Anyone have trouble hitting pitches high in the strike zone?

[MannyCalavera]

I have this problem where I instinctively press down on the analog stick and swing, so I never react properly to pitches even slightly above the middle of the strike zone. I keep my thumb positioned in a way that allows me to quickly press down on the stick if I see the pitch is coming down in the zone. However, if it's straight down the stinker, then I don't do anything and just swing, so most of my hits come from right down the middle or from down in the zone. I've maintained a .350 team batting average this way, but I want to be more versatile in hitting. Is this a common issue? I just can't force myself to press up on the analog stick (or left or right if the pitch is down the middle but off the plate). It's really frustrating.

Also, another question: Why is it that sometimes I belt ones out of the park if my PCI is no where close to the ball and my timing was off? (I play without the indicator on, but I know this when I press L3 to view my previous at-bat.) Is it because I play on Veteran, so hitting tends to be less accurate?

[woody2goody]

Yeah I do that

But... ...It does make hitting high pitches difficult. You know, I am so happy that I'm not the only one who does that.

The only time I'm good at hitting a high pitch is basically if I guess that one's coming.

[MannyCalavera]

I never actually move the PCI in the direction of high strikes. The only time I hit high pitches is if I swing right down the middle and somehow I still make contact with the ball, when it was nowhere near the PCI. But this is why I posed the second question. I find this quite strange.

[chuckm1961]

Things that have helped me lay off high pitches:

--use High batting camera

-- turn Pitch Speed down

--use Guess Pitch, and guess high a lot

[txaggie04ci]

man, I'm glad I'm not the only one that instinctively presses down on the analog stick while batting. I do this CONSTANTLY because I'm always trying to be able to hit anything low....but makes me terrible at hitting any pitches high in the zone.

It's like my brain can't compute fast enough to move my thumb up when I see a high fastball come in....

[duffman]

Absolutely. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a fastball coming up in the zone, get the timing all squared up, and then end up pressing down on the L stick and missing completely. Lately I've been trying a new approach of keeping my thumb off of the stick, and then flicking it at the last second before swinging. Seems to be helping a little bit instead of resting my thumb on the stick the whole time. Now that I'm consciously thinking about it though I'm sure my next game will be chock full of "under" swings haha.

[Flightwhite24]

I have a helluva of a time trying to make contact with pitches up in the strike zone. I use the left stick and I for some reason I just can't seem to pick the high pitches I just usually sit on the pitches up in the zone and I'm sure once I get my season going it is gonna cost me a few games Peace!!!

[Cozar]

I tend to pull down as well, and here's what I've done to solve that problem:

1. If I'm expecting a high fastball, I push the stick up before the pitch. This helps me avoid underswinging, but takes to make me trigger happy and I swing at high pitches that would have been balls. Still, this worked pretty well for me in '09.

2. Stop using the analog stick, most of the time. I find when I am not concerned about using the analog stick, I swing less often at low pitches, don't pop up pitches down the center, and can occasionally pull the analog up and in when I recognize high heat. I gave this one a try this year and went from a .275 hitter to a .350 - .400 (on veteran). I'm going to give it a few more weeks then up the difficulty level if I'm still hitting well.