Charlie Caccamo - Blast Motion
What You Measure, Improves: How Measuring Your Swing Will Accelerate Your Growth
Former standout at Occidental College, Charlie Caccamo travels the county representing the MLB endorsed bat sensors: Blast Motion. Blast Motion allows a player to quantify their progress. Instead of "having pop" a player can be told a more useful term of "78 mph barrel speed". Technology once reserved for the professional ranks is now being made available to the public.
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Summary and Action Plan below
SESSION SUMMARY
The way we’ve always talked about the game has always been so subjective. Saying a guy has a lot of “pop” or quick hands doesn’t allow a player to improve himself. If you can measure it, you can improve upon it. So measuring your bat speed is more helpful than being called a 65 hit tool (the 20-80 scale is what scouts use to grade players).
Before, all that we measured was distance on home runs, but now being able to know what someone’s bat speed is you now have something to work with to improve.
Blast Motion sensor measures 10 different measurements. What the bat is doing during all points of the swing can be shown.
The earlier you can get into your “swing plane” the more efficient you will be. If you are trying to use your hands and wrists too much - especially late - your contact will be less consistent and definitely less forceful.
You want to be at least 55% on plane, anything less than that you’re a little late in getting into plane.
Launch angle is the angle the ball comes off of the bat, while Attack angle is what the bat is doing approaching the ball.
The bat is 100% swinging up toward contact. “Swing down on the ball” is what many are taught and that’s not exactly what reality is doing.
Important note: swinging up and hitting fly balls are two different arguments. If you aren’t a fan of hitting fly balls that is fine - but that doesn’t change the fact that the bat is moving upward to meet the ball at contact.
One of the biggest benefits of attack/launch angle is that it’s not subjective. If you want guys hitting at 10 degrees vs 15 degrees, that is more helpful than telling a guy to hit more line drives...because one person’s description of a line drive is different than another’s.
Vertical bat angle is a very important metric that most are unfamiliar with. Having a lot of variability in your vertical bat angle is not ideal. If you’re someone who uses their arms and chest angle to hit a low pitch will cause you to have a less consistent vertical bat angle. The better method would be to hit the low ball by sinking into your legs, so the upper body and arms are quieter and vertical bat angle is more consistent.
The most important thing to realize is that you are an individual, and your metrics will be different than others - but you HAVE to know what makes you successful. These measurements can only help you recognize what’s best for you...not an absolute on “oh Mike Trout has an angle of X or Z, so I need to also.” Those are great numbers to model but recognize that may not lead to good results for YOUR body.
Showing a young player (10 and under) any of their measurements other than bat speed is probably information overload.
ACTION PLAN
Call your local facility and see if they have any device or machine that measures a swing, even if it is just exit speed. If you have the opportunity to try a Blast Motion device I would highly recommend it. I work with my players with one and it is so helpful to diagnose problems that it’s difficult to put your finger on with the naked eye. If nothing else, measure SOMETHING. Even if it is how far a player can hit a basketball off of a tee. Take down the distance and try to beat it a couple of days later. If you want to improve faster you have to know if what you’re working on is *actually* making you better. Start measuring, however you can.