In Part 1 of this article, we covered the information we gathered from the initial assessment on this specific college athlete and how we addressed the disconnects we felt could be easily improved. Part Two will now dive into the work this athlete put in through the remainder of the summer, as well as the information we gathered from reassessments and the changing landscape of our training environment. Continue reading “A Day (Week, and Month) in the Life of a College Hitter at RPP – Part 2”
The summer season can be a great opportunity for college baseball players to go off and play in various summer leagues throughout the country. Some of the top tier guys go to the Cape Cod League or other competitive leagues like the NECBL and Northwoods for an opportunity to play in front of pro scouts and elevate their draft stock. Younger guys may head off to smaller leagues where pitchers can get a ton of innings and hitters can get plenty of ABs to supplement those they might not have gotten in the spring. But for other guys, the “In-Betweeners,” the summer provides a different, maybe less conventional opportunity – a chance to pop open the hood and work on their game to return to school in the fall a more efficient athlete from both a hitting and strength standpoint. Continue reading “A Day (Week, and Month) in the Life of a College Hitter at RPP”
Earlier this spring we added a HitTrax machine to our hitting program and we’ve been busy incorporating it into how we assess and train our players. Now in this 3 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:
Blast’s Plane score measures the percentage of time during which your swing is on plane (on-plane efficiency %) and the angle you make contact relative to the horizontal (attack angle). According to Blast, this metric is relevant because players that stay longer on plane:
There are several potential physical impediments that could lead to an undesirable Plane Score. Issues could range from lower body weaknesses, limitations on t-spine disassociation and even weaknesses in the shoulder region. Continue reading “How to Improve Blast Motion Plane Score (Contact)”
Given the rotational nature of hitting a baseball, there are variety of potential physical impediments that could lead to an undesirable Rotation Score (rotational acceleration and bat speed). Issues could range from the bottom of the kinetic chain to the top, including lower body weaknesses, hip mobility limitations, t-spine related issues and even weaknesses in the upper extremities. Continue reading “How to Improve Blast Motion Rotation Score (Power)”
Blast’s Connection score links together what your body and your bat are doing prior to and at the point of contact. It uses Early Connection and Connection at Impact metrics as the basis for your score. Maintaining good connection at impact (90 degrees) for all pitch locations is an indicator of dynamic adjustability. According to Blast, players with good Connection score:
There are variety of potential physical impediments that could lead to an undesirable Connection score, with Early Connection having slightly different potential set of issues that Connection at Impact.
Continue reading “How to Improve Blast Motion Connection Score (Consistency)”
This webpage and the associated pages have been prepared as a part of our partnership with Blast Motion to integrate our performance training content into Blast Solution. For further details, you can reach us here at RPP or contact Blast directly.
Blast Motion Baseball sensors are an easy to use piece of equipment and provide a tremendous amount of valuable swing-related information at a very reasonable cost. Their scoring system includes metrics on several topics, including:
The problem is not everyone knows how to address the issues highlighted by the sensors, and not every issue is a skill-related one. Deficiencies in Blast metrics can be also caused by mobility, strength and postural related issues, up and down the kinetic chain. Continue reading “How to Improve Deficiencies in Blast Motion Baseball Metrics”
The following list of exercises are prepared as a resource for Blast Motion customers looking to improve their metrics. If interested please click here for additional details on how to utilize these exercises. You can click each for a video of the exercise.
Continue reading “Blast Motion Metrics List of Physical Correctives”
The following warm-up routine is highly recommended to be performed prior to each hitting session for optimal performance (total time required approximately 15 minutes): Continue reading “Blast Motion — Warm-up Routine”
Today, we’re going to focus on how we look to improve the Blast Motion Rotational Acceleration metric in a baseball player. Rotational Acceleration measures how quickly the bat accelerates through the zone from first move to getting on plane. A high Rotational Acceleration helps players create power at contact and provide for maximum amount of time to react to a pitch. While there are many variables that contribute to better rotational acceleration, in this article we’ll look at the big 3 we often see with young athletes in our facility: Continue reading “How to Improve Blast Motion Rotational Acceleration Metric”
