Posted by: 55 (billyon@comcast.net) on Wed Mar 5 15:16:37 2003

The impression I got from "the physics of baseball" is that both linear and rotational forces are at work.

In slowpitch softball they are without a doubt both at work.I concentrate on my bat rotating around my head(and have taught my daughter by saying it's like earth rotating around the sun...
You're head is the sun and earth is at the tip of your bat.)

One can hit a softball(slowpitch) much further by stepping into it (rather than taking a wider baseball stance with little movement toward the mound)

This "step" allows the softball hitter to "cock" his body, now that his body is moving forward and his bat has remained back he is like a jack in the box ready to explode on the ball.Also, the step allows the batter to rotate with more power.Don't you think linear power can be converted to rotational power during the swing?