Posted by: Shawn (bellshw2@aol.com) on Fri Aug 30 19:47:15 2002

John,
> When 'preloading', I have always taught my fp players to have the butt of the bat, pointed slightly towards the catcher, with the elbows down. But I have been challenged, stating that this will not work for girls, and that the butt of the head of the bat should be angled towards the catcher, almost flat. This was stated because their upper body is not as strong as a boy, so they need to have the bat head angled back, so it is a flat swing. HELP!!!!

Little Miller,

Only if the bat gets into the lag position smoothly, like the grace and beauty of Clemente.

Otherwise you must create all the power yourself. The way your describing the swing is mainly an arm swing. This swing cause and creates more problems than it solves.

The swing, wrists, start to release with bat head coming around the back shoulder and out of rotation. The lag position is a place where you can check the swing, stop from releasing the bat head.

This natural way of swinging, bat angle starts roughly at the same angle as the shoulders is 'superior' to the what your being told. And the superior fastpitch hitters do it the same way as the baseball hitters. There is no need to force the bat into the strike zone with a good swing.

No hitter laying the bat back can get the bat around or through the strike zone faster then the traditional (common sense swing) swing. You might find it easier to guide the bat to the ball, or punch the ball from your lag position. I have seen hitters such as Clemente who are a mixture of the two, but Clemente and others do it with grace and not some force position with the wrists uncocked.

There is no challenge, whoever served up this information to you doesn't know hitting, they only know gimmicks or band aids.

Shawn