The Softball Bag

18 Responses to “Fastpitch Hitting Analysis – College Swing 1”

1. Estelewera Says:
   March 10th, 2009 at 3:14 am

   Great Video, If you need any help getting this video exposed I use a site called tubeviews.(net) It has really helped like 20 of my main videos get to the top in position. Its nice.

   i wish you the best

2. max66bhs Says:
   March 21st, 2009 at 10:42 pm

   The problem here is someone taught this girl rotational hitting. This is a very good example of the how Rotational hitting fails VS rise balls. There is no way you can swing up at a ball that moves upward. Stay on top of the ball or you will swing and miss or pop up. This guy actually says some good things, a lot better things than most. How do I know, 20 years of killing A-B-C men’s fast pitch pitching…where the throw it 85mph from 45 feet away…after they jump 15 feet and replant.

3. FastpitchTrainer Says:
   March 23rd, 2009 at 10:39 am

   So this ball is rising? Maybe you should check out the video response. The plane is obviously downward here. By the way, if you can find me video that actually shows a ball rising while it’s in the hitting zone, I’d love to see it. I’ve got tons of video, and haven’t seen one rise in the hitting zone yet. At best the ball stays flat.

4. max66bhs Says:
   March 23rd, 2009 at 9:03 pm

   I have seen riseballs that moved upward three times during the pitch. The upward swing, now called rotational hitting was created to hit HR’s in baseball, where they pitcher stands on a mound and throws over the top. Pick up Ted William book on hitting for a good example. Then pick up Charlie Lau’s book if you want to see a style that everyone, not just Ted can handle. With Charlies methods you will not hit 50 HR’s but you will hit .400 and you will not strike out 50% of the time.

5. LeNimph Says:
   April 1st, 2009 at 11:25 pm

   OMG THANKS she swings alot like ive been swinging,Iim currently working on fixing my swing and its really frustrating but watching it all in slow mo and getting a good idea of what she’s doing wrong and what Im doing wrong. My coach irritated me today though becuase I was under the ball today however when I got a hold of that ball it went i think the farthest Ive ever hit… then he told me to drop my elbow and… my swing was so weak… I dont know what to do ;-;

6. jidar Says:
   April 3rd, 2009 at 12:38 pm

   rise 3 times during a single pitch? Well if you’re going to make claims that violate physics I don’t see how anyone is going to be able to take you seriously. Anyway anyone reading your comment can watch this video can see that the ball isn’t rising so I don’t know who you’re trying to fool.

7. max66bhs Says:
   April 3rd, 2009 at 4:39 pm

   Physics aside, this girl swings under the pitch…which is the cardinal sin in Fast Pitch. The reason for this is simple, the relationship between her hands and the barrel of the bat is wrong. It is hard to explain 3 dimensions with words but this swing is based on rotational, baseball hitting, where in you swing up at the ball. This creates a loop in your swing which causes you to swing under any rising pitch, which is like 99% of the pitches you see in FP. I will post a video for you.

8. jidar Says:
   April 6th, 2009 at 8:52 am

   I know what a rotational swing is, and I’m not buying that. It looked me like the best fastpitch hitters in the olympics were rotational hitters, and Crystal Bustos in particular swings like a major leaguer and she’s probably the best fastpitch hitter alive. Front leg planted with all of her weight, rear foot coming up, body tilted forward, elbow 90 degrees, it’s all there. Seems to me the rotational guys are winning the debate just by results.

9. max66bhs Says:
   April 7th, 2009 at 8:47 pm

   Ms. Bustos swing in her own swing, in that she steps into the pitch but still ends up with her hands rapped around her head. As for results, go look at the list of 3000 hit guys in MLB then tell me how many of them hit rotationally. Regardless, this girl swings under the pitch because she is trying to swing up at a pitch that naturally rises. The end result is she misses. One who wants to hit FP well had better keep their hands/bat head above the pitch, especially when facing riseballs

10. LearnToTurn7 Says:
    April 14th, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    THIS ISN’T ROTATIONAL HITTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, it’s linear hitting, because, she lunged at the ball (didn’t stay back), squished the bug, and, kept her back hip from coming through, therefore she couldn’t catch up to a high pitch because her body lacked proper rotation. the rotational swing was designed to match the plane of the swing to the plane of the pitch, so since the ball naturally moves down, the swing must go up to match the pitch.

11. socra66 Says:
    April 25th, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    I’d like to see more than one cherry picked video of her swing. She’s obviously swinging late and trying to catch up with the ball. I would guess she has a pretty solid swing most of the time.
    I don’t understand the theory of swinging down on the ball. If you swing on the plane of the pitch, your bat has a much better chance of making contact. When swinging down, you only have one point in the swing where you can make contact with the pitch.

12. kramden21 Says:
    August 18th, 2010 at 1:47 am

    This ball is so obviously NOT rising. It is simply a high pitch. The batter made a bad, lunging swing at it, and missed it. It is a rotational swing, but it is bad… The hips move too slowly (the bat actually catches up to the hips when they are only 50% rotated) and she never gets the hips fully rotated anyway (MAYBE 70%). Why anyone used this swing to discuss hitting mechanics is beyond me.

13. Hittingcoach1 Says:
    December 19th, 2010 at 5:56 pm

    Biggest thing for me is after she heel plants she does not take everthing to the ball in one piece. The rear elbow and front elbow should remain the same distance atfer heel plant but her elbow catches up to her hands which is very bad. That set the bat drag and then the bending and lunging because of being very early on the pitch.

14. beeto11 Says:
    March 17th, 2011 at 12:36 am

    This girl simply collapsed her back end and opened up way too early…

15. kush2121 Says:
    June 4th, 2011 at 4:09 am

    This is a very good swing analysis video. I was brought in to help my cousin’s 16u team a few years ago when they were 14u as a hitting instructor. A couple girls on my team have a swing similar to this one, where the hand and bat just drag behind and the bat misses the plane of contact. I just wanted to thank you for your great video. I plan on using this video as part of my instruction.

16. MyPlatanero Says:
    June 8th, 2011 at 6:16 pm

    nice job, I got to send you a video of my kid,

17. hammer3061 Says:
    June 25th, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    What everyone is forgetting is this, ITS THEIR SWING THAT THEY ARE CONFIDENT WITH. That being said, my daughter has had a hitting coach the last 3 years in the rotational theory. Her hitting has gone through the roof. But, it has a lot to do with the facf that the confidence in the swing is in her mind. There are so many great hitters with different swings and swing thoughts that you cant count. Let the hitters find what works for them, and they feel confident, and let them go.

18. MarkH45 Says:
    July 14th, 2011 at 11:19 pm

    @max66bhs Rotational, linear whatever. Here’s a label. This swing is slow and sloppy whatever you want to call it and the commentary is the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Always compare anything anyone tells you about hitting to slow motion video of the best in the world. A collection of same for females can be found by googling siggys hitting clips.