It sounds simple enough. If we can get our bat on plane with the pitch as long as possible, we’ll have a better chance of making consistent solid contact. Well, it turns out it might not be that simple. Let’s dig a little deeper and figure out what it takes to get on plane.
For starters, most people think of getting on plane with the pitch when looking at a batter from the side.
Unfortunately, the idea of swinging in a way that matches the downward plane of the pitch is way too simplified. For starters, pitcher’s have different release heights and the ball has different ending points. Plus, fastballs don’t all “fall” at the same rate because that’s dependent on their spin axis and spin rate. Not to mention the fact that everyone of a pitcher’s pitches (fastball, curveball, slider, 2 seam, etc.) typically have a different trajectory especially as it’s entering the hitting zone. Take a look at the two examples below. The pitch on the left is a fastball “ballparked” at around 5 degrees and the one on the right is a curveball around 11 degrees. I realize the view is not straight on at a 90 degree angle and there is some parallex error but it’s for demonstration purposes only.
Plus, I’m using lines to depict the descent of the pitch, which is incorrect. For fastballs, the pitch encounters gravity and air resistance meaning that the pitch will slow down and will “drop” more towards the end of the pitch than at the beginning. (The actual rate of decent is constant but when the pitch speed slows down, the pitch “drops” more relative to the distance it is moving toward home plate.) For off-speed pitches, like the curveball depicted in the picture on the right (11 degree descent), the pitch is slowing down and “dropping” more towards home plate just like a fastball but even more so because of its spin. This is all to say that the lines would more accurately depict the path of the pitch if they were slightly rounded as the video of fastball depicts below.
But it gets even more complicated than that. Like I said earlier, most people think about getting on plane when looking at a batter from the side. But what about the pitcher’s perspective? Is the ball coming in on a straight line? The answer is probably not. Most pitches have lateral movement. Even a fastball typically has horizontal movement unless it has perfect backspin. Even if it is a relatively straight pitch it’s typically at an angle as it approaches home plate due to a pitcher’s release point being to the left or right of the center line between the rubber and home plate. Here are just a few examples:
Again, these pitches are depicted in the examples above as straight but would be more accurately depicted if they were slightly rounded based on the pitch characteristics (spin axis, spin rate, etc).
In other words, if the pitch isn’t straight (taking into account both vertical and horizontal components), there is no such thing as the plane of the pitch. (The definition of a plane is a flat surface on which a straight line joining two points on it would wholly lie.) This might seem like a technicality but when we’re talking about “squaring a ball up” and such small margin of errors, everything matters. This video might help make the point more simply. Think about getting “on plane” with any of these pitches.
I completely understand coaches using this terminology and this idea as it does simplify things for the athlete and for the coach. In fact, in the past I’ve used this saying without ever really thinking about it, which is the reason for this post. I wanted to really understand what we mean when we tell hitters to get “on plane.”
What we’re really asking our hitters to do is to account for all of these variables (vertical descent, lateral movement and angle of approach to home plate). The good news is that it is possible. Maybe not necessarily to get “on plane” as much as we once thought, but to handle all of the variables that a pitch has to offer and swing in a way (or ways) that puts the bat in the best position possible to collide with the pitch.
Other Resources:
Driveline Baseball: Rethinking batting practice with release points
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