Posted by: Angelo (falconblu22@aol.com) on Mon Aug 30 12:02:54 2004

hi is there and tricks or secrets to seeing the ball better when you are hitting
>
> 1st, make sure the eyes are level and the head is not moving in the swing. Then stress the rear shoulder extending through the chin. If the chin is not on the rear shoulder on follow through, most likely he is loosing the ball just out front of the plate.
> One drill you can do is to place any item in the opposite batters box, about even with the front knee. Have him freeze on his finish with his eyes on that object and rear shoulder through under his chin.
> See if this works, if not there are many other tracking drills that may help.
> Also, one thing that might help in seeing the ball is to stride earlier. Ted Williams philosophy on hitting was that, at most, a hitter has approximately .5 of a second to hit a 90 mph fastball. He did not want to take any of that time up by striding. A trick that has worked for myself and any hitter I've coached is to stride softly, with the weight back and triggered, so that the front foot of the hitter is in a comfortable, balanced position before the pitcher places his foot down on the stride to the plate. This eliminates other faults in the swing such as the eye plane changing while the pitch is on the way due to any elevation or de-elevation of the head, and also helps to pick up the type of pitch earlier from the release point. There are more tricks out there, feel free to contact for more elaborate info.