Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Mon Jun 18 14:02:14 2001

I am not sure the swings are exactly the same. One of Mike Epstein's absolutes are that the plane of the swing matches the plane of the pitch. Since baseball pitches begin over the pitcher's head, while softball pitches come in from around knee level, one would conclude that baseball pitches come in with more downward movement. Therefore, I beleive the softball swing should be more level (to the ground)than a baseball swing, where a slight uppercut is preferrable.
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> I am hearing of more and more fastpitch players being taught to swing down into the ball ... Does anyone here see the need to hit fistpitch softball any different than baseball.
> > Jack, wouldnt the swings still be the same?

BsH-

One of the best answers ever to this question is from early '99 on Paul Nyman's website,and is still on the money.

www.setpro.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000025.html

The best power swing is as Jack describes here.The trajectories of pitches are often flatter in softball,but most are still dropping.Reaction time is about the same as for baseball.The ball is bigger and heavier.Groundballs are worth more in softball.
As Paul mentions due to lack of strength and lack of expeience most girls end up getting taught to compensate(usually the coach doesn't realize what they are teaching) for this with suboptimal mechanics.The usual idea is that using a downward arm swing will make better contact and produce grounders/low hits that will generate offense given the short basepaths.I don't believe the offensive stats bear this out,and I believe girls can be taught the power swing described here with better results.

Theoretically and practically,the swing described by Jack is quicker to the ball,more powerful,on the plane of the pitch longer and with less timing error.You can use a heavier bat without sacrificing much,if any batspeed.A heavier bat plus the fact that you are swinging on a matching plane imparts more energy to the ball at collision.Even if you use more of an upright axis,there should be some lift to the swing plane which gives excellent power that is just as effective if not more so than ground balls.

Most girls start to swing with their arms before the stride foot is down causing prmature extension of the hand path/lunging and the lineear mechanics Jack mentions.Making the transition to a rotational swing powered by torso turn and good transfer mechanics will require learning a new grip,keeping the hands back during the stride,then rotating around a stationary axis and keeping the hands in a circular path driven by torso turn,not the arms;and applying torque from initiation to contact.

A good way to start is to focus on crowding the plate and learning "bottom hand torque" for turning on the middle-in pitch.Pitchers are not used to getting beaten on the inside stuff.