Zone Hitting Guide
Introduction:
Zone hitting in the MLB the Show can be one of the most grueling and frustrating hitting interfaces in the game, yet it also seems to be the most rewarding. IF you can find a way to master timing, location, and contact, then when you hit the ball, you really feel in control of the result. As difficult as it is to learn, the other interfaces just do not feel as enjoyable, challenging or earned as zone hitting.
That all being said, nothing can ruin the joy of the game more than suffering inning after inning of poor choppers, pop ups, strikeouts, and the hope that “next inning will be better”.
I have scoured the Internet for help, and often bump into hitting videos when the players make it seem effortless to hit the ball. They seem relaxed at every at bat, while I feel that each at bat takes every single iota of my concentration to even stand a chance. They also seem to have the ability to start the PCI dead-center, and within a split-second are able to:
1) determine the pitch type
2) determine the pitch location
3) determine the pitch speed
4) determine whether the pitch is a ball or strikeout, and whether to swing)
5) move the PCI to get the meat of the bat right over the ball
Long story short, these guys are phenomenal players are their results show. The problem is that many players (myself include) are more middle-tier and just looking to have some fun with a franchise or offline mode of play.
So, given that there seem to be a great number of questions about hitting cams, PCI, and plate strategy, I thought I would share my technique that I have adopted by gleaning bits and pieces of gems from the many online tutorials. While a lot of these tips may seem basic to many veteran players, the hope is those newer to the game might be able to adopt a few of these techniques to make life a little less frustrating. Please let me know if this is helpful and feel free to ask additional questions!
1) Examine the Strike Zone
When you look at the strike zone, especially with the hot/cold zones turned on you will see is essentially broken into 9 zones (like a rubix cube). Each hitter has hot/cold zones in for each of these zones. Some are all red, some are all blue, but for the most part, you will be able to look at the zone for each hitter and find a pattern of red in some area of the strike zone. If this is where your batter has success, wouldn't it make sense to aim the bat in that area?
2) move the PCI
The plate coverage indicator (PCI) is moveable pre-pitch, and I recommend you move it to the players hot zone pre-pitch rather that reacting post pitch.
Why?
When you only have a split second to make several decisions, it can be very difficult to master PCI placement, timing and location on a consistent basis. By placing the PCI pre-pitch to a hot zone for your hitter, you have a major part of the process out of the way. Now you are able to focus on time pitch itself. Will it be a strike or ball, and will it come into your pre-placed zone. By doing this first step alone I think you will be amazed how much more focused you are on watching the pitch movement now because you no longer have to worry about moving the stick. If you watch the pitch right out of the pitchers hand, you should get a better eye for what is going to be a ball or strike. Probably the hardest part of this step is laying off of balls that will be strikes that are not in your hot zone. You simply HAVE to learn to take strikes.
You will also notice that since you are focusing on hitting is a smaller zone, that you are much better able to judge the timing of when to swing. Timing probably makes the biggest difference in hit success. When you get the feel of it, you can start to swing slightly early or slightly late in order to direct your hits to generally where you would like them to go.
3) Protecting the plate
What if you have two strikes? At some point you will have to protect the entire plate and cannot rely on covering a hot-zone area.
Here is what I do in this instance…
Choose a camera that will allow you to frame the pitcher with your PCI at release. Some cameras are way to low or high to do this, so adjust the camera so that when you raise the PCI up in the zone, the pitcher is in it.
I have found benefit on a couple items here. Firstly, watch the pitch release. If the ball jumps out of your PCI zone immediately, it is likely going to be a ball. Lay off. If it lingers in the zone, then you can anticipate a strike.
The second benefit of framing the pitcher with the PCI is that it just feels easier to follow the pitch movement when your PCI starts at its release. If you practice this method and check the pitch feedback, you might surprise yourself how often you have the PCI right on or near the end location.
I only do this with two strikes because I have found that I can get in the bad habit of chasing a lot more often and swinging in cold zones, so I only reserve it for two strikes.
4) Never be TOO static.
What I mean by this is that even though you are starting your PCI in a smaller quadrant of the plate pre-pitch, you will want to learn how to move the PCI ever-so slightly to square up within that zone. My advice is start out static so you can just focus on timing and ball/strike judgement, and as you get a bit more comfortable with the strategy and seeing the pitch, then feel free to move the PCI (a little). Don't dart across the strike zone or get caught reaching for garbage. If that starts happening, tighten up the routine again. But sometimes you are just feeling it and making good movements and you will know it when it happens.
5) don't overcorrect the PCI
I saw a great video on this last season and have adopted its concept...
Essentially the gist is this. If you place your thumb in a normal position on the left stick and do a circular motion, you will see that the PCI moves a great distance outside of the strike zone.
On the other hand, if you take your thumb and do the 90 degree angle down into the top of the stick and repeat the process, you will notice that the PCI movement is greatly reduced and generally stays within the strike zone...which is where you want to be swinging. Just makes sense, right? Yes, it is a bit uncomfortable at first, and I only use it for batting, but essentially I press down on the stick, but not far enough to here the CLICK, but rather just before it. I then move my thumb around until the motion feels more natural and smooth. It takes some getting used to.
As a matter of fact, I like to move the PCI around a little bit before each pitch (in a circular motion or pattern, or whatever). I don't know if the brain is more activated when you already have moved the PCI, but I find my reaction adjustments are way quicker and accurate when I am not going from a dead still, static position. Food for thought.
5) Batting Cage.
I recommend you take these ideas and try them out in the cages, starting with the hitting location exercise (the one with the pre-determined locations that you are to hit to. Each of these pitches will be in the strike zone and it will either be in the left, middle, or right lanes. Essentially all you need to do here is place the meat of the PCI in the zone and then focus on timing first. Once you feel good with that, focus on moving the PCI slightly up or down in the lane that is indicated. This will help you get used to the new thumb position.
After doing this for awhile, go check out discipline exercise, move the PCI to a hot spot in your hitters zone, and see how you do judging pitch release and identifying balls and strikes. When you feel okay about that, then try framing the pitcher with the PCI and practicing your two strike technique.
One you feel good in this area, then move to good at bat, and try to tie it all together. Choose your location, lay off anything not in your PCI zone. Frame the pitcher on two strikes, and work on timing your swing based on where you want to place the ball.
6) RTTS
This is your chance to get a LOT of at bats in, and not only that, if you can get good swinging with your created character and his lowered abilities, imagine how you will hit when you start playing a franchise with the pros!
Again, I have struggled with hitting as well, and generally each season takes me some time and frustration before I finally round in to form, but the key is to create good habits, patience, and consistency.
Just remember, you will not get a great hit every at bat, that is the life of baseball. BUT, if you find you are limiting your K's and also your pitch results indicate that you were in the right area of the zone and made solid contact, then that is considered a win. Keep working on quality at bats and the rest will take care of itself!
Good luck and feel free to ask any questions or clarifications on this method!
Introduction:
Zone hitting in the MLB the Show can be one of the most grueling and frustrating hitting interfaces in the game, yet it also seems to be the most rewarding. IF you can find a way to master timing, location, and contact, then when you hit the ball, you really feel in control of the result. As difficult as it is to learn, the other interfaces just do not feel as enjoyable, challenging or earned as zone hitting.
That all being said, nothing can ruin the joy of the game more than suffering inning after inning of poor choppers, pop ups, strikeouts, and the hope that “next inning will be better”.
I have scoured the Internet for help, and often bump into hitting videos when the players make it seem effortless to hit the ball. They seem relaxed at every at bat, while I feel that each at bat takes every single iota of my concentration to even stand a chance. They also seem to have the ability to start the PCI dead-center, and within a split-second are able to:
1) determine the pitch type
2) determine the pitch location
3) determine the pitch speed
4) determine whether the pitch is a ball or strikeout, and whether to swing)
5) move the PCI to get the meat of the bat right over the ball
Long story short, these guys are phenomenal players are their results show. The problem is that many players (myself include) are more middle-tier and just looking to have some fun with a franchise or offline mode of play.
So, given that there seem to be a great number of questions about hitting cams, PCI, and plate strategy, I thought I would share my technique that I have adopted by gleaning bits and pieces of gems from the many online tutorials. While a lot of these tips may seem basic to many veteran players, the hope is those newer to the game might be able to adopt a few of these techniques to make life a little less frustrating. Please let me know if this is helpful and feel free to ask additional questions!
1) Examine the Strike Zone
When you look at the strike zone, especially with the hot/cold zones turned on you will see is essentially broken into 9 zones (like a rubix cube). Each hitter has hot/cold zones in for each of these zones. Some are all red, some are all blue, but for the most part, you will be able to look at the zone for each hitter and find a pattern of red in some area of the strike zone. If this is where your batter has success, wouldn't it make sense to aim the bat in that area?
2) move the PCI
The plate coverage indicator (PCI) is moveable pre-pitch, and I recommend you move it to the players hot zone pre-pitch rather that reacting post pitch.
Why?
When you only have a split second to make several decisions, it can be very difficult to master PCI placement, timing and location on a consistent basis. By placing the PCI pre-pitch to a hot zone for your hitter, you have a major part of the process out of the way. Now you are able to focus on time pitch itself. Will it be a strike or ball, and will it come into your pre-placed zone. By doing this first step alone I think you will be amazed how much more focused you are on watching the pitch movement now because you no longer have to worry about moving the stick. If you watch the pitch right out of the pitchers hand, you should get a better eye for what is going to be a ball or strike. Probably the hardest part of this step is laying off of balls that will be strikes that are not in your hot zone. You simply HAVE to learn to take strikes.
You will also notice that since you are focusing on hitting is a smaller zone, that you are much better able to judge the timing of when to swing. Timing probably makes the biggest difference in hit success. When you get the feel of it, you can start to swing slightly early or slightly late in order to direct your hits to generally where you would like them to go.
3) Protecting the plate
What if you have two strikes? At some point you will have to protect the entire plate and cannot rely on covering a hot-zone area.
Here is what I do in this instance…
Choose a camera that will allow you to frame the pitcher with your PCI at release. Some cameras are way to low or high to do this, so adjust the camera so that when you raise the PCI up in the zone, the pitcher is in it.
I have found benefit on a couple items here. Firstly, watch the pitch release. If the ball jumps out of your PCI zone immediately, it is likely going to be a ball. Lay off. If it lingers in the zone, then you can anticipate a strike.
The second benefit of framing the pitcher with the PCI is that it just feels easier to follow the pitch movement when your PCI starts at its release. If you practice this method and check the pitch feedback, you might surprise yourself how often you have the PCI right on or near the end location.
I only do this with two strikes because I have found that I can get in the bad habit of chasing a lot more often and swinging in cold zones, so I only reserve it for two strikes.
4) Never be TOO static.
What I mean by this is that even though you are starting your PCI in a smaller quadrant of the plate pre-pitch, you will want to learn how to move the PCI ever-so slightly to square up within that zone. My advice is start out static so you can just focus on timing and ball/strike judgement, and as you get a bit more comfortable with the strategy and seeing the pitch, then feel free to move the PCI (a little). Don't dart across the strike zone or get caught reaching for garbage. If that starts happening, tighten up the routine again. But sometimes you are just feeling it and making good movements and you will know it when it happens.
5) don't overcorrect the PCI
I saw a great video on this last season and have adopted its concept...
Essentially the gist is this. If you place your thumb in a normal position on the left stick and do a circular motion, you will see that the PCI moves a great distance outside of the strike zone.
On the other hand, if you take your thumb and do the 90 degree angle down into the top of the stick and repeat the process, you will notice that the PCI movement is greatly reduced and generally stays within the strike zone...which is where you want to be swinging. Just makes sense, right? Yes, it is a bit uncomfortable at first, and I only use it for batting, but essentially I press down on the stick, but not far enough to here the CLICK, but rather just before it. I then move my thumb around until the motion feels more natural and smooth. It takes some getting used to.
As a matter of fact, I like to move the PCI around a little bit before each pitch (in a circular motion or pattern, or whatever). I don't know if the brain is more activated when you already have moved the PCI, but I find my reaction adjustments are way quicker and accurate when I am not going from a dead still, static position. Food for thought.
5) Batting Cage.
I recommend you take these ideas and try them out in the cages, starting with the hitting location exercise (the one with the pre-determined locations that you are to hit to. Each of these pitches will be in the strike zone and it will either be in the left, middle, or right lanes. Essentially all you need to do here is place the meat of the PCI in the zone and then focus on timing first. Once you feel good with that, focus on moving the PCI slightly up or down in the lane that is indicated. This will help you get used to the new thumb position.
After doing this for awhile, go check out discipline exercise, move the PCI to a hot spot in your hitters zone, and see how you do judging pitch release and identifying balls and strikes. When you feel okay about that, then try framing the pitcher with the PCI and practicing your two strike technique.
One you feel good in this area, then move to good at bat, and try to tie it all together. Choose your location, lay off anything not in your PCI zone. Frame the pitcher on two strikes, and work on timing your swing based on where you want to place the ball.
6) RTTS
This is your chance to get a LOT of at bats in, and not only that, if you can get good swinging with your created character and his lowered abilities, imagine how you will hit when you start playing a franchise with the pros!
Again, I have struggled with hitting as well, and generally each season takes me some time and frustration before I finally round in to form, but the key is to create good habits, patience, and consistency.
Just remember, you will not get a great hit every at bat, that is the life of baseball. BUT, if you find you are limiting your K's and also your pitch results indicate that you were in the right area of the zone and made solid contact, then that is considered a win. Keep working on quality at bats and the rest will take care of itself!
Good luck and feel free to ask any questions or clarifications on this method!
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