BATTING EMULATOR
The Batting Emulator was designed to build strength in the exact muscles used to hit a baseball. This machine is an incredible teaching and workout tool and it is designed to force the batter to use the strongest possible group of muscles to hit the ball. It will allow a batter the option to either increase bat speed (which allows them more time to see the ball) or decrease bat speed (for better control without loosing any power).
There are several reasons why the Batting Emulator has advantages over the more conventional training devices. For one, the Batting Emulator will adjust to each batter's desired plane angle, arm length and height. Once you have adjusted for your desired swing plane, the Emulator will keep you on this swing plane. If a batter is having a hard time hitting a particular pitch, whether it’s at the knees or above the belt, the Batting Emulator will allow them work on that specific pitch.
This machine will not allow the batter to upper cut on a pitch. The Emulator will also discourage the batter from starting the swing with the hands and arms. The Batting Emulator will strengthen all of the muscles used for hitting, regardless of the type of hitter.
HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO GAIN 75 FEET OF HITTING DISTANCE?
First we have to understand where strength comes from. An overlooked element of strength is the electric impulses that make the muscles work. All of your voluntary muscle contractions happen because the brain sends electrical impulses to the muscle and, more specifically, to the motor neurons in the muscles. When you swing a bat, the brain sends enough electric impulses to the muscles needed for swinging the bat.
When you work out on the Batting Emulator with 30 pounds, the brain is forced to send about 15 times more electrical impulses to the muscles as it would if you were swinging a bat. The problem is that you are only asking the brain to give your hitting muscles electricity when you are swinging a bat. When you work out on the Batting Emulator, you are DEMANDING that the brain give all of the exact swinging muscles more electricity, which makes them contract harder.
The effect of changing the output of electric impulses is immediate. After one set on the Batting Emulator, the bat will be lighter and easier to swing. After two sets, it gets even lighter. The results are immediate because you are not waiting to enlarge muscle mass, you are just cranking up the impulse level to the muscles. This only takes about a minute.
While swinging, muscles from the fingertips to toes are being used. Most of these muscles are small in comparison to the large muscle groups. A gym workout only exercises the large muscle groups, which make up only about 40% of all of the muscles used to hit a ball. It takes hours to exercise all of these big muscles. If you give the other 60% of the muscles even a little workout, there is an immediate effect in the player’s swing speed and hitting power. Gaining more functional movement or specific strength does not come from the size of your muscles. It is a product of getting a balanced amount of electrical impulses to all of the muscles used to hit.
An Emulator work out trains all of these body parts simultaneously as they would be used when swinging a bat. All of these muscles are being over-trained compared to the amount of load that they take on while swinging a bat. Over-training these swinging muscles is what creates more power, quickness and bat speed.
One thing that distinguishes the Batting Emulator from previous training devices is the ability to provide the user with the swing path of their choice and simultaneously creating the Correct Directional Resistance or CDR. While swinging a weighted bat, you are not experiencing the same kind of resistance, nor using the same muscles that are used while swinging a regular bat. The primary opposing force when swinging a weighted object is gravity. You must use muscles just to hold the bat up when you swing it. These are muscles that you do not use when you hit. When you swing a bat the opposing force is always coming from behind the hands. Since the hands are constantly moving while swinging, the CDR is also moving with the hands during the swinging motion.
As the hands move forward on the Batting Emulator, the CDR is always directly behind the hands. Therefore, while training on the Batting Emulator, you are using the exact muscles and combinations of muscles that you use when you swing a bat. The workout on the Emulator multiplies this resistance that is experienced while swinging a bat. And you don’t spend time and energy training muscles that are not used in hitting.
The unique shape cam and the location of its axle on the Batting Emulator creates a 5:1 resistance ratio, meaning it is 5 times harder to move the machine in the beginning of the movement than it is at the end of the movement. This is where core training comes in. These core muscles are primarily located from the abdomen to the thighs. It is not optional to use these muscles in the correct order. It is mandatory. If you try to use the weaker muscles in the beginning of the swing the Emulator will be much more difficult to move. Each repetition will tell you if you are using the machine properly.
As a result of all of these muscles working in the same sequence as they would be in the swinging motion, this establishes transitional strength that can not be obtained from conventional weight training, which works out only one muscle group at a time. Transitional strength is strength that is obtained when the main force of resistance is transferred from one muscle to the next muscle while you are swing the bat. As this sequential firing of muscles happens, the muscles are overlapping each other in their use and several muscles are fired at the same time, but at different proportions.
When you use twice as many muscles to move a resistance device, each muscle is taking on a much smaller amount of load. And because you use so many more muscles to train on the Batting Emulator, each muscle has a much smaller chance of getting injured. Regular gym workouts do the opposite. These put the entire load on one muscle, increasing the probability of injury.
The Batting Emulator will also allow the batter to isolate the exact muscles in the forearms and hands and work out these muscles independently. These are the last muscles to fire before ball contact. These muscles are not the same in each arm. The Batting Emulator strengthens the exact muscles in the wrists and forearms of both arms.
Switch hitters will love this machine because it will strengthen the weaker side to have equal strength of the strong side. If you are an amateur player, being able to hit from both sides with power will increase your value to colleges and pro teams. If you are not a switch hitter but want to learn to be one, the Batting Emulator will allow you to learn to do this 10 times faster than you can learn to hit from both sides by yourself.