Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Mon May 12 23:01:20 2003

The generic rhythm of loading is about the same.However,if you
are facing a good pitcher,you need to look either in or out to
narrow down the range of necessary on the fly adjustment (
improving outcome/ability to make a good adjustment for the
pitch because you are looking for it /"getting a good pitch to
hit")moreso than the 2-strike "look out adjust in" strategy.

Maybe if you are really in the zone,you can just react to anything
in or out and load as if for out side,then turn if needed on
inside,but I doubt your hitting will be this good or the pitching this
bad very often.

Better to "anticipate" in or out as the timing is substantially
different.Feel of front shoulder is different too.Retracting front
scap for inside or at least keeping it neutral vs upper arm sliding
across torso for outside.Nice to have side of plate/swing radius
pretty much on autopilot,then be ready to adjust mainly up/down.

Only if situation demands do you have to cover inside and
out.You could then look out and adjust in as rql suggests,or you
can do more as Epstein describes,shorten swing(rotate open in
stance)and be prepared to take the inside cheese up the
middle,but still be able to go other way with middle out.Epstein's
pinball analogy works better for this latter approach,not so well
in describing the swing variation between looking(anticipating)
in or looking out.

I think what I am saying is that looking out and looking in and
looking out/adjust in are at least three different motor
programs.Are they similar enough/can you handle enough
variation to master more than one of them ?