AXE PRO PLAYER PROFILE: KRIS BRYANT

Axe Pro Player Profiles - Sharing the experiences Pro players go through when making the switch to Axe. Just like you.

KRIS BRYANT MADE THE SWITCH TO AXE:

Kris Bryant made the switch to Axe in 2019. He had instant success with Axe. In fact, he hit a home run on his very first swing with Axe! That success continued.

Let's take a deeper look at his incredible success after switching from round to Axe.

50 ABs Before (Round) vs 50 ABs After (Axe)

Major Increases in HR’s, AVG, SLUG, OPS with Axe
Monster Increases in wRC+ and ISO with Axe! 90 to 183 wRC+ & 96 to 460 ISO!
Exit Velocity Increase! 4.5 mph Increase!!! 87.8 to 92.3 mph!!
Pulled The Ball More! Pull % Increase 38.5% to 47.6% +9.1%
Barreled Up More Balls! Barrel % Increase 5.1% to 19% +13.9%
Hit The Ball Harder More Often! Hard Hit % from 28.2% to 47.60% +19.4% !!

Let’s Take A Look At That First Swing Kris Took

It's April 28. Kris broke his round handle bat on a foul ball. The bat boy will bring out his Axe bat for him to use.

He will walk up to the plate for his first ever Axe at-bat in a game.

First swing, BOOM!

Another Highlight From That Next Week:

May 7. Walkoff Home Run!

May 12. Mother's Day Pink Bat Home Run

How Did It Go After 150 Plate Appearances With Axe?

Continued Monster Increases in HR, AVG, SLUG, OPS
Monster Increases in wRC+ and ISO with Axe! 90 to 167 ISO & 96 to 357 ISO WOW!
Exit Velocity Increase 1.6 mph Increase 87.8 to 89.4 mph
Pulled The Ball More! Pull % Increase 38.5% to 48% = +9.5% WOW!
Barreled Up More Balls! Barrel % Increase 5.1% to 13% = +7.9%
Hit The Ball Harder More Often! Hard Hit % from 28.2% to 43% = +14.4% WOW!

VERY IMPRESSIVE! As you can see, there was a dramatic change immediately after the switch from round to Axe for Kris Bryant. Think of how most youth and high school players have between 50 to 150 total plate appearances in their seasons. Kris took the bold step to make the switch to Axe because he felt it was better for his performance. And it was a switch he made, not in an offseason, but in the Major League season! If he can be bold and make the switch, so can you.

THE CHART BELOW does an even better job of showing the improvements when the switch to Axe happened for Kris. Hard Hit %. Slugging, ISO, Batting Average and Flyball % charted with the before and after timeline. Look at all the jumps. Enjoy!

GAME BAT FUN

Here are some of Kris's gamers. Included in this picture, the May 7th walk-off homer and May 9th homer bat, the May 12 pink Mother's Day homer bat and May 17th 3 Home run game bat. Pretty cool to make the bats, then see what they do in the games. We can't wait to see what your Axe bat can do for you.

KRIS BRYANT AXE BAT QUOTES:

Kris Talking About Why You Should Try Axe:

“I’ve always been big into trying different things. Just to give them a go, see if it works for me and what I feel from it. - Kris Bryant

“I appreciate Axe because there are numbers to back it up. Trevor Stocking, Axe went through guys who went from a round knob to the Axe Bat and showed me their OPS and slugging. Once these guys switched over, their numbers shot through the roof. So I was like, ‘Huh, maybe there’s something to be said about this. It’s convincing. It’d be kind of stupid if I didn’t try it out, because I’m big into that. If there’s a resource out there that’s going to help me, I’m going to jump all over it.” - Kris Bryant

Swing And Design Advantages:

"There's a lot of science behind it. How the bat naturally comes through the zone, how it falls into the zone. You don't have to work for it. I like the idea behind it." - Kris Bryant

"It's almost like a comfort thing. You're holding the bat and it just feels natural. With a round knob there are different pressure points on your hand that kind of feels off a little bit. But this is just super smooth and continuous. It just feels natural." - Kris Bryant

"It's designed for a swing too. You can't swing in certain ways because it'll feel off. If you stay in your right bat path, it's what's natural with that bat. So you keep doing that and repeating that. That's good because as a hitter what you want is a repeatable swing, an in-the-zone kind of swing." - Kris Bryant

What Others Said At The Time:

"Of course, anyone who knows anything about Bryant’s swing can tell you who crafted it. His father, Mike, coaches hitting with advanced application of time-tested techniques and is all about getting hitters to understand how a proper swing should feel. He’s a huge proponent of launch angle, but not the robotic application of numbers to live results. Rather, it’s about getting a hitter to understand where the links of his kinetic chain need to be to produce optimal results. The Axe Bat, he says, is a big part of that. “It creates feel so that the barrel gets on path early and gets the top hand under the bottom hand as it enters the hitting zone,” the elder Bryant told CI. “The knob gives that ‘feelback.'” - Mike Bryant (Kris’s Dad)

“It might sound a little hokey if you don’t know any better, but it’s impossible to look at Bryant’s results since changing bats and brush aside the notion that the handle helps. Heck, I bought one for my son and he immediately took to it despite it being 2 oz. heavier than his other bat. You know, I wonder if they’d be interested in the kind of publicity they could generate by having an out-of-shape 40-year-old blogger using one of their slowpitch softball bats.” - Evan Altman Cubs Insider

“I love the Axe Bat,” Cubs Hitting Coach, Anthony Iapoce told ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. “It aligns your knuckles. Forces your knuckles to be aligned and creates the right angle of the barrel above the head.” - Anthony Iapoce (Kris's Hitting Coach)

“Bryant is part of the new school, unafraid of change, and was happy to experiment. The results of the hard work and the bat change have been remarkable. While using the standard round handle this season, Bryant has a 102 wRC+ in 100 plate appearances. His 63 batted balls had an average exit velocity of 88 mph, went an average distance of 172 feet and just 30.2 percent of them were deemed “hard hit” (95-plus mph). Entering Wednesday, in his last 47 plate appearances, he boasts an eye-popping 213 wRC+. Over 30 batted balls, his average exit velocity has jumped to 94.9 mph, he’s driving the ball an average of 281 feet and his hard-hit rate is up to 60 percent.” - Sahadev Sharma - The Athletic

“Kris Bryant had been talking about it a lot and I was just like, ‘Well, I’m going to try it out.’ I’ve never used it. I know George [Springer] is a guy that uses it always and a couple of other guys in here. I said, ‘I’m going to give it a try and see how it feels.’” - Tyler White Astros (Tyler also hit a home run in his first at-bat using Axe this day!) https://www.mlb.com/news/tyler-white-hits-first-home-run-of-2019