College World Series

[Quickdraw]

I've been watching all these Regional playoffs to see who is heading to the World Series. I'm convinced that power hitting comes mostly from bat speed. That kid Kody Clemons from Texas is not big but can hit the ball a mile. Best hitter I've seen this year in college baseball. His swing is a thing of beauty

[jb]

You're convinced of a well known fact?

[Duff]

Clemens. Kody Clemens. As in Roger Clemens’ son.

[Fatboy]

Originally Posted by jb

You're convinced of a well known fact?

[Tampaspicer]

It's not just about bat speed but backspin too.

[ssramage]

Originally Posted by jb

You're convinced of a well known fact?

Stop bringing physics into this.

[jb]

Backspin creates a home run out of a line drive. If you don't have bat speed, you can't generate the force to hit a line drive that, with extra backspin, creates a home run. So in essence, most home runs are not hit dead square on the bat, they are hit slightly high on the face of the bat to create the spin.

[Duff]

My head hurts

[ssramage]

p=mv

[Quickdraw]

Tough to put backspin on a knuckle ball

[bouncy]

Baseball? In college? Don't watch. Sorry.

[jb]

A question about backspin.....how would you swing the bat to create good backspin? I guess you could chop down and hope to catch one, but that will in no way create optimal backspin. But with the bat on plane for an optimal time in the strike zone, it's level throughout the swing. So my point is that good backspin is a product of a great "on plane" swing where th ball was struck slightly high on the bat face.
I've heard several good hitting instructors say that most HR Are a ever so slightly mis-hit line drive double.

[Fatboy]

Originally Posted by jb

A question about backspin.....how would you swing the bat to create good backspin? I guess you could chop down and hope to catch one, but that will in no way create optimal backspin. But with the bat on plane for an optimal time in the strike zone, it's level throughout the swing. So my point is that good backspin is a product of a great "on plane" swing where th ball was struck slightly high on the bat face.
I've heard several good hitting instructors say that most HR Are a ever so slightly mis-hit line drive double.

Yep. Getting the bat into the hitting plane quickly and staying on that plane as long as possible provides more opportunity for contact. Better for averages, results in line drives and home runs.

With that said, the bat is traveling down into the plane so at times you may catch the ball on your downward plane and create backspin. Hitters who attempt to take this approach to hit homers usually end up with bad batting averages and high strikeout rates.