.....is a problem for everyone except those with high level swings.
Until your swing is sudden.....until the time from decision to contact is INSTANTANEOUS....you have built slack into your swing. Your swing does not just include "swing". It also includes 'this or that or the other' before you can "swing". Most confuse 'this that and the other'.....with loading. When in fact, it is not loading....it is movement. Movement is slack. Movement in most amateur hitters is to create momentum which is used to launch the swing. Anyone who relies on momentum to be able to launch their swing....will always have problems against 'slower than normal' AND 'faster than normal' pitching.
Movement is slack removal. Stretch doesn't happen until movement has reached it's range of motion limit. When you read a pitch and begin your movements as you read, your swing INCLUDES SLACK REMOVAL. Slack removal must be done much earlier. A swing that includes slack removal is very very difficult to time to different speeds. It is even hard to time to a slow pitcher who is consistently slow.
Only the sudden launch will fix this problem. If your launch is sudden, you can launch it instantly for the fast pitch or the slow pitch. You just wait longer for the slow pitch. If your swing launch is not sudden....if it includes movement....if it includes slack removal....you will always be at the mercy of the pitcher.
What a hitter must do, is remove slack first....early. Fuse the torso into a unit. Pull back against the leg to tighten the stretch. When learning, I recommend 100% preload. This defines the goal. This defines the 'where'....the 'what'....of stretch. They learn where they must get to. They learn the 'feel' of max stretch. If they never preset it, my finding is they never learn where they are going. They never learn where max stretch is. They never learn the feeling that must be reached to be loaded. And consequently they bypass that feeling with the use of momentum.
After they understand the feeling of max stretch, they will learn to preload a percentage, and then move into the final max stretch as they are reading. The difference between that movement and wrong movement.....is the former happens AFTER slack is removed. THAT movement is tightening the stretch.....which was preset to a percentage....and takes it to completion. Compare that to 'looking for' the stretch....that they've never experienced. In other words....slack had been removed and a percentage of stretch had begun....when done properly.....before they read. And their final movement 'finishes' the strretch.
The confusion between stretch and momentum is rampant. A good htiter must learn the stretch. And most will bypass it and use momentum instead.
The great hitter learns to stretch. He learns what it feels like, how to get there, how to use it.....how to be sudden. And then he adds a bit of momentum to enhance his swing.
An amateur hitter uses momentum to power his swing and is always at the pitchers mercy. He must become a guess hitter.
How often are you willing to be wrong?
The reason no Howardite will produce a clip of a game siwng....is because it will reveal their nonsense. Bonds can not do what he does here, on the right....
http://www.hittingillustrated.com/li...ondsvBonds.gif
....with his butt.
The action is somewhere else. The weight shift is being metered by something else. The leg/hip has already 'gone'.....has almost 'gone'....except for the fact that it is being metered....by the only thing that can meter it and produce a matching video.
But....we know that matching video has never been the goal of Howardites. Just giving them a light bat and teach 'em to push it faster....will never match high level video.