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Reply to "Achieving Greater Consistency"

SluggerDad posted:

He actually has great eye sight.  20/13  vision when last checked.  Does say he has a hard time recognizing off speed out of pitchers hands.   Used to hammer the mediocre sliders he saw at lower levels.  Now he says pitchers with excellent off speed are his curse.   Not too many fastballs he can't catch up with -- at least not at his level. 

He and his college coaches have a disagreement about approach.  He's looking to drive the ball hard somewhere.  Sits  middle in early in the count.  Really loves to yank the ball.    Lays off pitches away until two strikes.  When he's going well he's a good 2 strike hitter, though, and has gotten many hits going the other way.  

Current coaches think he is too pull happy.  He disagree.  One of his assignments for the summer is to come back to school using the whole field more. 

He likes to say he's a power hitter trapped inside a little man's body.  He does have  great bat speed and gap to gap power.    His  swing does get long at times.    He says coaches want him to be more of "slap" hitter, exploit his considerable foot speed,  and strike out less.   He's reluctant to go that route.   I say coaches always win.  

Mechanically,  his actual swing after launch is pretty --  short, quick and very explosive, though It  does seem to get long at times.   He tinkers endlessly  -- and I mean endlessly --  with his timing mechanism. Not sure how many different ones he's tried, but it's been a fair number. 

He doesn't seem to get in mental funks at the plate so much these days,  although he definitely used to.   He used to really  press a lot when he got in a slump.  It was especially bad whenever anybody who mattered was watching.   These days he says he's learned to live with K's and accept them as a fact of baseball life. 

 

 

I am finding it amazing how many very good HS hitters have no plan for their eyes.  They can rely on talent and fast hands to beat most pitching at their level.  

Do you know what your sons approach is regarding a focus point during the pitchers delivery?  Does he hard focus on the pitchers hat?  If he does great.  If he doesn't you might want to suggest he gives it a shot.  

Many players are just looking at the pitcher.  If a player hard focuses on the pitcher's hat emblem, the eyes will pick up the ball at release point earlier, and already be focused.  It really slows things down and helps with pitch recognition which helps with timing.  A lot of streaky hitters have timing issues.  

 

 

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