A Baseball Myth that Fails to Die
Question: What do "Swing down on the ball" and the "Tooth Fairy" have in common?
Answer: In case you haven't already guessed it, they are both myths.
Sometime early in our youth we find out that the Tooth Fairy was make-believe, but we were still happy to have had her around to sooth the pain of Round 1 of tooth loss (Round 2 can be prevented but that is a totally different subject!) not to mention gain a few nickels or quarters or even loonies and toonies (for the younger generation) to deposit in our piggy banks.
Unfortunately, for some reason the myth of "Swing down on the ball" continues to live on. We say unfortunate because we feel it is doing a disservice to preach this practice to developing ball players. Why? Because this is not what really happens in hitting a baseball…at least optimally.
Think of it this way – why would we teach our youth that 1+1=3 when in reality 1+1=2? Isn't it better that they learn this basic building block early in life instead of being shocked at some point later on to learn the truth? At that point they now have to develop a brand new thought process that not only affects that particular equation, but any other process/assumption with that simple equation at its base.
Similarly, why would we want to teach an inefficient movement pattern (like swinging down on the ball) that can lead to sub-optimal results when they don't really happen? At some point they will need to be re-trained which becomes more difficult with age, or even worse, the athlete leaves the game having never reached their full potential because they could never hit. Not everyone can get the big scholarship or play pro, but hopefully everyone gets to find out how good they were before they have to move on to real life.
So we've explained one of baseball's versions of the Tooth Fairy – now what? Here is the truth:
SWING PLANE SHOULD MATCH PITCH PLANE BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER CONTACT
This means that the slightly downward path of the pitch should be matched not with a downward swing, but with a slightly upward swing. This will have a two pronged positive effect:
1 – Maximal transfer of energy from bat to ball.
When one force meets another force and does not meet it square on, some of that energy will be lost. Further, if you are swinging down on the ball and hit it square on, congratulations – you just beat it right into the ground. If you are matching the plane of the pitch you will hit a nice, slightly upward rocket screaming towards the fences. DO NOT believe that the backspin created by swinging down on the ball has much, if anything to do with this.
2 – Matching swing plane with the path of the pitch will maximize the chances of even hitting the ball.
Imagine that you are travelling down a one-way street and there is someone coming the other way (hopefully you are both going slow!) and you have both lost your brakes (the matching swing plane). You are going to hit each other at some point. Now imagine that you are both on different streets that meet at an intersection and the lights are both green and you have no brakes (the downward swing). You may hit each other, but only if you both go through the intersection at the exact same time. If you were a betting person, which scenario would you bet on an accident happening in?
Don't believe us? No problem. Check out this video from "Sports Science" that explains this fact about the swing and more fun and interesting stuff...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9CEuJ5e2cM
If that is not enough, take all the time that you need to study the swings of the best hitters in the world and tell us which of them swings down on the ball. We think it will be a while before you find one, but you never know. We are open to new information all of the time and look forward to further discussion and information on this subject and others.
Mike McCarthy
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