What is “Direction” within a swing?
When talking about the baseball or softball swing, there are a few things that we find vital to focus on in order to ensure consistency and success when it relates to the way the bat itself moves. Those are as follows:
Bat/Barrel Path - How the barrel moves “vertically” through the swing (should be a slightly upward path)
Barrel Depth - How early a hitter gets his/her barrel into the hitting zone
Bat/Barrel Direction - The physical direction in which a hitter delivers the barrel through the hitting zone
Of these three, barrel direction itself is often the least talked about or focused on during hitting instruction or work. With that being said, it could also be the most vital to a hitter seeing sustained success at a high level.
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As weighted balls have taken over the velocity building landscape in baseball, the question begged to answered, “how can this be implemented for fastpitch softball athletes?”.
With the average throwing velocity increasing every year, the importance of being able to throw hard is only going to increase in softball as well.
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For the past number of years, we have been told by numerous high school and collegiate coaches that the high level softball swing is “much different” than a baseball swing. But after looking at the data and video, is it different at all?
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What is Spin Rate?
Spin rate is one of the most underutilized and misunderstood metrics in amateur baseball and softball. With more being understood about this metric every year at the professional level, it is essential that we begin to apply that knowledge at lower levels.
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I would rather have Mookie Betts in the middle of my lineup than Giancarlo Stanton.
Now, to most people this would seem ridiculous. Even after Betts’ MVP type season most people would tend to think the 6’5” 245lb Stanton (2017 NL MVP) would out-slug the 5’9” 180lb Betts. On the surface level it may seem that Stanton had a more productive year, out homering Betts (38 to 32) and also driving in 20 more runs. But, after digging deeper into the analytics, the numbers told a very different story.
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Out of the 1,101 players who appeared in a Major League Baseball game during the 2018 season, how many would someone guess were born in the state of Wisconsin?
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