Expert: Dennis Girardi - 3/26/2008

Question
My son just moved up from T-ball to machine pitch. He swings somewhat level but is timing is off. He's had six practices and has yet to hit the ball. What is the best way to get him hitting?

Answer
Hey Jeremy,

Pitching machines can be harder to time due to a delay due to the ball's
travel to the rotating wheels. I am assuming that there is NO swinging arm to pitch to you.  That's too bad, cause it can be very discouraging to a young hitter to not be able to adjust...

Some hitters shorten their strides due to the difficulty of timing a pitching machine. I have found that you have to have less of a stride to successfully hit a machine that uses wheels to hurl the ball. When you use a longer or more aggressive stride, I sometimes end up being very off on my timing just because the ball gets hung up somewhere up around the spinning wheels, if just for a fraction of a second.
All I can say is that your son needs to keep practicing. Maybe he can come to practice a little early and have the machine adjusted for slower pitches and work his way up.. It's different for everyone. I hope I helped a little.. It's hard to give advice when I haven't actually seen your son swing a bat..  Good Luck..!
Dennis