Model swings

[FiveFrameSwing]

Loving The Game Mendoza Style:

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Team USA's Natasha Watley, 2010 World Cup, Single vs Japan (2nd Japan game):

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Team Canada's Melanie Matthews, 2010 World Cup, Double (2nd game vs USA):

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Team Canada's Caitlin Lever, 2010 World Cup, Double (2nd game vs USA):

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Team Canada's Jennifer Yee, 2010 World Cup, HR (2nd game vs USA):

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Team USA's Jessica Mendoza, 2010 World Cup, RBI Single on a Change-Up (Championship Game):

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Team USA's Andrea Duran, 2010 World Cup, Bunt Single (Championship Game):

 

[jd29]

Great adjustment with hands to hit the ball

You are cracking me up!

We never see AP or Manny in anything less than a perfect swing! Nice to see the human side of females and the arrogance of some that try to exploit it in my opinion.

Well at least she hit the ball! LOL!

She made a great adjustment with her hands to hit the ball well - thats what good hitters do - the ball was farther away from her than expected and she adjusted her hands to hit the ball on the nose - you get the barrell on the ball and it'll do the work

 

[jd29]

Great Swing on a tough pitch to hit

She makes a VERY late adjustment to this extremely challenging pitch.


Scholarship. National championship ring, quite possibly for the second year in a row.

The swing is adequate.

It's true she won't be playing in MLB (Or "HLBB," or whatever other ridiculous acronym is the elitist, agenda-driven mantra slam-du-jour being tossed around by about 10 guys frequenting one hitting site).

If the swing was way BEYOND adequate, she still wouldn't be playing in MLB.

It's also almost certainly true that she has achieved everything out of softball that she has ever dreamed of, what with a free education and being a national champion and all.


This swing is probably not even representative, because it was a ridiculous pitch to even swing at. But she got a double.

Since Yogi Berra, I haven't seen many men EVER hit this pitch. Including those that certain agenda-laden posters would indicate have "early batspeed and late adjustability." I've seen a lot of them swing at it and miss, though. Not that "early batspeed and late adjustability" would necessarily e a bad thing. Agendas are bad, though.


It seems to me that a more reasonable - and certainly more productive - approach would be to determine what it is that Smith is doing RIGHT that enables her to record a 2-RBI double off a pitch like this against the 7-0 Michelle Gasciogne (a former member of the Sorcerers, BTW, and a girl I actually have given hitting lessons to in the past, when she routinely batted as well as pitched). And doing it in a Super Regional elimination game at that. What is Smith doing RIGHT that enabled her to hit .286 in the Pac10 with a .714 sluggiung percentage? What is she doing RIGHT that earned her a scholarship, and at least one national championship ring?

What is less reasonable is to dismiss her swing as second-rate, or for that matter, to compare it dismissively to one of the 400 best male swings in the world.

If you REALLY want to make that point (and it is hard to imagine why you would, but again, agendas are funny things), compare it to a 19 YO male, not a 30 YO one. Because the 38 YO Manny's swing didn't look like the 19 YHO Manny's swing, either.


That's not to say there isn't a place for pointing out what it is that hitters could do better. Obviously, there is value to that. However, dismissing an obviously successful approach as woefully inadequate is ridiculous. IT is the ultimate in hubris, and smacks of agenda and snobbery.


This forum and others like it would be much more valuable if the baseline was to accentuate the positive, then talk about refinement. It would be more valuable if the people railing on about hitter deficiencies actually worked with hitters. How ANYONE gets a pass on that is absolutely beyond me, because it is ludicrous. It would be more valuable iof the average sized and / or not particularly athletically gifted hitter who is having success was looked at in that light, then examined to determine WHY she is having success. Because very few of us are the parent of - or working with - hitters who are bury-the-needle athletically gifted, like an MLB hitter. And yet, many of us have had the joy of seeing our hitter(s) reach a very high level in the game.

Like Smith.

Which is absolutely what it is about. Or should be.

She swung at a very tough ptich to hit and did a great job of getting the barrel to the ball by keeping her hands inside the ball - most people would have swung and missed this pitch - this video is not an ideal swing because the pitch is way up and in -

 

[jd29]

this girl has an open stance - why would you throw her inside - notice the lack of follow thru or "finish" on the batters part