Mike Trout's Bat Path

Hey what's going on everyone so I threw a video up on TikTok and it was me showing a player how we use a PVC pipe in our training and we were talking about getting the barrel turned getting the knob to slightly turn up because this player was swinging down to the ball and then down through the ball. The reason we want to have space down here is because when you hit right so right now your swing your upper body is working this way and then like this right so your hands are always down here if you put an extra foot of space down here you're not going to want to do this because when you do it you're going to get this right in the side like this so you're going to hit the bag and then this is going to hit you like right off the side. If you do it the right way and turn better see how that will finish above my forearm so it gives you good feedback it's not this it's that. A lot of people really like the video but those type of videos bring out a lot of of coaches parents and some players who say that swing will never work the barrel's got to stay above the hand you've got to swing down to the ball and through the ball all you're going to do is pop up you're going to swing and miss a lot of people saying you'll never hit the high pitch with that swing and so I want to show Mike Trout here and I just picked Mike Trout because he's one of the better hitters in the game and I'll make some of these videos on a bunch of different hitters but I have two videos here and I took two very different pitches so both of these are home runs one is a home run hitter and a fastball at the top of the zone one is a home run hit on a fastball at the bottom of the zone and I want to talk about bat path because a lot of people have been asking me to make more bat path videos so let's talk about what I tell players when it comes to bat path now the first thing is that when the bat collides with the ball the bat is going to be moving slightly up that is not my opinion you can look at all the data that's provided online from major league hitters from high level hitters when they make contact with the ball their barrel is working slightly up so let's start with that so any hitter that I see that swings not just down to the ball but down through the ball down through contact those players struggle to create good ball flight they don't have good adjustability their barrels are not in the zone for a long time they typically cut across the zone so there's a lot of issues with players that swing like that so now let's look at trout and what his barrel does as he swings at both the high pitch and the low pitch so we'll look here on the left first so as he starts to attack the high pitch you can see the barrel if we watch the barrel the barrel is going to start to turn back towards the catcher as the knob starts to turn forward so here goes the barrel knob is turning we can see him starting to get palm up palm down he's not taking a knob straight down but it is turning as his back leg turns as his upper body works back so his knob continues to turn his barrel continues to work back it's from the inside it almost looks like it's going to take the catcher's glove off if we continue to follow let's follow the knob for a second so see how as he starts to get into the hitting zone notice how the knob is starting to now turn so here the knob is down but it's turning turning turning he's palm up palm down the barrel is getting in the zone early as he continues to turn here comes the barrel into the hitting zone and we can see on this pitch that is towards the top of the zone the barrel makes contact with the ball slightly up through the hitting zone and now he works through the ball so barrel gets turned back barrel works slightly up through the hitting zone and through the ball so the barrel is working back and down the barrel is up here so the barrel has to work down into the hitting zone but it doesn't do this and this is what i see a lot of people try to show the barrel is going to work back and down it's going to continue to turn it's going to continue to work down but now at this point it is going to start to work up into the ball now let's look at the low pitch so here's the low pitch the barrel is going to start to work back and down the knob is going to start to turn now it's a lower pitch but we can still see the knob turning forward him getting palm up palm down now the knob is going to start to turn up the barrel is going to start to work up into the ball so barrel back almost takes the catcher's glove off again right if we get to this point here right we have one pitch that's low and one pitch that's high so his hands are definitely a bit lower here they're at about waist height here they're above the waist but we're getting the same turning action in both swings hands are just a bit higher again contact barrel is turning up into the ball now if we look at it from a different view let's look at this from the front view now this you didn't allow me to see the entire body of trout you can see his barrel working from the inside it's getting turned back here on the higher pitch you can see the knob turning and now the barrel working slightly up into the hitting zone here you can see the barrel working back now here's one big difference you're going to see at contact if we stop at contact this barrel if you look at the vertical bat angle the bat angle is different in each of these so this barrel on the low ball is more vertical this barrel is more horizontal the ball is higher here the ball is lower here so the vertical bat angle is going to change but we are still swinging from the inside we're still turning the barrel back we're still getting the barrel turn slightly up into the ball but the vertical bat angle has slightly changed and it has to because the ball is at a different height you'll also notice that his posture is slightly different in each one his rear shoulder is higher on the one on the high pitch on the low pitch his rear shoulder is under more he's more over the plate rear shoulder works under more if you draw a line through the shoulders and then you draw a line through the barrel they're going to almost always be parallel it's tough for me to get through the shoulders on this view so the rear shoulder is going to work under more on the lower pitch it's going to work a bit higher you're going to stay a bit taller on the higher pitch you're still going to be over the plate if we look at their posture they're still over the plate right so there's subtle adjustments and subtle changes depending on ball height but the swing itself doesn't drastically change so hopefully that gives you a little bit more insight into how the barrel needs to work a lot of times people online will see one swing and a lot of times when i'm swinging at a pitch if i'm hitting a ball in the bag and i might be swinging at this pitch one time i might be swinging at this pitch another time but a lot of times people will see me swinging a pitch let's say i'm swinging at this pitch and they'll say yeah well how will you ever hit the high pitch good luck you'll never hit it your swing is going to be in many ways the same but there are going to be some differences depending on the pitch height and also certain players for instance a mike trout hits the lower ball better than he hits the higher ball typically players with a vertical bat angle that is a little bit more horizontal and each player is a little different mike trout is someone that has a bad angle that is a little bit more vertical on most swings again it's going to change depending on pitch height but the way his body works the way his barrel path works allows him to hit the lower ball slightly better than the higher ball there's other players that hit the higher ball better than the lower ball so we all have our strengths and weaknesses but these are some of the small changes that will happen again depending on pitch height and location but his barrel is always working slightly back and down and it's going to get turned up into the baseball hopefully that helps out let me know if you have any questions in the comment section below subscribe the channel hit the notification i'll give it a thumbs up we have tons of other videos in our hitting playlist go check them out if you would like to learn more about the swing if you would like to get all of our drills we have a swing course it's in the description box below you can click down there and check that out as well that's all i have thanks for watching we'll talk to you later if you've got hitters that you're looking to improve before the start of next season this is essential for you Matt Antonelli here former major league player first round pick and college coach with this course we're going to show you exactly step by step how to generate power develop bat speed and enhance swing mechanics regardless of your hitter's age this course is going to deliver advanced hitting techniques that will allow any hitter to get better and make an impact at the plate this spring we have a full catalog of training content that you can access from anywhere at any time this course is perfect for players parents coaches instructors and more it offers a comprehensive package of drills and techniques that you can directly implement our course has helped hitters all over the country at different competition levels and the feedback that we've received has been outstanding the work you put in now will drive your success at the plate this spring get the essential knowledge that you need to take your game to the next level