Quite possibly some of the most frequent questions that I hear are about hitting off-speed pitches. With most amateur baseball players below the college ranks, that question is typically about hitting the curveball.
What is a hitter's biggest fear? Not having enough time! Think about it-- it takes a fastball a fraction of a second to make it to home plate; approximately .5 seconds. You basically only have enough time to react to the pitch. Now, with an off-speed pitch like a curveball you can add a couple tenths of a second. As much as baseball players see fastballs, there's no mystery why we have trouble hitting off speed pitches. To the common fan, fractions of a second don't seem like much of a difference because players make it look so easy, but to the player in the batter's box, it is not as easy as it looks. That fraction of a second is the difference between a ball that's hit off the wall and an easy ground ball out.
So now we know what is giving hitters so much trouble. As much as you want to believe its the movement that gives hitters trouble, it actually has more to do with the timing. Throwing off the timing, this is what pitchers call, "keeping a hitter off-balance." So what's the solution to hitting that curveball? WAIT LONGER! Let it get deeper into the strike zone and hitters have a better chance to square the ball up. The best way for me to help my hitters understand this concept is by telling them to not try to hit the ball before it breaks, but after it does. It makes them wait longer and makes their pitch selection better. This helps hitters stop swinging at that ball in the dirt and square up the curveball a lot more often.
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