Baseball swing vs. Softball swing?

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Oct 4, 2016
176
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Hey all - thanks for the advice yesterday with regards to my concern with my 10 yr old daughter's timing. I think as my daughter moves into a system with faster pitching and continued work with the suggested drills she will be fine.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post I am exposing her to a couple of different travel teams in the area and last night we went to a practice. During hitting drills the coach looked at my daughter's swing and asked me if she had played baseball before and I told him no. When he was talking with her he told her that, while her swing is good, she has a baseball swing and in softball it needs to be flatter through the zone. I didn't say anything but it didn't sound right based on what I've seen being discussed here. He said that because softball pitchers throw underhand and that the pitcher is so close and that you can't tell as easily what is being thrown you need to have the bat in the zone longer (i think). She went ahead and did her normal swings and hit pretty well - even against 50 mph (batting cages) after she caught up to it (it took about 20 pitches).

Anyway - she wasn't as interested in this team as another team she practiced with recently but I was just wondering if there's something I'm missing?

Thanks in advance again!
 
Last edited:
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Hey all - thanks for the advice yesterday with regards to my concern with my 10 yr old daughter's timing. I think as my daughter moves into a system with faster pitching and continued work with the suggested drills she will be fine.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post I am exposing her to a couple of different travel teams in the area and last night we went to a practice. During hitting drills the coach looked at my daughter's swing and asked me if she had played baseball before and I told him no. When he was talking with her he told her that, while her swing is good, she has a baseball swing and in softball it needs to be flatter through the zone. I didn't say anything but it didn't sound right based on what I've seen being discussed here. He said that because softball pitchers throw underhand and that the pitcher is so close and that you can't tell as easily what is being thrown you need to have the bat in the zone longer (i think). She went ahead and did her normal swings and hit pretty well - even against 50 mph (batting cages) after she caught up to it (it took about 20 pitches).

Anyway - she wasn't as interested in this team as another team she practiced with recently but I was just wondering if there's something I'm missing?

Thanks in advance again!

I am not an expert but I don't think this is correct. Just take a look at the model swing thread. Mechanically the best softball and baseball hitters do all of the important stuff pretty much the same. Plus his argument regarding reaction time is off I think since while in softball they are closer they are not throwing as hard (mid 70's vs. mid 90's for baseball).
 
May 17, 2012
2,803
113
The physics are the same in both sports. Just because you throw a ball underhand doesn't mean it can defy gravity.
 
Jun 22, 2008
3,731
113
Are they starting the softball swing vs baseball swing crap again? Cant hit a softball with a baseball swing was the rage 12-14 years ago right when my daughter was switching from baseball to softball.

Chelsie Mesa played 2 years at Phoenix College winning 2 Juco national championships and then played 2 years at UofA winning 2 D1 national championships. She was a great hitter and they did a frame by frame analysis of her swing vs pro baseball players and found them to be identical. Suddenly everyone was teaching baseball hitting techniques.
 
Oct 4, 2016
176
18
Are they starting the softball swing vs baseball swing crap again? Cant hit a softball with a baseball swing was the rage 12-14 years ago right when my daughter was switching from baseball to softball.

Chelsie Mesa played 2 years at Phoenix College winning 2 Juco national championships and then played 2 years at UofA winning 2 D1 national championships. She was a great hitter and they did a frame by frame analysis of her swing vs pro baseball players and found them to be identical. Suddenly everyone was teaching baseball hitting techniques.

Thanks - that's what I thought, old thinking. Not that my daughter has a perfect swing but I don't want somebody messing around with what she's being taught by her hitting coach.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
Yeah just another person who thinks they KNOW something when they have not actually studied anything.

A sound mechanical swing is just that baseball or softball.
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
He said that because softball pitchers throw underhand and that the pitcher is so close and that you can't tell as easily what is being thrown you need to have the bat in the zone longer (i think).

How does a flatter swing keep the bat in the zone longer?

I can understand the argument that the trajectory of a softball pitch is slightly less downward than a baseball pitch and therefore you want slightly less uppercut. Even though I believe that to be inconsequential, I can at least respect the logic. But I don't get how a flatter swing stays in the zone longer.
 

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