LESSON 1 OF 16 • SEE IT: VISION & TRACKING
Lesson 1: Your Decision Baseline
From the AHD Hitting Processor Masterclass with BK, for baseball and fastpitch softball hitters.
Today's Lesson
“Your swing might be fine. Your decisions might not be. Forty pitches will tell you which.”
The Hitting Processor is one of the four AHD pillars, next to the Swing, Strength & Explosiveness, and the Mental Approach. It runs in five steps: See It, Recognize It, Time It, Decide, Attack It. The swing is only the last step, and most at-bats are lost in the first four.
Today you get your numbers: correct ball-or-strike calls, chases, early shape calls and on-time swings. Then you find the step where your at-bats break. The quickest fix is not a faster swing. It is seeing sooner: soft focus on the pitcher, fine focus at release, and a quiet head with level eyes so the picture does not move while the ball is coming.
Why It Matters
Most hitters call every miss a mechanical problem. A baseline shows how many at-bats are lost before the barrel moves, and an 85 mph fastball gives you only about four-tenths of a second, so earlier information is worth more than more bat speed.
Coaching Cue
Measure first. Then buy time with your eyes.
Today's Work
Session (about 25 minutes):
• The test: 20 pitches with no swing, call ball or strike out loud. Then 20 live or front-toss swings. Log correct calls, chases, early shape calls and on-time hard contact.
• Name the step: review 10–15 swings or at-bats on video. Label each miss with the step that broke first: saw it late, misread it, late timing, bad decision or poor attack.
• Eyes first: 15 pitches, soft focus on the pitcher, sharp at release. Say “now” the instant the ball leaves the hand.
• Quiet head: film 10 tracked pitches from the front. Look for tilt, pull-off or bobbing during the load.
Track It
Write down all four baseline numbers and your test score out of 40. Tally the five steps from your video; the step with the most marks is where your training starts. Count how many of 10 pitches you tracked with a quiet head. Keep these somewhere safe. Lesson 16 retests everything.
Next: Lesson 2 gives you one pre-pitch look you use every pitch, so the ball shows up where your eyes are already waiting.
Baseline Four
You need: Partner or machine, 40 pitches, notepad
How to play: Run the full test in one session: 20 called pitches with no swing, then 20 competitive swings. Your partner judges honestly. No do-overs.
Scoring: 1 point per correct ball/strike call (20) + 1 point per on-time hard-hit swing (20). Single 16, Double 24, Triple 30, Home run 40.
0 TB1️⃣ SINGLE
1 TB2️⃣ DOUBLE
2 TB3️⃣ TRIPLE
3 TB💥 HR
4 TB
Grade it: Below 16 = out. 16+ = single. 24+ = double. 30+ = triple. A perfect 40 = home run.
LOG YOUR AT-BATSave Your Baseline
Write today's score down. You'll retest against it later in the course, and that before-and-after is the proof your hitter is getting better.
Create a free AHD account to keep your lesson progress on any device and pick up at Lesson 2 when you come back.