Launch Position | Catalyst Baseball Academy

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Launch will be defined as the moment right before the hands fire forward to start the swing.Ideally happening directly after the front toe hits the ground

Welcome to the Launch Position Module!

Launch will be defined as the moment right before the hands fire forward to start the swing.

For the overwhelming majority or hitters (and it is what we highly recommend) this will occur at the moment our front toe touches the ground.

The consistency among elite level hitters to hit these 5 key angles or positions at front toe touch is a profound piece of information.

These hitters didn’t grow up together, didn’t play together as kids, and didn’t have the same hitting coach.

They might be from completely different countries or even different continents; but at the moment before a 100 mph swing they are all in a eerily similar position.

That defines these angles as being paramount to our success if we want to reach our potential as a hitter.

What you’ll learn in this module:

What launch position is and why all the best hitters in the world reach a consistent launch every swing
The Big 5 (the five most important angles to look for at launch)
Common flaws at launch that players may be exhibiting and how to fix them
Drills to reach the perfect launch every time

Remember: Launch is the position of the body directly before the hands fire forward. Notice how similar all 4 of these players are at Launch.

Out of all the Big 5, bat angle is probably the most important. By pointing the knob of the bat at the catcher’s feet it is going to take care of four different angles. From the side view it will take care of how wrapped we are (higher power potential) versus how laid off we are (higher contact potential), as well from the back view it will take care of how flat we are versus how steep we are.

Our spine angle is going to be our access of rotation once we start our swing. The average major league fastball will be thrown downhill between about 8 and 10 degrees.

We want set our spine angle close to perpendicular to the line of pitch allowing us to be able to hit the ball in the air more often.

Notice how the bottom two boxes are representing the line of the pitch. Ideally we’d like to set our spine angle perpendicular to the pitch coming slightly downhill at us. This is why we talk about the spine angle being slightly back.

The Front Shoulder is one of the more challenging parts of the launch position, but if done correctly will really help the hitters power potential.

Having the front shoulder down-and-in is going to create power for one major reason; counter-rotation.

Counter-rotation is the separation of hips and shoulders, by doing this we create a massive amount of torque throughout our midsection.

Think of this like winding up or stretching a rubber band and then releasing it, the more we can counter-rotate the more power we can generate.

The feet are often overlooked when coaching the swing. You want to make sure of two things:
1. The back foot is parallel to the front of the plate and not “duck footed” back (it’s ok to have the back toe slightly turned in).
2. When the front foot lands at launch, the toe is slightly open or square and the heel is not pointing towards the pitcher. We do this to make sure the hips stay square and are not counter rotating with the shoulders.

At launch the knees need to be equidistant between the feet.

You’ll often see amateur players with one of their knees “stacked” (or directly over the top of their back foot or front foot.

The reason we don’t want to be stacked is because it leads to inefficiencies later in swing, once the body starts to rotate. If a player is stacked over his back foot he’ll often display a hip slip. If the player is stacked over his front foot at launch, it makes it very difficult to rotate and basically takes all of the power out of the swing.

We want to keep our hips square to the plate at launch (as square as possible, there will be a slight counter rotation of hips). The reason for this is to create torque between our shoulders and hips. Imagine two broomsticks sticking out of the hitters shoulders and hips. If you took a bird’s eye view and looked directly down at the top of the hitters head. At launch we want as big of a separation as we can get b/t those broomsticks.

You’ll commonly see players try to counter rotate their hips and shoulders at the same time decreasing their potential energy. An easy way to tell if this is happening is if the player lands with his heel facing the pitcher.

Upper Half

At launch the knees need to be equidistant between the feet.

You’ll often see amateur players with one of their knees “stacked” (or directly over the top of their back foot or front foot.

The reason we don’t want to be stacked is because it leads to inefficiencies later in swing, once the body starts to rotate. If a player is stacked over his back foot he’ll often display a hip slip. If the player is stacked over his front foot at launch, it makes it very difficult to rotate and basically takes all of the power out of the swing.

Lower Half

The back foot being externally rotated is a common flaw we see all the time with amateur players.

We don’t want the back foot to be “duck footed” for the simple reason that it makes it harder to internally rotate when the time comes to initiate the swing.

This is an easy fix, but often goes unnoticed.

If you’ve been paying close attention you’ll also notice that the players back knee is stacked above as well.

It’s important to note that a player can display multiple flaws at one time.

Remember: Launch is the position of the body directly before the hands fire forward. Notice how similar all 4 of these players are at Launch.

Upper Half

Lower Half

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