How do we generate power? When I ask hitters at Elite Diamond Performance this question, I get incredibly varied answers, which displays the fact that power generation is often misunderstood by both players and coaches. While the intricacies of power generation can be complex, the basics of how hitters generate power are relatively simple. Today I want to break power generation into 3 main categories and help clarify this process for hitters.
Category 1: Ground Force
The first main thing when it comes to power generation is how much force a hitter puts in the ground. Every rotational activity begins with the athlete getting energy from the ground. You can check out an article that goes into more detail here, but for today's article we will keep things simple. Essentially, the more force a hitter puts into the ground, the more energy the hitter can use to send up the chain to create power. Think of this as the engine of the swing. A hitter can only be as powerful as the amount of force that they begin with from the ground.
Category 2: Sequencing
Once a hitter obtains energy from the ground, they must coordinate their movements in a specific order to get that energy to flow from ground to bat. Think of the body as 4 main pieces: Hips, Torso, Front Arm, and hand. In an efficient, max power swing, the landing of the front foot kick starts hip rotation. The rotation of the hips is what should drive the next segment, the torso, into rotation. in turn, the torso should drive the front arm to rotate, followed by the hands. So, the body should rotate from the ground up to transfer power. If this sequence is out of order, power will be decreased. To learn more about the kinetic chain, check out this article.
Category 3: Stretch
The body is made up of a system of connective tissue (muscles and fascia) that help transfer power from one segment to another. In order to help this energy transfer, stretching certain areas at the right time is essential for max power generation. For example, being able to keep the torso counter rotated to the catcher while the hips begin rotating towards the pitcher, stretches the muscles of the core to help the transfer of energy between these 2 segments. After this, keeping the hands back as the torso begins rotating allows greater stretch through the lats to transfer more energy to the front arm. This stretching allows for the deceleration of the segment below, the transfer of energy and the subsequent acceleration of the next segment in the kinetic chain.
