Dr. Yessis Sports Training Blog

To find the many baseball swings lost in a season, it may be time to bring in a detective like Sherlock Holmes. It appears that the teams and their coaches are unable to help the players find their lost swings.

The number of lost swings seems to keep increasing since it is common to read about another player spending countless hours swinging the bat in order to find his swing. And it is not unique to any team or league. The concept that you should keep swinging to find your swing appears to be the only method that the teams use. Sadly, it is also the poorest way of resolving the problem.

There are several reasons for a player to “lose” his swing. Finding out which one applies to the particular player can go a long way to resolving the problem. For example:

1. The player is on a high intensity strength training in season. This leads to significant increases in strength that change swing technique. This is why strength training is not advocated during the season except for maintenance purposes. If you maintain your same strength level you will maintain the same technique.

2. The player has been making small changes to his technique. Anytime any changes I made, the player should not be playing as he will then revert back to his original technique. In season, any changes made in technique should be minor so that they will not disrupt the swing pattern.

Understand that it takes hundreds of exact repetitions before a change is incorporated into the total technique. Trying to make changes or adjustments while playing leads to a disrupted motor pattern and the eventual loss of swing. In such cases it may take hundreds of swings to establish a new pattern, not find the old swing.

3. The player is using steroids. Initially the play will see improvement in his swing from some of the changes that take place in the body especially increases in strength. However, unless the swing is constantly modified in relation to the body changes eventually there will be disruption in the swing pattern, creating a lost swing. This is especially true with each year of drug use.

4. The player never had a strongly ingrained swing pattern to begin with. When technique is not fully learned and mastered the swing does not become reliable and there will be disruptions in how the swing is executed. This is more common on the high school and collegiate levels but not unheard of on the pro level.

Keep in mind that any changes made whether it be in the bat that is used - this includes length and weight - there will be a change in technique. In such cases it usually takes multiple repetitions without playing in order to ingrain the new pattern. Rarely do we see immediate favorable changes.

5. The players not cognizant of what takes place in the swing and how he executes it. The player gets a good understanding of his swing when there are visual biomechanical analyses done. If done on a regular basis he will fully comprehend what he is doing and will be able to identify any changes in his swing pattern.

When teams begin to address one or all of these above factors they will be able to assist the player in finding his lost swing. Until then we will keep reading about players who are struggling to find their lost swing. What a waste!

For information on what constitutes an effective swing and how to develop one, see Build a Better Athlete