Posted by: Bob (bob@midwestpetro.com) on Fri Jan 10 13:22:36 2003

I think you need to get your daughter in a competitive softball league as soon as possible. Pitching a softball uses completely different mechanics than tpitching a baseball.

Because the arm comes from a completely different position than baseball, pitchers are able to make the ball move in many more angles than a baseball pitcher. For instance, softball pitchers are able to pitch rise balls. A girl that uses a typical baseball swing will never be able to hit that pitch. Since her natural motion is to "lift" the ball with her swing, she will always be swinging underneath the pitch. The end result is that if she hits the pitch at all, she will pop it up. We actually teach our girls to use an rotate the back shoulder "over the top" rather than dropping it down. This is completely opposite of a conventional baseball swing. However, if the pitching is different, the hitting must adjust.