Swing Attractors has created biomechanics software that helps analyze a hitter’s movement pattern and suggests interventions to the coach and/or player that enhance game performance and fit into that specific player’s individual movement profile.
”After over 20 years of college coaching, I got the experience of a lifetime by starting to consult with Tim Hyers, Hitting Coach of the 2023 World Series Champions, Texas Rangers”, says Mike Lotief, CEO/founder of Swing Attractors. “We met in 2018 when we were both speaking/presenting on hitting at Slugfest in Miami.
After years of just talking hitting, in the off-season of 2022, we ramped it up and started looking at specific movement patterns and searching for ways to get his MLB hitters to feel their best swings and find protocols to make it consistent and repeatable.
I interpreted the data, and he turned it into actionable interventions that helped his hitters become the 2023 World Champions.
During the 2023 World Series season, I got an upfront and backseat pass to see all the inner workings of what it takes to mold a CHAMPIONSHIP HITTER. I got to see batting practice, pre-game preparations, in game data, rookies, All Stars, play-offs and the World Series.”.
Mike Lotief, CEO/founder of Swing Attractors & Tim Hyers, Hitting Coach for the 2023 World Series Champions, Texas Rangers discussing hitting ideas and looking at hitting data in the 2022 off-season in Atlanta. “I interpreted the data from the in-game swings and he turned it into actionable interventions”.
Swing Attractors turns motion capture data into things that coaches and players can actually use right away.
Coaches only have a finite time to do everything during a game week. So that’s the number one piece of feedback we hear from our clients after year one: “Be as efficient as you can with your processes in order to help us use the data.”
Motion Analysis
Swing Attractors can take data from any motion capture data source.
Simply put, teams just send to Swing Attractors their data and/or video of representative swings when the player is going well and getting off his “A” swing, and Swing Attractors will do a comprehensive individualized movement profile of each specific hitter.
Then, when the player is struggling or having inconsistencies, Swing Attractors will deliver a simple, precise, actionable intervention that will “attract” that hitter back to his best swing and movement pattern.
According to Lotief, “We use motion analysis. Motion analysis is assessing information from markerless in-game optical data, which we overlay with in-game video footage. We identify the hitter’s movement profile and determine which parts of the body are most activated in what planes of motion and what sequence to formulate conclusions and give answers to the coach and/or player. We tell them WHY THE DATA EVEN MATTERS without ever even talking about the data. We talk in their language and use the player’s hitting “feels” in their comfort zone.”
Swing Attractors & Motor Synergies
“If you have the right attractors, it creates a motor synergy, which helps move the hitter to the right movement pattern”, according to Lotief, who has been doing motion analysis of hitters and studying hitting data and swing metrics for over the past 15 years. “Attractors create motor synergies and movement patterns seen in all elite hitters and build movement protocols for champion hitters who win championships”.
Motor synergies require turning on the right muscles at the right time with the right sequencing and coordination and at a high rate of force development. An amateur creates energy distally, from the outside in, using their arms and shoulders, whereas the elite athlete creates energy proximal, from the inside out, using their spine and pelvis. The data & swing analysis help transform the movement and give the roadmap for an amateur to become elite.
We use data to dive into the hitter’s overall movement pattern to determine if the athlete’s motor synergies are:
- (1) generating maximum power,
- (2) in the correct sequence and planes of movement, and
- (3) at the highest, quickest, most explosive rate of force development.
- We answer questions like:
- Are the spine and pelvis correctly integrated along the right planes?
- Is the hitter loading and coiling the pelvis and spine properly and in a timely fashion?
- What is the hitter’s axis of rotation?
- How is the body’s movement aligned to help create and transfer energy to the barrel?
”The new competitive advantage belongs to those who find new methods of extracting the most from the data with their resources,” according to Scott Coleman, V.P. of KinaTrax, who has worked with Lotief and Swing Attractors at Rice University with the baseball team who has a Hitting Performance Lab. “The data gives the analyst the most accurate information to look under the hood of the hitter to access movement as all different phases of the swing intersect.”
The markerless, optical, in-game data allows an analyst to measure precisely the movement of body parts, the activation of muscles, how each segment coordinates with others, measure the speed and timing and degrees at each phase of the swing. The data can show and formulate conclusions on what is and is not quality rotation. It considers all 3 planes of motion and is not restricted to the traditional ideas of the kinetic chain.
Lots of the biomechanic solutions out there on hitting are really all over the place and do not zero in on a single, specific intervention. Swing Attractors take small bites and find things that will be really impactful for the coach and player right away. Instead of going into a discussion of biomechanical terms & movements, boil it down to a simple cue that the coach and player can use today to enhance his game performance and win the game tonight.
Motion analysis is:
- During the load and at the hitter’s first move (usually at the pitcher’s hand break), does the hitter achieve pelvis-spine integration?
- From lead leg lift to toe touch, contrast angular momentum versus linear shift of the center of mass. Which is the preferred movement for this individual hitter’s movement profile?
- Instead of hip-shoulder separation, assess pelvis-spine-shoulder orientation by integrating all three planes of motion in reference to pitcher’s release, at toe touch, at launch/GO, at contact.
- Explain bat angle (vertical & horizontal) via positioning of the hands, elbow, forearm in relationship to pitch location from launch to contact. What pitches does this individual hitter handle best and can his hot zones be expanded?
- Explain with data how the hitter is using the bilateral activity of each arm and how the arm segmentation of each arm is used in whipping the barrel and transferring force into the baseball.
- What is the hitter’s “GO” move? How does the player create his timing buffer for different speeds of pitches? How does the player “unload” his pelvis?
- Does the hitter adjust his movement pattern at the margins for different locations; inside versus outside and/or up versus down? What are this hitter’s strengths and vulnerabilities in the different quadrants of the zone?
- What is the player’s contact posture? Does he achieve alignment between the ball, barrel, and his body’s positioning? Does this hitter’s posture promote strength or vulnerability with pitches in, out, up, or down?
- How long does it take to transfer and/or deliver the energy/force into the baseball (rate of force development)? What is this hitter’s ability to wait longer or make better decisions later because he has the quickness to contact without compromising his power potential?
The game of baseball is “passing by” too many HITTERS while the data “sits on the shelf“ because there is no way to do quality biomechanics motion analysis ON HITTING, which is a DIFFERENCE MAKER.
Swing Attractors can help you interpret all of the data you are collecting, have access to it, and turn it into actionable results for the coach and the player. Swing Attractors helps the coach develop his hitters into CHAMPIONS.
About The Author:
Mike Lotief is the C.E.O. and President of Swing Attractors. Swing Attractors are those movements that, when applied to a hitter, correctly link superior motor synergies. Swing Attractors has created a biomechanics software that helps analyze a hitter’s movement pattern. During the 2022-2023 M.L.B. Season, Lotief worked with Tim Hyers, Hitting Coach for the 2023 World Series Champions, Texas Rangers. Mike & Tim discussed hitting ideas and looked at hitting data during the 2022 off-season and throughout the 2023 M.L.B. season. According to Lotief, “I interpreted the data from the in-game swings, and he turned it into actionable interventions.” During the 2023 season, besides winning the World Series, the Rangers were the #1 offense in the M.L.B. with a league-high six (6) All-Stars.
“We identify the hitter’s movement profile and determine which parts of the body are most activated and in what planes of motion and what sequence to formulate conclusions and give answers to the coach and/or player.” Lotief practiced law in Louisiana beginning in the 1990s and had his own firm; he still holds his law license. He coached recreational football, baseball, and basketball in Lafayette, La., for over 25 years. Coach Mike coached 17 successful years in college softball with an overall record of 731-176 for an 80.6 winning percentage; 10 times named Coach of the Year; developed 25 All-Americans; inducted into La. A.S.A. Hall of Fame. Lotief holds multiple patents for hitting devices. The coach is a 40-year cancer survivor (twice), endured massive radiation treatment in the 80s to his throat & neck, and was the first person in the U.S. to receive the Pro Trach breathing/speaking device in 2016; awarded the Perseverance Award by his peers in 2016 after despite undergoing a tracheotomy still coached his team to a conference championship and the finals of the NCAA Super Regionals. Lotief personally met & had a private audience with Mother Teresa, where she blessed his throat & prayed together. Mike is married to Stefni Whitton Lotief, who is the first All-American in U.L.L.’s history; the couple proudly started and ran multiple successful travel ball organizations, giving countless young women a chance to chase their dreams. They are the proud parents of Chelsea (commercial insurance) and Andrew (mechanical engineer); the family remodeled and ran a historic fried chicken restaurant in Lafayette and navigated it through the Covid pandemic, winning The Times of Acadiana “BEST” Award for the best Fried Chicken and Cajun Rice Dressing in 2020.
