Whatever sport you play....when you are really on your game....they say you are "in the zone". If you're throwing well, shooting a basketball well, stroking the cue ball well, hitting well....etc etc...you are "In The Zone.

WHAT IS THE ZONE?

WHAT IS IN THE ZONE WHEN IT COMES TO HITTING?

Well....in my opinion....The Zone...when hitting well...is quite easily defined. The actual physcial zone in hitting, the what you are doing, when you are said to be In The Zone, is the hip socket being allowed to work over, back and around....the ball of the rear femur. Very simple. Very easy to do without stress. Pitchers do it all the time....and quite well....and quite consistently....BECAUSE....they have all the time in the world to make it happen. But in the small hitting window of time...it becomes a challenge to learn how to do it. It is difficult, but not impossible to do with stress. But.....

FIRST YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT MUST HAPPEN.
THEN YOU NEED TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.

When you don't know what to make happen....it is quite difficult to make it happen. But when you know what to do....you have a chance.

And it really boils down to multi-tasking. Reading and loading at the same time. Amateurs don't do that very well. They load, hold/pause to read, then swing. Each is a separate step. A separate segment. None are done together...simultaneously. And that pause is a killer. That pause completely eliminates the possibility to overlap,, which is the seamless transition from load to unload. If you can tell when a hitter loads and when he changes to unload....you're looking at an amateur. The seamless transition from load to unload is the most important absolute in hitting. And this seamless transition....allowing it to happen....IS THE ZONE.

What happens to almost all hitters is they use their athletic ability to 'out athlete' the ball as they work up the playing ladder. Their athleticism bails them out of trouble. They learn to use it...and fail to develop their mechanics....and as such....they reach a ceiling to their playing career that is lower than it needs to be.

Learning to overlap.....is not difficult. I can teach it in 15 minutes. But learning to carve out the needed time to overlap....against a pitcher trying to get you out....and then the next pitcher....and then the next and the next....each with a different arsenal....is quite another story. It seems like an impossible task. Yet....hitters do it.

I played Division II baseball. And my school landed a pitcher named Bruce Berenyi, who had been drafted by MLB, but because he wanted to play basketball he went to college. What a stroke of luck for the baseball team? Bruce became the #1 pick of the Cincinnati Reds in 1976. I was the catcher on the college baseball team. I can remember thinking at the time....NO ONE....will ever hit this guy. He throws so hard...and has a tremendous slider....that it will be impossible for anyone to hit hit consistently. In fact, he got 4 K's in one inning (21 for the game) because his ball moved so much a third strike went back to the screen and the runner made it to first base. I was certain he was the next Bob Gibson. Well, in the summer of 1978, I visited Springfield, IL where the Indianapolis Indians were playing the Springfield Cardinals (AAA Reds v AAA Cardinals) to watch Bruce pitch. A small 2Bman named Tommy Herr was up to bat. He fouled off a few pitches....then my buddies and I said "You gotta see the ball to hit it". The next pitch, Tommy Herr, hit a seed off the fence in right field. Little Tommy Herr. The singles hitting infielder just took Bruce off the wall. I thought....OH MY....how did that happen? And then...he made the big leagues. Played with Pete Rose and Johnny Bench. WOW, I thought. He made it. Yet....as a big leaguer....a 7 year career before arm trouble ended his career, his record was 44-55. In fact, in 1982, he LOST 18 games for the Reds. He did that with a very respectable 3.36 ERA. He was later traded to the Mets. Was on the staff with Doc Gooden, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, etc etc in 1986 when they won the World Series....but he hurt his arm early in the year and did not play in the Series. Keith Hernandez, in his book, "If At First", said Bruce was one of the hardest throwers he'd ever seen. It was fun to follow his career. Quite disappointing when it ended.

So what is the point? The point is....the pitching is SO GOOD....at higher levels...that in order to compete...hitters have to multi-task. They have to start early....get a running start....get much deeper into the process than they ever imagined....while still reading....and learn to control that running start so they don't lunge. It is simply IMPOSSIBLE to load, pause, hold, read, then swing. You have to develop the OVERLAP that separates the high level hitters from the pack. You have to ALLOW the overlap process to work....without pause...without delay. You have NO CHANCE if your mechanics include start, pause, restart. NONE.

And this is where the rear hip socket working over/around the ball of the rear femur comes into play. THAT ACTION....IS....CREATES....THE ZONE. That action....is the running start. That action ALLOWS you to get much deeper into the swing process before decision. That action creates the shortest swing possible Instead of loading BACK....which then needs to be redirected FORWARD....which by defintion means a stop and restart. Instead, you must load AND UNLOAD....AROUND. AROUND can be...and is....in the high level pattern....CONTINUOUS....CONSTANT....without pause/stop.

NO ONE...that I have ever come across....teaches the very thing that MUST happen....the overlap. Not little league coaches. Not high school coaches. Not training centers. Not internet wannabe hitting coaches. Not professional baseball coaches. NO ONE understands it.

If you don't stumble onto it....you will never be taught it....unless....you join HittingIllustrated.com.