Chris Oleary The Major League Swing

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The Major League Swing

How The Best Hitters In TheWorld Actually Swing The Bat

Chris OLeary4/2/2008

Last Updated 4/2/2008

CONTACT [email protected]

314.494.1324 - Cellwww.chrisoleary.com

Text Copyright 2006-2008 Chris OLeary


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PHOTO INTERPRETATION 101One thing I have learned from studying literally thousands ofphotos and video clips of baseball players is that you have to bevery careful when doing this. The problem is that you can find aphoto that will illustrate any theory of hitting, regardless of how

crazy, if you look hard enough. As a result, if you want to cometo an understanding of things as they actually are, you have todo three things.

First, you have to understand the context of the photo you arelooking at. All of the photos in this document are good swing. Bythat I mean that 90 percent of them show home run swings andthe rest show doubles or triples. The problem with too manytheories of hitting is that they are based on photos that do not

represent a hitters best swing.Second, you have to understand the moment in time that the

photo represents. Things happen very quickly in a good baseballswing, and if you are going to draw the correct conclusions youhave to understand when are where you are in a swing. For thatreason, most of the photos in this document represent momentsright around the point of contact.

Third, you have to compare what you see in a given photo towhat you see in a video clip of the same persons swing. For thatreason, this document contains both still photos and frames froma video clip of Albert Pujols swing.


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INTRODUCTIONLike most people, when my boys got older and I startedcoaching them and their baseball teams, I taught themwhat I was taught. That means swinging level,swinging down at the ball, extension and making thePower V at the point of contact, squishing the bug,and things like that.

This worked just fine when my kids were young.However, as they got older their batting averages startedto drop. It seemed like the more I coached and workedwith them, the worse they hit. Whats more, theheadstrong kids who wouldnt listen to me seemed tobe the only ones who were hitting well.

After a couple of months of avoiding these problems, Idecided that I didnt know as much about hitting as I

thought I did. I decided I needed to educate myself bystudying the swings of great hitters and rebuild my ideasabout hitting from the ground up.

In studying the swings of great hitters like Albert Pujols,I quickly started to notice that they did something thatwas very different than what I was taught and wasteaching. In the photo on the right, which shows AlbertPujols hitting a home run, notice how he is not swinginglevel, he is not extended and making the Power V at thepoint of contact, and he is not squishing the bug.

I have put this document together to explain what Ihave learned that the best hitters in the world actually doand how that differs from what I, and many other people,were taught.


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LEVEL SWING?If you hang out at a youth ballpark, one cue you will frequently hear coaches tell their hitters is

Level swing or Swing level. Sometimes, you will also hear coaches tell their hitters to staystacked, or upright, through the point of contact. However, if you look at photos of the goodswings of major league hitters, you will see that they pretty much never swing level to the groundand they dont stay stacked. Instead, they tilt over the plate and keep their hands above thehead of the bat. This is true both for balls down in the strike zone and balls up in the strike zone.


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LEVEL SWING? (Continued)


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EXTENSION AND POWER V AT THE POINT OF CONTACT?The primary cue that I remember from when I was a kid, and was taught to hit by my father, was

that I should try to get extended and make the Power V at the point of contact. However, if youlook at photos of major league hitters, when they hit the ball well their arms are not extendedat the point of contact. Rather, their back elbows are usually bent roughly 90 degrees and arenext to, and often seem almost connected to, their back hips. While you do see extension inmany major league swings, on good swings it occurs after the point of contact. That says to methat extension is the effect of a good swing and not the cause of a good swing.


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EXTENSION AND POWER V AT THE POINT OF CONTACT? (Continued)


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EXTENSION AND POWER V AT THE POINT OF CONTACT (Continued)


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SQUISH THE BUG?Many young hitters are taught that, at the point of contact, they should imagine that they are

squishing or crushing a bug that is beneath the instep of their back foot. I believe that while doingthis is better than having a completely dead lower body, its not what the best hitters in the worlddo. Rather than squishing or crushing the bug at the point of contact, when you look at theirgood swings they are either on the tip of their back toe or their back foot is completely upin the air.


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SQUISH THE BUG? (Continued)


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HANDS TO THE BALL?Some coaches teach their students to take, or even throw, their hands at the ball. The idea is

that the hands should travel toward the pitcher and the ball in a fairly linear manner. However, ifyou study overhead views of the best hitters in the world, hitters like Pete Rose, you dont see alinear hand path. Instead, what you see is a circular hand path. The hands start out by, andturn with, the back shoulder.


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SWING ANALYSIS ALBERT PUJOLS

To reinforce some of the things I talk about in this presentation,

lets break down a home run swing by Albert Pujols and see howIt reinforces the ideas I talk about in this document and doesntcomply with some commonly-held ideas like swinging level,

extension at the point of contact, and squishing the bug.


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This is a home run swing.

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Albert Pujols front heel is just starting to leave the ground. Notice that his

hands are roughly at the same level as his shoulders and are back by hisback shoulder.

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Albert Pujols front toe has just come off the ground and he is pushing off

of the side of his back foot toward the pitcher to get his hips and hisCenter Of Mass (the orange dot) moving toward the pitcher. This weightshift will help his hips rotate around his front leg as it stiffens.


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Albert Pujols front toe has just landed back on the ground. His front toe

moved maybe 3 or 4 inches toward the pitcher (the distance between thetwo white dots) during his stride.

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Albert Pujols back elbow (the blue/green dot) is just starting to drop.

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Albert Pujols front heel has just planted. His hands have just started to move, his back elbow is starting to

drop significantly, his back heel has just come off the ground and his back leg is starting to internallyrotate (and his back knee is starting to bend) while his shoulders have not yet started to rotate, indicatingthat his hips are rotating (just) ahead of his shoulders. IOW, he swings Middle-Out (from the hips) ratherthan Top-Down (from the shoulders) or Bottom-Up (from the feet). His back shoulder (the pink dot) isstarting to drop and his front shoulder is coming up as he starts to rotate his shoulders around his tiltedspine. IOW he leans or tilts forward over the plate to match his swing plane with the plane of the pitch. Hiships have moved forward roughly 9 inches (the distance between the two blue dots).

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Albert Pujols shoulders are rotating increasingly quickly around his spine, which is causing his hands and

the bat to start moving. His back shoulder has dropped significantly. His Center Of Mass (the orange dot)moved forward roughly 9 inches during his stride and weight shift.

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Albert Pujols is on the toe of his back foot. This is due to a pull from his hips and the rapid internal rotation

of his back upper leg, not because he pushed off of his back foot.

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Albert Pujols bat is in the lagging position, pointing back toward the catcher. This is due to the rapid rotation to his

shoulders and thus his hands (and not because he is trying the bring the knob of the bat to the ball). His front knee isstiffening and the inside of his front foot is starting to come off the ground. The stiffening of the front knee coincides withthe acceleration of the rotation of his shoulders. Notice how Albert Pujols hands and the knob of the bat (the red dot)are well ahead of his back elbow (the green dot). IOW, and as you would expect, Pujols shows no signs of bat drag.However, his hands are still relatively close to his back shoulder. Notice how steady his head (the yellow dot) is fromthis point through the point of contact.

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Point Of Contact: Albert Pujols shoulders (the pink dot) have pretty much stopped rotating. This sounds

counterintuitive, but its critical because it causes the head of the bat to rapidly whip out (due to conservation ofmomentum). His back elbow is by his back hip and his back upper arm is maybe 15 degrees off of the vertical. Hishands are still relatively close to his back shoulder, which means he did not throw his hands at the ball. His back toe isup in the air at the Point Of Contact (not squishing the bug). His weight is being born by his front foot, but his Centerof Mass (the orange dot) is located roughly midway between his front foot and his back foot. The mass behind the frontfoot is counterbalanced by the mass of the bat as it rotates in front of the front foot. His back heel is vertical and hisback knee is bent around 90 degrees in the shape of a backwards upper case L. His back elbow and forearm are alsoforming an upper case L. His swing plane is aligned with tilt of shoulders. His front palm is facing down. There were 5frames from front heel plant and the start of his shoulder turn to the Point Of Contact.

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Albert Pujols front hand is still palm down. There is no sign of significant

rolling of the wrists.

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Albert Pujols is making the Power V, but 2 frames after the Point of Contact. The centrifugal force of the

bat has overcome the ability of his arms to apply centripetal force, which has caused his hands to fly outtoward the pitcher and his arms to make the Power V. In other words, the Power V, and themovement of the hands toward the pitcher, are the EFFECT of his powerful swing, not the CAUSE .His back toe has just touched the ground again.

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Albert Pujols back foot is starting to bear some weight again.

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Now Albert Pujols is squishing the bug, but well after the point of contact.

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I love how Albert Pujols finishes his swing, with just one hand on the bat.

Theres absolutely no chance that he cut his swing short and that thehead of the bat was decelerating at the point of contact. Talk aboutswinging through the ball!

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ABOUT THE AUTHORChris OLeary is a youth baseball coach and private pitching and

hitting instructor who has worked with pitchers and hitters through theMinor League levels. As a result of his extensive research into properpitching and hitting mechanics, Chris has worked with a number ofmajor league scouts, advising them on proper pitching mechanics andhelping them to prepare for the Major League draft.

Chris OLearys writings about hitting and pitching can be found on his

website http://www.chrisoleary.com.

Chris OLeary can be contacted via

E-Mail: [email protected]: 314.494.1324

Chris Oleary The Major League Swing

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