How to film your baseball swing with an iPhone
Put your iPhone about 10 feet away, waist high, side-on to you, so the camera faces your chest from across the plate. Keep your whole body and your full swing in frame, and film at least three swings at normal speed.
Where to put the phone
- About 10 feet away. Close enough to see you clearly, far enough to fit the whole swing.
- Waist high. A tripod is easiest. Anything steady that holds the phone at that height works.
- Side-on. The camera sits across the plate from you and looks at your chest.
- Hold it still. If the phone moves, you can’t tell whether you moved or the camera did.
What has to be in frame
You, head to toe, plus the space your swing moves through. If you’re hitting off a tee, keep the tee and the ball in frame too, and hit into a net. Give yourself room to swing and decent light.
Why one swing isn’t enough
Any single swing can be a one-off. A pattern is what’s worth working on. PureHits only calls something a fault when it shows up on at least two of three swings, and a swing it can’t measure counts as unknown, never as clean. The same rule works if you’re reviewing video by eye.
Take the swings at your normal speed. A careful swing for the camera won’t show you what your real swing does.
What this view shows, and what it can’t
From across the plate you can see movement toward and away from the pitcher, and up and down. That covers a lot:
- whether your head and body keep moving forward after the swing starts
- whether you open up before your front foot lands
- whether you stand up through the turn
- whether your bat comes into the ball too steeply, up or down
It can’t show depth. Whether your hands move toward the plate, or the barrel’s in-and-out route, is hard to judge from this angle. Be careful with anyone, or any app, claiming exact rotation angles from one phone.
Left-handed hitters
The setup is the same, with the phone across the plate from you. PureHits mirrors everything for left-handed hitters.