The most overlooked technique for creating bat speed/power? Does bat speed = power?

[ian]

Let's assume that the hitter has decent sequencing. Understand FBC and tip and rip and/or TTB,but needs to find more power/bat speed. Yes, she can polish these thing or she can work on timing or conditioning (core strengthening). How about hand/ forearm strength? What is most overlooked and easiest way to acquire bat speed? I have my answer, but am interested in yours.

Don't forget to weigh in on "does bat speed = power" too! My question here is: if they had a machine that threw the bat thru the air 50 mph and it collides with a ball moving 50 mph would the ball travel the same distance as a hitter (with hands on the bat) swinging 50 mph and hitting a ball 50 mph? Does the mass of the hitter matter?

What is your answer Rolling?

 

[Rolling Hard]

Look at the gif of the guy hitting the HR. (Look mom, no hands!) Check out his flat left wrist. This to me is the easiest and overlooked way to gain bat speed. This works for golf too! The proper free natural unhinging of the bottom hand. Practice throwing bats for distance and spin rate. Grip bat over knob or use old bat and saw off knob. Bottom hand only and then both hands. Flat left wrist both ways. No real need to do top hand only but can be done. Make sure they are not throwing it like a ball. (elbow way in front of hand)

On the does mass matter: My experience and observations say yes, mass of hitter matters and I am encouraged what was said about "only applies to when ball is hit in the perfect sweet spot", that there may be some proof to that.

 

[coach james]

For me... I'd have to say the most overlooked aspect is the use of legs and body weight. Plus a solid "nut crack" through contact...
SOOOOOOO much emphasis is put in linear vs. rotational, push vs. pull, or turning the barrel or not etc... I feel like a lot of folks loose the ground force reaction aspect here.

 

[Rolling Hard]

" Plus a solid "nut crack" through contact..."

OK explanation needed!

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Maybe it's not actually a "slow swing" but just appears to be. It's funny you mention this, but I have a girl on my team in mind, and I'm looking forward to having her swing with the Blast sensor this spring. My guess is that even though her swing looks slow, the bat speed is among the best on the team (and if we can get other elements of her swing smoothed out, she'll hit the ball that much farther).

It's possible that her size, and maybe a slower load or reaction time, could be fooling your eye (maybe that ball goes to RF because she's late getting everything going, but the bat speed is there to drive the ball). Maybe she has some other mechanical flaws but still has good bat speed.

Eric said mass doesn't matter at impact, but her size could be generating actual bat speed somehow.

Absolutely ... conservation of momentum holds true.

 

[FP26]

I have seen some players that have virtually no adjustabllity, but can absolutely crush the ball if they get a hold of it. One girl in particular. DD's high school team faced her when DD was a freshman. The starting pitcher hung a pitch up in the zone that probably still has not hit the ground yet. Probably went 260 or 270 in the air. Late in the game, DD was brought in to pitch. Mix of speeds and movements, and this hitter was essentially helpless. Basically, if the pitcher made a mistake and hit her bat with the ball, it would go a mile. Otherwise, she didn't have a chance.

 

[eagle6]

I think mass and technique of the batter matters more in softball than baseball. Bats are lighter and ball is heavier. We all see girls hit the top or bottom of a ball and see the bat deflect as the ball leaves. The bats themselves don't have the same mass ratio to the ball as in baseball.

 

[justanotherguy]

I've thought about this a LOT. I think there's a whole lot that goes into the strength behind the bat that overcomes the kinetic energy that the ball delivers. Put this in your mind: throw a ball as hard as you can against a brick wall, then throw the ball as hard as you can against some stacked bricks. The wall won't give an ounce and the ball will bounce off it with considerable speed. The stacked bricks will "give" some and won't bounce as hard. This is the difference between the big girl swinging a 32 -10 vs a skinny girl swinging a -10. I often see these big girls hitting the ball hard, but the bat speed is no better than the smaller girl. That's because the weight behind that moving bat pushes through the ball once the ball makes contact with the bat, vs the ball pushing through the bat with the liter girl.

Next, you have to consider the MOI of the bat. If the subject is swinging a high MOI bat at the same speed as another girl swinging a low MOI bat, all other things being equal, the higher MOI bat will produce greater exit speed.

 

[Eric F]

I talked with nathan about this. Grip matters on every contact except for pure sweet spot contact.

Good to know. I hadn't seen that clarification. This matches up a lot more with what I see out on the field.

 

[MikeP]

I've watched a lot of video of my daughter and her teammates hitting and there has to be something to the size of the girl behind the bat. We are in 9u now and most of our girls are on the smaller side with a couple of exceptions. If you watch the smaller girls like my daughter hit, they have good bat speed but the impact stops their bats dead in its tracks. Most of the time it almost looks like a hard slap and the girls seem to hit about the same distance in the air no matter what with an occasional ball really launching. The two bigger, stronger girls always hit further in the air when they make good contact plus they seem to have better extension after contact. They all are using the same bats and last year was machine pitch so the ball speed was the same. This is a very small sample size of course but it seems pertinent to the conversation.