Tilt

[RichK]

Been a lot of good, detailed hitting talk lately.

I understand most of the concepts and cues that have been discussed, but not "tilt", which I've seen mentioned from time to time.

Where does this fit into the chain of the swing? How, why, etc?

Any help would be appreciated. Tks.

 

[mrslug01]

Tilt is the process of adusting to the pitch up or down in the strike zone. In an ideal world, if you bat righty, you will make contact with the ball with your right arm at about 90 degrees. If the pitch is low in the zone, you need to "tilt" to get the bat head down to the ball without overextending you arms. The other thing to look at is her bat parallel to her shoulders at contact. If you tilt correctly, the bat stays parallel to the shoulders. The shoulders are what tilt. I think clip 12 is a great illustration. Clip 3 shows good tilt too.

Fastpitch

 

[Mark H]

Yeah. Search around on that link for lots of relevant illustrations.

 

[tom.guerry]

therer are 2 very different schools of thought about tilt.

One is tilt by bend spine at waist as described here by ifubuldit from an old eteamz post:

Posture - means to tilt your spine so that when the bat is swung, it swings to the ball, perpendicular to your spine.

This captures part of what "posture" achieves. But posture includes a stretch loading of muscles in and about the pelvic area, especially in the lower part of the "posterior chain." Upper body posture also includes eventually setting the "box" or front arm at an angle that is close to perpendicular to the spine.


Connection - means to maintain the arm/hand/elbow angles as the shoulders rotate, and to keep the hands near their original location relative to the back shoulder as you rotate. A "box" is formed with the 4 corners being the front shoulder, front elbow, the hands, and the back shoulder.

You maintain those "4 "connection" points as you rotate the box by turning the hips and shoulders. Disconnection is to push the bat at the ball and/or change the angles of the corners of the box as it rotates.

Rotation - simply means to use the body to rotate the box. The bat is connected to the body and you stay connected as you rotate.

SIGGY has similar info


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Epstein describes spine tilt more in terms of how it results from shoulder tilt action:

Hitting Articles

 

[RichK]

excellent, this gives me some things to chew on. appreciate it.

 

[ifubuildit]

Tilting

Rich,

Tilting accomplishes a number of things in the swing process. First and foremost tilting will give you a swing plane that allows the bat to make contact with the ball in a slightly upward trajectory. This swing plane will create the rising line drive over the infield and into the outfield. The key here being consistency with the swing plane. Tilting and staying tilted through the swing until contact creates that consistency.

Secondly, as another poster stated tilting allows you to adjust to the height of the ball as well as adjusting to the outside pitch. By tilting you can make the plane of the bat match the plane of the ball to create consistent solid contact.

Last, tilting creates vertical tension in the muscles of the body. When you tilt you will "FEEL" the muscles of the back, hamstrings and calves tighten. That tension creates and stores energy in those muscles. Energy that is released when the hitter starts to stride and helps generate power to increase swing speed. Energy that flows through the kinetic chain much like the martial arts guys who can generate immense power in a very short distance.


Bend at the waist and soften the knees a little. Think linebackers position in football or defensive position in basketball or tennis position on the court or attack position in wrestling. They are all the same. And they are all tilted for a reason. To generate power and activate the body's muscles.

Hope this helps convey a better understanding of why you want to get your daughter into a tilted position when she hits.

Dana.

 

[Dragoncoach]

This form of tilting seems to be in the stance and stride. Is there another form of tilt that happens when the back shoulder drops into the slot position, kind of a sideways tilt or maybe even a sideways slightly backward tilt?

 

[Hitter]

This form of tilting seems to be in the stance and stride. Is there another form of tilt that happens when the back shoulder drops into the slot position, kind of a sideways tilt or maybe even a sideways slightly backward tilt?

Dragon

I do not like to say drop the shoulder...I like to point out as the back elbow lowers and the lead elbow is making a good first move forward of maybe 2 to 4 inches, with the elbows working together, as a unit, team, simultaneously we begin the turn and tilt adjusting the bat to the plane of the pitch. The elbow is higher than the hands and the hands are above the bat and the angle of the bat will depend on the height of the ball. We want the hitter to think elbows working as a unit and the knob leading the elbows which is why we came up with the hand path device. It provides a visual of the hands inside the ball as well as the tilt and turn and we have colored tape to direct the knob of the bat based on the elbow to forearm length to finger tips. Yes I know the finger tips are wrapped around the bat however you understand this measurement is unique, so we select it to the individual once we determine what works best. I still like using something like the WhipHit or just a rope so they can feel what it is like to have the elbows working together. I have take an old bat handle cut it off about 14 or 15 inches and put a stretch cord on it and attach a dog lead clip and they use it in the dug out prior to going out to the on deck circle. They attach it to the fence so the cord is behind them and they feel bat lag and un hinging of the wrist. We teach hitting low balls and work up from below the knee, at the knee, mid thigh, hips, belly button and bottom of the elbows. This starts our tilt from the bottom up which we have found to work better than the top of the zone down in our opinion.

Thanks Howard

 

[Mark H]

This form of tilting seems to be in the stance and stride. Is there another form of tilt that happens when the back shoulder drops into the slot position, kind of a sideways tilt or maybe even a sideways slightly backward tilt?

If you are tilted before rotation, the back shoulder's movement will be down as a result of rotation. Study this Analysis and see if any of it doesn't ring true to you.

 

[Mark H]

Dragon

and the lead elbow is making a good first move forward of maybe 2 to 4 inches,

Thanks Howard

Does this result in increased elbow flexion or no in your view. Speaking of a middle middle pitch here that doesn't fool the hitter to avoid variables for the moment.