Judging Pitches: Please help.

[Whitesox]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

For me, the biggest factor in learning to recognize pitches was adopting a strategy that would allow me to see the release point of the pitcher. Specifically something that would allow me to consider the relative position of the release point to the strike zone. If you know where the strike zone is relative to the release point, it becomes much easier to determine, in a fraction of a second, if the pitch will end up in the strike zone or outside of it.

What I do is the following: I follow the pitcher's glove throughout the windup until a split second before he releases the ball (this is coincidentally about the same time that I start my back-swing). Just before he releases the ball (but before the ball is there) I look at the area of his release point (this doesn't have to be pin-point accurate, but the closer the better). At this point I am anticipating the pitch (I know it's coming in less than 1/2 a second) and also I'm looking at the release point (at the same time thinking about its position relative to the strike zone). As the ball is released I am able to pick it up immediately and identify the pitch type and end location.

Obviously this doesn't work 100% of the time, sometimes pitchers fool you, other times he makes a great, close pitch that is tough to judge, etc. But adopt this strategy and you'll see your hitting improve in no-time.

This is a good strategy. Normally I will look at his cap until he releases, but if it is a sidearm pitcher as pointed out above, then this is what I do.