Okay in this video I want to talk about launch angle so what it is what its
application is to the game of baseball if and how much you should concern
yourself with launch angle as a hitter and the very first thing I think we need
to discuss is sort of where this whole talk about launch angle came from and so
this starts with the idea that the conventional wisdom behind teaching a
hitter how to swing back in like the 80s and the 90s and probably even into the
early 2000s was the idea was we want to be as short as we can into the zone and
then we want to be on a downhill plane through the baseball to impart backspin
on the ball so the thought was if I could get my barrel into the zone really
fast and then strike the center of the baseball and finish down through the
bottom half I'd get backspin then what ended up happening is there is this
whole sort of revolution in statcast and tracking sort of the metrics and the
physics of the game of baseball and what they found out was balls hit on that
angle which is let's say 0 to 2 degrees and by that I mean so I have a
demonstration of what is level with the ground so this is a 0 degree angle in
that the ground is level and this is level so balls that leave at this angle
or maybe even like a little tiny bit above this are generally ground balls
and in the major leagues when you hit the ball on the ground it's an out like
76 percent of the time so people went that's dumb
we need to stop doing that so they found out well if we increase the angle at
which the ball leaves the zone we start to get more hits so when a pitcher takes
a when you pitch is a fastball it's coming downhill to the plate at like 6
degrees or negative 6 degrees so we as hitters want to exist on that plane
right so the idea was if instead of being level with the ground we instead
were level with the pitch coming in at 6 degrees that would offer us the most
time in the zone and thereby we'd hit the ball more often the hardest right
so then they kept doing research on on this and they figured out okay well when
you hit a ball at this angle it's very often a base hit but it's very rarely a
homerun if ever which the major leagues decided that it's best to hit home runs
for a lot of different reasons and so they found out well the best angle to
hit a home run is like 25 degrees so that is swinging uphill through the
pitch essentially and so then you had this big revolution with guys like Chris
Bryant and Joey Gallo who have really high angle swings the caveat to throw in
here is over the last couple years home runs and major league baseball have gone
up because of people say because of this switch to the idea of this higher launch
angle what's also gone up are strikeouts so you're more likely to hit if you hit
a ball at a certain velocity which is another thing we need to talk about but
if you hit a ball at a certain velocity you're more likely to hit it as a home
run on this swing plane this 25 degree swing plane but you're also more likely
to strike out and that is because without existing on the same plane as
the pitch you have to be really really close to perfectly on time in order to
hit that ball really really hard whereas if I'm on the say if I if my barrel
exists on the same plane as the pitch I can be a little bit late I can be a
little bit early and still square that ball up the important thing that I
always tell younger hitters is until you can hit a ball 95 miles an hour plus off
of a tee this conversation doesn't really make too much sense because even
if you have a swing plane that's this 25 degree lawn creates a 25 degree launch
angle you still have to be able to hit the ball hard enough to get it out of
the ballpark so unless you hit that hard the increase in your chance of striking
out doesn't make any sense right so until I can hit a ball that hard my
concern needs to be with being on playing with the ball meaning most
pitches exist between 6 and 10 degrees downhill so we as hitters want to be 6
to 10 degrees uphill this serves two purposes number one we're gonna hit
we're gonna square balls up a lot so we're gonna hit balls really really hard
and one thing that everyone needs to know is regardless of launch angle
exit velocity matters so if you hit a ball really really hard there's a higher
chance that it's gonna be a hit so that's thing one thing too is we as
younger hitters or really just not major league hitters aren't very good at being
on time so the other thing that this provides this angle provides is it keeps
us keeps our barrel in the zone for a very long time so where are we exist on
the same plane as the ball meaning that we are more likely to make square
contact with the pitch so then if we're under the assumption okay we don't want
to swing downhill and it's probably not beneficial for us as younger hitters to
swing uphill and we know we want to be on this plane the question becomes okay
how do we get on this plane and this is where a lot of the mechanical stuff in
the past videos comes into play where what I will tell most every hitter is
thing one that's essential is as as we're loading so our load consists of a
weight shift created by our front foot picking up and then secondly a
separation between our front foot and our hands as our front foots hitting the
ground that's thing one in creating this angle that's essential because this
separation between our hands going back as our front foot is landing is what
allows our swing do we be initiated from our back leg and if I can initiate my
swing with my back leg if at heel strike my hands are just reaching their low to
position and my back leg is just starting its rotation what ends up
happening is my back leg pulls my knob inside the pitch so I can get to here
and that's probably if you can make those two things happen where you get
separation with your front foot as your front foot lands and you can start your
swing with your back leg I tell everybody your swing plane will take
care of itself because what happens is barrel is the very very last thing that
comes in the swing so as my heel strikes my hands are reaching they're loaded
position my hips have just started their rotation and now it makes my first
movement to the ball this which is back elbow and back hip snapping inside the
ball you'll hear that referred to as your slot and in doing that your barrel
lays back and it almost always if you're getting your hands the correct spot
which is up and inside the ball will exist on
the correct plate when hitters consciously start to think about
creating an uphill plane that's when you see really really bad swings and you'll
see this on online all the time like on the Internet if you look at other
hitting instructors or popular hitting instructors you'll see this first
movement where hitters are consciously trying to create this drop in their
barrel on their hands to create this uphill angle which has a pitcher you see
that and you start salivating cuz you're like I can throw a fastball up to this
person and we'll never be able to touch it but if we as hitters go okay if I can
establish separation at heel strike and then I can initiate my swing with my
hips and not my hands my barrel my plane will take care of itself my barrel will
stay behind my hands and enter the zone efficiently and then stay in the zone
for a really long time so unless you have unless you're failing to get to
those positions at heel strike and at the beginning of your swing we don't
even need to consciously start to think about creating that uphill angle now if
you're 6-3 and 240 pounds and you can hit a ball 95 miles off up a tee then it
makes might make a little more sense for you to start thinking about creating a
more uphill angle if you're ok with increased power and increased strikeouts
you're gonna hit ball pit balls less of the time but when you hit them you're
gonna hit them very very high and very far so that's kind of the skinny on
launch angle until for all of you the important thing to remember is until you
hit a certain size and strength level it's going to be who've you to keep your
barrel in the zone for as long as possible on playing with a pitch that
will lead to the highest percentage of super ly super hard hit line drives and
really really hard hit line drives between zero and ten degrees
launch angle create base hits they don't create homeruns but until you're a
certain size you can't hit home runs anyway so we want to hit balls as hard
as we can as often as we can and get on base as often as we can