Posted by: Mark H. () on Sun Jun 23 10:08:45 2002

In northern Ohio, and trhoughout babseball camps. Baseball are taught a 1)turn 2)stride) 3)rotate 1) your lead foot turns slightly inward along with your inner thigh. this cocks your swings, bring it in, ready to explode 2) the stride is short and towards the pitcher 3) rotate, trun your hips, hands to the ball, squash the bug follow through.
> > > > question- I have not seen the frist step (turn) taught in fastpitch softball...is there a reason? Do you think this step would help girls hit better? more power? what do you think? I was always taught...turn..stride..rotate....
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> > > >>Yes it would help in softball,but it seems the softball idea is to make everything as short as possible to catch up to it.However the mind set is that shorter linear is quicker.Your comments are some what on track yet the hip rotation should then be followed by shoulder rotation that brings the hands and bat around that is the reason for the inward turn and walking away from the upper body to get the tight linkage as jack would say.
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> > To the person who wrote the above post, where on this site or any where else does Jack say that the hips should trun first followed by the shoulders??
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> > To the person who started this thread, let me understand, you teach playwers what they should be doing with their "inner" thigh? Not their leg, not their thigh, but their inner thigh?
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> > Pssst, guess what, they arent listening too you.
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> > By the way, "crushing the bug" was a silly idea when it was first presented and most knowledgable people don't use it any more.
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> > F. J.
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> The step will help the girls hit with more power. My daughters (14 &15 yrs old) have used the batspeed mechanics and they have both dramatically improved their power. One thing I have noticed is they take less of a stride and I think this is because they are no longer trying to drive their hands straight out (linear) at the pitcher.
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> Concerning the quicker to catch up theory you've probably talked to all the "old school" coaches who push the girls up into the front of the box to cut down the movement. If you can't get around on the ball you are better off to move back a little and use the same mechanics and batspeed to time the ball and hit at the correct spot in the swing. What other people would tell you to do is just speed up yopur swing (in a sense over swinging)which is detrimental to swing accuracy. But I could just be rambling on, so I'll give you a real experience to support my theory.
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> In the ASA 16U national finals last year the Case Batbusters team was facing a pitcher who threw smoke with a wicked rize and drop. Their first 6 batters had one weak grounder and 5 strikeouts. They realized this wasn't working and instructed their girls to move all the way back in the box (the coach is a personal friend of mine and related this story to me). Now conventional thinking would say bad move they will get killed with the movement, but guess what happened. Moving back gave them more time and a better look at the ball as it rose and dropped out of the strike zone for balls. Then the pitcher had to bring it in the strike zone and they crushed her. Suffice it to say they won the national title and beat on this pitcher like never before.

Baseball and Softball are games of adjustments. The hitters in your example made an adjustment and the pitcher was unprepared with a response. She lost. As far as up in the box or back, I would say it depends. Make an adjustment and see what happens. I'll tell you a story of my own. Was watching a pitcher who REALLY had her drop working that day. Opposing coach had his hitters move back in the box trying to help them lay off of it. Ump kept calling it a strike as it crossed the front of the plate knee high. Bottom line for pitchers is, they need to be able to throw all their pitches for a called strike and still be able to make the hitters miss or make poor contact. Bottom line for hitters, pitchers and coaches is, they need to have that next adjustment in mind and ready when the other coach makes his adjustment.