Swing Plane Relativity

"I will not teach players to swing down on the ball" seems to be 1 of the 10 Commandments in the Hitting Instructor circles. If you do say anything that remotely suggests that a Pro player  is swinging down you are immediately cast out of the discussion because clearly the "across the plate" slow motion video of the best MLB players shows the swing moving up into contact. I have read multiple articles of pros saying they were working on hitting down on the ball. Mattingly, Brett, Gwynn, Pujols and even Mark McGuire were preaching and some producing training DVDs that taught this same principle. I was baffled. Like all the rest of the swing up believers I was appalled by the blatant heresy of the games greatest players. Until I began to look at things a bit different.

I am a fanatic about Home Run Tracker by ESPN! Every home run during the season is immediately available for preview the day after the game. Starting in 2012 I began to follow it daily. It was good for my business as it confirmed all of my "beliefs" about the swing. All I needed was a view across the plate in super slo-mo! All was great until last season. They still showed the home run, and occasionally a slow-mo shot, but it was hardly ever across the plate. My slow-mo was now a replay of what I saw in regular speed, behind the pitcher and squared up to the catcher. What the heck can you learn from out front?!?. It ultimately forced me to think different. I was bored of what the "internet experts" we're saying and began to just watch. First thing I noticed was their posture. Whenever a pro player is in his weight shift position (front heel into the ground) most Pros have a spine angle from 30-45 degrees. Big deal, they are athletes. But, I wanted to see things from a different view.

Obviously I rotated the 2nd column. I rotated till the spine was straight up and down. It was interesting to me that it looked like Pujols was swinging down. But, of course I had to rotate the pic in order to see this. Then I began to ask myself if the spinal tilt was creating an illusion to us observers. It had been my experience that whatever the spine did in certain phases of the swing dictated a lot about the swing plane. For instance, with my students, if I see a player coming into weight shift (across the plate view) and their spine tilts toward the catcher before weight shift, they will swing up through the zone. I have been convinced for some time, that the swing plane follows the alignment of the spine to some degree, particularly with high level players. So, if I stand straight up with my spine perpendicular to the ground and swing with the same relative plane as Pujols, the swing would ultimately be working down through the ball. In fact, if you get into an exhausted posture of spinal tilt 45 degrees and swing down through the ball, would the barrel not have to travel with the spines alignment and ultimately go up?

I think where the biggest disconnect for swing-down and swing up cults comes from what they believe swing down is. We always see a picture in a forum of some guy with hands at the ears and pushes his hands down to the tee, or someone cutting across the back of the ball from top down. I believe this is undoubtedly a bad idea as the emphasis is pushing to contact as well as a disconnect between the body and bat. I don't think there is a pro that would agree with this method. It's more like the feeling you have when you hit a high pitch hard. Obviously you are not swinging down, but rather trying to "stay through or on top" of the ball.

If you watch closely, the high pitch is the hardest adjustment for most pro hitters because of their spinal tilt.

Obviously he straightened his spine (look at top row images). Now, how does he hit the mistake down the middle?

If you look at high pitch sequence and belt high, particularly at contact, it appears he hits it exactly the same (obviously different tilt angles). 

My goal here is not to preach "Swing-down" or "Swing-up". I am only trying to offer some possible clarification of what Mattingly and all the other greats are suggesting when they talk about hitting down on the ball. I think the across the plate view has done so much to help teach the proper mechanics. But when you look at things a touch different, other possibilities arise. 

all images have been rotated

Matt Carpenter has perhaps the most obvious uppercut from across the plate, but when you rotate he looks like he is moving directly to contact. I believe he is trying to get directly to contact but his posture allows him to execute this same move with a 90mph fastball with an 8-10degree plane. So, there is a slight up-swing through contact but is it a result of "I want to swing up on this pitch" or is it the Pro-Posture allows them to stay through the ball on plane with the oncoming pitch.  

Normal game posture is first column, but I suppose if you caught Carpenter doing tee-work he would look a little like the right column. 

Finally, I have been wrong before. I have played with this idea for a while. I'm sure that this will not be well received with groups that have married mechanical ideas with absolute terminology. I choose to leave myself open to the possibilty that there are still mysteries around the swing that we are still figuring out. What if Mattingly, Brett, Gwynn, Pujols and McGuire really do know what they are/were talking about, relatively speaking that is.