Posted by: Richard Schenck () on Fri Jun 7 21:41:59 2002

Hello,
> I need help with my swing in-game. I say in game because I hit the ball very far and hard in batting practice, and when I'm playing with my friends. In game though, I can't get around on the ball and I can't hit inside pitches at all. I hit them fine in practice. I don't know what is wrong with my swing in game. It may be that I'm nervous, and I do have a tendency to swing at bad pitches. any help would be appreciated. thanks in advance.

This is commonly caused by decision constipation. In practice you know you're going to swing at the next pitch. You get ready, you swing and you hit it. In a game, you may be trying to decide if to swing or not which takes valuable time, leaving you late and rushing your swing. You must offer at every pitch and hold up if it's a ball. You'll be surprised that if you decide to swing at the next pitch before you step into the box that you'll hit it well if it's a strike and you'll also be surprised at how your body won't let you pull the trigger if it's a ball. Now, that may be an oversimplification as you might be facing top quality pitching with good heat, breaking balls, and changeups. Those guys are tough and nothing can help you except experience. However, I developed a philosophy while playing fastpitch softball later in life that really helped my hit. In fact I hit the best in my life doing this.

Before the pitch, imagine where a batting tee would be if placed on the plate. This is the spot you will swing at. You should allign yourself so that if you pull the trigger, the bat will hit a ball sitting on top of the tee. This is very beneficial for several reasons. It reduces decision making to yes or no. Where to swing has already been determined. You just won't swing if the ball won't cross your tee. You'll find you'll take good swings with good timing. Now and then a changeup or curve will fool you. Only experience will help that. But until you get two strikes why chase anything else except the fat one. With two strikes you have to open up and protect the plate. Think about this mind set and you'll discover that that is pretty much exactly what you do in practice. Especially against pitching machines. You swing at almost every pitch in practice for two reasons. It doesn't matter if you miss and most of them are strikes right where you want to swing. After a couple of timing pitches you hit every one. Make live hitting the same by fooling yourself. You have to expect your pitch every pitch even though we both know you only get one or two good ones each at bat. It's called offering at every pitch as if you were going to swing and holding up if it won't cross your tee. This makes decision making faster and your hitting better.

This is called making the pitcher bring it to you instead of going after the pitcher pitch. You are in control until two strikes. Don't give control to the pitcher before then by swinging at his pitches. Now as your skills get better the size of the area over the tee that you can successfully cover will grow from a baseball size to maybe the size of a vollyeball or basketball. This is your hitting zone. Don't go out of it untill two strikes.

One last thing. This helps reduce lunging as you already know where you are going to swing. Many young hitters swing at where the pitch was when they decided to swing rather than swinging at the spot the ball will be at when it enters their zone.

Hope this helps