Posted by: Matt () on Fri Apr 9 13:59:04 2004

Two seperate questions:

1) My problem (well, one of them) is that I hold
my hands too high while waiting for the pitch.
I've even brought them down from where they
used to be, but as I find myself thinking about
hip turn, front leg lift, applying THT and BHT,
staying back in the box, and even a little about
what pitch is coming and where it's going to
be... and my hands are drifting higher and
higher like an unanchored helium balloon. As
a result, it's pretty tough to get a swing plane
that has any incline to it when the bat's gotta
come down from the fifth story first. I end up
hitting a lot of ground balls, and since I run like
a file cabinet, that's not so productive. Any
suggestions? I've tried more of a Bonds-type
hand position, but it feels awkward to me; I
had some good results dropping my hands
down at pre-launch, but the last thing I need is
something ELSE to think about then. "Let's
see, raise the leg, bring the hands down,
make sure the hips are turning ahead of the
bat... oh, the catcher's already throwing the
ball back to the pitcher...".

2) It'd be great if I could take 60-75 swings per
day at live pitches at various speeds with
curves & sliders mixed in, but unfortunately I
live in the real world. I have a job and don't
have enough room in my basement or garage
for a pitching machine. I have a little but of
room, an old tire, and a cheap practice tee.
What would be the most productive use of my
time- beat on the tire like the heavy bag in the
video? Hit off the tee? Buy one of those
SwingAway, ball-on-a-rope
swing-around-a-pole things, so it's sort of like
live pitching? Spend five bucks every day
going to the mini golf place to hit in their
outdoor cages? Approach random people on
the street to throw me live pitching (let's just
say I don't have many friends that could get the
ball over the plate much)?

Matt