Yes, once upon a time I coached basketball. No, this blog doesn’t have anything to do with basketball. A couple years ago there was a movie made about rodeo bull riding called, “8 Seconds”, No, this blog doesn’t have anything to do with bull riding either!
How long does a hitter really have to work to prepare for and execute each swing? Now you got it, about 3 seconds.
Now, I am talking about physical effort to execute the swing. The mental game and working your pre-swing routine is going to take a little longer but, the point of this discussion is to help hitters and coaches understand that there is no excuse for not preparing, with all your might, to be ready to swing on every pitch.
We’ve all seen hitters watch the fattest fat pitch of the day float harmlessly over the plate while our hitter watched helplessly. They are helpless because they didn’t prepare physically to hit and thus were unable to pull the trigger when the moment called for it.
Hitters, now that you know that you only really need to work hard for 3 seconds at a time, you have no excuse for not really being ready to hit every pitch you see.
Get ready to hit, every pitch, and I mean every pitch. Then choose the right pitches and you are going to be a much better hitter.
There are two cardinal sins of hitting:
1. Swinging out of control at a bad pitch.
And much worse…
2. Not being prepared to hit the pitch that you should crush!
About the Author: Tory Acheson brings a wealth of knowledge to the Fastpitch Prep staff. He has coached at all levels of the game, including the last 25 years at the college level at the University of Wisconsin – Parkside, Tennessee Tech and Kennesaw State. He began his coaching career at the high school level spending 9 years Whitnall High School in Greenfield, Wis. and is now working as a professional softball instructor.
