There’s nothing quite like hearing the crack of the bat echo throughout the stadium. This sound is the result of the ball perfectly finding the barrel of the bat. Easy enough right? Not only does the ball find the barrel in this situation but typically the ball is traveling at a high speed. So how do you get the desired crack off your bat that every baseball fan knows and loves? In this post I will give you a few tips on how to maximize your chances of increasing your exit velocity and ultimately raising your average.
- Bat Speed
Increasing your bat speed is the number one way to increase exit velocity. Bat speed is also the most important factor when it comes to increasing your distance. According to Sports Science, a bat moving at 65mph with a 60mph pitch can send the ball up to 400 feet. Increasing the pitch speed to 65 only produces 5 more feet while increasing bat speed to 70mph will yield up to 25 more feet! A 5x difference.
Bat speed can easily be increased in a few ways. The first way is to get stronger. There are several baseball-specific training facilities available today which focus on unique baseball strengthening with things like rotational strength and flexibility. If you are looking for a place like this in Arizona, I recommend checking out Rotational Athlete Solutions in Scottsdale. The second way is to work on your swing mechanics. Delivering the barrel to the ball is one thing, but finding the most efficient way to get from your “fire spot” (after load) to the contact point will yield the best results.
- Swing Plane
The idea here is simple, match the trajectory of the pitch with your swing plane. Two identical swing speeds can result in dramatically different exit velocities based on the swing plane of each hitter. A ball hit on a different plane than the pitch is wasting velocity, especially in today’s game with pitchers throwing harder than ever, which provides a ton of power for the hitter. According to the graphic below, the average descent angle of an MLB fastball is 6 degrees while the average descent angle of a curveball is 10 degrees. Therefore, the average attack angle by MLB hitters is 8 degrees to achieve maximum exit velocity. Nobody in the MLB has a negative attack angle so the moral of the story is, don’t swing down!
Graphic data provided by Rockland Peak Performance via Blast Motion Study
- Contact Point and Extension
The contact point is defined by where in the hitting zone the bat makes contact with the ball. The overall goal of hitting in its simplest form is to reach maximum bat speed at contact point. However, once contact is made your job is not done. You have just made a perfect and quick swing to deliver the barrel of the bat to the ball and now it is time to finish your swing. This is done by what’s called “staying through the baseball.” This means you keep the barrel in the zone towards the pitcher for as long as you can after contact. This will produce extreme backspin.
Take a look at the graph below from Yakkertech. This new camera system is unique in that it is able to track contact points against live pitching. This specific dataset is only looking at what the system defines as “damage balls.” These are batted balls put in play with at least 90mph exit velocity and 10+ degrees launch angle. Out of all the damage balls put in play, about 78% of these were contacted out in front of home plate. The main takeaway here is, to maximize your exit velocity, make contact out in front of home plate and extend through the baseball.
Data provided by Yakkertech via BaseballCloud