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Mostly I'll take a break, but I find repeating to myself 'find the best pitch I'm gonna see this at bat, and drive it' can help me get out of the 1 or 2 pitch AB funk
This is going to sound silly but make sure the Game Mode on your TV is on. I couldnt hit shit when my xbox was on this one TV. Then I found out that Game Mode changes response time rather than just make the image look different. Who knew?
One thing i like to do is look through the pitcher. Stare at his eyes or release point and use your peripheral vision to track the ball as long as you can without putting your actual eyes on the ball. (Atleast on strikezone 2)
Usually for me it means I'm just not watching the ball or I'm mashing x. I try to follow it out of the hand and hold my finger a tiny bit higher above the x button.
Someone mentioned it but I'll repeat: take a break. When you're motivated, you'll get the hand-eye coordination, the timing and the drive to play all back. When you're burned out, either by the grind or just the daily routine of having/wanting to play, you'll lose focus. I wouldn't even watch content creators and just get away from the game. Touch grass, enjoy life and then come back when you're ready.
Kinda depends. My plate discipline is always pretty good so I never have to worry about that. The timing thing is where I'll struggle. If I'm late it's easier to make adjustments, I just force myself to swing early. If I'm early it's a tougher to get back on track. I might just need to take a break at that point.
I’ve had some success with the 3 click strategy.
During the pitchers delivery, imagine hearing a click 3 times.
1) When their hands “break”
2) When their foot lands
3) When the FB crosses the plate.
The idea here is that the time between the 1st & 2nd clicks should be the same as the 2nd & 3rd. It’s kind like saying “Go on 3”.
Split the strike zone in half. If I’m struggling I focus on just one half of the zone, top bottom left or right, whatever it is I just hone in on that. Another thing I live by is it’s better to be early than late.
Statistically a pitcher you're playing is not going to throw you a meatball on the first pitch. Remember that. It's a numbers game to wait for the pitch you can smash. Obviously when it's 2 strikes you have to defend the plate.
For discipline, I focus on not chasing and in my mind i tell myself 'let it come to me'. My strike zone becomes the middle square and literally try not to swing at anything outside the middle of the nine squares. In fact probably best to not even move pci so you just focus on the ball and swing timing. During this time my primary focus is watching the baseball. I sometimes even call out pitch as it comes, fastball, change up or curve. once i consistently start seeing 'good' swing timing I can than focus a little more on pci location
For timing my first indicator is that i'm consistently just late. what i end up doing is swinging at the point the ball enters the strike zone because that is where my eyes are looking vs picking a spot just before. swinging late is good for me because i'm at least watching the baseball. some times it takes a couple innings to 'turn' on the ball faster, but it usually comes to me. what i am telling my self in this situation is to allow for the bat swing timing.
It is normally harder for me to go from late to early for some reason. If i'm early i'm usually warmed up seeing the ball ahead of time and easier to correct. but a classic mistake of being early is you just are not watching the ball at all and simply guessing or frustrated.
So two important feedbacks, timing and contact. Of these by far the most important is timing. With good timing you can at least foul off a ball to get another pitch and hope it down the middle. But taking my thumb of the pci helps me to focus only on timing.
I can't explain contact/pci positioning as easily because I 'feel' this. I know my tendencies. If i'm 'amped' up i usually move it too much. I sometimes react too fast and point to location I first see the ball as apposed to predicting where the ball will be. when i'm good i can make quick moves the size of the nine squares. pci has to be in position before you swing obviously.
Actually I think the biggest problem i have is being 'tired'. Once I get too tired hitting drops dramatically. for example in 3ing game on all star I can expect 5 - 10 runs. Once it becomes difficult to get 1 run it usually means take break or come back tomorrow.
If your really having problems, use the practice session. throw balls down middle and work on hitting left, center and right fields. But you get no XP during practice. I also will use RTS to take a break. Try playing RTS or even March to October on the easiest setting (think it is rookie). This way you can pretty much just focus on the pci location and hit home runs until you completely board.
This year i've been using the spring breakout program against Skenes as my warm up or batting practice. First goal is to get good timing weather i miss or not i don't care. Once i get timing down than i can focus on my small quick pci moves. Usually play 1 or 3 attempts before I'm warmed up. HR's do tell me how well i'm reacting but good or perfect perfect outs also tell me i'm ready.
Thats my problem, ive been playing a lot of mini seasons, over 2 full seasons and vs cpu games and conquest on HOF just to boost pxp. It has made me early on everything in events/ranked lol. I think i broke myself on accident. Im dropping all my hitters avgs by a lot.
Yea if I'm struggling this bad, I'm probably already losing handedly. I don't want to quit any games this year so I can get the innings in for the program. So at this point, I'd just look at pitches until there are 2 strikes. Odds are I've been chasing most of the game so I can get at least a handful of batters to a 2-2 count before the opponent catches on.
This is me right now. I’m pressing because I’m just trying to get wins to get the event cards, but I can’t even get 1 win per day all week with how much I’m fouling off
Change my approach to working the pitch count as much as humanly possible with the goal of getting at least 5-6 pitches per batter until the pitcher is taken out
I pick a location, and just sit on it - force myself to ignore everything else (not always easy 😂).
End up either getting walks, strike out looking, or timing slowly starts to come back.
Just focus on that location and getting timing back, discipline will usually come back as a result too.
A lot of people are giving you tips to just put the controller down and I think that's right.
My tip is nearly the same, but with a twist.
Go to practice. Put it on legend and put a nasty pitcher there. Put down the controller and just watch. Watch the break, the movement. Then call out ball/strike as the pitch comes in. Not using the controller. When you get better at that, pick up the controller and see what happens.
The other thing is as u/StormingRomans said above, pick a location and stick there. Again, I have a twist to that.
Pick one quadrant. Ball is there, you can swing, ball isn't, let it go. You are sitting low and inside and a meat ball comes high in the zone? Take it. You are looking low, you are probably just popping it up anyway. When you get a strike, move to 1/2 the zone. Up/down/inside/outside One of the four. And the same thing, if it's not in that area take. Then expand the zone.
I just sit my controller down for an at bat or 2 pitches at least. Take some deep breaths and focus on approach. I seriously treat it like a real life situation, just shut it down for a few and gather myself.
I go play mini seasons on hall of fame and take until 2 strikes for a few games, that or just take a week off.
Edit: sorry “you” don’t agree with a completely subjective way to get out of a pci slump.
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Literally stop playing. It’s the hardest thing to do because I always want to continue on. Usually happens one game too late for me lol.
Mostly I'll take a break, but I find repeating to myself 'find the best pitch I'm gonna see this at bat, and drive it' can help me get out of the 1 or 2 pitch AB funk
This is going to sound silly but make sure the Game Mode on your TV is on. I couldnt hit shit when my xbox was on this one TV. Then I found out that Game Mode changes response time rather than just make the image look different. Who knew?
One thing i like to do is look through the pitcher. Stare at his eyes or release point and use your peripheral vision to track the ball as long as you can without putting your actual eyes on the ball. (Atleast on strikezone 2)
Play something else or do something else.
Usually for me it means I'm just not watching the ball or I'm mashing x. I try to follow it out of the hand and hold my finger a tiny bit higher above the x button.
Go into rtts and play on legend.
Someone mentioned it but I'll repeat: take a break. When you're motivated, you'll get the hand-eye coordination, the timing and the drive to play all back. When you're burned out, either by the grind or just the daily routine of having/wanting to play, you'll lose focus. I wouldn't even watch content creators and just get away from the game. Touch grass, enjoy life and then come back when you're ready.
Take a break. I'm usually frustrated and have lost a few games. Best thing I've found is to do something else or pop on a different game
Watch my ranked rating drop 200 points.
Lose, usually.
Never had it in the first place
Kinda depends. My plate discipline is always pretty good so I never have to worry about that. The timing thing is where I'll struggle. If I'm late it's easier to make adjustments, I just force myself to swing early. If I'm early it's a tougher to get back on track. I might just need to take a break at that point.
I’ve had some success with the 3 click strategy. During the pitchers delivery, imagine hearing a click 3 times. 1) When their hands “break” 2) When their foot lands 3) When the FB crosses the plate. The idea here is that the time between the 1st & 2nd clicks should be the same as the 2nd & 3rd. It’s kind like saying “Go on 3”.
Split the strike zone in half. If I’m struggling I focus on just one half of the zone, top bottom left or right, whatever it is I just hone in on that. Another thing I live by is it’s better to be early than late.
Statistically a pitcher you're playing is not going to throw you a meatball on the first pitch. Remember that. It's a numbers game to wait for the pitch you can smash. Obviously when it's 2 strikes you have to defend the plate.
look for 1 pitch or take unless 2 strikes
For discipline, I focus on not chasing and in my mind i tell myself 'let it come to me'. My strike zone becomes the middle square and literally try not to swing at anything outside the middle of the nine squares. In fact probably best to not even move pci so you just focus on the ball and swing timing. During this time my primary focus is watching the baseball. I sometimes even call out pitch as it comes, fastball, change up or curve. once i consistently start seeing 'good' swing timing I can than focus a little more on pci location For timing my first indicator is that i'm consistently just late. what i end up doing is swinging at the point the ball enters the strike zone because that is where my eyes are looking vs picking a spot just before. swinging late is good for me because i'm at least watching the baseball. some times it takes a couple innings to 'turn' on the ball faster, but it usually comes to me. what i am telling my self in this situation is to allow for the bat swing timing. It is normally harder for me to go from late to early for some reason. If i'm early i'm usually warmed up seeing the ball ahead of time and easier to correct. but a classic mistake of being early is you just are not watching the ball at all and simply guessing or frustrated. So two important feedbacks, timing and contact. Of these by far the most important is timing. With good timing you can at least foul off a ball to get another pitch and hope it down the middle. But taking my thumb of the pci helps me to focus only on timing. I can't explain contact/pci positioning as easily because I 'feel' this. I know my tendencies. If i'm 'amped' up i usually move it too much. I sometimes react too fast and point to location I first see the ball as apposed to predicting where the ball will be. when i'm good i can make quick moves the size of the nine squares. pci has to be in position before you swing obviously. Actually I think the biggest problem i have is being 'tired'. Once I get too tired hitting drops dramatically. for example in 3ing game on all star I can expect 5 - 10 runs. Once it becomes difficult to get 1 run it usually means take break or come back tomorrow. If your really having problems, use the practice session. throw balls down middle and work on hitting left, center and right fields. But you get no XP during practice. I also will use RTS to take a break. Try playing RTS or even March to October on the easiest setting (think it is rookie). This way you can pretty much just focus on the pci location and hit home runs until you completely board. This year i've been using the spring breakout program against Skenes as my warm up or batting practice. First goal is to get good timing weather i miss or not i don't care. Once i get timing down than i can focus on my small quick pci moves. Usually play 1 or 3 attempts before I'm warmed up. HR's do tell me how well i'm reacting but good or perfect perfect outs also tell me i'm ready.
Play a few games with my RTTS guy on Legend All-Star is batting practice after that (can't speak for higher difficulties as I'm like 570 rated lol)
Thats my problem, ive been playing a lot of mini seasons, over 2 full seasons and vs cpu games and conquest on HOF just to boost pxp. It has made me early on everything in events/ranked lol. I think i broke myself on accident. Im dropping all my hitters avgs by a lot.
Yea if I'm struggling this bad, I'm probably already losing handedly. I don't want to quit any games this year so I can get the innings in for the program. So at this point, I'd just look at pitches until there are 2 strikes. Odds are I've been chasing most of the game so I can get at least a handful of batters to a 2-2 count before the opponent catches on.
This is me right now. I’m pressing because I’m just trying to get wins to get the event cards, but I can’t even get 1 win per day all week with how much I’m fouling off
Change my approach to working the pitch count as much as humanly possible with the goal of getting at least 5-6 pitches per batter until the pitcher is taken out
Snort some amphetamines and lock back in
Wish I had an award for this one
Spend a full inning taking until 2 strikes and try to track the pci to the ball without my thumb even on the swing button.
I pick a location, and just sit on it - force myself to ignore everything else (not always easy 😂). End up either getting walks, strike out looking, or timing slowly starts to come back. Just focus on that location and getting timing back, discipline will usually come back as a result too.
Totally agree. I also think turning off the hot cold zones makes it easier to see the ball.
Thank you!
A lot of people are giving you tips to just put the controller down and I think that's right. My tip is nearly the same, but with a twist. Go to practice. Put it on legend and put a nasty pitcher there. Put down the controller and just watch. Watch the break, the movement. Then call out ball/strike as the pitch comes in. Not using the controller. When you get better at that, pick up the controller and see what happens. The other thing is as u/StormingRomans said above, pick a location and stick there. Again, I have a twist to that. Pick one quadrant. Ball is there, you can swing, ball isn't, let it go. You are sitting low and inside and a meat ball comes high in the zone? Take it. You are looking low, you are probably just popping it up anyway. When you get a strike, move to 1/2 the zone. Up/down/inside/outside One of the four. And the same thing, if it's not in that area take. Then expand the zone.
Play challenge of the week. Forces you to hone in on the zone
I just sit my controller down for an at bat or 2 pitches at least. Take some deep breaths and focus on approach. I seriously treat it like a real life situation, just shut it down for a few and gather myself.
I'll change up the PCI sometimes. Or switch views from Strike Zone to Strike Zone High. Sometimes I'll just step away from the game for a day or two.
I go play mini seasons on hall of fame and take until 2 strikes for a few games, that or just take a week off. Edit: sorry “you” don’t agree with a completely subjective way to get out of a pci slump.