2 strike swing

[Wellphyt]

How do you feel about swinging inside out, back through the middle, with a 90' contact angle with less than two strikes?

I found that Epstein's material basically teaches the 90 degree contact swing on all swings. I credit Epstein's material for my DD's tight hand path. Every girl that I've worked with that has done lots of swings from Epstein's "Torque" drill, has a tight hand path and can hit the inside pitch. Three of the girls I've worked with played on our HS team this past season. You can pick out these girls from the rest of the team based on their hand path. They all have tight hand paths and can hit the inside pitch really well. During a HS game last season, one of the girls who did a lot of "Torque" drill swings gets an inside pitch. She turns on it and hits a shot to left field. One of the parents blurts out, "wow, she really pulled her hands in on that one". Of course the batter really didn't pull in her hands. She starts with a tight hand path and adjusts from there. As slaught says; you want to prepare to hit the pitch up and in; which requires the tightest hand path of any pitch location; and you naturally release the angles in your elbows and wrist on pitches away.

With less than two strikes Williams' philosophy was to try for the pulled line drive in advantageous counts. His feeling was that a pulled line drive 380 feet was a HR in most ball parks. I'm a hitting nut, so I work on some of this stuff with my DD. Sometimes in the cages, I will give her a count and have her adjust her approach based on the count. She tries for a pulled line drive if I give her a count like 2-0 or 3-1, and she tries to inside out the ball if I give her a 0-2 or 1-2 type count. The pulled line drive is kind of the opposite of the inside out swing, because with the pulled line drive you are trying to get the arms a little more extended at contact. I'm not sure if shooting for a pulled line drive applies in FP because it seems like a lot of the fields we play on are the same distance to all fields. Not sure about the college fields. I do think in my DD's case, giving her the thought of going for a pulled line drive in counts where the pitcher has to come in with it, helps her to really tee off with her swing. She's gets a little more aggressive, which is kind of the point when you get ahead in the count.

It seems like every one of the better college teams has a pitcher that can throw 68-70 miles per hour, so a tight inside out swing on every swing might be the way to go. Ted mentions shortening up a little and trying to be quicker against really fast pitchers. He used a vertical bat handset, but once in a while if he were facing a really fast pitcher, he would flatten the barrel out a little in his stance and think about getting more on top of the ball. Getting more on top of the ball is another way of saying keep a tight hand path.

I've never hit against a pitcher throwing 70mph from 45 feet, so I try and teach my DD the basic concepts that Ted talks about in "TSOH", and then leave it up to her to decide what she wants to do with the information. I've found that a lot of the girls are smarter than we sometimes give them credit for. When I'm coaching during a game, I over hear some of the girls saying stuff that clearly indicates they are thinking and making adjustments from one at bat to the next; and the better ones will make adjustments in the middle of an at bat.

 

[Wellphyt]

I don't really want to get into right now because it gets pretty technical, but in "TSOH" Ted gets into the physics of why the 90 degree contact swing increases the chances of getting the joy spot of the bat on the joy spot of the ball. It basically has to do with the angle of the barrel relative to the ball.

The important thing to know is that the 90 degree contact swing, exposes more of the barrel's sweet spot to the ball, which increases the batter's chances of hitting the ball with the sweet spot of the barrel.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Just to throw this out there to make you think! How did the baseball players do against Jenni Finch pitching from 43 feet! Would pitching make a difference is softball over baseball. Are the bats different and how you use them wood vs composite ? Be careful when you read what someone did in one sport and not look at how each are played.

 

[baller]

Choking up, along with shorter stride will help make more consistent contact. Also might want to try the Split Grip.

 

[nanotech14]

Just to throw this out there to make you think! How did the baseball players do against Jenni Finch pitching from 43 feet! Would pitching make a difference is softball over baseball. Are the bats different and how you use them wood vs composite ? Be careful when you read what someone did in one sport and not look at how each are played.

I know what your saying and it is a good point.My 2 favorite batters are Pujols and Megan Bush ,swings almost the same ,of course as you know one baseball and one softball,but almost the same swing.So what way is the best,IMO it just depends on the player.Planning on going to watch Megan this year in Akron.

 

[Greenmonsters]

Just to throw this out there to make you think! How did the baseball players do against Jenni Finch pitching from 43 feet! Would pitching make a difference is softball over baseball. Are the bats different and how you use them wood vs composite ? Be careful when you read what someone did in one sport and not look at how each are played.

C'mon SBF, you don't think they'd hit her at all if they had a chance to practice a little and get used to the different timing and release point?!

 

[Mr T]

I don't really want to get into right now because it gets pretty technical, but in "TSOH" Ted gets into the physics of why the 90 degree contact swing increases the chances of getting the joy spot of the bat on the joy spot of the ball. It basically has to do with the angle of the barrel relative to the ball.

The important thing to know is that the 90 degree contact swing, exposes more of the barrel's sweet spot to the ball, which increases the batter's chances of hitting the ball with the sweet spot of the barrel.

I'm quite familiar with Ted Williams, TSoH, and the physics of hitting. I found your two strike advice more of a chance to recount Ted Williams lore than something that is useful for 2 strike hitting in softball. Trying to pull line drives is a very misguided approach in my opinion.

 

[Bouldersdad]

We teach attack mode. Something along the lines of what Screwball posted but it isn't a slap. Bustos talks about it in her camps.
Howard Carrier has taught it for years. Tim's dd ( Boulderdad ) is a master at it. I think her swing is posted on this site.

I would prefer the name.... Grand Potentate of 12 oz curls myself. Howard is the inventor of what we as Lemmings would call the attack mode or pre load. I am still trying to snatch the pebble from his hand. I loved the phrase attack on 2 strike count which is aggressive in nature compared to what we always heard which is protect the plate on 2 strike count which is a defensive mentality.

Tim

 

[Jim]

Albert Pujols anticipates the pitcher's mistake with two strikes. He looks for the mistake pitch in the middle of the zone and looks to drive the ball over the first baseman's head.

Looking for the mistake helps to keep him from trying to cover too big of an area which leads to chasing balls out of the zone. Having a line drive approach over the first baseman's head keeps his swing on the off-speed pitches.

Edgar Martinez used to look for fastballs inside and at the same time he'd look to hit everything to the opposite field. This got him ready for fastballs and kept his swing on the off-speed.

Jason Kendall shrunk his zone down with two strikes because he figured out that he chased out of the zone too much when he expanded his zone.

Everyone needs to work out their own way of hitting with two strikes based on what type of hitter they are and what works for them.

The Major League batting average with two strikes in the count is .190 The Major League batting average with less than two strikes in the count is .325

My advice is this... Don't miss the pitches that you should hammer that are early in the count.

 

[Wellphyt]

I'm quite familiar with Ted Williams, TSoH, and the physics of hitting. I found your two strike advice more of a chance to recount Ted Williams lore than something that is useful for 2 strike hitting in softball. Trying to pull line drives is a very misguided approach in my opinion.

IMO the 90 degree contact swing advocated by Williams is very useful for 2 strike hitting in softball. Teaching players a swing that allows them to wait a little longer and hit to the opposite field inspires confidence with two strikes. A hitter isn't likely to drive the inside pitch over the right center field fence with the 90 degree contact swing, but they do have a fair chance of making solid contact and possibly sneaking one through up the middle, or getting one to drop in over the opposite fielder's heads.

Most people I talk hitting with, agree that the best way to hit the inside pitch hard is to make contact out in front of the lead knee. That's the idea behind the pulled line drive. The idea is to get some extension into contact in order to drive the ball.

We played a two day tournament this past weekend. In one game we have a situation with runners on 2nd and 3rd, two out, and the score 0-0. The batter before my DD had just struck out. Had the previous batter not struck out, and my DD came to the plate with a runner on 3rd and less than two outs, she would go to the plate with a plan to hit something on the ground to the right side to score the run. Especially in a 0-0 game. She would not in any way be thinking about pulling the ball.

So now she comes to the plate with runners on 2nd and 3rd and two out. The only way she can score the runner from 3rd is to get a hit. Trying to just put the ball in play with two out against 16U "A" players, hoping they will make a bad throw or drop the ball is IMO a really bad strategy. The players are too good. Sure it can happen, but it doesn't happen very often. She gets ahead in the count 2-1. What would you have her do? The pitcher has runners on 2nd and 3rd and the coach on the bucket calling pitches does not want to load the bases. My DD is the smallest player on the team at 5'-5" 125lbs. The girl on deck is about 5'-8" 150lbs. They are not going to pitch around my DD. Sure enough they came right in with it middle-half-in and she jumps all over it sending it 197 feet (200 foot fence) directly over the left fielders head for a double. The pulled line drive concept is about looking for a middle-half-in pitch to drive when the pitcher has to come in with it. It's about knowing the situation and being a smart hitter. In the right situation I believe it's one of several approaches that hitters need to have in their arsenal when they go to the plate.

Her next at bat with a runner on second they pitch around her and she walks