Timing Issues

[mattmets]

I'm having a timing problem behind the plate and I'm looking to see if someone can set me straight.

On pitches that are close but are balls, I turn my head in the direction the pitch missed. I've had coaches tell me it shows them that I'm on top of the pitch (which I take with a grain of salt), but I've had almost no b/s complaints since I started doing it. The only problem is, my timing is off. Instead of staying set and turning my head towards the pitch, I sway my entire body. Instead of tracking the pitch with my eyes and a still head, my eyes stay on the ball but my entire body moves. Do any of you have/had this problem, and how can I solve it? Do I just have to consciously tell myself on every pitch to keep my body in and turn the head?

I don't want to turn this into a p!$sing match over whether or not we should turn our heads, so please don't make it that. Thanks a lot in advance.

[jkumpire]

Try this:

1. Make sure you hear the glove before you say S/B. Discipline yourself to hear it hit leather first.
2. After the pitch gets by the batter ask yourself, Strike or Ball? Answer yourself and call it.
3. Think slow, slow, slow.
4. Take F1 warmups behind f2 and work on your timing.

Hope this helps!

[GarthB]

1. Track the ball with your eyes to the catcher's glove.
3. See the ball hit the glove
2. Keep you eyes on the ball/glove as you begin to come up for the strike call, or as you say ball.

Do that, and you won't need to add any artificial "timing."

"Timing is the proper use of the eyes." Jim Evans

[mattmets]

Thanks guys- I could (should) have a plate job tomorrow so I'll try it out and see what works for me.

[Rcichon]

Work some batting practice with a few different teams and focus on timing your calls. See the call, count ONE, TWO, then MAKE the call.

PS be on the OUTSIDE of the batting cage fence

[GarthB]

Originally Posted by Rcichon

See the call, count ONE, TWO, then MAKE the call.

AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!

mattmets, please ignore this advide. Artificial "timing" is phony. It does nothing to improve your calls. Nothing. You make the same bad call...only later.

As Evans says again and again and again, timing is the proper use of the eyes. Follow that advice and your calls will improve.

Counting one-two, or saying "What was that", or blinking your eyes, or thinking about the MILF behind the dugout have absolutley NOTHING to do with timing. And they do NOTHING to improve your ball/strike calls.

[Rcichon]

Originally Posted by GarthB

AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!

mattmets, please ignore this advide. Artificial "timing" is phony. It does nothing to improve your calls. Nothing. You make the same bad call...only later.

As Evans says again and again and again, timing is the proper use of the eyes. Follow that advice and your calls will improve.

Counting one-two, or saying "What was that", or blinking your eyes, or thinking about the MILF behind the dugout have absolutley NOTHING to do with timing. And they do NOTHING to improve your ball/strike calls.

Whatever gets you to better manage your timing. Just because you don't think it's worthwhile isn't the bottom line Garth. After all it's only a drill. Now press the 'Easy' button Garth.

[GarthB]

Originally Posted by Rcichon

Whatever gets you to better manage your timing.

Phony add-ons do nothing to improve timing.That's just the point. Now, then, if your goal is to make slow calls, try it. However, most umpires I know desire to make good calls.

Just because you don't think it's worthwhile isn't the bottom line Garth. After all it's only a drill.

You're right. Just because I know it to be crap doesn't mean that someone somewhere might give some value to learning to delay a call without improving it.

Now press the 'Easy' button Garth.

That's just the problem. You think there is an "Easy" button.

Mattmetts: Using simple logic, think about this.

Rcichon suggests that you count to two. That's it. Just count to two before you make a call and you'll make better calls.

Jim Evans suggests that you learn to use your eyes properly and track the ball to the glove, see it hit the glove and keep your eye on it even as you begin to make your call.

Which of those two suggestions do you think provides information to make better ball/strike calls?

If you chose the latter, you're in good company that includes the thousands who have attended the Academy and the hundreds who have gone on to PBUC and those who got pro jobs.

BTW: The Academy, after conferring with PBUC, has announced that its Honor Graduates received more than 80% of the total jobs offered to graduates from both schools for the 2007 season.

I wonder how many new pro umps learned timing the Rcichon way.

[Lawrence.Dorsey]

I think the difference between the Evans way and the 1-2-3 count method is that during the intervening time between the ball hitting the mitt and your announcing a ball or strike you are actually doing something (Evans way). You are using your eyes to decide if it was a strike or not. This may also mean quickly replaying what you saw in your head to make your decision. Evans always says call a pitch as soon as you "see" it. "Seeing" it isn't just tracking it all the way to the glove (but that obviously is a big part of it). The counting method may slow your timing down but it won't help you with your balls and strikes. Evans method will.

Lawrence

[SanDiegoSteve]

The Jim Evans "timing is the proper use of the eyes" method is correct. The unfortunate thing is that his teachings are rather new, and not universally taught outside of his school classes or clinics.

The sad thing is that some of us were taught by Brinkman and Wendelstedt grads, long before Evans had a school. These instructors used the artificial counting method on us, so now we automatically delay our calls. I don't do any counting to myself (or heaven forbid, out loud ), but my timing is that of a natural looking couple of beats after the ball is caught.

I actually had an evaluator tell me in 1996 that my timing was too fast, even though it really wasn't (pretty slow, really). This guy wanted me slower than Greg Bonin or Jerry Layne. I cheerfully ignored his advice, and continued to do it the way I had been, which was just fine.

[RPatrino]

MattMets, like everyone else here has said, artificial timing methods are just crutches that make it seem that you have good timing. It is illusionary at best. I know you don't want to hear this, but if you are moving your head, and not using your eyes properly, then you could wait 2 min to make your call and still be making a bad call.

From your description of what you do, it seems to me that its more then a timing issue, it sounds like your fundamental mechanics are off. You are doing a ton of 'moving' around, either your head or body or both. That is mechanically unsound. In this case, a little head movement is better than a lot of body movement just to call a pitch. Preferably there should be little or no movement at all when behind the plate. Track the pitch with your eyes only, keeping your head as still as you can. Eliminate twisting your body, ducking, flinching or any other movement that moves your "camera" or its base.

And by the way, coach's for the most part, don't know anything about how to call balls and strikes. The fact that no one is complaining is probably just luck. You will eventually have problems if you don't use good sound mechanics, especially at the higher levels.

[jkumpire]

The Evans way is one way of doing it, not the baseline by which everything else is measured.

You an I both know that the problem with timing is that people are too quick to make the call. Usually the problem is not physical, it is mental timing. It is human nature that we all have to deal with. The suggestions given to this person other than what Evans says are also valid ways to help him deal with the problem.

Evans' cues are just another way to get to the same place.

[GarthB]

Originally Posted by jkumpire

The Evans way is one way of doing it, not the baseline by which everything else is measured.

You an I both know that the problem with timing is that people are too quick to make the call. Usually the problem is not physical, it is mental timing. It is human nature that we all have to deal with. The suggestions given to this person other than what Evans says are also valid ways to help him deal with the problem.

Evans' cues are just another way to get to the same place.

Sorry, Rev, I don't agree.

The problem with "timing", in my opinon, is that people make their decisions too quickly, not their calls. This is often seen when some umpires are making their calls immediately after, just as, or even before the ball hits the mitt. The have already decided on the pitch, before the pitch is complete. Thus it is both a physical and mental issue.

Adding a phony count of 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi does nothing to correct that problem. It just allows for a delayed crappy call instead of an immediate crappy call.

Understanding that timing is the proper use of the eyes, does. While Jim has taught this technique and repeated his mantra since 1989, it goes back, without the mantra, much further than that. At a Doug Harvey week end in the 70's I was taught the foolishness of phony add-ons for timing and how much better it was to watch the ball hit the glove and keep an eye on it as I made my decision and prepared my call.

I didn't fully comprehend the totality of this proper mechanic, however, until discussing it with Jim twenty years later.

[Rcichon]

Garth you're right about learning to use the eyes properly. What I neglected in my post is that while hesitating your count, you allow time to 'review' what your eyes saw during the pitch. Maybe wrongfullly, I assume most Plate Umpires watch the pitch in it's entirety into the glove. What [I believe] some Umpires do NOT do is review the pitch and THEN make the call.

The easy button was a poke, Garth.

[GarthB]

Originally Posted by Rcichon

Garth you're right about learning to use the eyes properly. What I neglected in my post is that while hesitating your count, you allow time to 'review' what your eyes saw during the pitch. Maybe wrongfullly, I assume most Plate Umpires watch the pitch in it's entirety into the glove. What [I believe] some Umpires do NOT do is review the pitch and THEN make the call.

The easy button was a poke, Garth.

No problem.

I don't suggest that reviewing the pitch is harmful. I don't even suggest that phony add-on timing gimmicks are necessarily harmful, unless substituted for proper timing; and, unfortunately, they most often are.

Where we will continue to disagree, most likely, is that I believe that with proper timing, which includes keeping your eye on the ball after it hits the mitt, reviewing the pitch and other add-ons become unnecessary.

Proper timing will slow down the decision process and thus your calls will be adjusted accordingly.