Free Work-Smart Hitting Manual

Breathing, senses, rhythm, timing, reflex, instinct can't quite be separated, though some might try. Weave it all into the control system called 'rhythm and timing' and when you've got it right, there's "just you and the ball".

Deflated lungs make room for surrounding muscles to flex. Inflated, they interfere. Light breathing calms: Heavy breathing, the opposite. Even the pulse is affected. So, the breath ritual before basketball free-throws. (We do it our way).

Controlled breathing creates a calm at-bat environment. Your own private world. Nice, quiet office. Hear and feel your breath to exclude outside noise. You can't think and hit, but you can focus on "feel/hear/see/breath/reach." Too simple for thought or worry. Even a dog can handle it, but isn't your animal side where you want to be? Just you and Reflex, tracking a pitch? "Feel/hear/see/breath/reach" displaces thought plus excludes outside noise.

Hitting is like slipping into expressway traffic: It flows, you match speeds, then merge. With rhythm (match speed), you can do the timing (merge). Rhythm comes first. Pitcher acts [stride-throw], you react [stride-swing]. The pitcher has the rhythm. You move with it. If you do, it's batting rhythm. You stride-swing to his stride-throw. Match-up your strides right, to time him. How to Stride right? "Stride-with-the-pitcher!" It's a little dance.

Having trouble with this wordiness? Why not say it up front; "stride with the pitcher!" Usually do, on the field with a kid. Works okay. If you crave explanation; read. If not, no sweat. You'll hit too, if you stride with the pitcher.

Observe a Pitcher

Watch a pitcher working out, from close enough to hear his stride and release. (Better yet, when two pitchers work side-by-side.)

Hear the scuff of his foot on dirt, flick of fingers off the ball, the pop of the catcher's mitt. Same way every time, so regular you can memorize it. So, memorize it. Then turn your back to him and see how you can time him to the pop of the mitt, from his stride. If two pitchers are working, you'll probably find they're alike in that way. Scuff of foot, flick of release, pop of mitt; the key events of a pitch.

Be exhaling a gutful, and insert light grunts to mark time with those key events. (The mitt pops when your bat would meet it.) Learn to live with that little three-beat tune.

Ritual breathing

Breathe lightly; with hand on breadbasket, inhale til abs fill; no more. (call it a 'gutful').

Don't want to feel it higher. Know the feel, make it consistent, uniform, habitual. Calm down. That's all you get, on the bench, in the on-deck circle, in the batters box, and between pitches. Calm, quiet gutfuls.

Listen inward; hear & feel your breath

Clock it, deflating casually (without force) to 'comfortably empty' in 3-4 seconds, same way every time. Relaxed shallow intake; casually deflate in 3-4 sec. Do it!

Every pitch forever: deflate/hum, stride/release----Contact. Hear and feel it!

What's this? ( ---- )? Accent, duration, and time of Beats. Clocking the beats and intervals between. Be your own clock.

Inhale a gutful easy as he winds-up. Leak it to blend with him: deflating as his stride lands, hum the Beat stride[1]-release[2]----Contact[3]. Meanwhile, your stride lands with his, and full shift coincides with Contact.

Deflation can be regulated to a trickle by partial-check in the throat, to blend your sequence with a pitcher's. Throat-check is the control valve.

Experience with pitchers will tell how to cope with situations: full or stretch delivery, strange pitcher, erratic one. The only hard rule is, you breathe to live, you're the one on the spot making decisions; and Never panic over that last gutful. Take it easy. Breathe. The pitcher's the one with the worries now.

"Casual, relaxed deflation": Practice with rhythm (stride-release-contact) when watching ballgames with serious pitching; even TV games. Make it part of you. Start forming the habit in the Drills, if not sooner.

Details

Pitchers stride long/hard/fast, you stride short, soft, light. Don't panic over his violence. Stride easy.

For a pitcher much too quick or slow, adjust your stride-beat a tick or two earlier or later.

Your stride is, when the ball of your foot lands. Not the impulse, first move, or lift-off, not the heel. The ball/toe of your foot lands softly, about the same time as a pitcher's foot [in our swing]. Stride lights your fuse, toe controls it. With a strike on the way, so is a good swing. If you like it, you're under control and moving.

Same breath routine with every pitch, from the drills to forever: Like an old song.

Audio-record a pitcher's delivery

Can you record a good pitcher's sounds? Use it as a practice tool, to work alone off the field. Rehearse your motions to the soundtrack.