Posted by: Maximum () on Sun Jun 24 18:07:01 2001

Today i was hitting today and i was extremly late i wasn't hitting anything except some weak grounders and pop-ups to rights failed cause i was looping around the ball. When should i start my motion i have a leg kick.
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> Mb-
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> Things can get confusing because no one agrees on when the motion starts.Most of Jack's work is oriented around the launch/initiation part of the swing-when the hands are started forward via tight connection to the turning torso.We then talk about the "prelaunch" portion of the swing as happening before this.Many people think of the swing starting when the stride foot lifts or when the front knee moves before the stride foot lifts or when the bat starts moving-either back or forward-and there are other definitions-like"when the pitcher shows you his backside,you show him yours".The overall swing move probably starts as you are watching the pitcher's wind-up as your brain gets ready to recognize the pitch and your muscles get ready to swing.
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> In general,I would recommend you concentrate on learning rotational mechanics and bottom hand torque.This will give you a consistent,short,quick swing.Once you get the basic overall swing down,then the question of how to time it for a given pticher comes up.Some of the advice Dave Hudgens uses can work well here.For a good rotational swing,it feels like your hips/body turn at 85% and your hands go at 100%.This can be another way of describing smoothly accelerating tempo that culminates in torqung of the hands(good).The stride foot should come down when the ball is about halfway to the plate.
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> The hard part is figuring out why timing is off.If you are early,it's often mostly a mental thing,not trusting how quick your swing is.If you are late,maybe you are getting the stride foot down late,but most of the time it't because your swing is slowing down because of mechanical faults-getting anxious and pushing the hand path out prematurely causing a long swing/hitting around the ball.Sounds like this might be your problem-poor handpath creating a long slow swing.You don't need to rush,stay relaxed with a smooth tempo.
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> Lots of things to look for !


What I do on deck is time my swing when the pitcher pitches. Usually there are a few pitches when you are on deck, so I practice timing there. When I go up to face a new pitcher, I usually watch the first pitch. After that you have an idea of how fast the pitcher is. Ted Williams says "never swing at something you haven't seen".