Mike Lotief, President/C.E.O. of Swing Attractor, has identified five hitting concepts that should be included in any motion analysis of baseball/softball hitter’s swings. (1) loading and unloading the pelvis via contralateral hip activity, (2) energizing the spine to slingshot the barrel, (3) stabilizing the shoulders and spine segmentation, (4) get behind the baseball, and (5) swing design for adjustability.
“We can frame the issues to focus on when doing motion analysis,” according to Mike Lotief, President/C.E.O. of Swing Attractors.
“Being able to distinguish from reliable information, and more importantly, being able to disregard unreliable information is the difference between a hitter getting better and players who despite their hard work just become frustrated at the lack of improvement”.
Sorting through all of the volumes of information and advice out there on hitting is a chore in itself.
“I got the experience of my lifetime during the 2023 M.L.B. season by working with Tim Hyers (Hitting Coach of the Texas Rangers, 2023 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS)”, says Coach Mike Lotief.
“We looked at specific movement patterns and searched for ways to explain the feel of ‘just do it’. I interpreted the motion caption data of his hitters, and he turned it into actionable interventions that helped them become WORLD CHAMPIONS”.
“I’ve developed hitting concepts we used to communicate my motion analysis using the data of his hitters into reliable, precise language that can be used in everyday hitting discussions”.
What’s a Swing Attractor? https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/24/08/ab40456649/coach-mike-lotief-and-swing-attractors-release-the-explanation-of-what-swing-attractors-are-for-b
Mike Lotief, President/C.E.O. of Swing Attractors, pictured above with Tim Hyers, Hitting Coach of 2023 WORLD SERIES Champions, Texas Rangers discussing hitting movement patterns.
TALKING POINTS #1 & #2: Loading/Unloading the pelvis via contralateral hip activity. Energizing the spine to slingshot the barrel
How does the contralateral movement of the pelvis effect the movement pattern of the spine? Does the movement of the pelvis energize the movement of the spine?
The best hitters take advantage of the anatomy of the pelvis and spine to move in all three planes of motion (sagittal, frontal, transverse). The important part of loading/unloading the pelvis is the amount of angular momentum created and how & when.
Motion analysis can determine which planes of motion are most dominant or which planes are dormant and not contributing.
TALKING POINT #3 & #4: Stabilize Shoulders – Spine Segmentation. Get Behind the Baseball.
Improper spinal alignment is the biggest inhibitor of efficient movement patterns in hitters. The lack of proper posture compromises the key performance indicators of power, stability and reaction time.
To get behind the baseball at contact, the barrel, the knob and the spine should all be aligned behind the incoming pitch, plus the back elbow is parallel to the pitch and the hitter’s head is behind his hands via axial rotation; not by leaning/tilting rearward.
TALKING POINT #5: Swing Design Allows Better Swing Decisions
The perfect swing is about adjustability. How each individual hitter can launch his swing when the pitch is 150 milliseconds away from home plate has a direct correlation to whether he can stop/check his swing at 029 milliseconds.
Swing design shouldn’t be a trade off between power or accuracy. It can be BOTH.
Read more about swing adjustability:
The best latest decision is at a time and from a position of being able to hit.
CONCLUSION
The game is passing by too many hitters while the data sits on the shelf because there isn’t a way to do quality, affordable motion analysis that is simple, precise and actionable to make hitters CHAMPIONS.
Good hitters “FEEL” their best movement patterns and then lose it. Here today, then gone tomorrow – then the constant struggle to find it again. Great hitters “KNOW” their best movement patterns and NEVER LOSE IT.
The data and motion analysis helps good hitters become great by helping them understand what they “remember feeling”.
- Small, simple adjustments result in measurable effects that enhance hitting performance.
- Interpreting & figuring out how to apply the data to your athletes requires a specific skill set – it has to be done through the eyes of a coach not a professor.
- Motion capture, technology, analysis tools & data driven solutions have proven to be incredibly valuable and provide laser precision insights that eliminate the guessing game when evaluating hitters.
- Swing Attractors gives you a process & systems approach specific to how great baseball hitters move which is different movement from pitchers or golfers, etc. Swing Attractors will do the computations and calculations of the key performance indicators and then match it and connect it to your hitter’s video for you to “SEE” on the user-friendly dashboard.
Stay tuned to www.swingattractors.com to read about each hitting concept in depth.
About the author
Mike Lotief, President/C.E.O. of Swing Attractors, pictured with Tim Hyers, Hitting Coach of the 2023 World Series Champions, Texas Rangers, at pre-game batting practice during the 2023 M.L.B. season.
Swing Attractors uses its proprietary software and user-friendly dashboard to identify individual hitter’s movement profile, what planes of motion are most dominant/dormant, and the rate/sequence of transfer being used by each hitter. Read full interview: https://inspirery.com/michael-lotief/
Lotief (“Coach Mike”) was part of 40 conference/NCAA championships; he invented/fabricated hundreds of hitting devices & been through the patent process; he’s a 40-year cancer survivor (twice); awarded the Perseverance Award by his coaching peers in 2016. Watch acceptance speech: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qu2EpKPMt1M