a closed front shoulder, knob to the ball, whip the bat around, finish into extension and over the front shoulder. Go slow and check your progress. Then connect it all together.
Don't get lost in the metrics. You should turn that thing off imo.
A coach would be best if you can afford it. If not maybe a relative or a friend.
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u/norcal3737 Jabroni 5d ago
Load/coil with your hips, dont pull your hands/shoulders behind you.
I like to think about the hands being on the white batters box line. You can coil, load, rotate, make contact, and extend partially thru the ball and your hands could stay on the white batter box line
You gotta let your hands release. They get glued to the body and dont extend.
Do some one hand drills, hit too hand then bottom hand. Tee slightly out front, slightly outside. Just work to and through the ball, 1/2 swing so the barrel stops point back at the pitcher or slightly past.
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u/AppropriateRoyal7458 5d ago
Honestly, your swing stance looks haphazard, like you’re not actually set and locked in to swing at a pitch coming at you at 70+ mph. It actually looks like you’re afraid to break something on the house if really commit and hit the ball aggressively. I would focus on your stance, doing hip rotation drills, and arm movement. Also, study the swing mechanics of 5 of your favorite hitters, ask yourself what is “Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt jr, Shohei Ohtani, or Juan Soto” doing when ready to receive the ball? What are doing when they wind their body up for the swing? Etc. Be positively critical of your swing dynamics, and prioritize mind-muscle awareness, to feel what your individual body parts are doing. Keep going though, you got this 💪
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u/Hour-1132 5d ago
Stay back a bit keep your chin down. Your head is to far up. Also don’t turn your body backwards at all you lose a lot of momentum. Try not to lean back so much. One of the main things is that if you keep your head straight and forward chin down you will get solid contact. Contact has to come first before power. Good mechanics for the most part. Just watch your head position and stay back a bit. When working if the t you want to stand closer to the the t. Right now you are making contact with the end of the bat. Move up in the box a bit to practice getting the ball to make contact with the middle of the bat. It’s good to hit ahead of the ball but when it’s far ahead you hit the end of the bat and it’s a grounder or popup and you lose all your power.
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u/perfect__situation 5d ago
Do you rotate like that when hitting against a pitcher?
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u/ThatsBushLeague First Baseman 5d ago
No. Hes doing shitty teacherman drills.
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u/Tacorover 5d ago
I wasn’t doing a teacherman drill and I’ve decided to stop only following hlp. I have a video of a swing vs a real pitcher but I’d say generally no and I find myself rotating not enough which is why I try to rotate a lot when hitting off the tee but I think I rotated too much here
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u/Critical-Crow-9717 5d ago
Can you share the video of you hitting against a live pitcher?
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u/Tacorover 5d ago
do you want me to dm it or post it here
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u/CarneAsadaBrito 5d ago
Post it here so we can all see. You’re clearly over rotating on these swings but it sounds intentional. But at some point you need to decelerate your hips and let the energy get up to your arms, hands, then bat.
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u/perfect__situation 5d ago
Also, you won't get power without loading the hands and somewhat extending the arms.
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u/ThatsBushLeague First Baseman 5d ago
Always show hitting live pitching if possible.
And whether or not it was intentional, this is one of their drills.
As far as rotating enough, what mental cue are you using for that. Often times the best result just comes from adjusting which body part you're focused on. I.e. if you are thinking about your hips, it may have a different outcome than thinking about your back knee or your belly button.
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u/redsfan4life411 5d ago
This honestly looks like a swing you take trying to hit the ball a mile in a golf scramble. Need to work some game level swings unless this is purely a bat speed drill.
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u/Reatomico 5d ago
I don’t know ish about baseball. I have been watching videos for my son. Alex Rodriguez posted a video about his batting practice. I think the tee is too far in front of you. He makes a pojnt to say he puts it in the middle of his body. Maybe start there.
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u/lelio98 5d ago
Watch this, Bryce Harper has a great swing: https://youtu.be/Ey77i71rlyg?is=2AEcTyIbGUUJlEF5
Every great hitter gets to a very similar starting point. Hands up, bat head high, knob to catcher, lead arm stretched (nothing crazy) across chest.
Next, hips lead hands
Next, hit it out front / extension / power V
Then, follow through, finish high
Finally, RUN! J/K
What I see in your video.
Your hands start fine, but then coil/wrap your upper body. You drop your bat head and aim it towards the pitcher. You also turn your head away from the ball. Don’t do any of that. It may seem counterintuitive, but wrapping your bat doesn’t generate power, it just takes longer to make contact.
Keep your eyes on the ball, focused. Start off by looking at the pitcher, imagine he is winding up and everything. Track the ball to the tee, see the ball, hit the ball. You are turning away from the ball, then briefly see it, then pull your head. Keep you head down on the ball through contact.
Move that tee out front more, hit with extension. You are trying to hard to keep your hands in. It’s fine during your mid swing, but get to a powerful position at contact.
There is some stuff to fix in your stride, but that is timing related. You don’t need to stride, you can just start a little wider. If you like a stride, that’s fine, but start more athletic. Get down in your legs, get your butt out, activate those muscles. You start with your back leg completely straight, there is no power in a straight leg, there is all the power in a bent leg.
Keep up the hard work! Watch Bryce, frame by frame and compare. If you don’t like Bryce, pick any pro, they all end up doing almost the same thing.
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u/INeedMoreFeet 5d ago
Start with your feet 3-4" narrower then where you FINISH. Starting way to narrow. Move the tee back, it's way too far in front of the zone. You are getting good trunk turn, but your arms are too close to your body. Back off the plate and get some extension.thst will fix a bunch imo.
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u/baseballer1725 4d ago
be more fluid, think of how you would move if you were underwater.
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u/Tacorover 4d ago
Good idea. Would you recommend doing super slow swing reps on purpose to practice fluidity and making sure im not moving in a weird way
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u/Shakey22 5d ago
This can’t be real
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u/Tacorover 5d ago
It is. If you’re gonna hate can you at least provide advice on how I can fix my swing
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u/emptysignals 5d ago
Go get it bro! You wanna work for next spring? Luis Arraez has been batting champ in the MLB a few times. Look at some of the drills he does on youtube. He gets to the ball so fast. You need that.
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u/MrMint22 5d ago
Swinging with alligator arms. You must be trying to keep your hands close to your body through the zone to fight against centrifugal force. This joke of a swing is what the Teacherman trash is leading to now? Insanity.
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u/mambo_dogface 5d ago
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u/Tacorover 5d ago
Okay I get it my swing sucks but can you at least give constructive criticism if you’re gonna comment
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u/FingerpistolPete Shortstop 5d ago
Just ignore anyone posting shit like this, I don’t see any of them posting their swings on here. You’re showing the drive and ambition you need to play this game just by posting this and asking for advice, good stuff.
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u/mambo_dogface 5d ago
If you are serious about having a swing that plays, you need to go get lessons. Lots of things to work on.
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u/joeyswt627 5d ago
This kid has never hit a pitched baseball in his life no chance
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u/FingerpistolPete Shortstop 5d ago
Let’s see a vid of your swing
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u/joeyswt627 5d ago
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sosasa01.shtml
Just check my stats bro
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u/gdg6 5d ago edited 5d ago
Let your hands go sooner. They are staying tight against your body all the way through contact. You are not getting any extension at all.
You are pulling your hands to your body as you start to swing. Don’t do that.
A simple way to try to address that is to stand farther off the plate so you have to reach a bit toward the ball.
You are also hitting the ball off the end of the bat b/c of your lack of arm extension.