Posted by: Alan (alanlupinetti@msn.com) on Thu Apr 21 22:30:34 2005

> > Sirs-
> > After a few years of thinking this all over, I'd like to offer the following;
> > After doing the math, you'll find that the best college fastpitch pitchers throwing around 65 and in some cases a little faster compare with MLB pitchers (the mid to high 90's guys)as far as "reaction time" from release to the plate. Do the math yourself....it's very interesting & you won't have to take my word for it. With that given, obviously you're looking for the best technique to get the bat head to the ball and everything that the mind/body union has to do within the timeframe alotted. Again, given the "reaction time" is the same, and consider that the smaller baseball is traveling say 98 mph and the larger softball is travelling 68 mph....which one is harder for the eye to pick up and track??!!! Of course the baseball is much harder to see. Therefore, I content that the best, fastest swingers of a bat to a ball are MLB players since theier circumstance is harder to deal with. Therefore finally, I contend that their swings and approach to hitting is the best method to apply to softball as well. I know about all the fun stories about Jennie Finch striking out MLB players and such but if you gave those guys a little practice time to see that stuff and get a little more used to seeing where the pitch is coming from..........you'd have to outfit the entire defense in armour plate or someone would get killed! (by the way...I agree...let the rise ball fly & SIT ON SOMETHING THAT'S YOU & GO HACKIN')
> > Your Thoughts'
> > 7Trio
>
> 7Trio,
>
> I agree with you 100% that most mlb hitters would eventually kill 68 mph fast pitch pitches. Most would have to do very little to no swing adjustments. They just need reps.
>
> On the other hand, world class men’s fastpitch pitchers can throw the ball 80 to 85 mph. Plug in those numbers along with the fact that in fastpitch you have to cover both the up and down trajectory and then tell us who has the hardest circumstances to deal with. And don’t forget when they pitch, they jump at you and the ball is hid behind them so that when they release it, they are around 40 feet from you.
>
> Speaking from extensive experience, I can tell you it’s no contest.

I agree with both of you that given time to practice MLB hitters would hit fastpitch softball pitchers as well as they would major league pitchers. The only problem they need to overcome is the trajectory they need to get used to the release coming from down low (like a submarine type picth.

SBK makes a good point in that in the men's game reaction time is much less so it's like trying to hit around a 110 mph fastball. For this game the swing has to be dramatically shorter. So what tends to happen when men who have played fastpitch softball they tend to try and teach these same shorter quicker mechanics to the womens game. But why since 7trio pointed out womens fastpitch softball and mens fastpitch baseball reaction times are the same, can't they use the same type of swings. In fact, wouldn't the shorter quicker swings taught to women result in less power? Why shortchange by using this type of swing?