Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: S.Winton (stwinton@netzero.net) on Sat Apr 22 23:30:17 2006

> > Over the past year we have really taught and committed to the rotational swing. We have all the tapes and training aids. I am a little concerned though. We are hitting the ball much more solidly and our power numbers have gone UP but so have our strike outs. It seems we don't see the ball very well. What are your thoughts and do you have any drills that would help our team to see the ball. We are a 12 year old team.
> >
> > Thanks
>
>
> It is probably not as much that you are not seeing the ball as it is that many homeruns are the result of an uppercut swing. Thus if you uppercut too much or start your swing mechanics too late, you will miss the ball completely. Rotational has to be done correctly (Albert Pujols) or you will see a lot of strikeouts. With most methods there is a trade off of some kind.

You need to understand how your eye works, and how the eye tracks moving objects…the eye will only focus on a non-moving object for only a second or so(ie- the release point of the pitcher prior to the release of the baseball), thus if you get your eyes to the release point of the pitcher to soon your eye will drift off…(read “the mental game of baseball” it goes into to this at length, best baseball book you can buy IMO)…you need to soft focus (or broad focus) on some part of the pitcher other then his release point prior to release (George Brett would soft focus on the bill of the pitchers hat, other may look and the belt of the pitcher), while the pitcher is starting his windup or stretch move then look to the release point, FINE FOCUS. You will have exponentially better looks at the baseball if you do this. You will see the release better; you will be able to identify spin way earlier…Practice this in batters practice, rate your looks at the baseball on a scale of 1-5…you can do this while pitchers are warming up in the bullpen, you can do this as your warming up on deck circle, all good hitter so this, some are knowledgeable of it some do it inherently.

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Re: Re: Re: Seeing the ball Patrick [ Wed Apr 26 08:06:34 2006 ]

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> > > Over the past year we have really taught and committed to the rotational swing. We have all the tapes and training aids. I am a little concerned though. We are hitting the ball much more solidly and our power numbers have gone UP but so have our strike outs. It seems we don't see the ball very well. What are your thoughts and do you have any drills that would help our team to see the ball. We are a 12 year old team.
> > > 
> > > Thanks
> > 
> > 
> > It is probably not as much that you are not seeing the ball as it is that many homeruns are the result of an uppercut swing.  Thus if you uppercut too much or start your swing mechanics too late, you will miss the ball completely.  Rotational has to be done correctly (Albert Pujols) or you will see a lot of strikeouts.  With most methods there is a trade off of some kind.
> 
> 
> You need to understand how your eye works, and how the eye tracks moving objects…the eye will only focus on a non-moving object for only a second or so(ie- the release point of the pitcher prior to the release of the baseball), thus if you get your eyes to the release point of the pitcher to soon your eye will drift off…(read “the mental game of baseball” it goes into to this at length, best baseball book you can buy IMO)…you need to soft focus (or broad focus) on some part of the pitcher other then his release point prior to release (George Brett would soft focus on the bill of the pitchers hat, other may look and the belt of the pitcher), while the pitcher is starting his windup or stretch move then look to the release point, FINE FOCUS.  You will have exponentially better looks at the baseball if you do this.  You will see the release better; you will be able to identify spin way earlier…Practice this in batters practice, rate your looks at the baseball on a scale of 1-5…you can do this while pitchers are warming up in the bullpen, you can do this as your warming up on deck circle, all good hitter so this, some are knowledgeable of it some do it inherently.

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