This training season, coaches and players, challenge yourself to rewind back to last season. There was a point during the season you became STUCK.. maybe as a hitter .. or as a coach – – – Sometimes, as you analyze, you keep going over the SAME view with the SAME perspective. When you play the hitting clips frontwards and backwards you notice all of the little nuances you think will help your batter. Then, when it comes to test YOUR ideas on the ‘stage’ we call the ‘game’.. your ideas aren’t really FIXING your hitter. As coaches, we are still competitive, and want to FIND answers that will make a difference.
Those answers are FOUND in analyzing the hitter’s TIMING at home plate. Those answers are FOUND in figuring out, how the hitter NEEDS to fit in with the Pitcher on the mound. Our game is NOT like analyzing golf ( responding to a stationary ball). Our hitters are trying to FIT IN with a MOVING PITCHER (pitcher’s have different tempos / deliveries) and with a MOVING BALL!
So, let’s rise up above the TRADITIONAL standards of analysis, and begin to calculate/develop/ prepare our hitters — how to FIT IN .. with the pitcher’s delivery.
Having moved out from the TRADITIONAL viewpoint of over analyzing MECHANICS and shifting attention to the hitter’s TIMING at home plate..what has jumped out at me is the element of TIMING the hitter’s eyes to the pitcher’s COMMON DENOMINATOR. I discuss this principle in great length inside the video series “World’s Greatest Hitting Formula“.
Having worked with both talented PRO hitters to the other side of the spectrum of very POOR hitters .. The element of “TIMING the Vision” to the ‘pitcher’s Common Denominator’ .. is the #1 element, we need to address as coaches with our hitters.
Why is this number one ?
Because, arguably .. The #1 cause for POOR hitting is the — INABILITY — to SEE the ball EARLY .. in the FLIGHT PATH !
Mechanics and how our hitters respond to the pitched ball … HINGES upon how EARLY the hitter sees the pitch. If hitters see the pitch EARLY.. the brain has MORE time to calculate the body’s response to where the ball is traveling to.
When the hitter picks up the pitch LATE in the FLIGHT PATH .. panic /rush /do whatever it takes /open hips /pull the shoulder out /head pull off the ball /collapse back leg /cast out the barrel …WHO CARES – just get the bat down there ! (approach)
Here, is where hitting flaws begin .. seeing the ball LATE!
Manage the TIME.. Manage the Space .. and your Mechanics will fall into Place.