Freddie Freeman Swing Breakdown

Hey, what's going on everyone. So today we're looking at Freddie Freeman. I threw this up on our Instagram channel probably about a week ago. Uh, and it's a, it's a home run. It's a blast to center field by Freddie Freeman on a ball. That's basically middle towards the bottom of the strike zone. And what I was talking about in that Instagram post was how Freeman does a great job of, of staying in posture, staying what we call over the plate and staying on the ball, allowing himself to stay through this ball, putting his body in position and staying in position to be able to create a bat path that's going to work through the hitting zone really, really well. And so let me just show you real quick what I was talking about. You can see here, and this is, this is typical again of, of most high level hitters, if we just kind of look at Freeman's spine as hitters get loaded, they get coiled, they get pulled back. They're typically going to go, um, from whatever position their spine is initially in, and everyone's a little bit different. You'll have some hitters that'll be really vertical. They'll have some hitters that are slightly over the plate, but typically whatever position they're in, you're going to see even a bit more of this spine angle increasing basically over the plate, just a bit more, right? And most hitters that most hitters that I look at are somewhere around 30 degrees or so, you know, somewhere usually typically between 30 and 35 degrees when their front foot gets into the ground. Now, the way we express this to our hitters is we talk about, we want our butt to be back behind our heels. So if you think about it from this perspective, again, I'll draw that line a little bit better this time. See how his butt is back behind his heels and his chest is going to be over the plate. And I'll talk about if we're wearing a chain, if we had a chain around our neck, the chain would basically just be kind of like dangling. I say over the plate. I don't, obviously it's not going to be over the plate this way, but if you were standing very vertical, if you were more straight up and down, right, your chain is going to be kind of just like resting on your chest, but as you get coiled, as you get pulled back and loaded right now, that chain is going to be kind of dangling off of you. So that's that butt out, chest over in good posture position. Now, it's not just about getting into that position, but here is the key part is, can we then rotate and stay in that posture? So notice how he's still over the plate right here. And so that's the key, this move right here. That's how you stay on the ball. Now with hitters, one question I get asked a lot about is balance. And you hear balance all the time, right? You've got to stay balanced at the plate. What you'll notice with most hitters that do a good job of staying over the plate. And, and yes, I'll actually, let me back up a second. There is such a thing as getting too much over the plate. So I always said there is such thing as having too much of a good thing. And so that's why I usually say a 30, 35 degrees, somewhere in that range, right? Don't go overboard with this. But what you will see from hitters that get into a good position with their posture, their spine over the plate, if they do a good job of staying in that position, some people will call this side bend. You should typically see as the hitter hits, you'll see this little bit, right? See this little bit of a fall towards the plate. For me, that's okay. I've seen coaches say, no, that's not good balance. You've got to stay more balanced. Where I talk about balance, if you see a hitter that's falling away from the plate, those are hitters that are typically not getting into good posture here, or they're pulling hard with their upper body and they're pulling off the ball or they're coming out of posture. So that's an issue. And if I'm coming out of posture, if I'm pulling hard off the ball, I'm going to be around the ball. My barrel's not going to work through the hitting zone. It's going to cut across the hitting zone. And that's where I get a lot of rollovers and I'm off the ball, right? And so a hitter that's able to stay on the ball, staying good posture and rotate while staying in that posture. That's where you'll see that little bit. Again, you don't always see it, but with a lot of hitters, you'll see this little bit of a fall over the plate. And for me, again, that's perfectly fine. So let me show it a couple more times. And I'm just going to do this one more time for you here. I'm going to draw her spine. Let's circle his head and just look at that right there. Body staying over the plate, head, not pulling off, upper body, not pulling off, right barrel working through the hitting zone and just crushing this ball to center field. So beautiful swing by, you know, one of the game's best hitters. Been doing it for a really long time, hitting for both power and for average, and we can learn a lot from him. So hopefully that helps you out. Let me know if you have any questions in the comment section below. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel for more videos. And that's all I have. 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. 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