Posted by: oleballcoach (jeffa@usxpress.com) on Wed Jan 4 08:28:36 2006

I think what Teacherman and others are trying to say is that with maximum quickness, there is a loss of speed and at top speed, there is a loss of quickness. What most major league players do is find their optimum "happy medium" between the two. To better illustrate the speed vs. quickness issue, take a look at high-level slow-pitch softball players such as Carl Rose, Ray Demarini, Bruce Meade, etc. All have swing speeds well in excess of 100 MPH and exhibit rotational mechanics, but their lack of quickness with their swing would prohibit them from hitting effectively at the MLB level(ie: they couldn't get around on a Randy Johnson fastball). Most top MLB hitters(Bonds, Sosa, etc.) have swing speeds in the 90's, but are much quicker from initiation to contact. However, they cannot hit a slow-pitch softball as far as the others mentioned without some modification of their swing mechanics to optimize pure speed over quickness.