Posted by: Teacherman () on Fri Jan 24 08:24:16 2003

Was working out with my son taking swings off the Personal Pitcher tonight and got really frustrated by my mechanics. After taking about 100 swings, doing my best to stay rotational, maintain connection, etc, etc, I realized that the problem wasn't my mechanics. It was my timing that was horrible. I was early, no, way early, on everything and had to disconnect to hit the ball. Seemed no matter what I did I was still early. I was standing about 20' from the machine and it wasn't until I moved to about 14' that I started driving the ball again.
> >
> > Interesting lesson. We worked on rotational mechanics all winter long in the basement mostly against a Swing A Way and did over/under training. I, being 48 yrs old, didn't see significant batspeed increases (didn't train as much as my son, but I did do some). However, my bat quickness is significantly better due to better mechanics. Better to the point that I could reduce the pitching distance by a third and still hit line drives. In fact, I couldn't hit line drives until I reduced the distance. When we first got the personal pitcher, we needed all 20' or it was too quick for us.
> >
> > It seems that I'll have to do as much work on my "new" timing problem as I did to increase my quickness. Is there no end to what it takes? Just kidding!! But I thought it was newsworthy to post because others probably will face the same issues.
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> > So the question is......Are there any ideas about how to shorten this timing learning curve?
> >
> > Have any of you run into this and how did you attack the problem?
> >
> > When they created delayed gratification they really meant "delayed".
> >
> Teacherman-
> This issue is very common. I see most/all my players struggling with it. We keep on working on letting the ball come to them, waiting until it feels 'too late' before swinging.
> Your body is faced with a dilemma. Based on the 'old' swing timing, you have to start your swing at a certain point. Based on the 'new' swing timing, you have to start your swing much later. Starting early feels safer, both more comfortable and a sense that you can always adjust/slow down if you start early but you can't catch up if you start too late. Add any pressure from the velocity of the pitch and 'early' takes over.
> As you noted, you have to disconnect and you end up with your old swing, like it or not.
> Things to try:
> Actually be late. Wait too long and 'fail' a few times. If your errors are on the 'early' side, you need to find the real 'late' side by experimenting.
> Set up a Tee even with your front knee (good 'new' contact point) but put it in the lefty batters box for a righty so you won't hit it - use it as a reference point. See if you can hit the ball when it would be on the Tee. Have your son give you feedback on where contact really was relative to the Tee.
> Realize that you have neurologically wired yourself to one type of timing. You are rewiring. This requires failures and adjustments and lots of repetitions before the new timing/wiring takes over from the old.
> You get one of two pairs: old timing - old swing or new timing - new swing or 'something else'(you are still learning). Either you will kill your old timing or your old timing will kill your new swing.
> You have to decide which side you are on each time you swing.
> It probably takes 3-5 new swings to erase one old swing. Never give in...

Thanks Dan. Is there any value to 1/2 swinging? Swinging down to contact and stopping (using your T in the opposite batters box as a reference) and seeing if you're early or late. Seems I can better "ingrain" the contact point that way. Or, is there value to trying to hit everything to the opposite field. Standing back off the plate, creating an outside pitch scenario, and waiting to hit it the other way? Is there value to just taking 20-30 pitches as "timing warmup" if you will. Take the pitches with bat in hand and imagining when to start? Starting slow (late) and working up to the right time v being early and working back. What do you think of the cue "hitting the ball with the rear shoulder at the bottom of the rear shoulders downstroke" (before the upswing starts). Imagine no hands allowed. Just rotate the shoulder to the "down" position. By that I mean the lowest point the back shoulder gets to before the upswing starts. The reason I bring this up is because being early you're always hitting the ball on the upstroke, out front, and there is a definate feel to that that clearly identifies the problem. Therefore, I's searching for the opposite "feel".