Posted by: Teacherman () on Sun Jan 26 09:14:37 2003

I’m new to the forum and before I put out my question, in reading through the past answers, I’ve seen what I call the hard headed baseball types trying to tell the Fathers of daughters that there is no difference between fastpitch softball and baseball (I must confess I was one of those hard headed baseball types before I came involved in fastpitch, remember there are bad coaches in both sports). First of all the argument between linear and rotational was settled long ago in fastpitch. Because of the shorter distances (and testosterone) girls had to go to the rotational swing to have any chance in making contact,(with almost equal emphasis on women sports the development of pitchers in fastpitch is phenomenal). I have coached both baseball and softball for thirty years and fastpitch softball is a lot harder. A boy who is a gifted athlete can go a lot farther in baseball (even the majors) with poor mechanics. A girl with poor mechanics can’t make a good U-16 traveling team. Power hitters are easy to find but the little gal who can hardly hit the ball out of the infield but can consistently slap bunt from the left side will make the team every time. So for all those out there who think softball coaches are just trying to “protect their turf” you are doing an injustice to the Fathers who are trying to get their daughters prepared for top fastpitch softball.
> Having said all that, there is still a lot of disagreement on what role the hands play in the rotational swing. (Another topic that can be brought up at a later time is the difference between the grip that softball coaches teach and baseball)
> Theoretically if you take an ax instead of a bat and want the most power hitting that tree your top hand will be palm down and you don’t even (or can’t) roll your wrists. In swinging the bat obviously you have follow through which requires wrist turnover. Many coaches say if the palm is down you will pop up a lot. So give me some thoughts on hand position at time of contact and power vs. consistent contact. It might boil down to individual style.
> Thanks
> ps. Just looked at that compariable clip of softball and baseball- I think a whole book could be written on that- what a great clip!


Welcome to the site. Although I disagree on the first half of your post you ask some interesting questions.

Keep in mind that someone throws a ball and someone else needs to hit it. Whether the ball was thrown underhand or overhand is irrelevant. The size of the ball may make a difference but not much when trying to hit the center. In my opinion having played both at reasonably high levels (college baseball and 9th in nation fastpitch) they are almost identical. Yes we can argue the riseball but its just another pitch to lay off really. It is a "decision" thing not a swing thing. Your argument about boys going farther with less than good mechanics than girls is more boy/girl related than baseball/softball related. The boys have the strength to travel a farther distance with less than good mechanics.

Now, for the hands question. I believe palm up/palm down is the only way to hit. What are the other options? Vertical? In between? Rollover? You can't get it done with roll over. Why does palm down equal pop ups? You have to get the bat to match the plane of the pitch and palm up/palm down is the only way that makes any sense. How else can you have any idea where the barrel is when trying to get it to the ball?




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