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Our Goal is to have our swing create a plane; swing plane is the holy grail of hitting. Either your swing is a plane or it is not, there is no in-between

Welcome to the Swing Plane Module!

The term “swing plane” is probably the most misunderstood subject in all of hitting mechanics, yet it is considered to be the most important mechanical movement we create when trying to hit a baseball.

Before we get started it is important to have a clear understanding of two definitions:
Line: Has only one dimension, length.
Plane: Is a flat two-dimensional surface that continues infinitely in all directions (think of a sheet of glass)

Obviously our swing with a baseball bat is not going to continue infinitely in all directions, however we can still create a nice plane (or CIRCULAR sheet of glass).

Our swing plane is going to hinge through the base of our neck, which will be the center of the radius. It’s important to make the distinction that the center of that radius is the BASE of the neck and not where the top of the neck meets the skull.

Swinging on plane allows a hitter to strike the ball purely on a more consistent basis. The other main advantage of swinging on plane is that it allows the hitter to keep the barrel of the bat in the hitting zone for a longer period of time. This is a HUGE advantage because it doesn’t require perfect timing.

What you’ll learn in this module:

  • What swing plane is and why all the best hitters in the world consistently swing on plane and have done so throughout history
  • How to distinguish between players that swing “across” or “inside out” and why you should try to avoid these types of swing paths at all costs
  • The relationship between swing plane and spine angle
  • Drills to hone your players swing planes
Remember: The best hitters of all time have consistently displayed proper swing plane. If the best players that have ever played baseball swing on plane, shouldn’t we be doing our best to imitate their swings?
Let’s take a quick trip back to Jr. High and make sure we’re on the same page with these geometric definitions.

A Line has 1 dimension in space

A plane has two dimensions in space

Check out the chart below:

Now, how does this relate to baseball?

There are 3 possible conditions when swinging on plane….
The line and the plane are parallel (never intersect)

Condition 1: This one is the easiest to understand, if the line of the pitch and the bat never intersect, what just happened? Swing and a miss! You whiffed, strike 1!

Understand that there are different swing planes for different pitch locations…
As a hitter your swing plane will change depending on pitch location…

As you can see the low and in pitch will have a much steeper swing plane than the high and outside pitch that requires a much more shallow swing plane.

Another important thing to note is that the swing plane changes for every degree between the low-and in-pitch and the high-and-out pitch (the visual above gives three examples).

 
 

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