Tension in the Swing

Page 2

 
19 Batting Tips That Work in any Swing; Ours or Others

Set-up for a tension-free swing. Be loose to be quick, and quick to intercept tough pitching. Swing tension interferes, slows a swing down, complicates it. A tension tip can help a swing without changing it.

Have seen whole teams of sure-strikeout beginners begin putting the ball in play with only the "stride-with-pitcher" tip #11 and "release point" #8. Doesn't make a hitter overnight but will liven-up a lineup of patsies. Then, it's easier to doctor batting form, making good choices based on a little contact. A good starting point. Helps you to stay out of your own way. Never doctor batting form before reviewing for tension.

The tips work in any batting style, swing, or method in use. If you take swing lessons somewhere else, this won't interfere and may help. It takes no special equipment, space, or help and it's free mental/physical prep for hitting.

Check for tension before changing a swing, so you won't be "fixing what ain't broke".
To cure a batting slump,
Trouble-shoot a weakness,
Jump-start a beginner,
Batting practice and game hitting.

Observe tension tips in Drills [later]. Review these tips and edges and adopt them soon as you can. Stop, review, learn them. Invent more if you can.

19 Tension Tips

  • balanced stance sink straight down at least 'til weight is off heels, on toes.
  • eyes level un-level eyes can't sort-out Balls and Strikes.
  • front elbow bent straight arm is stiff, slow, complicates things.
  • cocked wrists loads joints & muscles.
  • pectorals loose, chest slack military/lifting posture is strong but stiff; breathing room for lungs. It's a stance, not a pose.
  • shoulders & back loose, slack flexibility again.
  • grip loose in stance, crush-to-contact flexible now, stronger later.
  • watch release point see it before it bites you.
  • no gritting, frown, faces eyes, vision.
  • no more work than waiting with a bat flexible & quick, again. Feel light, be QUICK.
  • be exhaling at release empty lungs free chest muscles to flex.
  • ready-rock foot-to-foot action, if you must.
  • stride with pitcher in-case it's a strike.
  • stride, every pitch it's a dance, not a quick-draw gunfight.
  • bat starts easy, accelerates smoothly nothing can start at full-blast.
  • a hard swing slows itself down causes unpredictable doses of tension interference.
  • reach forward quickly to tag it get the rest of it right; the bat goes through.
  • StrideWatch-DecideSwing divide-and-conquer!
  • don't steer it, just hit it! the ball knows what to do.
Tension Complications

This short demo shows what tension can do to you. A bat and a real Plate are best but, any stick and a spot on the floor will do for a bat and outside corner of the Plate.

Set up by taking your stance at the 'plate', including the ritual of touching the bat to the outside corner to assure coverage.

Leave the bat on the corner, touching it, your stance unchanged.

Bend the front knee just a touch more; watch the bat move away. Straighten it a bit and the barrel moves closer. (At my own 5'7", there's 8" slack between the two extremes. Enough to ensure coverage if I use it: or failure if I don't.)

Now, test the front hip. Test that shoulder, that elbow. The drills address all of it by training the frontside.

Of course the rear parts can affect the bat, too. We train both sides by avoiding swing tension.

We train the front parts to adjust in/out for location from visual pickup on, and get both the inside and outside pitches. The rear side follows.

Swing tension tips can preserve both settings and coordination.

Plenty of strike zone coverage is built into the swing, if you learn to use it. Plenty of trouble if tension gets you.

Swing Tension

Swing tension can cause any of it accidentally when swinging too late, too hard, or too excited, and distort form settings, plate coverage, or coordination. It only takes a little.

Exactly how each item affects a swing is too long a story but here's the quickie:

Abrupt rough swings, tightness, inflexibility, or flawed coordination might be caused by items 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17,18,19. Rough starts and off-balance by 8, 10, 12, 13, 17,18.

Vision by 1, 2, 8, 9. Late rough starts may indicate vision faults.

Beginners with unintended sudden or jerky motion or freeze-ups in swinging, indicates tension problems; suggesting poor visual pickup.

In the Drills you learn it all, along with the swing.

Rhythm, senses, motion, strike zone coverage, mind, body; everything you have blends into a fluid move turning image into reflex: ["See ball- hit ball"; you've heard of it]. React body-and-soul, to the ball.

You're probably already okay on some of these details, so it's not all new to you. Take what you need, soon as you can.