What's going on guys, Coach Madden, yougoprobaseball.com today we're talking
about the 7 tips to improve your timing when hitting in baseball first I want to
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first of all timing is probably the most important part of the
swing right you could have the most beautiful swing in the world but if
you're not on time if you're a little bit late we're a little bit early you're
probably gonna miss hit the ball if not swing and miss so timing is very very
important these 7 tips right here are gonna help you if you're struggling with
your timing let's get into it number 1 is you have to get in sync with the
pitcher early right it doesn't start when you get into the box it starts when
you're on deck even in the hole even before that watching during the game
while the guy's pitching to your teammates when you're a few batters away
right pay attention to the game watch this guy see what he's throwing you know
is he a straight fastball guy where he's burning fast balls by everyone or is he
a junk ball pitcher throwing a little bit slower this is gonna help you time
him up right you have to pay attention during the game and watch what this guy
is doing because that has a lot to do with your timing and if you're watching
you're going to be more successful on being on time when you get into the
batter's box so pay attention in the hole work on it watch them when you get
on deck start practicing right watch that pitcher get in there take swings
off of his pitches right we're not just taking a bunch of swings up there in the
hole on deck we're gonna you know get it get our bats or our bat weight or
whatever we're using to get loose take a couple swings but then we're gonna swing
off of the pitcher right as he lifts his leg we're kind of timing them up we're
getting into our leg lifts and then we're swinging take a few swings off of
his pitches ok that's how you tie them up then obviously when you get into the
box that's when the game begins tip number
two for timing is focus on when you're getting your foot up versus when it's
getting down because for awhile I always talked about get your front foot down in
time right and you hear a lot of coaches say that get your front foot down on
time but sometimes I see guys getting their front foot down too early some
guys a few guys not too many get their front foot down too late but I
had Antonelli Matt Antonelli Antonelli baseball on the channel last month and
he talked about something really interesting and he said that he works on
his guys when they're getting their front foot up so he doesn't worry about
when it's landing he worries more about or teaches them or has them focus on
when they're lifting that front leg up and that really helps them with timing
I don't always tell them get your foot down earlier I tell them you've got to
get this foot off the ground sooner you have to be ready to launch the swing
when the ball is about halfway there so try that out really focus on when that
front foots coming up so you could be down in time on time and have better
success typically when pitchers are throwing guys want to have their front
foot down and start their swing as that ball is about half way now obviously if
it was that easy everyone would be great hitters but it's not so we have to
continually work on this and obviously the pitchers job is to disrupt our
timing that's his whole job as a pitcher right so we have to try to beat on time
when he's disrupting our time it's a very tough thing to do but if you focus
on when your foot comes up you might have a little bit more success in doing
that try it out number three is to go through a few pitches on deck and I
already touched on this on tip number one but I want to get a little more into
detail on your pre at-bat routine as you get into your on-deck circle right
obviously like I said you want to take a few swings with your weighted bats but
then you're taking swings on that guy's actual pitches another thing I like to
do that really helps with this and get you into a good state state of mind
state of energy is to visualize your best hit ever right so let's say you hit
a home run one time and you know you think you can hit a home run off of this
guy visual that visualize that in your mind on deck before you get up here see
that guy going through you could actually watch this guy and still time
his pitches while you're taking a swing in your mind on that great hit that you
had so you get up there you're practicing your swing you're seeing the
pitcher load up you're loading up your time in Mumbai you're imagining that
homerun going out of the park so you're gonna put yourself into a good state of
mind state of energy you're ready to go you're feeling confident when you walk
up to the plate and you've timed them up when you're on deck tip number four for
improving your timing is to not throw away pitches when you get up here right
so now you've went through warm-up routine you're up to bat right
now you don't want to get up there and take the first pitch take the second
pitch to try to get your timing down because now you're swinging with two
strikes you're in a true strike approach your swing and defensive you're never
really gonna have any success that way so you want to be patiently aggressive
is a great way to think about it yes you want to be patient you want to make him
come to you but you also want to be aggressive when you do get that good
pitch okay you also want to make adjustments throughout the abet like I
said before the pitchers main job is to disrupt our balance and our timing right
and our job is to be on time be balanced and get a good hit right so it's a
battle and we have to make adjustments during the bat if we know that when he
gets to one on one count or two strike count that he's going 100% to his
breaking ball then we gotta adjust for that right we can't have a fastball
swing in a breaking ball count vice-versa we can't have a breaking ball
swing in a fastball count so be patiently aggressive when you're up
there don't take too many strikes and give it away to get your timing right be
patiently aggressive get a good pitch put a good swing on it tip number five
for improving your timing and it's pitch recognition pitch recognition is huge
when it comes to timing because guess what as Mohammed Ali said you can't hit
what you can't see right so you have to be able to see that ball and you have to
be able to see it all the way in one thing I like to talk about and actually
learn this from Antonelli again many many years ago was having a moving from
a soft focus to a hard focus all that means is when you're looking out there
at the pitcher you want to have kind of a gaze out there right you don't want to
be staring at his release point for 10 13 seconds as he's getting ready to
pitch because guess what your eyes are gonna get watery right have you ever
done that you stare at something for a couple of seconds your eyes start to get
blurry right you don't want to do that have a general soft focus out of the
pitcher this way you can see everything that he's doing and you can kind of time
up with him right now we move from that soft focus into a hard focus as he gets
to his release point so we're not straining our eyes the whole time we
have that general gaze out there here we go I'm seeing him he's coming up and do
his leg kick okay boom now I'm moving into a hard focus now I see that ball on
a hard focus very focused the whole way in track it
smash that ball over the fence or wherever trying to hit it tip number six
is to work on it and practice practice talking about practice yeah you
got to practice if you want to get better right if you're struggling with
your timing let's practice it okay that means doing a little bit less t work
right if you're struggling with your timing because the T is a great tool
don't get me wrong we can work on our swing off of the T we can work on the
mechanics and everything but the T does not help us with timing so if you're
struggling with timing and you're doing all your practice swings off of a tee we
need to adjust that right we need to do more more live pitching more front toss
more things where the balls are moving so we can work on that rhythm and that
flow and that timing when we're hitting so if you're struggling a little bit
less T work a little bit more live and number seven I want you to have a little
bit of a tempo a little bit of a dance a little bit of a flow when you're up here
hitting right you can even count in your head while you're up here working on
your swings right so when you get up to bat and this is not in the game I'm
talking about practice now have a little bit of a count in your head as you're
going one two three swing okay start to get that tempo and that timing so you
can work on it okay whether it's a count of numbers or it's a beat in your head
maybe you're hitting with headphones in and you kind of work off of that beat
okay now always trying to get that tempo always trying to be fluid trying to have
that good timing if you're counting one two three boom
okay tempo and timing that's going to help you with your timing always
remember - this is an athletic movement we got to be fluid we can't be too
mechanical if you're being too mechanical here and you're being like a
robot it's very hard to be smooth right you're gonna lack with your timing so
try to be smooth try to be an athlete try to have good fluid movements think
about I really don't like the word mechanics think about movement over
mechanics I hope you guys liked that video let me know if you did we're
giving away a big-league grips down in the comments below all you got to do is
let me know what you're gonna do to work on your timing and how big-league grips
would help you with your swing and leave a comment down below and one random
comment will be chosen I'll ship it straight to you and good luck I'll talk
to you down in the comment section