Is Keeping Your Head Still Killing Your Power?
So many of our players come in and have been told "Don't move your head!" Many players and coaches believe that any head movement during the swing causes players to struggle tracking the ball. However, if you watch the best hitters in the world, the head moves during each phase of the swing. While much of the talk around head movement comes from being able to see the ball, today I want to discuss how keeping the head still throughout your swing is severely limiting your power capabilities.
How is power generated?
I have an article here if you want a deeper dive into power generation, but essentially there are 3 things hitters must do to generate maximum power: Put force into the ground, stretch their body and sequence properly. More on these in a minute.
Now lets take a look at what the head of some MLB hitters do as well as some of the best players we train at the facility do.
Stretch
In order to generate power, hitters must stretch the muscles and connective tissue of the body. While this is a complex process, to simplify we often talk about hitters envisioning a rubber band tied between the knob of the bat and the front hip. What we want to see is hitters stretch this rubber band as much as possible when the stride foot lands in the ground. In order to create this stretch, a hitter must move the head forward during the stride phase of the swing.
Ground force
Using the ground is perhaps the most important aspect of creating power in the swing. We have yet to train a player with good power who didn't put a ton of force into the ground. So, what does that mean? In order to get power from the ground, a hitter must put force down into the ground. That means that hitters shift back to put force through the back foot then shift their weight forward and hit the ground with a ton of force on the front leg. In order to have this happen, a hitter must shift down/back to load then forward and down to create force on the front side. In order to get these vital movements to occur, the head must move forward and down with the body.
If you want a full breakdown, check out this week's YouTube Video Below:
Comments