Posted by: Pat A () on Thu Sep 5 17:03:11 2002

I was wonder what yourthoughts were on the agrument that a softball swing and baseball swing are different. I have heard many differetn approached to this and would like to hear your opinion!
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> Curious,
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> The difference non-existent. I think that softball people want to "think" that softball is different because they don't want baseball people to be experts in "their game."
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> You will find that in softball there are many silly notions that people believe with out any factual bases. A few are: crush the bug, elbow up, stop the hands and whip the bat, the rise ball. Softball people believe this stuff and you can't change their mind. Especially the one about the rise ball.
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> F. J.


I was reading an old dicussion on this board, a rather lively discussion about wether or not the rise ball is possible. I attended a players clinic at USF a few years back, Michelle Smith was one of the clinicians. At the end of the clinic she demonstrated some of her pitches, including her rise ball. She keeps the rise down, it appeared that she located the pitch no higher than belly level. Her catcher was a player recently drafted by the Tampa Bay Firestyx. Of the three or four she threw, two of them completely fooled this catcher, both glanced of the top of her mitt and went to the backstop. I too am sceptical, but still.....
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