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How to Address an Excessive Attack Angle

Attack Angle

Attack angle is a valuable metric that indicates the trajectory of the hitter’s barrel path as it impacts the baseball. At RPP, rather than striving for a specific number, we like to see our hitters achieve an optimal attack angle range that will maximize their opportunity to make flush contact with the incoming pitch; the ideal range is between 5-15 degrees.  There can be several contributors to an excessive attack angle.  When the attack angle is too high (swinging too uphill), we first want to figure out what is causing it and then determine a plan of action to improve it. The following disconnects could potentially lead to an excessive attack angle: Continue reading “How to Address an Excessive Attack Angle”

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How to Generate More Power and Velocity with Proteus

Proteus

To be a more efficient baseball player, it’s important that you have both high amounts of force (power) and acceleration in your throw or in the box. For a pitcher, it can be a deal breaker in terms of college recruiting or ultimately being an MLB prospect. As far as hitters go, having a faster, more powerful swing allows the hitter more time to make better decisions at the plate. While going from 80 to 85 mph may only require more absolute strength, once we get into more elite velocities, max strength is simply not enough. This is where the Proteus machine shines. Continue reading “How to Generate More Power and Velocity with Proteus”

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How to Use Blast Motion and HitTrax Info to Improve – Part 2

HitTrax

In part 2 of this series, we’re going to zero in on HitTrax results (click here for Part 1 on Blast metrics).  HitTrax provides a plethora of data in a variety of formats on batted balls that can help us evaluate a hitter’s performance at the plate, including spray charts, depth of contact and strike zone information.  Given the amount of variability in hitting a baseball, we generally like to collect information on at least 100 batted balls per hitter.  Hopefully this will include incoming pitches throughout the zone with different pitch descent angles to replicate as many different situations as possible. Continue reading “How to Use Blast Motion and HitTrax Info to Improve – Part 2”

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Top 6 Med Ball Drills for Pitchers and Players

Med balls are a staple in the world of baseball strength and conditioning. This really shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Baseball is a rotational sport, so med ball work provides us with real-world transfer to the sport.  It is also one of the only ways to train upper body strength-speed in the frontal plane. Baseball med ball workouts and exercises are applicable to both hitting and pitching and can be used to create more efficient movement patterns and improve sequencing. However, drills using med balls are often performed poorly, largely in part because most athletes do not possess the understanding of what they are trying to accomplish with the exercise. Continue reading “Top 6 Med Ball Drills for Pitchers and Players”

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Assessing Pitchers in the Age of New Tech (Inside Pitch Magazine)

inside pitch magazine

Interested in a hard copy of the article please click here.

Baseball, like every other industry, is under siege from new technology and it’s making sure the game evolves in many ways.  Some love it, some hate it, and everything in between.  Whether you’re a fan of technology or not, it’s difficult to ignore. It’s here in full force and it’s changing baseball with it.  Those that are too close-minded to take the time to expand their knowledge of the new performance metrics run the risk of being left behind, both in terms of overall knowledge about the game and improving an athlete’s efficiency in performance. Continue reading “Assessing Pitchers in the Age of New Tech (Inside Pitch Magazine)”

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How to Use Blast Motion and HitTrax Info to Improve – Part 1

Blast Motion

A few years ago, we installed HitTrax for our hitting program.  Combining HitTrax batted ball results with Blast Motion sensors provides excellent pre- and post-contact information on batted balls.  Now in this 2 part article, we’re going to review what pre-contact metrics from Blast Motion and post-contact data from HitTrax tell us about a hitter and his aptitudes:

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Sean Hard’s Path to New Jersey State Champion

Sean Hard

As many of you know, senior pitcher Sean Hard and his high school team St. Joe’s (Montvale, NJ) recently won the New Jersey State Non-Public A Group Tournament.  They actually won their league, county, sectional and ultimately the state championship, all in the same year. Sean’s record for the season as a pitcher was 8-0, 50.2 IP, 87 K, 2 R, 0.62 WHIP, 0.36 ERA.  He topped out at 95 mph at the final game of the year.  There are a lot of things Sean has done right during his development and it’s important to highlight how he got here, as no one has worked harder at this craft than this young man. Continue reading “Sean Hard’s Path to New Jersey State Champion”

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How to Improve Blast Motion “Other” Metrics

Blast’s “Other Metrics”, which are generally used for providing additional context to their 3 Scores, are as follows:

    • Vertical Bat Angle
    • Time to Contact
    • Peak Hand Speed
    • Power

There are several potential physical impediments that could lead to undesirable scores in all these metrics.  Similar to the other Scores, issues could range from the bottom of the kinetic chain all the way to the top, including limited ankle mobility, lower body weaknesses, limitations on t-spine disassociation and even weaknesses in the shoulder region. Continue reading “How to Improve Blast Motion “Other” Metrics”