Any hitting coach worth his salt will tell you that timing is critical to becoming a great hitter, yet in close to 20 years of playing baseball for many great coaches I never had a coach tell me how to work on timing. In fact, I don’t think I heard it discussed until several years after my playing career ended!
Let’s begin by discussing what timing actually is. It’s the ability to make your barrel arrive at the contact area at the exact same time the ball arrives there so they collide head on. If a hitter cannot make the ball and the barrel collide, there are only two ways he could have failed. He was either too fast or too slow. That’s it. Otherwise, they would have collided. Timing begins by stepping back after a swing and realizing whether they were early, late, or on time. If the swing was not on time we try to adjust on the next pitch.
In practice we like to use the concept of saying “Ball” when it comes off the pitcher’s hand, and “Pop” when it hits the bat. The crack of the bat should drown out the word “Pop” and if it doesn’t we will know whether the hitter was early or late. We encourage our hitters to do “Ball-Pop” from the time the opposing pitcher warms up until the game is over. At the very least we should be able to time his fastball before we get up to bat.
Timing in hitting is much like dancing with the pitcher. If we can get in sync with him, we have a much greater chance of success. Rhythm is timing, timing is rhythm, so we must stay loose and smooth rather than overswing. Activate your barrel, activate your butt. Shake your booty. First get your upper body in sync with your lower body, then try to get in rhythm with the pitcher. The pitcher lifts and breaks, we execute our load. The pitcher steps into a position to throw, we step into a strong launch position to swing. The ball and barrel then have a chance to arrive at the contact point together.
The biggest mistake amateur hitters make is they wait too long and end up rushing their step and overswinging. We preach all the time: “Start sooner. Slow controlled stride. Smooth, quick swing.” Control your body, control your stride, and you will control your barrel.
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