Swing harder. Move faster. NEVER move slow or you’ll be slow.
I am not against moving fast, being explosive, etc. I understand energy systems and that training slow, training fatigued, can be a detriment to your performance if your goal is to move fast. I use stopwatches, radar guns, measuring tape, etc. to test whether an athlete is getting faster, is hitting the ball harder and farther. I’m all for working at full speed as often as possible. But I’m not talking about moving slow because of fatigue or because I think you’re trying to “swing too hard”. I’m talking about moving slow for another reason.
Body Awareness
Other disciplines in search of greater body awareness, such as Tai Chai, have been moving slowly for decades. Why aren’t we?
Try this: extend your arm out in front of you. Your arm should be straight, elbow locked out. Make a fist. Now, as quickly as you can, supinate your arm (I realize supinating an arm isn’t the correct term, but that’s my point and we’ll get into it here). In other words, turn your palm up towards the ceiling. Good. Where did that movement come from? How much of it came from your forearm? How much of it came from your shoulder?
Let’s pretend you have a buddy standing next to you who has more range of motion than you and was able to get his palm flat while yours was still at an angle. What afforded him that extra range of motion?
Try it again. Palm facing down to start. Turn it over, as fast as you can, towards the ceiling. Did you figure it out that time? Were you able to recognize where the movement was coming from? Why you didn’t have as much range of motion as the (theoretical) guy next to you?
My case for moving slowly, in this case, SUPER slowly, is not that there is some mystical reason it’s going to suddenly help you become Albert Pujols. And it’s not because I don’t want you to move fast. It’s simply because I want you to know WHAT is moving and, maybe more importantly, what ISN’T moving.
Writing Checks Your Body Can’t Cash
Here’s the simple fact: if you try to “rotate your hips” further, or faster, or whatever lovely cue you decide to use that day, but can’t physically do it, no amount of additional cuing or yelling is going to change that fact. So while I like to do full body assessments of my guys, for this reason, I understand that not everybody has the ability to do that, either on themselves, or with the athletes they are working with. That might not be optimal, but we can make it work. How?
Every time an Athlete Moves, It’s an Assessment
Whether you have a formalized piece of paper with a little section for “pass/fail” and “notes”, or not, the athlete is being tested every time they move. How are they moving? What are they doing well? What are they doing poorly? What is the cause? How can it be fixed? It doesn’t matter if your certified in XYZ (although that definitely helps), movement is movement, and that’s ultimately what athletes and coaches are continually evaluating, whether that be on themselves (athletes), or on others (coaches).
Can You Physically Do It?
Before attempting to correct whatever movement/swing flaw you have deemed is holding you back, you need to make sure you know the alternative movement solution you are looking for, and you need to know if you are physically able to perform that movement.
This is where the slow motion swing comes in. A demo:
You’ll notice the movement here is extremely slow and controlled. I’m feeling out the positions I want to get into. Do I notice any unusual pull/tightness in the hips today? Are my ankles locked up? Does my body feel tight? Am I breathing more or less than normal? Am I able to resist my hands moving forward as the pelvis opens? Do I feel more or less stretch across the torso today?
These aren’t conscious questions I’m asking myself, but done daily, you get a pretty good feel for how the swings should feel and whether or not something is off. But going back to what I was saying earlier, you don’t have to be a genius to do this stuff. If you want to get into a certain position because you saw somebody else do it, but can’t physically get there in a slow motion swing, there’s no way you’re going to get there going full speed in an unpredictable, game-like environment.
The slow motion swing is your test. Can you get into the desired positions, and if not, what’s holding you back? That question requires some more digging, beyond the subject matter of this article, but you get the point: Make sure you can physically get into positions before you beat yourself up for not demonstrating the positions and movement patterns you are trying to achieve.
Going back to my original example: extend your arm straight out in front of you once again, making a fist and turning your palm down. This time, instead of supinating as quickly as possible, I want you to supinate as SLOWLY as you can. It should almost feel as if you’re not moving. Keep going until your palm is turned up as far as it can go. Now, given the questions from before, you should be able to answer where that movement came from. For me personally, it starts at my forearm, and stays there until I get close to the end range ability of my forearm supination, where, for a short period of time, my forearm and shoulder rotate together, followed by a period where my should joint finishes the motion.
Putting it all Together
So how does this fit? Where should this go in your routine? I like to do it right after my dynamic warmup, before I get into taking any real swings for the day. Like I said before, it helps me to feel out where my body is at and work through subsequent areas that may feel weird or different on that particular day. Does it have to be used here? No. Where you put it will be dictated by what you’re looking to get out of it.
Want to get a feel for your swing everyday before hitting? Do it before you hit.
Want to see if you can get to a desired position? Test it with the slow motion swing.
Want to improve a position that feels tight and uncomfortable? Do it daily, focusing on getting just a little bit more range of motion in that position.
The possibilities are endless.
I’ll close with this: moving fast and moving efficiently is our ultimate goal. We want to be able to move in and through the positions required of us to hit the baseball as hard and as far as possible, while being able to adjust to different pitch speeds, types, and locations. Using slow motion swings is not going to solve any of that. However, it’s a valuable tool you can use to improve your swing, even if just a little bit, and get you that much closer to that next level.
That wraps up week #2 in the Weekly Wednesday Hitting Series. I hope it helped!
Questions or comments on the article? Interested in remote training? Shoot me an email at brady@dacbaseball.com.