Posted by: krh (krhanks@peoplepc.com) on Fri May 21 07:54:09 2004

I've read on this post where the fastpitch swing for softball is the same as the pros in mlb.Mike Candrea who is the 2004 Olympic softball coach has stated as recently as Oct. 2003 in a coach's clinic that the swings are the same. He even had video of all the great hitters of MLB ( Bonds, Arod, Sosa, even Ruth and Mantle,and so on.) My question concerns the plane of the baseball vs the plane of the softball. It seems that in baseball the ball is definitely leaving the pitcher's hand at a higher plane and is heading downward into the strike zone where as in softball, the ball will leave the pitcher somewhere between her knee and thigh in a lower plane. The plane of the ball seems to dictate whether you would want an uppercut after contact as in baseball but would you still want to finish with a higher uppercut in the softball swing or try to maintain a level or slightly downward swing ?