Posted by: (Joe A) on Mon Oct 1 05:58:57 2001

Tom,I believe you are adept at the softball swing so I look to you.I have friends that coach hs softball and say the softball swing has to be straight to the ball since there is not enough time for chp before ball is on you.I mentioned that Jack has said there are less frames on film in chp therefore quicker and show how the hands travel further in linear swing,but they say their team hits 340 and there way is only one that works all over the country.Do you have any info I could use that suggests other teams hit different with success or are they right.

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> There is a LONG thread in Fastpitch Forum covering this subject in which Tom and many others offered their views. The thread is titled "Hmmm... critiquing swings". You can find it in the batting conference. The website is:
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> http://compchat.com:8080/~1/login

To Whom Ever,

Don't beleive everyting you hear about softball. The game is populated by people who don't know the game or are one sided in favor of one of the teams. Here's are some examples.

A person keeping score gave a player an error because she DIDN'T throw the ball. The socrer thought the runner could have been out and so not throwing was an error.

A scorer for one team gave her hitters a hit no matter how they got on base.

A coach once told me that his team had a team batting average of 500 and that his daugher's average was 350. I said that she is not one of the better hitters and he said shes one of the top three. Huh?

The idea of swinging directly to the ball from the stance position is what I call a "contact" swing. The theory behing a contact swing is that by reducing mechanics to the least amount of movement possible the batter can make more contact. Which is probably true. But the result is very weak hits. Usually the batter hits the ball to the same place the same way. One girl who uses this method hits a weak ground ball to the shortstop 8 out of ten times. Balls hit in the air are usually soft pop ups.

Most coaches in softball want ground balls because they are more difficult to play. A ground ball must be caught, thrown and caught again. A ball in the air just needs to be caught. This brings into play another reason for swinging straight down for the stance position. The downward path of the bat causes mostly ground balls.


You should also know that most coaches don't know what they are talking about especially when it comes to hitting. Look at Mike Candrea's vedio called "Hitting Mechanics" its a joke and he is supposed to be one of the top college coaches in the country.

I would bet that the only players who can hit 350 using a may be one or two in each league. Other wise there I dont think there are any 350 players, I know there are no teams hitting 350 using this method.

The adjustments that have to be made for softball are minor. I wouild teach anyone the "contact' method.

Joe A.