- Jan 24, 2011
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While I appreciate the gifs, I'm not sold on the thought of a softball swing being the same as a baseball swing. The reason the baseball swing has a steep upward arc is because of the physics involved in the pitching process. A pitcher, standing on a mound (which is 10" higher than the playing field), throws the ball overhand (approximately 2.5' higher than a softball pitcher throws) and the ball has a downward trajectory. Furthermore, offspeed pitches in baseball break down, increasing the degree of slope the batter is facing. Softball's offspeed pitches may break down, but may also rise, but in any case the ball is coming from about 3.5" lower than a pitched baseball. Using the same swing in both instances just doesn't make any sense.
I took my daughter to a hitting clinic at our university a couple years ago and the coaches were telling her things a little different than I had been teaching, so afterwards I asked the coach about what she was teaching and told her what I had been teaching at the time (essentially rotational hitting which I learned from a baseball coach). She looked at me with a pained expression when I said "squash the bug" and said, "umm...ya....don't do that. Baseball and softball swings are different."
About that time, I bought a couple books on softball. To make sure I wasn't mixing things up, I just pulled out Michelle Smith's "Coaches guide to Game Winning Softball Drills." Pg. 103: "Youth softball coaches often admonish their players to make a level swing when hitting the ball. A level swing starts with the bat in the proper launch mode (above the strike zone_ and is executed by swinging the bat down so that the bat is parallel to the ground and on the same plane as the ball. However, to compensate for the upward trajectory of most underhand pitches, the plane of the swing as the bat hits the ball is slightly downward. Keeping the bat in this power plane will help generate line drives. The downward power plane for fast-pitch softball contrasts with the slight upward motion for baseball; baseball's slightly upward power plane compensates fo the generally downward trajectory of a hardball dealt from a raised pitching mound."
I know this may come off as snippy, but it isn't meant to be.
Neither baseball players or softball players want to "squish the bug"