Posted by: Jim C. (jhconklinjr@comcast.net) on Fri May 20 05:44:53 2005

Hi A D,

Seeing more pitches always helps. Making too many changes in too short of a time generally leaves you unfamiliar with any of them. Settle in to one set of pre-swing movements and work with them for a while.

I'm back to playing baseball after 20+ years away. My timing didn't exist and I really struggled in the early part of the season. What helped me was to concentrate on getting my stride toe touching just as the pitcher released the ball. I worked on this by standing to the side of pitchers working their bullpen. I worked up to doing air swings on the pitches once I felt that I had the stride/weight shift timing down. Of course this means that I stride with fastball timing on every pitch. I now work off to the side of the dugout in the same way during games for every pitcher that takes the hill.

I didn't really mess with my stance or stride mechanics per se, just worked on WHEN to get WHAT started. Too much short toss and pitching machine work can really foul up your timing - get plenty of full motion pitches to read.

Good luck!