Change your Stride Against Pitching Machines?

[steve777]

Pitching machines can be harder to time due to a delay due to the ball's
travel to the rotating wheels. With an Iron Mike at least there is a swinging arm.

Some hitters simplify (shorten) their strides due to the difficulty of timing a pitching machine. I have found that I have to have less of a stride to successfully hit a machine that uses wheels to hurl the ball. When I use a
longer or more aggressive stride, I sometimes end up being very off on my timing just because the ball gets hung up somewhere up around the spinning wheels, if just for a fraction of a second.

Do others on here find that they have to stride less against a pitching machine? If you change your swing against a machine, then change it in the game, that seems counter productive to not swing like you would in a game
while against a machine.

[cosmo34]

That is why I don't use pitching machines unless it is an Iron Mike machine. It's not realistic and causes more problems than it solves.

[virg]

steve,
Whether they know it or not everyone has that problem. If you learn to spank a machine it can screw you up against live pitching. If the ARM machine is yours there's a fix that'll make it easier to time.

[FiveFrameSwing]

If the ball feeder is doing a poor job, or for some reason you can't time the mechanics of the feeder, then it's best to pre-stride early and wait in your toe-touch/ready position.

The stride is an important timing mechanism. You could be doing more harm than good if your using a setup that the kids can't time off of. If that's the case, take the timing element out of your swing and start at toe-touch.

[StraightGrain11]

I actually spend so much time around the Iron Mike's at the place I work, I've been able to hit them (cranked all the way up) with my eyes closed simply going by the sound of the machine. :crazy

[Go Cardinals]

I have never been able to figure hitting machines out. Heres a good story that happened this year. So we had this extra batting practice, and there was tee work and batting cage work. I hate batting cages... I just can't hit in them so, I elected to not hit in it and work on some parts of my swing. So, this kid on my team wanted to cause trouble (he was a lowsy player, but I was the best hitter on the team (trying to be modest so people will stop hating me on this site) and I knew alot about it. He said stuff like I suck, and I can't hit.... that I'll just strike out, and that he is sooooo good at hitting. So I said nothing, in response, and at the next game I was 3 for 3, and he was o for 3 with 3 k's.

[LClifton]

Inexorable intricacies of the game.

[steve777]

In my area there is a batting cage that uses Atec machines. I almost always hit the machine throwing 60 mph. Here is the most successful way I have found to hit this machine, using a short stride. First look away from and around the hole where the ball exits to avoid continuous staring and waiting, then focus on the area the ball exits. The ball travels down the track to the vertical wheels, don't stride until the ball is just exiting the hole in the net, use a short stride and rotate your hips and explode, waiting as long as possible without being late. Since I have waited until the ball actually exits the hole, I can track the ball better, and explode later.

Before, I used to force myself to have the powerful stride similar to A-Rod
in the cage, and I did that just before the ball exited, and my timing
and motion was off and unbalanced and early - mainly because the ball sometimes had a small delay in the track (very annoying).

Then I tried the same A-rod type stride after the ball exited the hole, and the long stride made me late.

Now if I were hitting against a pitcher, whether he threw 70, 80 or 90+, at least then I could time his windup and be more aggressive with my stride however I please. The faster the pitch, the earlier I stride, and you don't have the delay like with the machine. I am leaving out talking about the pitcher throwing changeup's and so on for the sake of discussion.

[TG Coach]

Pro Batter is the best pitching machine. It's programmable to mix up pitches and velocity.

[FiveFrameSwing]

Yeager:

"the load should be performed before the release of the pitch."

"It is very important to note that they do not initiate this forward movement until after the ball has been released and is about 40 feet from home plate."

[StraightGrain11]

Pro Batter is the best pitching machine. It's programmable to mix up pitches and velocity.

I'll agree with that. Those things are unbelievable. Talk about an amazing use of technology...:thumbsup:

[kylebee]

Obviously live BP is a lot better, but when you can't find an arm, Iron Mikes are okay. The wheel-based machines are worthless.

[bobinsd]

The personal pitcher claims it has a pitch-indicator-light that solves the problem of pre-pitch loading/timing. They say they have a patent pending.

[Ursa Major]

I had one of the Personal Pitchers, but, alas, it was stolen from my car. Since I didn't have the battery pack in the car, the thief got something quite worthless. Feh....

The problem with the light is that it is not easy to see in full daylight, where I used it outside. If you have a basement that's large enough to swing in, it will probably be okay -- the light is pretty good.

My son, then 11, didn't like hitting off it much because of the timing issue. I enjoyed hacking against it, but I'm not a serious hitter.

[CoachB25]

There are any number of ways of making a machine more practical. Have you thought of working on some type of rigged up situation where the feeder puts the ball in a "chute" to enable you to see the ball. We've made one for some of the machines I've used. Also, find someone that has an old ATEC soft toss machine that they don't use. Take the tension off of the spring and the release mechanism will release a ball accurately to enable you to time the drop of the ball into the machine. We found one without much effort.