Hitting Advice

Well, it sounds like you've developed a skill that seperates the hitters from the hackers, hitting oppo. however, you have to be able to turn on those inside pitches, otherwise when you get to higher levels you will be overmatched. Make sure you are able to handle both locations.

yeah i can handle those inside pitches....as i mentioned previously i pull inside pitches for nice shots everytime---gappers that go 300+ feet.

thanks for the reply

liastros25,

Nothing wrong with going to the opposite field. A more closed stance can lend itself to those results.

And high school pitchers tend to pitch everyone away because most kids can't handle that pitch consistently.

If things are going well for you, don't change things based upon what you hear here. Someone has to see you, see the level of competition, etc. to make a true assessment.

Remember, an 80 mph inside pitch isn't hard to turn on. If you can still do it on the 90 mph fastball you're still doing okay. However, if you can't turn on a pitch as your playing level progresses you may want to re-think the closed stance.

It can be done, however. Joe Rudi of the A's had a severely closed stance and did pretty well.

I think hitting the ball where it's pitched is a good thing. Do you look for pitches away and try and drive the ball that way, perhaps taking some hittable middle-in and inside strikes, say, early in the count?

Depends on the situation... I do hit the ball where its pitched but ive noticed myself driving middle in pitches to RF consistantly and its not that im late on the ball.

Honestly, without seeing you, there is no way to give you an informed opinion that you can consider.

Sounds a lot like my 12YO son, so I will take a shot, even w/o seeing you. Maybe you do the same thing, maybe not.

My son tends to push pitches right down the middle to RCF too. They're still hit hard, but they could've been pulled even farther (perhaps).

Anyway, what he does is... he's so anxious to get a jump on a pitch that he starts his stride too early. Then his foot lands, but he then [subconsciously] realizes that he's early, so the bat lags and is still pointing to the catcher, as seen on video. With his hips starting to open like this, and the bat hanging back, he gets the bat "trapped" behind his body so that when he brings it through, it's no longer in-sync w/ his lower body.

What I'm trying to do w/ him to overcome this is having him try to get his hands and the bat moving as soon as his stride foot lands. How? By having him get a "head start" w/ his hands during his stride. IOW, get them moving back (towards the 3B dugout for a righty) while his stride foot moves out. Then, AS SOON as his foot lands, get his hands and the bat moving forward. I refer to it as "removing the gap between your stride and the bat moving".

This may not be your issue, but maybe you can have someone film you, then look to see if your hips are opening already while the bat's still pointing toward the catcher? If so, maybe you need to get your lower body and your arms more in-sync too?

Good luck,
Sandman

Sandman, your son has a timing issue.....You aren't gonna correct it with his hands.....

He just has to wait longer. The landing should not dictate the hands moving toward the baseball, IMO.

hey guys i foudn a pic of me in the finsh stage of my swing....

the pic doesnt seem like its working.....heres the link http://img283.imageshack.us/my.php?image=resizeofinsideouthittingvn6.jpg

It looks like you foot might be too open for a baseball that was thrown to the ourside of the plate (catcher's glove position). You said you hit from a slightly closed stance. You could
be flying open.

quote:

Originally posted by BlueDog:
Sandman, your son has a timing issue.....You aren't gonna correct it with his hands.....

Then please enlighten me as to HOW I AM going to help him correct it?

quote:

What I'm trying to do w/ him to overcome this is having him try to get his hands and the bat moving as soon as his stride foot lands.

Sandman, yes, this is correct....But, he must, first, learn the importance of recognizing location and speed of the pitch VERY EARLY....This must happen long before the stride foot is planted....He is planting his foot first, then REACTING to the pitch.....He is not involving his eyes and brain in the pitch recognition process early enough....

Hitters don't have time to REACT to the pitch....They, instead, must get a very quick look, then allow their brain to ANTICIPATE where the pitch is going.....So, if he stops REACTING and begins ANTICIPATING, his stride foot should land as his bat begins moving forward.........

quote:

He just has to wait longer. The landing should not dictate the hands moving toward the baseball, IMO.

Baseballdad, many MLB hitters actually rotate into foot plant.....All swing decisions have been made and the intent to swing should plant the front foot....When the front foot plants, the bat needs to begin moving forward....It's a brain event.....You can't just tell a hitter to start the swing later....Doesn't work, because his brain tells him when to swing from the information fed to it by the eyes........

Thanks for the clarification, bluedog.

When I watch him vs. slow pitching, where he tends to be early, I see the more pronounced separation between stride foot landing and swing. And in that case, I think he's recognized the pitch "too" early. Then he just can't wait to jump on it, but it's slower than he needed to react - if that makes sense?

I don't see a REACTion to this swing; it sure looked like he ANTICIPATED a pitch and jumped on it, and there doesn't appear to be wasted movement between footplant and bat movement?

Great timing on that swing Sandman.

quote:

And in that case, I think he's recognized the pitch "too" early.

I don't believe so, Sandman....Actually, he didn't recognize the speed properly....Great hitters are great hitters because they recognize pitches very early on and can wait longer to swing than other hitters....The longer a hitter can wait on a pitch, the surer he can anticipate where the pitch is going and at what speed it is traveling..

Location of a pitch is much easier to recognize than speed.....Learning to recognize speed involves a much better understanding of using vision properly than does recognizing location....And, that is why changing speeds is a pitcher's best weapon.....

Bottom line....Work on your son's ability to recognize the speed of the pitch......I would recommend doing some research on understanding the difference between ambient vision vs. focal vision........

If I am reading this correctly (please let me know if I am misreading this) but it sounds like to me that Sandman is trying to eliminate the time between the stride and swing.

You cannot do that because if you do then you are turning all of that into one motion. The stride and swing are two seperate motions. Your foot should hit just about the time the ball is leaving his hand. Then recognize pitch (speed, location, break or not) and hit accordingly. The hardest thing to do in hitting is wait. If you get an outside pitch you have to wait on it and taking a bunch of cuts during BP is how you learn to wait. Inside pitches are about reaction.

If your son has trouble "waiting" on pitches either teach him to be patient or have him take a higher leg kick to slow him down. The downside to the high leg kick is if you do this all the time and find a hard thrower you are in trouble.

Thanks coach. I realize that the stride and swing are separate, and I'm not advocating blending them - just reducing the gap between them.

"Teach him to be patient". That's funny. He's a 12YO boy and he's MY son! As for the high leg kick, he does employ this already, and over time, several folks have recommended reducing it to avoid timing issues.

BlueDog, thanks for the add'l info; I'm do some poking around for the ambient/focal vision stuff.

quote:

The stride and swing are two seperate motions. Your foot should hit just about the time the ball is leaving his hand.

Coach2709, is this what you see MLB hitters do?

http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/dunn_ad
am.mpeg

http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/nomar3.mpeg

quote:

When the front foot plants, the bat needs to begin moving forward....

NOT TRUE

There are many hitters in the big leagues who have adopted a 2 strike approach in which they set the stride foot early and DO NOT anticipate the pitch but rather they react. This reaction is a result of being more static after the foot plant.

Vance, funny you say this....Seems like I saw that happen a time, or two, just yesterday in a game.....A couple of guys just called up....They won't play up very long...

http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/L._Gonzalez04.mpeg

I agree with Vance. The hands/wrists/arms need to be in cocked postion after stride and not necessarily coming forward. That description sounds more like a hitter hitting on his front side in a bit of a lunge position. Hitter can never square up properly from this hitting position Bluedog. By the way, how have you been?

Peace, Shep

Dog, I'd ask you to take a look at Michael Young the SS for the Rangers. How long has he been up? and there are many others! Even Pujols does it and Edmonds.

To anticipate is to encourage "Guessing" to react is to encourage hitting the ball where its pitched. I do believe that you can anticipate in hitters counts but to do so all the time wouldn't be productive.

Vance, and Shep, how much time do you believe a MLB hitter has to recognize a pitch?.....

Shep, I've been just fine, and you?

Since velocity can be measured by distance divided by time or v=d/t and the 90MPH FB reaches the front edge of the plate at around .32 to .34 hundredths of a second after pitcher releases pitched ball...I would say about 1/4 of that time, which would be about .08 hundredths to about .085 thousandths of a second.(pitch recognition time) Shep

PS(Fine BD but too busy to get everything I want done)

Shep, how much brain decision time (deciding to swing, or not, and choosing swing plane)?

I see your point which does give hitter longer to decide even though pitch recognition of type of pitch and quadrant of strike zone the hitter believes to be final destination of ball can be recognized by exceptional Major League hitters much sooner as in my original estimate. peace

Bluedog, your said:

Baseballdad, many MLB hitters actually rotate into foot plant.....All swing decisions have been made and the intent to swing should plant the front foot....When the front foot plants, the bat needs to begin moving forward....It's a brain event.....You can't just tell a hitter to start the swing later....Doesn't work, because his brain tells him when to swing from the information fed to it by the eyes........


I thought that the hands moved into launch position when the stride foot plants. Wouldn't that indicate that the hands move toward the baseball after the stride? I believe that the hips start the swing, which means the foot has to be planted before the start of the rotation toward the baseball.

Thoughts?

Shep, your contention is a chance of lunging....

My contention is a loss of weight shift momentum.....Once the front foot goes down, the momentum is in play only for a very short time frame.....

My point in the time factor is, that there is not enough time to react to a pitch....I don't believe you should look fastball and react to offspeed...I believe you should clear your mind and recognize what the pitch is and let the body do it's thing.....

quote:

My point in the time factor is, that there is not enough time to react to a pitch....I don't believe you should look fastball and react to offspeed...I believe you should clear your mind and recognize what the pitch is and let the body do it's thing.....

I totally agree with this statement BD. peace

BD

There are two kinds of hitters---Guess hitters and those that wait to see the pitch---both can be very successful at higher levels

Baseballdad, some MLB hitters begin the hip rotation before the front foot plants.....An example of rotating into foot plant.....

http://www.youthbaseballcoaching.com/mpg/L._Gonzalez04.mpeg

quote:

I thought that the hands moved into launch position when the stride foot plants. Wouldn't that indicate that the hands move toward the baseball after the stride?

Baseballdad, not all MLB hitters rotate the hips into foot plant....Some do, some don't....However, all the great hitters get the hands and arms into the launch position before foot plant....

quote:

To anticipate is to encourage "Guessing" to react is to encourage hitting the ball where its pitched.

Vance, I disagree....

All MLB hitters are anticipating to some degree....The bat must begin moving forward way before the ball enters the hitting zone.....

Good clip of Gonzalez...I see what you're saying. Thanks.

In facing quality pitching, is it fair to say the hitter must recognize the pitch (gauge speed and location) and establish a pre-determined point of contact by the time the ball reaches about the half-way point.

Based on my findings MLB hitters have weight shift momentum into rotation into foot plant. In many cases the hips open and rotation begins between toe touch and foot plant...rotational force aided by momentum plants the front foot in establishing the front leg as the post and hinging the front side in the process.

Isn't the premise of the swinging gate theory based on carrying momentum into rotation? If so how is such possible if you don't rotate into foot plant i.e. shift, plant then rotate... wouldn't momentum be lost?