Posted by: daw (daw@bellevue-law.com) on Wed Apr 9 13:02:27 2008

> Can anyone tell me if the swing while hitting a fast pitch softball is the same as hitting a fast pitch baseball?



I have coached a fastpitch team for going on six years and have taught my players the mechanics I discovered on this board since 2003. In my opinion, rotational mechanics are every bit as effective and appropriate for girls fastpitch as for boys baseball. All the very best hitters I've seen, on my team and others, use rotational mechanics. There are clips of the great college fastpitch sluggers, all using rotational mechanics.

However, for several reasons, linear mechanics seem to be more "entrenched" in the fastpitch world (at least in my part of the country) than in baseball. Fastpitch hitters using rotational may have to fight their club team coaches and (worse) their high school coaches wanting to "correct" them. A major softball university in my area still insists on linear mechanics, even though their recently graduated all-time homers leader clearly was a rotational hitter.

Old timers who have been teaching linear mechanics for years are resistant to the idea that they've had it wrong all this time, and are defensive. You hear unscientific statements like "Women don't have the correct hip anatomy to use rotational hitting" and "rotational hitters can't touch a riseball". There is a nice clip posted somewhere on this board of college women yanking all sorts of pitchies out of the park, including risers, with rotational mechanics...hip anatomy not a problem.

Make up your own mind but there is no doubt that many successful fastpitch players use rotational.