Posted by: Frank Jessup () on Wed Jul 18 16:57:52 2001

Hello,
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> > I teach hitting for a girls fastpitch softball team. One of the problems we have is getting enough batting practice with live pitching. We don't want to wear out our pitchers in batting practice. But, they are the only ones who can pitch underhand with any speed and get the ball over the plate enought for a good practice session.
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> > But, there are a few people, including myself, who can throw strikes over hand. Do you think that pitching a softball over hand for batting pracice is good practice for softball hitters.
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> > I have been reluctant to try it. People tell me it will mess the girls up because they have to look at different place to pick up the ball. I am not I really accept this as a real problem.
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> > Others say that the overhand pitch is tacking down while the underhand pitch is tracking up and that this will affect the hitters percpective. This sounds like it could be a proplem but I dont know.
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> > What do you think?
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> > If you don't think it will work, why not?
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> > F J
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> >
> >
> FJ-
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> There's no substitute for live pitching.If you don't have enough pitchers,get closer and have coaches or others throw from behind a screen.You can usually get enough accuracy and the shorter distance is the equivalent of lots of velocity.

Tom,

Thanks for your reply. Are you saying that throwing overhand is not a good way to pratice for for softball? I am not sure I understand what you are saying.

F P