Hi All -
My son is going to be a freshman in HS this year. He attended a camp run by the park district this summer. The head of the camp was the coach of the freshman team. At the end he received an eval. from the coach. Basically the only thing the coach suggested he work on during the off season is improving his bat speed. I have been looking around for drills for him and have not found many. About the only drill i have found involves 10 swings with a heavier bat, 10 with a lighter. Repeat the above 6 times and then take 10 swings with his "normal" weight bat. He has been doing this every other day and will keep it up until tryouts start. Does anyone have any other suggestions or drills for him to use to improve his bat speed?

Go here for some drills.

http://www.webball.com/cms/page1158.cfm

Yes you can do heavy, light work to improve bat speed...however you have to get the correct swing first before you really start to work on bat speed. A correct swing will improve bat speed alone. Lifting and getting bigger and stronger will also help.

Working on improving bat speed with a poor swing will just ingrains it more. I say this because my son has been working for months in correcting his swing and his batting coach has told him to wait until he has his swing grooved before working too much on velocity improvements.

I am not saying that your boy has a bad swing, just something to really look into. Again based on my experience most HS kids (particularly freshmen) have a lot of work to do on their swings.

Good luck.

Just noticed it is your first post! Welcome to HSBBW!

BOF
Thanks for the link. Im glad that hes on the right track with the heavy light bat work. He has a good swing. He has worked with a swing coach in the past and they worked out a lot of things over the years. This past year he didnt work with the coach. Mostly due to the demands of school and the off season training program his team put in place this year.

Anyway, this is the first time anyone has even brought up his bat speed. I am guessing its one of those things this coach focuses on while others look at other areas. At the same time I feel pretty good that the only thing the coaches at the camp said he needs to work on is bat speed. I saw some of the other evals (friends of his, other kids as they were leaving) and the coaches had many areas they evaluated (hitting, fielding, pitching, etc)and were pretty honest on most of evals I saw.

Also, thanks for the welcome. I have been looking at some other boards and one of them mentioned this one. As he is moving into HS from LL and travel ball I am finding some good info here.

Some times a swing that is a little long appears to be slow bat speed. Short to the ball and proper use of the hips will increase bat speed much faster than over/underloading.

Hopefully this isn't too late for advice, but I have also put my son (11 yoa) on the same routine for 12 weeks: swing lighter, heavier and normal bat routine. I coupled this with strengthing the twitch muscles by having him duing wrist rolls with a 5 lb weight. Included is pushups and situps to build muscle and strenthen his core. IT HAS WORKED WONDERS! He is only in his 9 week and is swinging a 23 oz bat faster than most 11 yoas on his club team. He is also hitting with unbelievable power. We also practice with only a wooden bat that is -2 or -3 with most of weight in the barrel. Helps him allot. Lets just say he is getting closer and closer to hitting one out on a 300 ft. fense. He is hitting home runs and triples, and we're estimating his hits at around 260'. Big for an 11 yoa.

The quickest and best way to improve your batspeed is to improve your swing mechanics. If your swing mechanics are solid you will have the bat speed you should have for your age. As you get older and if you continue to have sound solid swing mechanics your batspeed will increase with the gained strength from growing into a young man. Working to improve batspeed without proper swing mechanics is counter productive. Never muscle up the swing to attempt to produce more batspeed. It actually works in the opposite direction.

Strengthen the core and train to be in great shape. And #1 work on proper swing mechanics that allow you to use that batspeed you have in the proper manner.

Batspeed comes from proper swing mechanics. Many young kids who are not nearly as strong physically have way more batspeed than much stronger players. The simple reason is their swing allows them to generate batspeed and the other kids swing does not. So the #1 way to increase batspeed is to have a swing that allows you to use what you already have in the proper manner. Then you can train to increase that by increasing your core strength and over all strength. Much of this is done by simply growing into a young man and training to be a player.

Hello coach.

You can teach a boxer a perfect jab and overhand right, but the boxer must work on hand speed. Proper mechanics is not the only answer for bat speed. The speed must be worked on along with mechanics.

Some high school swings are 90mph. You cannot turn your torso 90mph nor run 90mph. Most bat speed is NOT in the lower body and the arms are NOT just along for the ride. The whole chain is important.

Do rapid fire drills and drop drills. Do not work so much that the player slows up. The rapid fire drill is also called buggy whip. It is a quick toss after quick toss to get the swing sped up. The drop drill should start at a reasonable distance above the contact area and then lowered as the player gets better at it. In a cage, have them wait as long as possible before committing the bat.

quote:

Originally posted by baseballpapa:
Hello coach.

You can teach a boxer a perfect jab and overhand right, but the boxer must work on hand speed. Proper mechanics is not the only answer for bat speed. The speed must be worked on along with mechanics.

Some high school swings are 90mph. You cannot turn your torso 90mph nor run 90mph. Most bat speed is NOT in the lower body and the arms are NOT just along for the ride. The whole chain is important.

Do rapid fire drills and drop drills. Do not work so much that the player slows up. The rapid fire drill is also called buggy whip. It is a quick toss after quick toss to get the swing sped up. The drop drill should start at a reasonable distance above the contact area and then lowered as the player gets better at it. In a cage, have them wait as long as possible before committing the bat.

Coach May said that that proper mechanics are the MOST important part of bat speed. THEY ARE! He didn't say that was the only thing to work on. A drill is no good if you are drilling a ****** swing!

Coach May is a great coach. I wasn't trying to imply otherwise. I would love for him to coach my kids.

Proper mechanics is essential. However, the following are not mechanics and are important to the high level swing.
1. Pitch recognition - This is the overlay on all that is worked. I tell my hitters only to offer at what they can drive. Even if I set a tee off they are not to offer. There is never a drill where they swing at everything.
2. Swing speed (quickness) - These are two different things. A left jab is quicker to the hitting area, but an overhand right has more speed. Baseball is more of an overhand right, but it cannot be too slow.
3. Timing - This is often confused with rhythm. Timing is the ability to hit the hitting zone in different areas.
4. Rhythm - Often not taught. This is the ability to repeat. All lessons end with "find your rhythm" with me and there is no mention of mechanics.
5. Mental - This can be many parts but the ability to read pitchers, relax in tense situations, read the defense, etc.

All of the above are important and they are not mechanical.

This is a thread on how to improve bat speed. The one thing that is most important to your last post is that you need to be "on time".

I'm not sure I quite follow your posts. You mention that there is no drill that you want a hitter to swing at everything. What about your rapid fire drills?

Regarding rhythm- Rhythm is something you use to be on-time as well as a mechanism to get started and stay loose. Agreed? Not sure where the ability to repeat comes in.

Finally- Mental- What do you mean by reading a pitcher.? Are you talking release point, prior tendencies? Read the defense- Are you talking about if the corners are back, look for a drag? Hitting is tough enough. Do you really want a guy changing his swing based on how the defense is set up? I can see sitting on a certain pitch.

The rapid fire drill does not lend itself to reading. However, I would love it if I offered and the hitter laid off the toss. Pitch recognition is a major element of good hitting. Bat speed gives more read time.

Your right, the thread is improving bat speed. I was just making the point there is more to hitting than mechanics and that bat speed work is related but separate from mechanics.

Mechanics need to come first and are the number one determinate of bat speed. However, once mechanics are sound -- speeding up the whole thing is desirable.

Most of you high school coaches don't have the luxury of being handed players with good mechanics so you have to spend a lot of time on mechanics to get a reasonable swing.

A repeatable swing is something other than Cal Ripkin's. A player needs rhythm to have consistent timing to the pitch.

When I say mental, it was yes to what you said. I wasn't talking about altering a swing though. I don't believe in it. I also don't believe the majority of hitters should have a two strike routine. Could say more, but it is off subject.

quote:

Originally posted by baseballpapa:
The rapid fire drill does not lend itself to reading. However, I would love it if I offered and the hitter laid off the toss. Pitch recognition is a major element of good hitting. Bat speed gives more read time.

Your right, the thread is improving bat speed. I was just making the point there is more to hitting than mechanics and that bat speed work is related but separate from mechanics.

Mechanics need to come first and are the number one determinate of bat speed. However, once mechanics are sound -- speeding up the whole thing is desirable.

Most of you high school coaches don't have the luxury of being handed players with good mechanics so you have to spend a lot of time on mechanics to get a reasonable swing.

A repeatable swing is something other than Cal Ripkin's. A player needs rhythm to have consistent timing to the pitch.

When I say mental, it was yes to what you said. I wasn't talking about altering a swing though. I don't believe in it. I also don't believe the majority of hitters should have a two strike routine. Could say more, but it is off subject.

Absolutely agree with you on changing to a two-strike approach. Good post!

Give him an ax and tell him to go chop down a bunch of trees.

If a bat is turning in a circle and the knob of the bat is at the center or the circle. The bat is rotating at a constant speed, is the bat accelerating?

If the bat is moveing horizontally in a straight line and is moveing at a constant speed, is the bat accelerating?

quote:

Originally posted by LAball:
If a bat is turning in a circle and the knob of the bat is at the center or the circle. The bat is rotating at a constant speed, is the bat accelerating?

If the bat is moveing horizontally in a straight line and is moveing at a constant speed, is the bat accelerating?

YES. a=F/m

So as long as there is a positive force applied to an object with mass, it is always accelerating (even if it is at a constant speed).

By the way, the knob of the bat is not at the center of the circle. That point would be somewhere between your hands.

Not exactly a circle either. Also, the end of the bat is traveling at a much greater speed than the knob.

Law of conservation of angular motion: The skater on ice who has his hands extended turns slow. To speed up he brings his hands in. To slow back down, he extends them out again.

Same with hitting. It is why the inside pitch is hammered. It is also why the bat and the hands should stay )"inside" and not be extended early. One of the keys to bat speed is to delay the action of the hands and wrist.

Another key is to not think bottom hand and top hand but use both hands to initiate the bat forward and both hands to rip it through the zone. Bottom hand and top hand teaching and one-handed drills actually can slow the baseball swing. I teach both hands act as a unit, both to initiate and bring the barrel into the zone.

I also teach to hit the front of the ball through the back of the ball. This is to key the force through the ball and not to the ball.

I use the one had drills not to improve batspeed but to reinforce the desire to stay short to the baseball and inside the baseball. Alot of young kids cast the arms away from the body and swing around the ball in an attempt to get to the baseball. They are creating a long swing , a slower swing , and holes in their swing. I have never liked the term "swing at the baseball." I prefer "hit the baseball." Going around the baseball to get to the baseball is one of the most common issues I see with young hitters I work with. Staying inside the ball is not going to happen when you cast out the arms to hit. The first thing you see in a player doing this is the pushing out of the hands away from the body as they initiate the swing.

I teach short to the zone letting the baseball get deep and then extend through the baseball. Short to it , long through it. I have found that many take the dominant hand or top hand and push the bat away from the body and come around the baseball on the bat path. The one hand drill can help them understand or get a feel for allowing the bottom hand to take the proper bat path to the baseball. Then the top hand drill can allow them to do the same thing with the top hand.

Dropping the hands and then raising them, casting the arms , wrapping the bat , leaning back to assist in the load ,etc etc are all things that many young players feel gives them a more powerful swing and makes them quicker to the baseball. If you can get them to understand that a shorter path to the baseball acually creates more batspeed and a better path to the baseball then your on the right track.

The problem is many kids have learned very well how to do some things that are very bad by the time they get to HS. It takes a player with a strong desire to learn and a great work ethic to overcome years of doing something they thought was right. And in many instances they have had a certain measure of success due to the fact the pitching was far inferior to what they will need to hit in the future to have success.

Taking the barrell of the bat and swinging all the way around the plate in an attempt to hit the ball will result in alot of failure and frustration. The more batspeed they have the more impressive the foul balls will be.

quote:

YES. a=F/m

So as long as there is a positive force applied to an object with mass, it is always accelerating (even if it is at a constant speed).

The formula is correct for centripetal acceleration, but this statement is incorrect. Acceleration is the change in velocity (speed) during a given span of time. Something at constant speed has a zero acceleration.

Positive force applied to a mass doesn't always produce acceleration. An engine powering a car to travel at 50 MPH is a positive force applied to a mass resulting in a constant velocity and an acceleration of zero.

a car needs force to maintain 50 mph b/c there is resistance. if no resistance (bat flying thru the air) no force would be needed to maintain a linear speed. But a curved motion of the same speed needs force b/c the velocity has changed - (velocity is speed & direction) So you can add force to the swing by increasing the direction change / a tighter arc. kinda like the hammer throw

Best program that I have found to improve bat speed and very resonable. Just follow this link.
http://716580xwuzwakfuky2o7jo8...ickbank.net/?tid=HSB