Swing timing

Swing timing is concerned with the inter-relationships between ball sports hitting implements and the related anatomical parts of players, in the motor skill of striking sports balls as used in various games.

More specifically, swing timing commonly refers to the efficiency of ball hitting or kicking skills by achieving optimum power at instant of ball impact. Furthermore, swing timing also refers to the inter-relationship between optimum power as generated and the intended point of ball contact.

Perfect swing timing is therefore achieved when ball is struck with optimum power, with least energy expenditure, and at contact point that achieves the desired direction and velocity of ball after impact.

Of all the motor skill components essential for expert ball play, swing timing is the most difficult to acquire, and teach, because of the essential millisecond co-ordination of major and minor muscle groups to impart optimal progressive acceleration to the hitting implement until it has reached greatest velocity and optimum angle at moment of ball impact.

Arguably the best ball players have superior swing timing to achieve greatest ball impact velocities for greatest speed and/or distance, and a highly tuned muscle memory, or ‘feel’, to more consistently repeat or adjust swing as determined by the changing success requirements which vary from one ‘shot’ to another, and the ability to fine-tune swing velocity and impact point and angle.

The answer still eluding even top teaching professionals; be it in golf, tennis, baseball, racketball, squash, cricket and even ball-kicking sports including European, American and Australian football, and rugby; is how to more effectively teach correct swing timing, the essence of the ‘perfect swing technique’.

Some common and fairly accurate perceptions of correct Swing Timing include a relaxed posture and muscle groups, which are only called into action in precisely timed intervals, and which relax instantly after ball contact is made; and an apparent ‘80% Only’ effort, which appears to promote the desired relaxed state during the whole swing.

But the inability to more accurately observe these split-second, highly complex correlations and co-ordination; therefore, more often than not, encourages the teaching of specific and isolated swing components only, which tends to disrupt ‘natural’ swing mechanics and timing rather than enhancing these.

For this reason, correct swing timing, still remains confined to trial and error techniques, where the naturally gifted player eliminates errors more quickly, and acquires accurate muscle memory faster.

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Wikipedia