Pasted below is the abstract from a bat speed training article published by Chester Sergo and Douglas Boatwright in 1993.  The italics and red text are emphasis added by me.  Read the abstract, but I’ll summarize and make a few points:

 - 24 subjects averaged 19-20 years old and were college students practicing in the off-season

- All the training was done with just dry swings, during practice.  100 swings in sets of 20 performed 3x/week for 6 weeks

- Group 1 (regular bat only), Group 2 (62 oz. bat), Group 3 (alternated sets with 62 oz. & fungo bat)

- Each group improved bat speed 8-9%, with no statistically significant difference.  Group 1 (8.8%, highest), Group 2 (8.0% lowest), Group 3 (8.2 %)

- FYI the average bat speeds reported for these players began in the low 90′s and ended around 100 mph, measured by some light timing device made by the school’s engineering department

Overload-Underload Maple Training Bats

 

 

 

I’ll add these points:

1.) This type of training is relatively easy to implement for any player or team.  Even with just a regular bat and dry swings, players will improve if they set their focus on high intensity, quality swings.

2.) Heavy bats are not bad.  I tried to suggest this in the weighted warm-ups post.  Remember there is a difference between acute and chronic training effects.  I would not recommend the volume of swings with as heavy of a bat as used in this study, but both overload and underload training components are valuable within a suggested range (see swing training page).

3.) The study makes reference to an unpublished thesis from 1970 which concluded that swinging a heavy bat in conjunction with weight training significantly improves bat velocity, whereas weight training alone did not.

4.) It doesn’t take tons of hitting drills or fancy weight room exercises to improve bat speed.  Mechanics and strength training are important, but remember —> intent, specificity, feedback.

 

Training Methods Using Various Weighted Bats and the Effects on Bat Velocity

-Sergo, Chester; Boatwright, Douglas

The purpose of this study was to determine if baseball bat velocity could be improved as a result of training with both weighted and light bats as opposed to training with either bat alone. Subjects (N=24) from a collegiate baseball team were pretested for bat velocity and randomly assigned to one of three training groups (n=8). Each group dry-swung a bat 20 sets of five swings each with 20 seconds rest between sets, 3 days a week for 6 weeks. The control group used a legal bat of their choice. Group 2 used a 62-oz weighted bat. Group 3 alternated a 62-oz weighted bat and a light bat between each set.Subjects took their normal swing through a light timing device, using a 31-oz bat, as if hitting in a game situation. The average of the last five swings was used for data analysis. A 3 x 2 (Group x Time) ANOVA with repeated measures on the last factor was used for statistical analysis. The reliability for the testing procedure was determined by pooling the test-retest data from the pretest and posttest. Data analysis revealed no significant group effect, a significant time effect, and no Group x Time effect. The evidence suggests that swinging a bat of any weight under the training program’s guidelines would significantly improve bat velocity.

(C) 1993 National Strength and Conditioning Association

before & after

Yes, that is the same guy.  All of our work was done in a 2-week period when this player was on his Christmas break from school.  We got together maybe 8-10 total times over that stretch and took a ton of swings.  No magic weight room exercises or extra forearm or grip strength work here.  Just an initial video analysis, some weighted implements (heavy & light bats), feedback for swing speed and quickness, and some intent to swing faster. 

Not only did he swing the bat with more velocity, but his overall swing was quicker.  He had a better swing plane and path through the ball, he had better weight shift and distribution, better hip rotation, and an overall improvement in the connection and sequence of the different body segments (hips, shoulders, arms, bat).  The mechanics of his swing improved in just about every way.  Well done!

For more before & after swing videos, check out the Results page.

One of the best points in there is that you shouldn’t be trying to swing at the ball too far in.  There’s just not much you can do with it.  Also a good point in your cage and batting practice is to work in the gaps and stay primarily in the middle of the field.

We mainly did some video review and worked on mechanics as I tried to give him the information I thought he needed to put things together and make the most of his talent.  I received this text message at the end of this May:

This is P***** P***** from **U. Just played my last game and wanted to thank you for working with me.  You turned my career around.  This year I hit .365 with 11 HR and 51 RBI.  Thanks.

For more success stories, check the Results page.

I had loosely kept in touch with this player of the past couple of years and I knew he was doing better, but it was nice to receive such a positive message, and nicer to know the he thought so much of the work we did together.  As I mentioned in my post about softball training, these are the types of players who make a coach/instructor look good because they take a few pieces of information and apply them well.  Check out his stats after the summer of 2006 (age 20):

Here is a look at a couple video comparisons we used to illustrate some differences in hitting mechanics…

See the Resources page for more on Sports Motion video software

A quick step one was checking out the swing path:

swing plane comparison

In addition to showing some differences in swing plane, I wanted him to see that he could get “inside the ball” better because his initial move was “around” the ball (like “coming over the top” in golf):

outside vs inside

With this last comparison, we looked at a couple of things.  First, making a better pre-swing move into the ball (ie weight shift) to generate a little momentum and allow for some more time to see the ball.  Second, get the wrists cocked and maintain that angle (ie don’t cast the bat) as rotation begins and the beginning/unloading of the swing is actually launched.

side shot comparison

Big hat tip and congratulations for lots of hard work and a job well done!

• how to improve bat speed
• rotational exercises to increase bat speed
• weighted bat-implement training (ie overload-underload)

You can check out more on Bob Alejo at his website.

This week we test the fact that a lighter bat gives more bat speed than a heavy bat, and what does that mean.

Episode 62 – Bat Speed? – The Fastpitch Softball TV Show

This video comes from softball site fastpitch.tv and deals with how changes in bat weight effect bat speed, batted ball velocity, and batted ball distance.  Fairly simple test – use radar to measure bat speed of different weighted bats (imagine that!).  They could have just hit balls off a tee and measured the ball exit speed (like this), but I suppose getting actual calculations assuming a more constant environment are more controlled.  Here are some conclusions:

• the light bat gets swung the fastest
• faster bat speed helps hit the ball farther
• 1 mph bat speed translates to about 4 extra feet of distance

Ken Griffey Jr.

“Line up the ‘door knocking’ knuckles” is the phrase I hear most often to describe the correct way to grip a baseball bat.  It seems to be widely accepted, but is it really true?  What is the correct or proper way to grip the bat?

Check out these pics and make your own conclusion: knocking knucles photos

Barry Bonds

The ball appears to swerve because our peripheral vision system cannot process all of its features independently. Instead, our brains combine the downward motion of the ball and its leftward spin to create the impression of a curve.

This article gives some information about why curveballs may be more difficult to hit:

Shapiro notes that curve balls start off in the centre of a batter’s vision but overlap with the peripheral system as they come nearer. This transition may be why such balls appear to change direction suddenly, he says.

It would be nice to know when this transition happens.  If you remember my old post, Professor Robert Adair (Physics of Baseball author), gives some insight into the visual process in batting.