Common Swing Flaws: Ineffective Timing
Like a lot of you I’m sure, I was glued to the TV all weekend watching NCAA Regionals. It’s definitely fair to say San Diego State coming out of the UCLA regional was the most surprising, but there were plenty of other amazing games throughout the weekend. It’s going to be an amazing super regional weekend which kicks off TOMORROW if you can believe it.
Here are my unsolicited picks for Super Regionals:
Oklahoma over Clemson, Utah over San Diego St, FSU over Georgia, Tennessee over Texas, Alabama over Northwestern, Oregon over Oklahoma State, Washington over Louisiana, and Stanford over Duke. Agree? Either way – it’s going to be so fun to watch. Make sure you tune in, watch these incredible athletes, and LEARN from them. There are so many things we can pick up on when we watch softball games. I’ve written on this in the past about how to watch and learn from softball games on TV – check this out as a guide for the rest of this college season and heading into Athletes Unlimited!
If you are new here, we have been in a series called “Common Swing Flaws,” where I’m covering the most common swing issues I see with athletes that I work with and how we can fix them. This is installment number 5: Ineffective Timing. If you have missed the previous 4, click here. Now, this is an issue that every hitter will ultimately face. I know in the cases where I have been in slumps, timing is almost always the culprit. You’ll often hear hitters say that something just “feels off” in their swings when they are in slumps. I am willing to be that 9.5 times out of 10 it is a timing related issue.
So what are some of the best tactics to fix timing? How can you step in the box feeling comfortable and confident in your rhythm and timing?
Practice Speed Changes. During batting practice, ask whoever is tossing to you to change speeds as often as possible and make it challenging. This will help your body recognize speeds earlier and help you adjust. I love alternating fast/slow every other pitch on front toss when I’m in a slump. When I’m feeling good, I’ll ask the tosser to mix speeds at random. And yes, this is on YOU as the athlete to ask for what you want to work on. Any drill you do can be done with alternating speeds.
Load Early – Swing Late. We talked about efficient loading patterns earlier in this series and how elite hitters start their load early. Elite hitters also let the ball travel before deciding on whether or not to swing. By doing this, they actually create extra time and over time will develop better pitch selection, which is half the battle in hitting. To practice this, do a hang drill. This is something Aaron Judge has tweaked since he has taken off the last two years. Creating time will improve your timing.
BE ON PLANE – speaking of creating time, one of the best ways to do this is staying on plane as long as possible. When we do this, we can be perfectly on time, but we can also be a little early or a little late. You do not have to have perfect timing to hit effectively, but you do need to be close enough. To practice staying on plane – do a 3 tee drill. Set up 3 tees – all down the middle of plate, one where you are early, one where you are on time, and one where you are late. Go in order of late, on time, early each swing. Over time, this will get you comfortable with having less than ideal timing and it will translate into the game.
These are just a few ways we can work on timing in our batting practices. When we get into the games, focus on competing. When you are in the dugout, pay close attention to the pitcher’s windup so you can be as familiar as possible before you step up to plate. Timing is everything. Test it as much as you can. If you are wanting more drill work on timing specifically, check out the RISR hitting lessons. We have hundreds of hitting lessons available now to help you specifically.
Have a great week watching Super Regionals!!
PS – if you are heading to Oklahoma City – let me know. I’ll see you there! Stay tuned for a really cool announcement of what I’ll be doing.
— Halo
