samflamont:

Everyone will agree that recognizing the pitch is a huge part of hitting.  There are a lot of things that come into play in order to recognize a pitch.  You must keep your head as still as possible, be smooth and easy with your load, etc…  This post is about finding the arm slot and seeing the ball early.  I know as a young hitter I used to stare at the pitcher the entire time and I didn’t learn to pick up the arm slot until much later in my career.  This sounds so obvious but as people in general we are attracted to the most motion, we don’t pick up a lot of little movements when there is a big movement happening.  So the pitchers body is moving and we forget the biggest part, to find where the ball is released and focus are eyes on that spot.

The Drill I use with my hitters is pretty simple.  I start with regular wiffle balls, one has one strip of colored tape around it and the other is just plain.  The object is to take the ball with the tape and swing at the regular wiffle.  Sounds easy enough I know and maybe some of you have used this drill, but what I have found when talking to people who have used this drill is they couldn’t explain the purpose of the drill and the athletes didn’t actually look for the arm slot they waited for the ball to be released and by then it is too late.  This drill should be taught to help the hitter find the release point.  If you find the release point you will find the ball, and if you find the ball you might know what pitch is coming before it leaves the pitchers hand.

This drill is to train the eyes of the hitter to pick up the ball early, find where the pitcher is releasing the ball and get your eyes to that spot.  You hear a lot of announcers talk about how well a pitcher hides the ball or something along the lines of he is all knees and elbows and it makes it tough to find the ball.  Well this is true but only because the hitter is looking at the wrong spot and allowing the pitcher to distract him.  Remember hitting is hard even if you know what is coming and where it is coming from so don’t give the pitcher a bigger advantage.

Start this drill by tossing the ball very lightly because at first the hitter is going to be working hard to recognize the pitch as this is new to them.  Make sure you move your arm slowly and explain to the hitter to find the spot where you are releasing the ball.  This will take a few pitches for the hitter to get used to.  As you progress you can throw a little hard, use a full wind up and even move to smaller wiffles.

See if this helps:

I used to have visual cues that told me it was time to find the release point.  What this means is I observed the pitcher in pre game and while I was on deck to find his timing and rhythm, So I knew when a certain part of his body got to a certain point it was time to find the release point.  This stopped me from getting lost in his wind up.

For example I would use his right foot as a point of emphasis and when his right foot got to a certain point I would start to shift my eyes to the release point.  This may sound weird or hard but trust me if you practice this or whatever your timing mechanism is you will find what works best for you, just remember to not stare at the pitchers body the entire time.