Posted by: tom.guerry (tom.guerry@kp.org) on Wed Jun 20 11:01:26 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.

Bsh-

The flat bat style is effective for some things.It was popularized on vdeo by Tim Timmons.Knowing what we know now from the work of people like Jack and Paul Nyman,it can be an effective way for kids to experience a circular hand path and suppress unwanted arm action/premature extension.Kids keep the bat level on theshoulder and initiate the swing with hip/torso turn.If this is also the riht plane for the pitch,they occasionally get quite good power(especially effective for beginners in the pure riseball era).There is poor posture plane adjustment,however,so the usefulness of this technique is very limite.It is most important to have the bat on plane at initiation.Look at where the bat is when the front foot comes down and torso turn starts the hands forward.Ideally,the bat should be lining up with the lead arm which should be in the plane matching the trajectory of the pitch due to posture adjustment(bend at waist/lean back).Flat bat is ok for high pitch.Vertical bat for lowpitch.Many players have it flat in the stance,but where is it at launch?

Keeping the arms under control and maintaining the circular handpath is necessary for the body to rotate around a stationary axis,otherwise the hand/batpath will cause lunging.This is why Mike Epstein teaches lower body mechanics with the bat resting on the back upper arm.This is a much better way to accomplish the useful part of the flat bat drill/style.