Posted by: Matt (mail@bytesizesound.com) on Mon Aug 4 07:36:56 2003

So I posted last month about
my hitting troubles. Basically, I swing down on
the ball (or at best, level); I lunge rather than
rotate (although I clear my hips pretty good, so
I hit good infield practice, a lot of hard ground
balls); I probably stride too much. Jack said I
had a "back-side swing with little or no help
coming from the lead-side" (and if he could
explain that sentence a little more...).

I planned to post another clip from a tape from
this weekend, showing my swing when I have
all those things in mind while at the plate-
straighten the front leg, lower the back
shoulder, swing up at the ball, etc. (I hit into a
6-4 FC). When I looked at it last night, I looked
(to me) the same as I did in the animated gif I
linked to last month- making contact with an
outside pitch with a flat swing and my butt
sticking out and my front knee bent.

I suppose two weeks is a bit soon to start
seeing results from trying to radically change
one's hitting approach so much. Still, it's
frustrating to KNOW what you should be doing
up there, and then feel like all that flies out the
window as soon as you see that ball coming
at you.

Can anyone suggest some training tips? I
read somewhere someone suggested putting
a ball under your trailing armpit to keep that
elbow down (and then read a response
disagreeing). I know one silly way to fool
yourself with something like that isn't a
long-term solution to anything, but maybe
something like that, if repeated often enough,
can help me train my muscles enough to
'remember' what to do when it counts. I've
been hitting off a tee and hitting from the
cages, and I think I'm doing it correctly there-
not every time, certainly, but at least in the
cages I can think about what I'm doing and
conciously change my stroke for the next pitch
if I don't swing the way I know I should. I feel
like I lose that in the actual game. Is it just
psychological, or am I just at that awkward
point right before I put what I've learned to
use?

Matt