Gentlemen,
Thanks to each of you for your constructive criticism (and the nice compliment on the shins, Tanner.
)
When I saw the pictures, I was very surprised at my head height. I
thought I had been getting my head much lower than I actually am. A couple of you mentioned working wider, which is exactly what I thought. I'm pretty comfortable with my "squat and lean" adjustments, and I was also surprised to see how far apart my feet were when I set (I thought I was getting "wider" than I actually am).
A number of you mentioned getting more in the slot. I believe I'm generally lining up in the slot reasonably well (though the previous pix wouldn't indicate that), and I think these pix are more typical of my slot alignment:
If these don't look right in reference to the slot, please let me know.
The Red Team catcher had some kind of quirky habits, one of which was regularly setting up
in the slot. I have been told that if you get squeezed out of the slot by the catcher and/or batter, you should adjust by moving "up and back" in order to see the entire strike zone. He also liked to take a little "hop" forward as the pitcher released the ball. Anyway, I was a little uncomfortable adjusting to this catcher, and I may have been losing some discipline with my stance as a result.
From what I could tell from the pictures, my stance was generally better with the Green Team catcher than with the Red. This picture is more in line with what I'm working towards with my stance, though the angle and "foreshortening" may make it look better than it would from a different angle.
When I saw the 1st picture in the series of 3 on the same pitch imbedded in my first post, I had a kind of WTF moment. As in, WTF are you doing still standing up when the pitcher has started his delivery?!?!
Then I realized that the pitcher was pitching from Set and had runners on 1st and 3rd. I was waiting until he was past a pick-off to 3B and committed to pitch before setting. I
thought I had been taught this, but can't find it in any of my books or notes. So maybe I just made it up. I felt (perhaps erroneously) that I was still able to get set before he released the ball and didn't feel like I was having any difficulty tracking the pitches.
So, is this wrong? At what point do you set to call the pitch when there's a possibility of a pick off and a pitcher pitching from set?
To etn_ump. I didn't much care for the way they looked either. They're alledgedly Combo pants. Now I understand why Tim C advised against getting them. I got them as a compromise last year when I was acquiring all my "umpire stuff". My wife/CFO was a little surprised at how much my new hobby was costing. I'll be ordering a pair of real Plate Pants as soon as I figure out which pair I want to get.
Thanks all.
JM