Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Tue Jul 4 11:05:04 2000

Joe-

A number of the recent posters here are very experienced with fastpitch softball-Alan,Greg,Shawn- and have very informed opinions about the differences between baseball and softball.Alan is the incredibly energetic and overqualified webmaster of fastpitch forum which is the best girls fastpitch website/bulletin board for players,coaches and parents,bar none.You can check out the archives there for many enlightening topics including differences and does the riseball rise among others.The following are my personal opinions.



Reaction time is very limited in fastpitch,but perhaps not much more than some little league(ocasional 65-70 mph at 46 ft) or top level baseball.Regardless,if you want to hit for power,you need to have the shortest quickest swing with the highest batspeed.That is what Jack describes here and it is the same for baseball and fastpitch.Overall the trajectory of the ball can be more variable in fastpitch because the pitching plate is close enough for the ball to still be rising as it crosses the plate in the strike zone(the trajectory of the ball can not rise because you can't get enough backspin lift to overcome the weight of the softball but the ball can still have not reached its apex because it is released low at an upward angle and does not drop as much as you would expect due to the backspin minimizing the gravity effect).Jack is the first one to explain the full mechanics of how the body produces the rotational swing so you have a model for understanding all the advice you hear about parts of the swing.Before his work,there was no way for a student of the game to put all the pieces together to fit in a way to produce a consistent power swing.Some were just naturally gifted or lucky.Now you can just work hard and have a reasonable chance of learning a good swing just as you can in golf.



Anyway,I would recommend recognizing the riseball and not swinging at it,but if you think you have to swing at pitches that are higher with a flatter trajectory,you can level your swing out a little(level with respect to the ground) by not leaning back as much as you rotate the body around the axis of your spine.Enough lean to get about 10 degrees upward inclination through the contact part of the bat arc is right for baseball.



The prevalent teaching in fastpitch is quite different from this.It results in a downward swing with disconnection from the power of the body, low batspeed,and more difficulty making contact with the ball the faster you try to swing partly due to the mismatch between the plane of the swing and the plane of the pitch.This is better taught as slapping or placement hitting for nonpower situation.



The rotational swing Jack describes is as short as a swing with adequate batspeed for power can be.By short,I mean the bat travels through space as little as possible from initiation(shoulders start) to contact because the swing radius is as short as possible and the bat stays in a single plane(no looping).It is as quick(maximum batspeed)because the mechanics efficiently transfer the energy of the rotating body to the bat without it being lost through extending the arms in a linear direction while still applying torque with the hands.There is a biomechanic principle that the faster the body executes a given motor program(picking a swing that gets the sweetspot on the contact spot)the lower the error rate in hitting the spot.So this swing gives you longer to recognize the pitch and better chance of contact the faster you can execute it.Almost like getting something for nothing,except most have to break old habits and relearn the swing.



Successful power hitters are using this swing in fastpitch,they just don't understand what their body is doing and they tend to use very different mechanics for different locations so there body has a heck of a time adjusting/picking the right motor program to use.The swing Jack describes uses simple consistent adjustments for different locations which the practitioners of the swing have had to refine in the cauldron of Major League Baseball.Jack is now making this knowledge available to a wide audience.This should be the basic power swing taught to all just as one basic swing is taught to golf beginners,ideally before some other swing is learned.