Posted by: Major Dan (markj89@charter.net) on Wed Jun 20 08:03:30 2001

Thanks to all that responded to my fastpitch question. Heres 1 other. Besides swinging down into the ball another style im hearing being taught is called the Flat Bat style. It seems to make sense to me. Maybe not for great power but in making contact for base hits. Your bat is held more parallel to the ground, which allows you to be on the same plane as the pitched ball with even less movement it seems than with the bat straight up.
> Its hard for me to describe but to those here that know fastpitch softball, im sure you have saw it...
> When used with this rotational therory taught here, it seems like it would work great .
>
> As I said im not looking for the homerun power that it seems is being mainly disscussed here, but strictly for basehits, line drives, making contact.
>
> Your thoughts on this style would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to Chuck Knoblach world . Actually, he puts the bat back in the slot before swinging (well, almost...).
I've seen a number of girls do this successfully during the HS season.
There was a post on Fast Pitch Forum about HS softball. THe poster said, in effect, that due to weaker pitching, etc. the level of play drops and dispite all your hard work, some lesser players will hit as well or better than you ['you' being someone who has worked on really good mechanics, put in the time, etc.]
However those players will not be able to deal with a higher level, won't make a dent at a tournament level, won't catch up to fast pitching.
But it can be frustrating when the 'tournament player' can't outperform the HS hackers...

I think the style you talk about IS effective up to a point. It lacks power and batspeed. It can't really deal with top level pitching. But it is simple and effective for putting balls in play up to the level that is doesn't work.
And once you hit the wall, you are done. You can't suddenly say, now we'll learn to hit correctly, relearn everything, reprogram the body, the reactions, etc.

You can't use THT, you lose an element of gravity assist (bat head picking up speed as it drops), etc. While it doesn't have to cause the problem, it can lead to a unit turn - whole body turning with bat that is even slower than hips, then [shoulders, arms, hands, bat as a unit].
That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it