For those analyzing BB swings for a reference to hit in FP

[radness]

Re-posts of good stuff !

 

[Bobby Shirer]

I'm saying you dont swing at pitches out of the strike zone. I could throw a pitch up to the roof and the angle would be 90 deg, and I'm not going to PRACTICE swinging at that. We shouldn't practice swinging at balls in the dirt either.

We have to concern ourselves with how to practice swinging at pitches coming in at a downward angle of 7-8 for fastpitch, or 8-9 for baseball. You should be using a bat launch angle of 20-30 deg to get the ball to go out of the infield. If you use zero launch angle (flat) or downward, the ball distance cant reach 50 feet.

Your kid's biggest enemy is time. Don't waste time on things that are counterproductive, or destructive.

I'm here to help. I've been doing this a long time. I don't make money doing this, not an instructor, or an Instagram star.

Maybe not exactly a 20 to 30 degree attack angle which would reduce the available contact range due to misaligned planes. How about make contact with the ball low of center to create a positive launch angle. As a plus, that low of center contact will also produce backspin without the negative effects of swinging down (misaligned planes again)

 

[radness]

Re-posts of good stuff !

 

[BigSkyHi]

1st time ever seeing this gent analyze or this lady hit. He says a lot about discussions in this thread and she rakes .

- Abbey Cheek Swing Breakdown

 

[FP26]

1st time ever seeing this gent analyze or this lady hit. He says a lot about discussions in this thread and she rakes .

- Abbey Cheek Swing Breakdown

Nice video! Thanks for sharing. She did a nice job of keeping her hands in on a pitch that was middle-in. Her position at contact reminds me of "hit on the right side of your body". Even with the location of that pitch, she did not need to bring her hands across her body. Very tight.

 

[radness]

1st time ever seeing this gent analyze or this lady hit. He says a lot about discussions in this thread and she rakes .

- Abbey Cheek Swing Breakdown

EXCELLENT video!
Great cue's about fastpitch with details!

Thanks for posting BigSkyHi !

 

[Quasimodo]

Now, I see people confused as to the ability to use the same mechanics to hit both sports as being swing plane. Regardless of sport, you have to take a basic swing mechanics and adjust to all planes in a swing. A swing that lacks "adjustibility" (I know that isn't a word.) is what you see at the most basic level of tee ball. When I coach about the use of the core, the concept of "connection" as it applies to both the hands/shoulder relationship and the relationship of what the body does when the front heel hits, is exactly the same. The whole notion that MLB players couldn't hit ... is nonsense. Given the time and practice, they would be better than pretty much everyone at hitting the softball. The vast majority of the best FP male players in this country started out as baseball players. The learned how to adjust. Well, these are my opinions. My opinion and roughly $7.50 will get you an extra value meal at Micky Ds. Oh, and yes, I did play both. Baseball to college and FP with four guys who ended up in the State of Illinois ASA FP Hall of Fame.

Adjustability is a word, you just spelled it wrong, which we all do.
Maybe the correct term is "approach"? Baseball wants the swing plane at about +13 degrees, requiring a different swing approach. A high back elbow is an almost certain ticket to failure in fastpitch. As I stated, our Princess of softball here is a total failure on any pitch above mid-thigh. She has the slightly exaggerated baseball swing. But she can hit a ball at her ankles. No one has ever told me to hit with a +13 degree swing path. What I teach all players is as follows, minus the high back elbow and assumptions of a the 11-13 degree uppercut:

The back knee starts the swing while the shoulders tilt to deliver the bat path on the assumed flight path of the pitch. The bat head is in lag position until the elbow comes to slot at the hip. The bat head enters the strike-zone as far back as, or preferably behind the back leg on the path of the pitch. Short to the path of the ball, long through the ball. Extend on that plane as long as possible,

Now isn't that the theory pretty much in baseball? So what we have really been arguing is that the swings are the same, but in fact they are adjusted to each variant of the game. And yes, any baseball player given time could learn to hit it, and learn to hit it further than the women. But that is a teenage boy's argument, and I'm disinterested. Men and women are different, but women can be just as skilled if not more so. They do not have the biceps or upper body strength to cheat the skill or the time to be lazy.

Lastly it is not about the theory that men can not hit women fastpitch pitchers. The women could not hit the better baseball pitchers. In truth the women couldn't hit the top men's fastpitch pitchers. In truth women find it hard to hit Ueno and Abbott. If everything was equal, they could perform on the same plane. Skill and performance are related, but not the same. Everyone here says their goal is to promote the woman's/girl's game, which is what the women pitching to the MLB players was/is all about. But then the macho hormones show up! What I would ask is, is everyone here to promote and learn, or "one-up"? This isn't about you Cannonball, but about this thread in general. You are comparing apples to oranges. The idea that women strike out MLB players was and is about the difference in the sports and the approach,, not genders.

 

[Quasimodo]

60 feet vs 90 ft.?
Ever watch men's slow pitch with 65 ft. bases?

actually as a former fastpitch player for 27 years, I would have to take pain relievers to ever watch a slow-pitch game. No offense, that's just me! I never played baseball after age 13. At 14 I was playing men's fastpitch.

 

[Quasimodo]

Not so! I do not, can not, effectively teach a low-rise-ball. But I have a pitcher on the National team that does. At no point does the pitch have an arc that is less than 90 degrees. It is truly continuously to the mitt, gaining on the parallel plane. I have a left-handed pitcher that throws a rise-curve up and in on right-handed batters especially, but also against power lefties. Her pitch is almost always called a strike if no swing. She has command! The righty isn't quite up to speed, but her rise-curve at times is in the strike-zone, sometimes above. But still the purpose of a rise-ball isn't to make it easy to hit, but impossible to hit! Hence the majority are thrown out of the strike-zone. There are screw-balls that are often thrown without any drop.

 

[Quasimodo]

I'm saying you dont swing at pitches out of the strike zone. I could throw a pitch up to the roof and the angle would be 90 deg, and I'm not going to PRACTICE swinging at that. We shouldn't practice swinging at balls in the dirt either.

We have to concern ourselves with how to practice swinging at pitches coming in at a downward angle of 7-8 for fastpitch, or 8-9 for baseball. You should be using a bat launch angle of 20-30 deg to get the ball to go out of the infield. If you use zero launch angle (flat) or downward, the ball distance cant reach 50 feet.

Your kid's biggest enemy is time. Don't waste time on things that are counterproductive, or destructive.

I'm here to help. I've been doing this a long time. I don't make money doing this, not an instructor, or an Instagram star.

Actually the ideal line drive angle is 11-13 degrees. The only coach I have ever heard coach his players to swing at a ball is here in the Philippines. No other in 46 years of coaching. I never heard a national team player from anywhere say, I just missed that pitch out of the strike-zone. Love those pitches over my head! They swing at bad pitches not through coaching but through illusion. The pitch isn't where they expected it to be because of movement.