Posted by: Richard Schenck () on Wed Sep 25 08:19:28 2002

My son is 10 yrs old and has real quick batspeed according to coaches, when they hit into a net with the coaches soft tossing he kills the ball, coach says he "Explodes" on the ball. When they take batting practice, after about 6-12 good pitches he hits the ball hard, and with alot of bat extension. The problem comes in real games he still is able to hit and hit hard but he does not hit the ball out front, the coach says if he ever gets his timing down he's going to crush the ball. Coach says he is fast enough & strong enough to still get a good hit when the ball gets deep into the batters box. Does anybody have any suggestions on "Timing" so that I can work with him through the off season. Does all this sound like the coach knows something about hitting, in our league he always seems to have good teams.
> > >
> > > without a video, its hard to know anything for sure.
> > > But I've seen kids with great batspeed and late or no contact. Common problem is when they get ready to hit.
> > > Most young kids, especially after playing in the minor Little Leagues, learn to wait for a good slow pitch, then when they see it, they get ready and swing.
> > > As pitching gets better they need to get ready, then decide to swing (or not). This change in sequencing is critical once pitch speed increases. Get ready, read/decide, swing/don't swing.
> > > Watch your son (not the ball) and notice the last minute moves he makes when he swings. Does he do those moves on pitches he takes?
> > > If not, his 'getting ready' moves are happening too late -after, not before he decides to swing.
> >
> > Good Post Dan. I'm concerned about any coach that says hit the ball "out front" without more information. In front of what? The plate? That depends on where they stand in the box. I accuse that phrase as one of the causes of lunging. (one of Many). They should hit the ball off their front knee, which, to me, does not "feel" out front. In fact it feels like the ball is deep.
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> To expand on Dan's get ready then decide to swing rather than the reverse, I've got my son timing pitches by thinking riiiiiiight NOW!. Sounds a little crazy but he's having great success. The riiiiight part is when the pitcher is in his delivery and about to pitch. While the pitcher is doing this he's doing his preswing movements and timing it to the NOW! decision. On the command NOW, the bat must hit the ball. You do not start your swing on the NOW command, you hit the ball on the NOW command. Simple little cue that has made a lot of difference. This can be practiced on the side in the on deck circle. I came up with this by watching rhythmic hitters like Chipper Jones & Will Clark. They have pronounced rythmic movements in their swings and appear to have a slow acceleration to the ball which ends in great batspeed and tremendous accuracy. If you're thinking NOW means contact, you have a tendency to naturally do all the movements necessary to launch your swing at the right time.

Richard Schenck