Baseball Hitting Techniques - How Hitters Can Spot Certain Pitches
Have you ever been watching a game and wondered how your favorite player knew that a curveball was coming before he belted it over the wall? How about that base runner that always seems to get a great jump off your favorite team no matter who is pitching? The truth is there are signs that each individual gives away, that even some of the best baseball pitching coaches can’t get rid of through training. If baseball hitting coaches are smart, they look for those signs for their batters to give them an edge on getting more hits.
To answer the first question it is through watching video and films of other players, and while that is intriguing not everyone can do it. Especially when it comes to younger leagues where the only way to really check another pitcher out is by watching him in person. It’s called scouting reports and they can be very effective in more competitive leagues, preferably once players hit the high school stages and begin with more serious baseball drills.
For a hitter, having 20/20 vision is such a big advantage for hitters, that many players are going and getting laser eye surgery for that extra edge. Why am I even telling you about this stuff? Well, think about how much more it could help if you could see the pitcher’s wrist flick to indicate he’s throwing a curve. It’s possible, and even if players are major league bound, they all have flaws in either their release point, or windup that can give you that "cha-ching" feeling when the ball reaches the plate.
I’m sure you’re not surprised to hear that baseball coaches even go to the extremes of showing players what NASA has covered on a curveball verse a fastball. Sounds crazy right? Does it sound as crazy as making $27 million dollars a year to play baseball? Everyone should understand that if a player is making substantial amounts of money they are going to do everything to be better than they already are whether pitching or hitting. To younger generations it may mean the difference between starting every game or sitting on the bench.
What about the mental part that baseball hitting coaches always help players understand? It’s called situation-simulation which means you have to run through your head that the baseball coaches have told their pitcher to throw at you. What’s the count right now? If there are two strikes, does this pitcher throw a certain strikeout pitch? If not, what has he been throwing? Do you know all the different pitches he can throw?
These are all some ways that various people use to spot certain balls coming in from different pitching techniques. It’s up to you how serious you want to take the game and where it can take you in the near future. If you only choose one of these different suggestions, try the last one with the situational process. The only thing it is going to cost you is time, and a little bit of patience in yourself. However, it can also boost your batting average, but if you’re a pitcher reading this you may want to find a way to keep people from knowing what you’re throwing.
Some pitchers even go to the length of showing subtle false movements to make the opponent think he is going to throw a ball in a certain pitching style. You can learn a lot from observation of a pitcher when he throws. But you have to take into account that baseball also has certain aspects of a poker game. It will always be a fierce psychological confrontation between baseball hitting and pitching.
Clear observation, fast reactions and game intelligence go a long way.
Tags: baseball training | baseball training | baseball coaching | baseball coaching | baseball pitching | baseball hitting | baseball drills | baseball drills
September 30th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
The hitters were certain in that these pitchers wouldnt be able to find their comfortablity against them, they were keyed in and decided to take advantage of those inside fastballs.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:15 am
That’s the future of baseball and any successful batter. You need to diagnose the pitch before it is received to be a powerhitter in todays day and age.