Examining Attack Angle Through A Different Lens
In the past we have viewed attack angle as a purposeful metric. To me the idea of a purposeful metric is making an association between what a player is trying to do and what he is actually doing. For Attack Angle this means driving the baseball bat in one direction or another. Essentially we think of players naturally swings “downward” or “upward”.
Blast Motion defines Attack Angle as “The angle of the bat’s path, at impact, relative to horizontal. A positive value indicates swinging up, and a negative value indicates swinging down, where zero is perfectly level.”
The metric is important because it paints a pretty decent look at the swing on a budget. $150 for a sensor to me is a slam dunk. The metric can tell coaches a lot of good unbiased information quickly in a team or training setting. How we interpret the information is just as important though as the information which is provided.
There are several considerations to make when looking at the metric. I’m not going to go through them all here but I will highlight a couple of the most pressing.
First of all we need to look at the “Inclination Angle” of the pitch. This “Inclination Angle” is the angle at which the baseball if traveling downward toward the plate. The pitcher is on top of the mound and is throwing downward. So it stands to reason that the ball in moving downward (Nothing new here). From what I can gather MLB average Inclination Angles range from -5 to -10. This means that in order to give ourselves the best chance to drive the baseball we need to “match” these angles but in the opposite direction. Meaning we need to swing with a positive attack angle.
This is where the conversation about Attack Angle has normally ended. I have written about this prior I’ll share here if you are interested in reading further thoughts on this.
This is where we have a gap in our understanding of Attack Angle. So what I will talk about further is (somewhat) speculation and needs to be examined further. I’m sure people have more information on this. But to date we have limited information beyond a couple of key pieces of information.
Below you will find a very rough look at what the bat needs to do as the swing is being made. This is my no means a realistic depiction but it gives the reader a decent look at what might be happening if we look at Attack Angle with a more careful eye.
We need to understand this idea that the barrel will fall below the hands before we start to move upward. This COULD have an influence on Attack Angle. Meaning that depending on where the barrel makes contact in the swing could have major consequences on the swing. Lets look at three “different contact points” to determine what the Attack Angle could be.
Let us first look at the swing in slow motion.
Downward-Negative Attack Angle Potentially
We see in this clip that the barrel is working downward. What would happen if the ball is contacted this “deep” toward the catcher at this point? The result would most likely be weak contact. The baseball would most likely be sliced into the air or grounded weakly. What would the attack angle be here? It would seem that the Attack Angle here is negative.
On to the next part of the barrel path.
Flatten- More Of A Neutral Barrel Path
What we see from Correa here is that he is now past the point of having a downward barrel path and has now started to move the barrel upward. I would consider this the flatter part of the barrel path. The swing has transferred from a downward bath to a more “neutral” or flat path. Contact at this point in the swing would most likely result in an Attack Angle of low negative numbers to early positive numbers. (-2 to +4 Attack Angle) Contact at this point logically would be line drives. With a flatter path it would make sense that if the bat were to contact that baseball at this point would results in lower Launch Angles.
Which leads us to the final piece of the puzzle.
Upward- Positive Attack Angles
As the barrel begins to work through the swing we now have the upward portion of the swing. We see that Correa here transitions from flat to slight uppercut. We hopefully would see a positive number which is what we hope to see at contact. This positive number is a result of the natural swing progression of downward barrel path to a slight upward movement.
Could it be that the point that the ball contacts the bat is somehow tied to Attack Angle? Could Attack Angle be a decent measurement of how deep the barrel is making contact with the baseball?
Meaning that a negative Attack Angle could mean that the hitter is making contact with the baseball too deep. Which doesn’t allow the bat to follow the upward trajectory?
Contact point has been examined before. We see in the graphic below the outcomes with come from different points of contact. The implications of looking at Attack Angle when it comes to point of contact do seem to make a connection.
Why would most MLB players hit groundballs on pitches that are deep (toward the back of the plate)? Could it be that their Attack Angle is negative at that point of the swing which is not allowing them to elevate the baseball?
Doesn’t it make logical sense that if we have a flatter bat path in the middle of the plate that our Attack Angle would be more neutral? Finally wouldn’t a more positive Attack Angle on the natural upward further in the swing lead to more Home Runs? Many questions surface about the potential connections between the two metrics. We need to dig deeper and examine this topic from a deeper level.
If we settle for what we think we know we can easily be deceived by our lack of understanding. Attack Angle has more implications than we might realize.
“It is impossible to begin to learn that which one…”- Epictetus
