Swingtraining.net Blog

Swingtraining.net v3.0

JAlbert — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:24:00 GMT

Swingtraining.net has officially been updated. This blog has been imported and combined with the homepage, which will run together under the main url title - swingtraining.net

New site in the works

JAlbert — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:37:00 GMT

I've been working hard on a new site which should be a lot easier to update and operate. It's functional at this point, but I'd still like to add a couple of things. Coming soon....

Sports Motion video software

JAlbert — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:36:00 GMT

Recently, I traveled to Europe with ISG baseball to participate in a baseball clinic for the European Baseball Coaches Association and my first presentation was basically using video to review different elements of the swing. I've always been asked a lot about what types of things I do with video and what software I use, and this was no different after speaking in Vienna. With that, it's about time that I put this together....

The main video software I use is called Sports Motion. I created a page on the main site where I give a brief list of some of the features, but you can also check out Sports Motion's myspace page which has some videos detailing features of the program.

Because of the number of inquiries from coaches at the EBCA conference in Europe, I was able to get my own promo code for those looking to buy the software and now I can make that available to anyone. So if this is something you are interested in, you can use the promo code "jalbert" for a 5% discount when you check out with your order from Sports Motion.

If you have any questions related to this, feel free to ask or email

Sweet hack

JAlbert — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:25:00 GMT

I just couldn't resist...

Even Tiger took a crack at it, but you shouldn't try this at home:

World Wood Bat Championships in Jupiter, and some links

JAlbert — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:33:00 GMT

I spent last weekend taking in Perfect Game's WWBA event right here in Jupiter. From everything I heard, this is/was the premier high school tournament in the country that brings the best players from all over to one spot. That's pretty easy to believe if you've been to one of these things and you see the hundreds of scouts and college coaches. The Roger Dean Stadium complex in Jupiter is home to the St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins, with 6 minor league fields on each side, and when the event is in full swing there is action on all of the fields. You can check out profiles on some of the players here.

I've also been playing some catch up as far as reading up on different internet resources and a number of different books that I've ordered. Here are a couple of nice links that you should find useful:

SB Coaches College is a site created by three well known coaches in the S&C industry and it has tons of articles and other information. For example, here is a quick piece on a college softball dynamic warm-up program.

The S&C staff at the College of Holy Cross has assembled a video library of exercises that they use in their program. Here are a couple that I like/use - 1-leg straight-leg deadlift (hip dominant hamstring) and cable lift rotation (although I'd make a point for the spine angle to stay vertical or slightly back as in the swing)...

Supertraining

JAlbert — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:17:00 GMT

Written by Dr. Mel Siff, Supertraining is a classic text in the field of strength and conditioning. Based on its reputation alone, this was one of the first books I bought on the subject and I couldn't really appreciate the quality and amount of information provided because I didn't know much about the subject. Now having been through graduate school, I still look at this book as one that covers just about everything: basic biomechanics, physiology, energy systems, skill acquisition, all types of strength, endurance, flexibility, power, periodization, lists of exercises.....you name it.

The beginning of the book defines strength and gets into muscle composition, biomechanics topics like mass-acceleration and muscle tension, muscle fiber types, and bioenergetics. These were really the types of things we first covered in beginning classes for exercise science. What it isn't is a list of programs for you to just follow along, what it is is the kind of information you need to plan for yourself or your players.

A couple of the topics I have found more interesting and applicable are information about the "feedforward process" and also differentiating types of muscle hypertrophy:

The book has traditionally been tough to find so I was glad to see a place like Perform Better pick it up. If you're interested in reading more, another review can be found here.

Relationship between physiological characteristics and softball-specific variables of NCAA division I softball players

JAlbert — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:58:00 GMT

First, a long overdue congratulations to the Louisiana Tech Softball team, who won their first ever WAC conference championship back in May. What a great group of hard-workers who pulled off multiple wins against ranked opponents to bring home the title.

Along with another assistant, I got involved in directing the team's strength and conditioning program for the 2007-2008 season. What we were very fortunate to be able to do was measure/test all kinds of physical and performance variables at the beginning and end our training.

I made a previous post about presenting a conference poster about our intial findings regarding the relationship of the players' physiological characteristics to the performance characteristics. So after all this time, here is the actual poster that I presented:

Relationship between physiological characteristics and softball-specific variables of NCAA division I softball players

Big surprise, the girls who were bigger and stronger hit the ball harder! It was nice to find some relationship between the variables, but the correlations are not great, with the highest r-squared value being .25

"Off-season"

JAlbert — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:06:00 GMT

Almost 8 months since the last update? Wow. Suffice it to say that there's been quite a few things happening.

I plan on filling in parts of the gap and continuing to add information over the fall and winter. If you have any thoughts/comments/requests, fire away....

LSU-Shreveport Conference Presentation

JAlbert — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:12:45 GMT

This Friday, February 22nd, I will be giving a brief poster presentation at the LSU-Shreveport campus for their 6th Annual National Conference on Girls' & Women's Health, Physical Activity, and Sport.

The abstract and poster is based on research I did with the Tech softball team for my independent research study. What we basically tried to do was look for any and all relationships between physiological and performance variables in division I softball players. For example, we tested for hang clean, squat, bench press, grip, bat velocity, throwing velocity, speed, agility, etc. 19 variables all together.

Title of the abstract/poster is:

Relationship between physiological characteristics and softball-specific variables of NCAA division I softball players

What I may do is post my abstract after the conference...

If you happen to be interested in attending, here is the information that I have been provided - LSU-S Conference

Special thanks to the Tech Softball team and coaches, s&c staff and all of the people who helped during the testing!

"Strength and Conditioning Practices of Major League Baseball..."

JAlbert — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:49:00 GMT

The following abstract is from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning. It gives a results summary of a survey given to MLB strength coaches...

Strength and Conditioning Practices of Major League Baseball Strength and Conditioning Coaches

William P. Ebben, Marilyn J. Hintz, and Christopher J. Simenz

Department of Physical Therapy, Program in Exercise Science, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201

ABSTRACT

Ebben, W.P., M.J. Hintz, and C.J. Simenz. Strength and conditioning practices of Major League Baseball strength and conditioning coaches. J. Strength Cond. Res. 19(3):538–546. 2005.—This study describes the results of a survey of the practices of Major League Baseball strength and conditioning (MLB S&C) coaches. The response rate was 70.0% (21 of 30). This survey examines (a) background information, (b) physical testing, (c) flexibility development, (d) speed development, (e) plyometrics, (f) strength/power development, (g) unique aspects, and (h) comments. Results indicate, in part, that coaches assess an average of 3.6 parameters of fitness, with body composition testing being the most commonly assessed parameter. All coaches use a variety of flexibility development strategies. All coaches use speed development strategies, with form running drills being the most common. Twenty of 21 (95.2%) coaches employ plyometric exercises with their athletes. Eighteen of 21 (85.7%) of MLB S&C coaches follow a periodization model (PM). Five of 21 coaches (23.8%) indicated that their athletes use Olympic-style lifts. The squat and its variations and the lunge and its variations were most frequently identified as the first and second most important exercises used to train the athletes. This survey provides detailed information about strength and conditioning practices at the most competitive level of baseball and serves as a review, as well as a source of applied information and new ideas.

Playing my way out...

JAlbert — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:39:00 GMT

Towards the end of the 2007 season in Shreveport, I walked into the clubhouse after throwing our BP in El Paso, and our manager made a quick joke. Something about needing to me to sign and become an active player for the remainder of the season (about 10 days)...

Only he wasn't joking. The 3b had a knee injury and the LF was heading back to school, which left us with exactly 9 position players. We were approaching the last day that clubs could sign players for the season, and I just happened to be the guy. Suit up, take some BP, chew some seeds...no problem.

Really, I had no desire to actually play again, but we needed an extra guy (just in case) and I was in good shape from working out all summer so I was up for it. All I had to do was sit there, or maybe save one of pitchers from having to pinch run and immediately get picked off second base (which happened!)

But as you may have seen on my front page for a while, I actually got some AB's:

Launch in external player

That was our last home game and my wife just happened to be there with our digital camera. I hadn't seen a live pitch in over 2 years, so I was a bit nervous. Check swing for strike one, miraculously laid of a slider (why would he throw me a slider??) to get to 1-1, and then hit a hard line drive that was caught by the 1b. So close to hitting a double!

What is funnier about that game is that I was put in at 3rd base:

And our pitcher was working on a complete game shutout. I thought I was in the clear with 2 outs and 2 left pull hitters coming up in the 9th, but they singled and walked which loaded the bases. Of course, the next guy up hit me a ground ball. After a quick bobble, I rushed a throw to first and he dug it out of the dirt to finish the game. Thanks, Hump (nickname of the 1b).

To finish it up, I got the start in our last game of the season at Pensacola. It was a TV game, and there were a handful of messages on my phone afterwards asking me how the heck I got myself out there. But I managed to resemble something of a pro - two pop-ups, a 6-3 and a hard line drive to CF that was run down and ended up a sac fly (another almost double!). Then, in dramatic fashion, I walked on 4 pithes during my last time up. Everyone gave me a hard time for not swinging 3-0, but the pitch wasn't too close. At least I got on base, gotta love those walks.

I'm still trying to get the tape of the game...I want to see the ball I hit to center. After a couple of years, the ball really did look like an aspirin, but it was nice to know I could still turn around a fastball. Most of all, it was fun to get out there one last time.

Book Review: Underground Secrets to Faster Running

JAlbert — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:05:00 GMT

I've been meaning to do this (start some quick reviews) for a while and I thought this would be a good way to start....

A few years ago, I was directed to an article entitled: The Holy Grail in Speed Training by author Barry Ross.

I found the article very interesting, contacted Mr. Ross and got going on the workout. I was "retired" at the time and figured I'd give it a shot.....what I found (my personal experience) was quite interesting. Within a couple of months, my deadlift improved from the mid-200's to near 420 pounds while my body weight stayed the same. For sprint work, I did 10 yard starts from a base-stealing position using an electronic timer. Over that winter, I decreased my 10 yard time by .2 seconds. And on the first 40 that I had timed, which was the first sprint I had run over 10 yards, my time was over .2 seconds faster than I had ever run. Pretty cool.

It didn't take long for Barry Ross, who is a seasoned track & field and strength coach, to open his own site and release his book: Underground Secrets to Faster Running

The book outlines the concept of mass specific force, and sites some nice research studies to back up the claims. The workout is incredibly easy from an equipment, execution and planning standpoint, but not so easy in terms of the load/intensity used! Basically you have to lift heavy! With all the talk of fast and slow twitch muscle fibers, this method gets right to the point of muscle fiber recruitment and training for strength. It is a fast, simple read that goes through mass specific force, physiology, exercise selection and workout design in a logical fashion. Theory and application.

In addition to the lifting and running, I was hitting and throwing with a pair of minor league players and I noticed that my bat speed and throwing velocity were improving above what I had achieved in college. Also pretty cool. Although not excatly common-place, strength training for the posterior chain and specific swing/throw training appeared to be a great combination.

Check out Barry's web site for more information --- Bearpowered.com

Cal Ripken Jr. on weight shift

JAlbert — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:35:00 GMT

Cal Ripken Jr. shares his take on weight shift during the swing...

A-Rod: Creating a compact swing

JAlbert — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:12:00 GMT

Back in August, Kevin Long (Yankees hitting coach) described how he worked with Alex Rodriguez to create a more compact swing. He gave a description of using the "net" or "fence" drill:

"You take a stance parallel to a net only a bat-length away from you. You hold the knob of the bat to your stomach to measure the distance. Then, your coach flips balls to you and you hit them -- without the bat touching the net. That's how you know your swing is more compact. The drill forces you to pull your hands towards your body as you swing -- it gets you in the proper position to turn on those inside pitches."

If you watch the video closely, you can see A-Rod taking one of these swings in his recent piece with 60 minutes:

Tony Gwynn video on Hitting

JAlbert — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:04:00 GMT

When does bat speed "happen"?

JAlbert — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:57:00 GMT

Many already have a grasp on the concept of the kinetic link. The photo below gives a brief summary:

So the principle really suggests that, in terms of the swing, the bat is going to be the last thing to come around and its velocity is going to be determined by the summation of forces that have been generated by the body and transferred to the bat. Nothing new there...

Here is some more information to illustrate the timing of when the bat actually comes around, or when bat speed "happens":

This graph, from Adair's Physics of Baseball, shows the velocity relationship between the hands and the bat. What you see really is that the hands and bat travel very near the same speed during the time when the body is rotating. From the kinetic chain principle, we know that one segment speeds up when the previous segment slows down, so the bat is going to take off (increase velocity) when the rotation of the body has stopped and the hands change the direction of the know of the bat. You can see that this happens towards the end of the swing process.

Adair's book, along with plenty of other sources (including biomechanics studies in golf) indicate that the wrist uncock passively as the time for contact approaches, which again suggests that the hands are not doing much if anything to apply force to the bat during the early portions of the swing.

It would make sense to think that maximal bat speed should be achieved immediately prior to contact, and this has been shown to be so, with values for maximal linear bat speed occuring around 0.015 seconds before contact. Looks like this:

Of course each segment in the chain is important. Based on the evidence at this point, is appears that the importantce of the lower extremities and torso is to produce the force and the importance of the arms and hands is to be in the right place at the right time to make sure it all gets transferred to the bat just before contact.

Mailbag #2 - A couple of comments

JAlbert — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:20:00 GMT

There are a couple of recent comments that I'd like to pull up here to the big board:

#1 - A comment from Mr. JP Francoeur of JP Fitness

JP's comment stated the need for sufficient strength in order to maintain correct sequence patterns.

The following was part of my initial response response:

"I understand your position about strength deficit, but I still feel like mechanics/technique plays a role (maybe or maybe not specific to Jeff Francoeur).
For example, weight distribution at the time of stride foot plant will effect how rotation takes place.

Flexibility may also be an issue. Here is a question: is it possible for a hitter to be too flexible across the 'serape' muscles of the torso? Just like too much laxity in the shoulder joint opens the door to injury. Torso flexibility may be great for golf, but not to the same extent for baseball due to time contraints."

Given a time constraint, as in baseball batting, I would imagine that an optimal load/stretch is a necessary part of the basic compromise between mutually exclusive ends of maximal bat speed and maximal swing quickness.

On top of that, I'd agree with JP in a case such as Francoeur that a possible plan of attack would be to focus on concentric strength in diagonal rotation patterns in order to improve swing quickness. Assuming a player can 'get away with' more separation, it could be a good thing --- just have to make sure the swing is executed in the given time period.

I'll also mention again, if you have not checked out the JP Fitness Forum, it is worth a visit.

#2 - anonymous comment goes like this:

"I was wondering if you had an opinion on the benefits of a longer stride when batting."

In my personal experience measuring bat speed for myself and other players, I would say that the stride contributes about 10% to maximal bat velocity. This is an example of what I mean: Player A has 100 mph maximum bat speed using his stride. Player A also achieved a maxmimum bat speed of 90 mph without using the stride. This was what I generally saw with college and minor league level players.

I have to add there that those not experience taking swing without a stride had a bigger difference. Similar to my comments on my biomechanics project. This was mainly because they heavily relied on thier arms, dragging the bat, etc. to create bat speed. Over time, they learned to use their body more efficiently to produce bat speed and quickness.

Research wise, the only number I can reference specifically is from a golf biomechanics study that quantified a 10% contribution from lateral movement/shift prior to launching the swing.

Baseball studies show weight bearing on the front foot to be greater than 100% of body weight at the time the stride foot lands, which suggests the need to get the weight shifted to the front leg. Actual picking up of the foot is really a matter of preference, comfortability (ie. golfers have the same shift without the actual stride).

My word of caution about trying to create too much bat speed by way of the stride is this - while a biomechanics study on ground reaction forces in pitching did show a correlation between total ground forces produces and linear wrist velocity (speed of the throwing hand moving toward it's target at release), GRF that peaked too soon showed a negative correlation to the same wrist velocity.

My interpretation of that is basically if you push (forcefull extension of back leg) too soon, then you're in troube. Rather, you're looking for a controlled build up of momentum leading to forceful, late rotation as the stride foot begin to land.

Personally, I usually focus on reaching good athletic positions, instead of a set idea of stide length. Especially with objective feedback, players tend to figure out which positions are good and not so good.

Brad Lidge

JAlbert — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 04:05:00 GMT

Ok I don't know how many more of these MLB analysis pieces are going to come out, but this is an interesting one.

Here is the full article at Baseball Analysts. It takes into account some sports psychology in addition to mechanics and looks at some statistical changes over the past couple of years.

Launch in external player

Opinions

JAlbert — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:43:00 GMT

There is no shortage of opinions on the internet these days, and in a general sense, there is nothing wrong with that at all. In my experience, however, it takes a god deal of willingness and persistance to do some actual research in order to support your opinion. Many times - too many times - opinions get stated as fact when there is not all that much (if anything) too back it up.

That said, I came across a rather appropriate book - Sports: Is it All B.S.?

To quote the author, Dr. Yessis...

"The bottom line is that if you cannot show it or prove it, then it is probably B.S. Opinions are fine when they are based on fact or substantiated data, but when opinion lacks substantiation, they are feeding us bull." (emphasis added!)

Mailbag #1 - Do it yourself video analysis

JAlbert — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 01:10:00 GMT

One of the questions I get a lot is about how to do video analysis. Believe it or not, I don't have any fancy video equipment - just an old mini-dv camcorder and computer programs that were either free or hand-me-downs.

Last week I received the following:

"What program do you use to sync the videos when comparing swings? I am giving hitting lessons and would like to show my hitters not only before and after but compare their swings to others"

My first piece of advice is to go to this site and download the free version of V1 Home.

If you have figured out how to log on to a computer and use email, you should be able to figure this out without a problem. It's about the easiest program I've found to use - especially for free.

Plug your camcorder into your computer and you can run live video, capture and show your players instantly....give your bit of instruction, and moments later you can show a split screen comparison to see improvements or not. It has different slo-mo speeds and frame by frame, forward and backward.

This is the type of thing I did often with players while working in Atlanta. See softball 1 for an example.

If you're into drawing all sorts of confusing lines and shapes, you can do that with the program also. Have fun.

Myspace Me!

JAlbert — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 00:44:00 GMT

I've had a Myspace account for a while but not really done too much with it.

Feel free to add me if you have an account!

Support Swingtraining.net

JAlbert — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:06:00 GMT

I appreciate a number of emails I've received since I began Swingtraining.net that count this site as a valuable resource for baseball and softball training information. This is what I intend for the site to be. As mentioned in several of those emails, all of the information provided to this point is FREE! For the most part I share a lot of the experiences and insights that I come across as I'm beginning my career in the area of peformance enhancement of baseball/softball players.

What I would like to do is continue operating this site as I have been, but keep adding more information about various existing resources. This is where I need some help...

By resources, I mean books, articles, training products (ie. medicine balls, weighted bats, etc.). I already have several items of which I plan to begin writing brief reviews and giving my recommendations for tools that have been valuable to me along my journey. When applicable, I will also try to make these resources available to you through this website.

You may have noticed on the main pages of the site that there are a number of new links on the far right hand side of the page. I've chosen these because I have found them to be reliable in obtaining pertinent baseball/softball items.

Amazon, Alibris and Dragon Door have been great sources for books and I've also had good experiences with Baseball Express when ordered all kinds of equipment (bats, gloves, batting gloves, balls, nets, etc.).

As I come along more opportunities like these, I will add them.

This opportunity is one that should be a win-win for visitors of this site and myself. In my experience, the serious baseball/player parent is usually looking for products and information in order to improve, so these items are likely to be acquired one way or another.

And now by simply clicking on those links from Swingtraining.net before your order, you will help me maintain the site and can report additional information.

_________________________________________________________________________________
In short: every time you make a purchase from one of these sites after linking over from swingtrainging.net, you can indirectly support this website!
__________________________________________________________________

*use code GARCIAMARQUEZ until 11/25/07 for a $3 coupon on alibris

Mailbag

JAlbert — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 01:20:00 GMT

I've been getting a few more emails of late and I try to get back to everyone when I get the chance. Sometimes emails fall through the cracks though because they get forwaded to another address and sometimes don't make it. I have also been getting more spam type emails and comments so I have to do a lot of deleting.

What I would like to do is begin a "Mailbag" section where I try to answer particularly good questions or general types of things that I get asked on a regular basis. So I would encourage you all to continue sending emails and/or asking questions in the comments section. If I happen to miss one, don't be shy about asking again (I know I have been very annoying to a lot of people when trying to make contacts and/or get information!)

P.S. I will do everything possible to generalize the origin of the question (ie. remove names, locations, etc.) when appropriate or requested. In other words - make them anonymous unless otherwise specified.

Biomechanics Project: GRF in Expert vs Novice Batters

JAlbert — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:33:00 GMT

Steve Englishbey got me going a few weeks ago on the topic of Ground Reaction Forces in batting. While there isn't a ton of stuff directly pertaining to baseball, I have managed to dig up a couple of studies specifically directed at baseball/softball batting, and there are others as well that deal with other sports (like golf).

I mentioned last spring that we (myself and a couple classmates) were doing a biomechanics project on the difference between GRF in expert and novice batters, and at the time I didn't want to bother putting up our results. The main reason was that it was our first time using the equipment - a force plate and Peak Motus 2-D analysis system - but it is a little more interesting now that I look back at it. I will be the first to say, however, that this is not something I'd believe to be publishable or anything to that degree. Just a class project designed to get us familar with the equipment. Moral of the story: don't read into it too much!

OK here goes:

1.) This first graph shows the amount of VERTICAL GRF created by both expert and novice grouns under two conditions - stride and no stride. The only significant difference was in the stride condition where the novice group, 3 college students in our department, had a much higher vertical GRF.

What threw me off a little was that the expert group, three college hitters, actually had a lower GRF in the no-stride condition. My only explanation for that, from an observational standpoint, is that their no-stride condition swings seemed closer to what their natural swings would be. For example, in the stride condition, I literally had to remind them that they needed to lift their front foot off the ground.

2.) The second one simply shows the correlation of bat velocity to GRF. In both conditions, the novice group showed a high correlation to GRF produced and bat velocity. Simply put, the more GRF they had, the more bat speed they had.

This was not the case in the expert group. They showed minimal correlation in both conditions. What this suggests is that they are relying much less on weight shift in the direction of the pitcher for bat speed production. I believe the golf study I have (left it at home today, unfortunately) attributed just 10% of club head speed in experts to weight shift, and this would agree with the results here. In other words, the experts are relying on other means, namely summation of forces from the sequential rotation of body parts - aka kinetic link - to develop bat velocity.

Jhonny Peralta

JAlbert — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:10:00 GMT

I have only been able to catch bits and pieces of the playoffs, but if does seem like every time I turn on the Cleveland Indians, Jhonny Peralta is getting an extra-base hit. Bloop double a few nights ago, and HR's in the past two games.

Peralta's swing caught my attention when I first saw him in 2005 and this is why

After an outstanding May, I thought Peralta was going to make me look like a genius based on a piece I did on him over the off-season. Basically just seemed like his swings were consistent but had a vision problem. He did bounce back this year from 2006, but not quite as studly as 2005. But he is still 25 and plenty of potential to continue developing...gotta love that opposite field power.

On that note, a big thumbs up to Cleveland hitting coach, Derek Shelton. According to the description given:

"As Hitting Coordinator he streamlined the entire Indians minor league organization from the Dominican League to Triple A with all new terminology and approach to hitting"

Mr. Shelton is doing something quite well. I'd love to talk to him about that "terminology" and find out what their philosophy is all about.

And there's also a recent article on Peralta at Baseball America and they forsee a shift to 3rd base for him. Good, less glovey, more smashy. Looking forward to it.

A close look at hip rotation - literally

JAlbert — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:41:00 GMT

came across this very good close-up of hip rotation. I hope you can all figure out who the hitter is.

Keep your eye on the ball...

JAlbert — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:14:00 GMT

...sort of

Nice article on David Ortiz

JAlbert — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:28:00 GMT

Just saw this and it's worth a read.

Apparantly, Ortiz isn't shy about using video between ab's

New direction?

JAlbert — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:15:00 GMT

Hopefully you've noticed a new layout for the blog section. First of all, I'm trying to make it a little easier on the eyes. The old grey text over white background was not so friendly. This should be better - at least it is for me.

In terms of content, I have clearly focused on MLB analysis to this point. This was largely an effort to create a body of work that I can use to send to varying teams as I pursue a job in professional baseball. Right now is the busy time for me to make a run at one of these jobs, and most of my time that isn't spent in class or the weight room is being spent on things like editing my resume and seeking opportunities in baseball.

One thing I've learned is that there are plenty of egos out there, mine included. This isn't a knock on anyone in particular, it's just the way it is. And I think it's best for me right now to lay off the MLB analysis as I've been doing. I just don't want to step on any potential toes - baseball is a small, small world and you never know who you'll run into.

Working in pro baseball this summer and spending more time with the coaches from the different teams that I've worked with has really given me more perspective to the other side of the fence. It's easy for me or anyone to look in from the outside and say a player should do this or that, but most of the time all the details are unclear from the outside. That is why I tried to make so much of an effort in my articles to be as objective as possible.

At this point, what I intend to do is direct the site content more toward information from research and training (strength and conditioning) as it relates to performance.

As always, feel free to send emails or comments with topics and suggestions.

Recent abstract on Ground Reaction Forces in Batting

JAlbert — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:39:00 GMT

Just came across this...

From: Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology Jul2007 Supplement, Vol. 29, pS92

In baseball hitting, a powerful bat swing needs to be produced by utilizing ground reaction force (GRF) and it should also be temporally coordinated relative to the flight of a pitch. Therefore, organizing a hitting movement to meet these task requirements is a key for a successful hitting performance. This leads to a presumption that a front-foot stepping motion adopted for utilizing GRF to produce power for a bat-swing motion should be temporally coordinated with respect to an oncoming pitch. The present study investigated the temporal organization of hitting movements by focusing on the timing of the stepping motion relative to the flight of pitches. Six participants hit pitches projected by a pitching machine with following task conditions: 1) hitting pitches traveling at a consistent speed and 2) hitting pitches traveling at fast/slow speeds, which were randomly delivered. The second condition was aimed at eliciting movement modulation to the difference in the pitches' speeds. Ground reaction forces exerted by left and right feet during hitting movements was recorded by two force plates to measure the timing of the front-foot take-off and landing in the stepping motion. Hitting motions were also recorded by a high-speed camera for interpreting the change of GRF profile relative to the hitting movement. The comparison between the GRF profiles in the two task conditions revealed that the timing of the stepping motion and shifting weight forward for initiating the bat swing was modulated relative to the pitch's speed. Temporal relation between successive motion phases was compensatory such that the early timing of landing the front foot relative to an oncoming pitch was followed by the late initiation of shifting weight onto the landed front foot, and vice versa. The timing variability in the successive motion phases progressively reduced up to the ball-bat contact. These results demonstrated the coordinative structure of the hitting movement for timing the bat swing relative to the pitch's flight.

A little kinetic link...

JAlbert — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:07:00 GMT

Sioux Falls

JAlbert — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 15:51:00 GMT

This is a little late coming up, but we had quite a long road trip to St. Joe, MO and Sioux Falls, SD. Now at least I can say I've been to South Dakota. It wasn't even snowing, which was nice. It was actually very hot (mid-90s) and a very nice area. Cool ball park, great hotel, and I even met up with fellow Bulldog, Tim Marks.

Yes, I know I have a weird look on my face, but you would too if you were looking directly into the sun. Anyways, Tim had no idea I was with Shreveport so it was a nice surprise. And congratulations to him for making the American Association All-Star team - he's always been a hard worker.

Here are some more shots of the park:

And this was a nice touch - live music before the game...which was actually pretty good (there is a guy in there singing and playing keyboard):

On the Road....

JAlbert — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 05:14:00 GMT

Waaaay out on the road. St. Joseph, Missouri to be exact. After a 10 hour bus trip, we arrived to finish up some sleep before our first game of the series last Thursday. Unfortunately, we have lost 6 in a row after dropping a tough one in the 13th inning tonight. What makes it worse is that St. Joe had lost 10 or 12 in a row before we got here. That's baseball - can't take anything for granted.

The park is pretty old. Apparantly, Mickey Mantle hit one over the CF fence here, which happens to be like 750 ft. What a huge park.

From here we go to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I've never been to the Dakota's so I don't know what to expect. It's not still snowing there is it??? We are right on the Missouri river here, so I've been able to jog up and down the boardwalk as well as downtown. Hopefully, Sioux Falls is nice also.

Physics of Baseball

JAlbert — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:14:00 GMT

this might be of interest

Quick look at Pronk

JAlbert — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:50:00 GMT

aka Travis Hafner

Jay at Letsgotribe.com asked me to check in on Hafner's swing, so I made a quick comparison.

FYI when I do comparison, I do my best to use swings that are similar pitch type, location and result. I repeat this over and over. The result does not HAVE to be the same, but it helps support the contention that the swings are as similar as possible.

Overall I think the swings are very similar and it'd take much more time and feedback from the player (Hafner) to really pinpoint the problem/solution. It could very well be a factor outside of swing mechanics - ie Cleveland SS Jhonny Peralta (who has been great since I added him to my fantasy team).

In other words, there does not seem to be any physical indication that Hafner will not "right the ship" and become his normal HR happy self again.

Here is the link to Jay's blog entry

This link is to just the clip itself

Shreveport Sports

JAlbert — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 04:28:00 GMT

A last minute break landed me in Shreveport...

I've been able to arrange an internship with the Shreveport Sports of the independent American Association. I got a call out of the blue from an ex-teammate who played in Shreveport and here I am - small world I guess. What a good experience to be able to work on a daily basis with professionals from varying levels of minor league baseball.

Anyways, if you are coming through the area and/or are nearby one of the locations we travel to, make sure to say hi at the ballpark. If you see someone with a video camera, it's probably me (duh)

Resistance Training for Bat Speed

JAlbert — Sun, 13 May 2007 23:27:00 GMT

Since I have pretty much directed most of my work to MLB analysis, I thought it would be good to get back to a bit of the training side of things.

This is a recent article on resistance training for bat speed written by Dr. David Szymanski, who is one of my professors here at Louisiana Tech.

For you high school coaches out there, this may be a good guide especially for players who are not experienced with weight training. This protocol was used in a few previous studies by Dr. Szymanski and I experienced it myself this past fall in a study we did (which is not published yet, but referenced in this article). Also, if you have limited facilities, this is a basic way to help young players get stronger.

This is an overview, but you're going to want to read the whole article:

The article explains general, special and specific conditioning and also explains possible differences in training high school and college players.

I've got to throw this in here too, because it was pretty cool to see:

These are references to the studies we have done so far, which have been a great experience. Maybe someday I'll have my own publication? We'll see...

Muscle activity in pitching

JAlbert — Fri, 11 May 2007 01:50:00 GMT

OK I just thought I'd toss this up here real quick. It's from our biomechanics book - Biomechanical Basis of Human Movement:

And speaking of muscle activity in pitching, I just saw this article about Dr. Mike Marshall. How timely.

Enjoy

Anthony Reyes '05-'06

JAlbert — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:47:00 GMT

Another request from Erik Manning at Future Red Birds and Viva El Birdos...

This time, Anthony Reyes. He's seen a drop off in velocity and there are some questions about how this relates to developing a new pitch (2-seamer).

I did a comparison and gave some quick thoughts.

Here is the link

Yo, Adrian

JAlbert — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 15:39:00 GMT

Why has Beltre's production dropped since an insane 2004, and can he re-approach those MVP-like numbers?

http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2007/03/yo_adrian.php

What the Helton?

JAlbert — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:13:00 GMT

Quick analysis on Todd Helton comparing his 2004 season to 2006.

Will a healthy Helton return to form in 2007? Could be a big year for him...

Here is the link to the article

These are the videos:

Full

Isolation

Cardinals Prospect: Jon Jay

JAlbert — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 23:51:00 GMT

Erik from Viva El Birdos and Future Red Birds asked me to take a look at a good looking Cardinals prospect - Jon Jay. I put him up next to Carlos Beltran.

Swing is a bit quirky, but has definately been working for him throughout college and his first taste of pro ball.

Read Erik's article, with my comments included right here

Click here for the full video comparison

Swingtraining.net's Top 10 swings from 2006

JAlbert — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:00:00 GMT

I put together a short list of some of my favorite clips from this past season. For the most part, these are players that I like to see swing the bat, but some others are (or will be) on there because they different/interesting in some other way. For example, the shot of Bonds is obviously not his best swing, but very interesting to me that he hits that ball out of the park. Ichiro is another one of those unconventional type of swings.

Who is #1? Guess what - it's not Manny:

Here is the list

Feel free to comment on your favorites, least favorites, and make suggestions for other nominees. I will be updating the list to include some other good shots...

Open Water: Jeff Samardzija

JAlbert — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 18:57:00 GMT

Jeff Samardzija has been in the news a lot lately after signing his deal with the Cubs, so I decided to take a look at how pitching mechanics.

The full article appears here at Baseball Analysts.

I tried to point out or clarify in the comments section that I don't think the differential in his winup-stretch tempo is that big of a deal. It just got me looking at his tempo in general and he seemed just a bit behind the big boys. I think what it more interesting is his hip loading and rotation, which looks like it will need to improve if he is really going to make it big. We'll see how he progress and what type of adjustments are made.

The Batter's Eye

JAlbert — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 20:34:00 GMT

FYI I just got hooked up with a link to an archive of the articles I've done over on Baseball Analysts

It's called The Batter's Eye. There is also a link in the sidebar to the left.

Overhead View of Swing Path

JAlbert — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 00:49:00 GMT

Internet-vets have surely seen the overhead shot of Pete Rose, which shows a good depiction of the 'circular' type path of the hands. This is a game shot of Trot Nixon, mirrored to show both sides of an overhead swing path from launch to contact.

Click here for the full shot.

NSCA Sport Specific Conference

JAlbert — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 01:48:00 GMT

After a quiet, sleep filled break from classes, I'm getting back into action this weekend with a little road trip to the NSCA Sport Specific Conference in San Antonio, TX. This year's conference covers soccer, football and baseball. Guess: which one I am interested in?

Actually, I would like to attend the sports-vision and power development presentations for football, but there are a couple of baseball presentations going on at the same time. One on friday is going to be presented by none other than Tom House, whose topic is Rotational Strength, Endurance and Flexibility for Throwers. Should be interesting.

Dr. Szymanski has a 2 hour presentation on increasing throwing velocity, which we already got to hear in class. Interestingly, it covers all of the research that has been done on improving throwing velocity and then goes over some applications. For anyone who still says there is no documented research on using weighted baseballs to increase throwing velocity for baseball......well, that is not the case!

I am also looking forward to hearing Perry Castellano (head S&C for the Twins) presenting "Power is not Size".

Here is the full rundown of presenters and topics:

Friday

Saturday

Looking forward to learning some new things...

Happy New Year

A little swing training research...

JAlbert — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 00:15:00 GMT

I believe I previously mentioned a research project I have been involved in here at Tech, which involves effects of weight training on bat velocity and batted ball velocity. Few training studies have been done over a 12-week period, and now I know why: organization, assistants, and participation.

Spread over 5 area high school, somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 players began, and only 29 or 30 finished. Injuries, sickness and plenty of other weird excuses came up for those who dropped out, but there were a number of hard working kids that really made some progress.

For the bat speed measures, we used the SETPRO sprt5-a. I've had a lot of experience with this and found it to be very reliable in measuring bat-tip velocity. Why? Because it measues the tip in the same place, evry time (as long as you have the tee set up correctly. I have had a hard time telling where some other bat speed units pick up the bat, and some have seemed more inconsistent.

The Speedtrac-XRQ was used to measure ball speed, and this was a bit more tricky. Many of the players did not like that you actually have to hit the ball solidly in order to get a good reading, but that is the idea - solid contact equals higher ball velocity. There were a few instances where a player would hit the ball solidly and not get a reading, but this seemed more due to set-up than anything (which I still don't totally understand). But, for the most part, when we got the unit setup so that the player could hit a line-drive directly at it, we got relatively consistent results.

Here is a look at part of our testing set-up:

And for strarting off on my own research, I again used the SPRT5-A to measure bat speed and different variances of swing quickness/reaction:

A good time was had by....well, me at least

Draft work - Cody Johnson, Hank Conger, Justin Upton and more

JAlbert — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 22:41:00 GMT

I just did another 2-part article for Baseball Analysts based on draft video of players including Cody Johnson and Hank Conger (2006), Stephen Drew and Justin Upton (2005) and Ryan Harvey (2004)

The main idea is to use the video to identify swing efficiency. If a young player has a more efficient swing, will it be easier for him to make it to MLB? Interesting question.

Also, I have to make clear that my intention is not to be critical of draft selections. If I suggest that a young player has areas to improve his swing, that's all it is. An 18 year old draft pick does not need to be perfect. But in my opinion, it would be helpful to know which areas to concentrate on improving in order to help speed up the development process. That's the idea.

Part 1: Johnson, Conger, Drew, Harvey and David Wright

Part 2: Justin Upton, Rickie Weeks and Alfonso Soriano

Click on the above links for the articles. Below are all the video files, just click the link...

Part 1:

http://www.swingtraining.net/image/conger-wright-johnson.gif

http://www.swingtraining.net/image/drew-johnson.gif

http://www.swingtraining.net/image/drew-johnson-hips.gif

http://www.swingtraining.net/image/johnson-harvey.gif

http://www.swingtraining.net/image/drag.jpg

Part 2:

http://www.swingtraining.net/image/upton-bp-st.gif

http://www.swingtraining.net/image/upton-hands.gif

http://www.swingtraining.net/image/upton-weeks-soriano-st.gif

http://www.swingtraining.net/image/upton-weeks-soriano-push.gif

Enjoy!

New look for the main page!

JAlbert — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:09:00 GMT

I have been messing around with a new web program all weekend and I'm almost finished with a major overhaul for the main page.

Swingtraining.net

A couple of people have previously mentioned trouble viewing the site with Mozilla/Firefox web browser. Please let me know if there are still any difficulties with this or other browsers.

Let me know what you think. I am still updating links and putting together the information for the "Training" page.

Tim Hudson Part 2 - Looking back to 2005

JAlbert — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 02:31:00 GMT

In the comments section of Part 1, JC asked about 2005 and perhaps tracking down when things began to "go wrong."

After visiting various sites, a number of people have also brought up the injury questions - I believe Hudson has injured his left oblique in 2004.

Luckily, I had a decent clip from May 2005 to work with and here is the resulting match-up:

2005 Hudson on left, 2002 on right. Both ~92 mph fastballs.

I took out a still shot of the arm angle (horizontal vs more vertical):

2005 Hudson's shoulders are definately more horizontal. Note difference in height of the glove also.

And stills showing the "balance" as I did in Part 1:

Generally, seems like the similar issues to 2006. To what degree is nearly impossible to tell from video like this, but it is a good scratch of the surface.

I wonder how much of the differences did have to do with the oblique injury. Whether adjustments were made voluntarily or not, or if it was just a sub-conscious self-protection thing. Maybe only Hudson himself knows the answer to those.

Restoring the Balance of Tim Hudson

JAlbert — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 17:42:00 GMT

Just putting in a quick link here to another article I just did for Baseball Analysts

It is a comparison of Tim Hudson from 2002 and 2006.

Here is the link to the full article

Special thanks to Jason Flippen for the 2002 Hudson clip. I appreciate it.

Excerpt from the article:
____________________
"Here is a quick summary:

2002: Earlier muscle activation allows improved dynamic balance in order to set up a better foundation for rotation. Slightly more vertical shoulder angle creates more opportunity direct the rotational momentum towards home plate via forwards flexion of the spine, and improves ability to 'get on top' of the ball for more downwards movement (sink).

2006: Weight back and reaching front foot leaves static balance over the rubber, possibly leads to opening up during rotation. This combined with the horizontal shoulder angle decreases opportunity to transfer rotational momentum into delivery towards home plate. Arm comes across the ball in a more horizontal plane, creating more lateral movement."
___________________

ZOOMLANDER

JAlbert — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:26:00 GMT

It has been a week since this article was posted on baseballanalysts.com, but I still wanted to post a link to it here also.

This is the main clip of Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya:

http://swingtraining.net/clips/zoomlander.gif

Here is the link to the full article

In addition to the article, these are some "thinking out loud" notes I typed as I finished the article:

1. There are a lot of conditional words (should, appears, etc.). This is because I have only been able to look at these pitchers from this angle. And again, resources are limited to what I can see on TV. Unless I am in a position to accurately measure movement, I will leave these types of analysis to observation. This is not a controlled environment.

2. This is an interesting topic. I have plenty of other questions I would like to look into involving the potential differences for starters versus relievers in terms of objectives (goal setting) and how those goals are accomplished (movement/mechanics).

3. This is exactly why I returned to school - to put myself in a position to acquire necessary resources and knowledge to further answer these interesting issues...

__________

any other comments or feedback is appreciated as always

Jeter's Consistent Adjustments

JAlbert — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 17:09:00 GMT

It has been near forever since my last post, but I'm jumping back in with this brief look at Derek Jeter.

Link on over to Baseball Analysts to check it out

Rich is graciously allowing me to be a regular guest contributor there, which will be a good way to keep me involved doing video analysis and the like. It is really easy to get caught up in all the academics with classes and all, but I want to make sure I am practing applying the info.

I've got to run right now to class, but I may add in some more thoughts here if the urge hits me.....

Feedback and ideas always appreciated

Study: Effect of Wrist/Forearm Training on Bat Speed

JAlbert — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:34:00 GMT

Just the other day I saw someone in the weight room doing wrist rolls and it made me think of this article. I've been meaning to post it for a while now, so here it is.

Dr. Szymanski is an assistant professor here at La Tech and is one of the main reasons I decided to attend. As I've mentioned, we've already started a study about the effects of weight lifting on bat speed and batted ball speed.

Basically, this study finds that although group 2 (which does additional grip/forearm strngthening exercises) achievs significatly greater grip/forearm strength, but their bat speed does not improve significantly as compared to group 1.

I do have a copy of this entire article, but I will post the abstract (as found here) below:

______________________
Szymanski DJ; McIntyre JS; Szymanski JM; Molloy JM; Madsen NH; Pascoe DD
Department of Health and Human Performance, Auburn University, Alabama 36849, USA. dszyman@latech.edu

This study examined the effects of 12 weeks of wrist and forearm training on linear bat-end velocity (BV), center of percussion velocity (CV), hand velocity (HV), and time to ball contact of high school baseball players. Forty-three baseball players were randomly assigned by a stratified sampling technique to 1 of 2 training groups. Group 1 (n = 23) and group 2 (n = 20) performed the same full-body resistance exercises while training 3 days a week for 12 weeks according to a stepwise periodized model. Group 2 also performed wrist and forearm exercises 3 days a week for 12 weeks. Wrist and forearm strength were measured pre- and posttraining. Linear BV, CV, HV, and time to ball contact were recorded pre- and posttraining by a motion-capture system. A 3 repetition maximum (RM) parallel squat and bench press were measured at baseline and after 4, 8, and 12 weeks of training. Both groups showed statistically significant increases (p < or = 0.01) in linear BV, CV, and HV (m.s(-1) +/- SD) after 12 weeks of training; however, there were no differences between the 2 groups. Both groups statistically increased wrist and forearm strength (p < or = 0.05). Group 2 had statistically greater increases (p < or = 0.05) in 10 of 12 wrist and forearm strength measures than did group 1. Both groups made statistically significant increases in predicted 1RM parallel squat and bench press after 4, 8, and 12 weeks of training; however, there were no differences between groups. These data indicate that a 12-week stepwise periodized training program can significantly increase wrist and forearm strength, linear BV, CV, and HV among high school baseball players. However, increased wrist and forearm strength did not contribute to further increases in linear BV, CV, or HV.

___________________________

These accompanying charts and figures may also be of interest:

*of special note is that the study was done with HIGH SCHOOL players

My basic comment is that forearm and grip strength does not have to be totally neglected, but it also does not have to be insanely over-hyped. There are plenty of exercises and training scenarios that allow a player to focus on moving and using the major muscle groups while allowing grip and forearm strength to improve (ie deadlift)

Louisiana Tech Research Experiment

JAlbert — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 23:53:00 GMT

Tomorrow we are doing a number of testings on high school athletes here in Ruston, LA at La. Tech (I'll have more on my move later)

The testings will be done for a 12-week research project investigating the effects of an overweighted lifting program on bat velocity and batted ball velocity.

We'll be using the SETPRO sp-5 and new Speedtrac X to measure bat speed and ball exit speed

There are many other things to be tested such as 3RM for squat and bench press, rotational medicine ball throw, grip strength, body fat %, and throwing velocity.

I will try to put up maybe a picture or two from tomorrow's events (my wife will be there to document by video)

This is the first of hopefully many research and study opportunities for me here at Tech. It will be interesting to match up the "SETPRO" education of the past few years with the formal university education (officially a MS in Education with a concentration in exercise science.....I'll be able to scan in my plan of study to show what courses I am taking).
_______

If you haven't guessed from the last post (I moved) and this one (I'm in Ruston, LA at Louisiana Tech), I moved to Ruston, LA to pursue a MS in Education with a concentration in Exercise Science at Louisiana Tech.

I have not been able to do much work on the site because we have been helping to renovate the house we hopefully move into this weekend and also I am LOADED with classes and teaching classes (I am a grad. assistant so I get to teach 2 activity classes - beginning bowling and beginning weight training. I missed out on golf!)

But once we are moved in and have some sort of routine going, I'll update some more on what classes I'll be taking.

This is a really great situation and there will be quite a few opportunities for me to get involved in research here and also generate my own original ideas for research....and a thesis if I choose to do one. If you have any great suggestions for research topics, feel free to post or email them.

Goodbye Atlanta

JAlbert — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 22:15:00 GMT

No this is not about the Braves' diminishing playoffs chances.

The Uhaul is full and I'll be hitting the road in an hour or so.

I'm sure it will take a few days to get set up, find some internet service, etc, etc. but when all that is done I will have more on my destination and a new direction for all of ths "stuff"...

Keep sending your ideas, feedback, etc. I appreciate it.

Jeff

Atlanta Braves Batting Practice Video

JAlbert — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 01:05:00 GMT

No fancy comments or analysis here, just thought I'd share this video. Always interesting to see how players prepare for action.

Giles looked good hitting some hard to right. Andruw really unloaded on a couple at the end. Chipper really was the most impressive hitting some shots over the left field fence.

You'll need real player to view the clips:

Andruw

Chipper

Giles

Renteria

LaRoche

McCann

Francoeur

Guest article for Baseballanalysts.com

JAlbert — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 21:00:00 GMT

Rich Lederer from Baseballanalysts.com very generously invited me to write a guest column as their weekly "Designated Hitter". The list of DH's is filled with a number of impressive writers, so I stepped it up as much as I could trying to fit in.

I ended up breaking the article into two parts; Part 1 focuses on A-Rod (which doubles as the continuation of the first analysis I did on him) and Part 2 tackles Andruw Jones' big change for 2005 and also how their adjustments are related.

Here are the direct links to the articles:

Part 1

Part 2

My goal is very much to not only provide thorough and detailed analysis but also to simplify the concepts and explain why it is important. On top of that, give a bit of insight to how I would view it from the player's perspective.

What I do NOT want to do is put out a bunch of subjective opinions; there are enough of those out there. That is where the video comes in - to provide an objective look. If you don't agree with my analysis, well the video is right there for you to make your own observations and conclusions.

Working with video is something I really enjoy doing and I am doing my best to find how MLB organizations might use these types of tools, as well as what value MLB organizations might place on this type of work.

In the meantime, I'm pressing to continue learning, and reader feedback is surely a part of that, so keep sending your comments and emails - I appreciate it.

Reviving Geoff Jenkins' Awesome Leg Kick

JAlbert — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 21:07:00 GMT

This entry comes in response to this article about Geoff Jenkins' struggles this year. I'll try to stick right to the point and let the pictures do most of the talking.

I do have to say Jenkins is one of those guys that is so much fun to watch. Even if he never hit some of the monster bombs that he does hit, watching him take those serious rips is worth tuning in. I love a good leg kick, and his is second to none - it's in the Juan Gonzalez category.

When a player has a "style" that is slightly different, it is easy to point the finger there right away when something starts going wrong. Of course, I wanted to take a detailed look and see if the video showed any significant changes.

Here is a full shot:

The Clip
My video is limited but I thought the differences here were clear enough to use these clips. On the left is a swing from 2004, 2005 in the middle and 2006 on the left. The '04 and '06 are HR's (to right and center respectively) and the '05 is a single to left. Obviously, they are not identical situations and results, but what I wanted to look at closely was the leg kick and what was happening before footplant. Regardless of the result, each swing is initiated the same way, so if we're looking at setup and preparing to swing, we can make this work. The '04 is also a little different angle, but the differences I see can be clearly seen even if the angle is slightly different. Lastly, to keep my bases covered, the '05 shot in the middle is slightly different frame rate (or there are just missing frames) than the others, but the changes appear to happen later in the swing.

Ideally, you want video that matches closely like in the A-rod and Giles clips I did, so what I did with this one was extract frames where each clip is in a similar spot. I used four: the start, toe touch, footplant, and contact. This way, regardless of frame rate or missing frames, we can control similar points in time to check out the swing.

So I'm really just posting the above clip so everyone can see the full clips together. I synched it up to footplant.

Here are the four pictures, with some quick observations, which will be followed by more detailed explanation at the end.

Start

Upper body tilted forward much much more in '04 and better loading of the hips in '04 and '05 allowed easier, more efficient move forward. Body was held together longer, enabling more powerful, efficient rotation. All this adds up to getting the barrel to the ball quicker, easier and more consistently.

Also major difference in the back leg. The leg gradually straightens out from '04 to '06 and the back foot goes from turned in to fairly straight (parrallel to line at rear of batter's box)

Toe Touch

You can see how his head position has gradually shifted from slightly left of center ('04) to center ('05) to slightly right of center ('06)

Footplant

Jenkins' head in '06 is now left behind his back knee. You can see the differences in his head position relative to the back knee, which is result of the setup as shown in the previous pictures.

Contact

Have to note that contact in the '04 clip actually takes place in the next frame. I used this because their bat is in same relative position. The '04 he gets a little more in front and pulls to right field. The '05 and '06 are going to opposite field.
_____________________

Thoughts and Observations

Changes in the back leg

1. Back foot used to be turned in. This typically helps load the hips more, making it easier to work off of the back leg to get the body moving forward.

2. Gradual loss of flexed back leg. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it seemed to coincide with keeping the body together (hips loaded longer, and maintain balance longer).
This may help with timing also since the hips will be lower to the ground with a more flexed back leg. This way the leg has less distance to travel on the way down from the leg kick. This can help stabilize head movement also.

'06 looks more like a reach with the lower body. '04-'05 are better at moving the hips out from under the shoulders to create a shift into rotation. '06 is leaving the upper body behind.

Tilt

If you start with your upper body titled forward, and then you move your hips out, you are in good position to launch your swing. When your upper body is straight up and down at the beginning, and you still move your hips out the same way, you are left in a much weaker position.

Contrary to popular belief, you can start with your upper and still keep your weight back. Jenkins is an awesomely extreme example of this in '04. Upper body tilted forward, weight obviously against his back leg and his leg kick reaches the top. Beautiful.

Adjustments - coming in from the cold

The very good news is that the adjustments should be relatively simple. You don't need to change what your body is doing, just start it from a little different position. Kind of similar to the Marcus Giles situation.

Quick Fix - some setup changes specific to Geoff Jenkins
1. Turn the back foot in just a little like you used to
2. A little more bend in the back leg to make a stronger base to work against

For what it is worth, I'd say don't be too quick to abandon the leg kick that has been so good to you. Again, if timing is the problematic issue,, these adjustments will allow you to create a much more efficient shift forward with much less effort. It really has less to do with how high your leg actually goes, but more to do with how you set yourself up and use your hips.

There is no reason to believe you can't regain your swing of old if you just go back to what you were doing then from a mechanical standpoint.

I personally would go for a mix of the '04-'05 swings. Just get set up somewhere in between there and enjoy the mushroom cloud explosions off of your bat!

_______________

this is just a little additional thought as I continue to look at the video...

scroll back up and watch the full video and take note of Jenkins' front leg. What I see is much more movement in his front leg on the right ('06) than ('04). Why?

See how much more erect Jenkins is standing in '06? Essentially the leg is just going up and down, whereas the leg kick in '04 does much more to help Jenkins load the hips, keeping himself together and preparing to unload. By comparison, it seems like the '06 leg kick is much less efficient/effective.

Just sitting a little more on/against that back leg puts the center of Jenkins' body a little closer to the ground and he doesn't quite have to do so much reaching with that front leg. It also keeps the middle of his body loaded, so he can really be aggressive as he launches his swing.

Jeff Francoeur Part 2

JAlbert — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 17:05:00 GMT

In light of another article about Jeff Francoeur’s current walk rate that I saw on Baseball Think Factory this morning, I took yet another look at his swing. This time I wanted a side view compared to a hitter I thought as close to the opposite of Francoeur as possible (in other words, a very quick, efficient swing).

I read a comment that if Francoeur shortens his swing, it will cost him some bat speed and he’ll lose some power. First of all, Manny Ramirez and Vernon Wells have much much quicker swings, and they are not hurting in the power department. The idea is that Francoeur needs to use his body more efficiently to create a blend of quickness AND bat speed. Secondly, even if Francoeur does lose some bat speed, he can more than make up for it in consistency. By consistency, I mean the ability to put the barrell on the ball more often. I saw Jeff Bagwell throwing balls up over the Green Monster in a home run derby with 78-80 mph bat speed. By comparison, Nomar was around 90 mph, Sosa-Griffey-McGwire were in the 100 mph zone. Anyways, I think everyone in the Atlanta organization would be happy if Francoeur turned out Bagwell-like career hitting numbers.

Also, I saw a comment making light of Francoeur’s walk total and plate discipline. I don’t see the end goal being to increase walks. If he went up there without a bat, he would walk more than he does now, but that is not addressing the issue. An increased walk total should be the product of a quicker swing that allows Francoeur to make better judgement and improve his overall pitch selection. If Francoeur does not make some kind of adjustment in his swing, I would imagine it will be very difficult for him to improve his plate discipline and really take full advantage of his incredible athleticism. And, by the way, this has nothing to do with the timing of his hits, because he does seem to have a knack for driving runs in dramtic situations (walk offs, walk off grand slam, etc.). I was at this game when he homered of Dontrelle Willis to tie it in the 9th, and it was awesome!

My opinion of Francoeur’s stats has changed from terrible to amazing. Why? Because his swing puts him at a severe, and I mean severe, disadvantage.

The comparison shows a 2006 Vernon Wells hitting a HR to left-center off on a fastball. The shot of Francoeur is also a fastball hit to left-center for a HR. The only real difference is that Francoeur’s pitch is higher, which actually gives him an advantage in the comparison, because it is requiring him to get to the ball as quick as possible and Wells‘ has more distance to travel to get to the ball.

These are both fastballs, so we know Francoeur can catch up to major league heat. I’ve seen him turn on mid-90s fastballs and he wouldn’t be in the big leagues if he couldn’t - that’s not the problem. The problem is that not every pitch is a fastball. If you set up a pitching machine at 95 mph you could probably find a number of hacks from a local softball league who could eventually find a way to make some contact. Does this mean they have MLB swings? No. It probably means they are starting their swing very early, maybe before they even see the ball, because they know what is coming and where it is going to end up.

I see Francoeur’s hands making their first real significant move forward as his heel begins to plant is frames 10-11. This doesn’t happen with Wells until frames 12-13. In the first look at Francoeur, we saw a 1 frame difference in the footplant compared to Manny Ramirez, and that was at 30 frames per second. This comparison is 60 frames per second, so it follows there is a 2 frame difference.

Again, these clips are synchronized to contact, so they are reaching the “finish line” at the same time. But let me show you where they are in relation to each other at footplant:

Francoeur’s footplant (frame 11):

Wells' footplant (frame 13):

Looking at Francoeur’s bat position in relation to Wells, it’s clear that he has some catching up to do. If you just took Francoeur’s bat position in the second picture (at Wells’ footplant) and put it in the first picture (Francoeur’s footplant), you’d be in business. It isn’t just the bat angle, either - Francoeur’s hands are quite a bit further from his back shoulder, meaning he will really have to pull them in. But the real difficulty would be in trying to get Francoeur to use his body like Wells does - in this case more efficient use of the body to generate bat speed AND quickness.

Now Wells has never drawn a ton of walks (stats), but it's clear he has much better plate discipline. More walks, less strikeouts, swings at better pitches more often = better hitter. With Francoeur, I don’t think it will be as simple as waiting for his pitch, because, well, he can’t afford to wait. The ‘swing away’ approach actually fits Francoeur, and I would tell him to keep it up if he doesn’t plan on changing his swing. Otherwise, pitchers will just throw fastballs by him.

If a guy with Wells’ swing has Francoeur’s numbers, then you can start saying he might not be too good of a hitter. But the fact that Francouer has those numbers with that swing, you have to say Francoeur has some serious potential if he can make some adjustments. Sure you can be happy with the 30 HR and 100 RBI, but again, if you look at the number of AB’s that it is taking to put those up, it isn’t so impressive anymore.

By the way, Francoeur is #151 in MLB right now in OPS. You can draw your own conclusions about the company he is in there.

Having pointed all of this out, I still would not envy the person in the organization that pulls the trigger on “changing” Francoeur. High risk - high reward. If he struggles, then someone has to take the fall for messing with the golden boy, first round superstar. If it clicks, then you have a legit superstar, face of the franchise, hometown hero. But all Francoeur has to do while he is in the outfield is look over to his right and he will find another athletic Atlanta Brave who made a dramatic adjustment to his swing that paid huge dividends (I’m talking Andruw Jones change from ‘04 to ‘05 here). At this point, it is probably more likely that he is left alone, because he is young and “has time to develop”.