Most amateur hitters get confused with the most important concept of hitting a baseball. They believe they have to "protect the plate" and pitches are called by the umpire balls/strikes based on where they cross home plate. That is not true. The umpire determines if the pitch is a ball or strike when the catcher receives the pitch the pitcher has just thrown. The distance the pitcher is away from the hitter is determined by where the hitter stands in the box. At the amateur level, the amount of hitters I see that do not stand at the back of the batters box is ridiculous. "I want to get the curve before it breaks, the pitcher throws slow so I move up, my coach told me to etc" What the hitter is really saying is "I want the pitcher to have to throw the ball a shorter distance to the catcher and make his job easier to trick my eyes." Every inch after the ball leaves the pitchers hand is info that your eyes can use to determine the swing the body needs to deliver the barrel to contact. I love the quote, "your eyes know the swing the body needs to produce a good swing on that pitch" Give your eyes more feet to track the pitch, the pitcher doesn't have to throw the ball 60 ft 6 inches, they have to throw it to the catcher. If the pitcher throws slow just start your load later.
The major mechanical difference between the pro swing and the amateur swing is the swing zone or bat path. Amateur hitters land early and hit the ball out front of their body. The pro hitter is released if he does this because you have to start the "out front swing" early where your eyes think more pitches are good to hit. Pro pitchers have better stuff and will dominate the out front hitter. For most, Pro hitters swing radius ends where the amateur hitters swing radius starts. When the barrel moves by your front hip it is decelerating. You can still hit the ball well past your front hip but the barrel is decelerating at contact after the front hip. I believe you don't start the swing with your hands, you start the swing with your back shoulder because it's a fast turn than a push of the hands. Another big reason the amateur swing has to make contact out front of the body is the emphasis on finish and getting extension through the ball. After the ball leaves the bat who cares how your body decelerates the barrel. Watch the big leaguers on TV, their finish depends on timing and contact position but they know it is irrelevant to the result of the swing. As a college coach we really worked on letting the ball travel this year. In the cage, college hitters are worried about results and it was difficult to get them to let the ball travel in the cage because the results of this mindset were initially poor. The cage results should be irrelevant to the hitter. The best cage hitter of all time's name is Who Cares. Hitting the ball in the cage with intent to have good game results is easy to do and should be irrelevant to the hitter trying to improve his actions IN THE GAME. Sure you will hit some balls good but your intent should be to let the ball travel as far as possible and still take an accelerated/accurate swing with your barrel. The results of trying to let the ball travel are inconsistent because it is hard to be accurate with your barrel inside your front hip. If you watched the MLB players' first few rounds in the cage you would be shocked by the results. They don't crush every ball, they are trying to drive balls with contact even passed the back hip. Amateur hitters are trying to expand their swings radius on the front side with "extension" Pros are trying to extend their swing radius at the beginning of the swing radius by training the back shoulder turn to be quicker and more accurate. The videos below highlight the pro "swing radius" and I added in 3 clips from my guys who let the ball travel and were accurate with the barrel. Pileski's is a bomb to center and the other two are Wardwell's opposite field homers.
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