Posted by: Louy Louy () on Thu Jul 8 06:47:25 2004

I have been viewing this board for almost a year now and i have finally gotten to a point to make my first post. My sister plays on a competitive 14U fastpitch team that has high expectations at the upcoming nationals. She has been using rotation for about 8 months now( approx. 7,000 swings). In drills and practice she executes her swing very well, however, in games she loads properly and starts the swing properly but she doesnt allow her swing to take over on "auto pilot". She has a tendency to break her wrists when the ball is in the contact zone causing her to hit the very top of the ball and hit foul balls and weak grounders rather then line drives. Any insight on how to over come this flaw would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks.
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> In the transition from linear to rotational, my 14 yr. old daughter has had a similar problem. On the heavy bag, the tee, and soft toss her swing was fine, but for a long time in game situations, when her concentration was "on see the ball, hit the ball" she would at times revert to "hands to the ball" and pull many pithches foul, caused by full rotation with the right elbow approaching belly button instead of slotted at her side. We have found this to be the most difficult part of this swing transition, allowing the ball to come farther into the contace zone. (more than a foot) With linear instructors advising to keep her shoulder in, and me advising to maintain her rotation while keeping her hands back, she became quite frustated.
> After concluding that the main problem was that her right elbow was moving forward, I made an elbow guide which we use in practice with a pitching machine to recalibrate the memory used in pitch timing. (allowing the ball to come farther into the hitting zone) Using a 6" waistband and a heavy piece of cardboard, I blocked the right elbow from coming across in front of her body, allowing it to only move perpendicular to line across the shoulders, guiding the right arm and elbow into the rotational path. With batspeed improvement from 50 mph to 73 mph on the heavy bag obtained with the "hook in the handpath" and lost if the right elbow moves forward, it is worth the effort to resolve, even tho, she leads the team in hitting with a 390+ average. I suspect that your sister is having a similar problem, an maybe this would help her. Best regards and good luck.


Its my observation that some of the best "drill" swings, fall apart against live pitching. I do not evaluate a swing or tape a swing of batters doing drills or hitting off of a pitching machine. Almost every softball player swings different against live pitching.


There are a few reasons for this. One is that at the younger ages fast-pitch softball is segregated by age, 12u, 14u and so on. These batters hardly ever hit against good pitchers. A promising pitcher at 12u is being developed by pitching against 14u or older. (The same is true in high school. Exceptional JV age pitchers are on the varsity.)

The 12u batter can hit the pitchers at that so they don’t ‘need’ or get much instruction. As a result, over time, poor mechanics become ingrained. At the higher level such as high school the ages wash out. A 15-year-old can be facing 17 and 18-year-old pitchers who have been developing against older batters their whole career. By this time few batters are willing to put in the amount of work it takes to change the habits developed over the years.

Another reason for the poor swinging against live softball pitching is that batters see very little live pitching. Unlike baseball, where anyone can throw overhand with some heat, very few can throw a softball with speed. These players are not wasted on practice, they are saved for the game. It’s my observation that during the season most softball players see live pitching only in games. And this is probably more then they see during pre-season practice.

It’s my conclusion that batters are stymied by most live pitching and totally overwhelmed by good live pitching. One major problem is that they pick up the ball too late trying to figure out where it’s going to be- something they don’t have to do against a machine. So, being outclassed by the pitching, they instinctively dial back the swing to the minimum movements to get the bat on the ball.

Also, what passes for “hitting instruction” in softball teaches a minimum movement swing. This swing is only for contact, not for power.

It’s belief that softball is not dominated by good pitching, it’s dominated by poor hitting.

L L