Fastpitch Softball Hitting
This is part 3 of our 4 part series on understanding the differences between rotational and linear hitting. In this part of the series we're going to address the common perception that the linear swing produces weak hitters.
While I'm  not sure that I agree with that classification, the goal of this series as we outlined in the beginning is to break this down so it's easier to understand, and less like taking a physics course. Additionally, so that we're not coming from a place of all knowing, like the great and powerful Oz we're going to let other fastpitch softball hitting articles do some of the talking for us and simply ask the questions that you may ask.

Let's make something very clear, their isn't a hitting instructor out there that doesn't have the best intentions for your hitter. However, many of these hitting instructors want to tell you their way is the only way and have drawn lines in the sand, be it rotational or linear and are less willing to approach the other side with an open mind regarding the fastpitch softball swing. Is it ego driven? Probably not as much as sales (hitting lesson) driven, but I'm sure ego is embedded in there somewhere.

As many of you are fully aware, as you dig deeper into your wallet, Fastpitch Softball hitting lessons have become a decent business for some. So why has the rotational instruction become all the rave? One word; "POWER." You see, they want to tell you that the linear approach is a much weaker, more of a contact approach and then they'll show you some pictures of Major League Baseball players to justify what they're telling you. We'll do the same, but from a different perspective.

Please understand we're not taking sides at this point, just trying to give you a comparison.

Doing the unthinkable
That being said we're going to offer links to two instructors, Mike Epstein and Chris O'Leary.  Mike Epstein in my opinion is the fairest out there, and considered by many to be the author of the rotational swing. Chris O'Leary seems to pop up in most searches as it relates to Rotational Hitting.  If you're purely a Basbeall player looking for a debate, stop reading this article now and go read everything Epstein has to say! If you're a baseball player that is teaching girls to hit fastpitch softball keep reading!
Yes, I'm a fan of Epstein as it relates to baseball, however I'm not completely sold on his opinions as it relates to Fastpitch softball, which I'll explain before we wrap up this series. Like Epstein is his era of Baseball, we too in our era of Men's Fastpitch Softball saw the best pitching that the world had to offer, which allows us to speak from the relative experience to the respective game, rather than theorize.

It's About you!
You might be asking; "why would they even consider sending me away from their site?"  Because this isn't about us, it's about you!  And giving you the complete understanding on improving your game is paramount!

We're confident that by doing this you'll gain a better understanding of why what we're teaching leads to greater success on the softball field for all hitters. Just keep in mind as you go back and forth between our site and theirs that Apples need to be compared with Apples and Oranges need to be compared with Oranges. Baseball Swings and Softball Swings are "swings" just like an Apple and an Orange are "fruit" but they're both just a little different. The two pictures below truly do speak a thousand words in support of this in regards to linear and rotational swing planes. The Picture on the left shows the release points of both the baseball and softball pitcher and the picture on the right is a simple illustration of a strike zone. Notice the dotted line across the middle of the zone, this represents the High Strike in baseball , where level 2 represents the High Strike in fastpitch softball. In part four of this series we'll explain the importance of  both these pictures in detail.

So what are you saying about my Linear Swing?
Let's continue by looking at the main focal point that the rotational folks say about the linear swing; Linear hitters take a direct hand path to the ball, don't rotate through with their core muscles, hips and shoulders the way a rotational hitter does and consistently will not generate bat head (or barrel) speed, due to it being more of a hand, arm and wrist approach. Additionally linear hitters swing down into the ball hitting more grounders than line drives. They also like to use Major League Baseball players as an example to support their theories for fastpitch softball,  so in fairness I will too.
Below you'll find 5 pictures of the lower half's of Major League Players, all destined for the Hall of Fame. All seem to have the lower part of their body involved, torquing or rotating in the swing. Which are the rotational hitters and which are considered the more linear hitters? None of them seem to be squishing a bug with their back foot, all seem to be working against a strong front side, all seem to have generated a forward (yes linear) weight shift, so which 2 are rotational?

You see how easily one can skew their story to make it say what they want? To the inexperienced eye all of these hitters are in similar positions. Looking at the pictures from left to right you'll see George Brett in picture 2 look every bit like Albert Pujols in picture 1, Rod Carew in picture 5 and Tony Gwynn in picture 3 show similarities to Barry Bonds in picture 4.  The 3 "so called" more linear hitters have over 9000 combined hits, so somewhere along the line (no pun intended) they found a way to get their bats on line and into the zone and keep it there long enough to get them to the MLB Hall of Fame. Yeah, but, Bonds has more home runs then all 3 of them combined the rotational instructors are all yelling at their computer screens right now!
You're right! But, are all of your Fastpitch Softball students Home Run Hitters? I'm not buying it!

Somewhere along the way base hits stopped selling hitting lessons, and the promises of your daughter getting a full ride college scholarship because she may hit home runs became the lesson of choice

More Rotational Hitting Instructors
Chris O'Leary summarizes the Linear and Rotational Schools of thought as highlighted in red. Excerpt from Chris O'Leary Rotational Hitting 101, Click on Chris O'Leary for the complete article and teachings.


The Limits of Linear Hitting  The problem is that you do not see linear hand paths at the major league level. Even relatively linear hitters like Ichiro Suzuki still employ fairly curved hand paths. The fact that you simply do not see linear hand paths at the major league level also implies that they do not scale; while linear hand paths may work at the lower youth levels, they do not work in High School ball or higher because the defenses are simply too good.

In Summary To sum up, there are really two places where the Linear and Rotational schools of thought diverge. At the end of the day, Linear means...

1. Linear hand path. Taking the hands directly to the ball. This is usually described as an A to C (or sometimes A to B) hand path.
2. Powering the swing with the wrists.

In contrast, Rotational means...

1. Curved hand path.
2. Powering the swing with the hips.

Those are the two main distinguishing factors between the two schools of thought.

This is the school of thought that says girls (or boys when they get to the High School level) aren't strong enough for the linear approach to hitting! Further more they always compare it to Major League Baseball.  Once again, if you're a baseball player stop reading this and go back to both of the authors I've highlighted above, this isn't for you! If you're a baseball player who is now a hitting instructor and teaches girls how to hit Fastpitch Softball keep reading.

From the above text:
"while linear hand paths may work at the lower youth levels, they do not work in High School ball or higher because the defenses are simply too good."  Or in other words, your swing will not make for solid, forceful contact and an average 2nd baseman can field your ball because you're not strong enough. If you are only using your hands in the swing, this premise would be accurate. But let's look at his example of the Major League Hitter Ichrio Suzuki and see if he only uses his hands/wrists, be it a curved hand path or direct (linear) from back to front hand path.

Nope! As a matter of fact if we were to crop this picture to show only the lower half of his body we could see a lot of similarities with Albert Pujols, again, the current main example of rotational hitting instructors; Strong front side, belt buckle pointed at the pitcher, back heel up, (no bug squishing) The difference is in the tilt of the upper body or the collapse of the back side of the rotational hitter, good for  baseball, not so good for fastpitch softball. Thus the difference in the swing angle highlighted by the yellow lines. Remember this as we'll explain why in detail the cause and affect in each sport as we wrap up this series.

Purely Linear hitters in Fastpitch Softball use the gap to gap approach, meaning  they are working with a swing that focuses more on using the whole field, starting with the middle of the diamond. Their approach is more upright with a swing that enters the hitting zone and swing plane from the top and in Fastpitch Softball where the pitch is delivered from below the waist has merit. If they are only being taught the Linear push approach as I mentioned in the second part of this series, they will be weak and the premise from the above authors of weak grounders could be dead on. 

Purely rotational hitters in Fastpitch Softball, while they do maximize their core muscles in the swing, the majority predominantly lack the discipline to maximize the field and therefore become more pull hitters as a result of the strong torque. Additionally their tilt (due to the collapsing of their back hip and shoulder) leaves major holes in their swing as it relates to fastpitch softball.  Have you been taking your daughter to a rotational hitting instructor? Have you been noticing she's popping up the ball more? Yes, just like a developing linear hitter will hit weak grounders, a developing rotational hitter will hit weak pop ups. Taking the holes out of both of these approaches/techniques is what we want to show you.

Lastly is it the swing or the equipment that's causing this power surge? In last years Womens College World Series we all saw off balance, off the front foot, check swings that went 230 feet for home runs. I don't see anyone on any website advocating that approach to hitting and nor should they, but let's be real. Today's technology is making this game much more offensive. If you can make solid contact with today's equipment, be it with a linear or rotational swing you'll hit with authority.

Come back for the final part of this series as we show you how to maximize these swings,  giving  you a swing that stays in the fastpitch softball hitting zone longer and maximizes your individual power. Yes its true! Not all of you are going to be home run hitters and for the record  I still can't dunk a basketball!


For our complete series on Rotational vs Linear hitting and building a better fastpitch softball swing follow the articles below.

Bat Eats Ball (Introduction)

Pitcher Hits spot (part1)

Rotational vs Linear Mechanics (part2)

Yes, both rotational and linear hitting mechanics work in fastpitch softball! Does that mean one style of swing mechanics is better for you than the other? No! A better question is can you use them together to produce a powerful, consistent fastpitch softball swing?  Stay with me on this as the answer will become crystal clear as we take on the question of which approach is better for you, rotational or linear.

A good friend of mine who is a highly respected fastpitch softball pitching instructor that has produced well over 75 college pitchers, one national and two state Gatorade players of the year, as well as dozens of regional and all-state pitchers, uses the dog marking the tree analogy for many coaches. You see, once an accomplished kid moves on to the next level, often the specialty coach at that level will make adjustments just for the sake of doing something that he or she feels is their trademark, or in other words, they're marking their tree.
As an example, this past summer (2010) I attended a few college softball camps on the west coast and at two of these camps/clinics the coaches spoke only of linear hitting. One college softball coach made it abundantly clear that if you were interested in playing for her team you would become a linear hitter! The other College Coach, (completely different school) who was also a major proponent of the linear approach to hitting shared an example of the swing she called the "push" motion that made me think; "this is why rotational swing theorist discount the linear approach" as it was the most nonathletic softball swing I had ever seen.
Does it have to be? No! It's all in simplifying the explanation and understanding what a successful out come should look like for you!

Something I always wanted to do as a kid growing up was to stuff a basketball on a regulation basket, never could! Some of you desire to hit 250 foot home runs, never will! Does that mean that you won't be great hitters? Of course not, it just means that you need to understand your limitations and build your swing around what will make you the best hitter you can possibly become.

Rotational hitting instructors love to make comparisons to hitting styles of major league baseball players. Most are former baseball players themselves and their only contact with the game of softball other than having a daughter that plays fastpitch is that they play or have played slow pitch. Nothing wrong with that! But, experience matters if you're going to be marking your tree with a one size fits all approach!

(Remember in the introduction piece I spoke of angle of pitch coming to the plate baseball vs fastpitch softball, if not it's good to go back and understand this as it will take on a stronger significance throughout this overview.)

Nevertheless, let's dive in a little deeper and look at the two current professional baseball players that rotational hitting instructors like to use as examples to support their argument of Rotational hitting vs Linear hitting. The statistical source I'm using can be found at www.baseball-reference.com.
Before I give you the names of the professional baseball players they like to refer to (some of you may already know) I'm going to give you their stats for comparison. These stats we're from 2000 to 2010 for both players so that nothing is skewed in this analogy.

Player One: Over this 10 year period had 1900 Hits, Scored 1186 Runs, Struck Out 646 times, and had a batting average of .331

Player Two: Over this same 10 year period had 2244 Hits, Scored 1047 Runs, Struck Out 683 times, and had a batting average of .331

Comparable wouldn't you say? So why are they so dead set in preaching only the gospel of the Rotational swing?
1) It's all they know and it's how they mark their tree
2) They dig the long ball!

Player one above is Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Player two is Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners.
Pujols is the poster child for today's rotational hitting instructors and Ichiro is their favorite example of a linear hitter. When looking at the above stats you'll notice that I left out the Home Run category. Pujols hit 408 over this time period and Ichiro hit 90! One would think he should have scored 300 more runs than Ichiro right? It doesn't work that way. Pujols definitely is an RBI guy and Ichiro is the table setter for hitters like Pujlos, which are you?

Remember above I always wanted to dunk a basketball but never could, wouldn't be a good idea for me to enter a slam dunk contest now would it? Understanding who you are will help you better understand the approach you should take to the plate. No coach in their right mind wouldn't want either Albert Pujols or Ichiro Suzuki in their line-up would they? Of course not, nor would they try to make Pujols a linear hitter or Ichiro a rotational hitter! So why are they trying to limit you to only their style? Maybe marking their tree?

Lastly for this post I'll leave you with one other argument that rotational instructors like to use to support their approach to hitting and that is this; "girls aren't strong enough to use the linear approach." come back for part 3 of rotational vs. linear hitting as I'll shoot holes in this logic.

Until next time ask yourself, what type of hitter am I? Understanding this and being honest with yourself will put you on your path of success as you take your plan to each at bat!

Introduction Overview Rotational vs. Linear

The Mental Approach "Think Like a Pitcher"

If you were asked which pitch is the toughest for you to hit odds are good you would say one of two things; The Drop ball low and away, or the Rise ball at the top of the zone. For the New Year the coaches at The Softball Clinic are going to take you through the maze of fastpitch softball hitting instruction and do our best to simplify it. We're going to stay away from "Hitting Guru" speak and break it down for the 95% of us that aren't blessed with elite skills and teach you how to obtain them. If you're interested in improving your fastpitch softball swing you'll want to follow along.

What we're going to do is take the words from the most viewed hitting instructors on the web, question them, and show you why most of the one size fits all swing approach's don't work for the majority of you!

If you're looking for the best technique, say, rotational or linear, we'll show you the holes in each of those swings as they relate to fastpitch softball, as well as show you the strengths of each of those swings as they relate to fastpitch softball.

Here's just a small sample of what we'll be breaking down. When you understand the angle in which the pitch will be approaching the hitting zone, you'll gain a better understanding of how to get your bat into the contact zone and keep it there for the longest period of time (see below)

Why a one size fits all swing doesn't work!
If you look at the images in this photo to the left you'll see two Blue lines. The top blue line represents the top of a pitchers mound (10 inches above the batters box) in baseball, the lower blue line represents the softball pitching circle (Flat or level with the batters box.) The Red Circle represents the Baseball pitchers release point and the Yellow circle represents the Softball pitcher release point. The Red and Yellow lines represent the angle each pitch is delivered in their respective sports. It's very clear to see here that every pitch in baseball is coming downhill and not so in softball.. So what does this mean? If you're being taught a  "One size fits all swing"  you're subject to major holes in that swing and for the 95% of us that aren't gifted with elite skills, this can, and will be very frustrating. If you want to improve your contact we'll show you the simple adjustments that will make your fastpitch softball swing much more powerful and effective..

So we hope you come back and that you'll tweet your friends to check it out... Until then Happy New Year! Let's make 2011 the best year ever!

Beginning fastpitch softball pitching drills must be built on the foundation of solid pitching mechanics, this is of the utmost importance when starting out your young pitcher. Learning to drive off of the rubber with the lower body, getting to the correct body angles that will create the proper arm slot, developing the proper arm circle, etc. are the basis you need to build upon. If you're uncertain what these foundations are please work with a pitching coach in your local area that does, as this is critical to your young pitchers success. The last thing you'll want to do is start out with the development of bad habits. While your intentions are good, establishing the right mechanics from the start is significant to their success. This fastpitch softball pitching drill for your beginning softball pitcher assumes that you have the beginning process of these elements in place.

How the "See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya" pitching drill works is very simple. When working with the beginning fastpitch softball pitcher, it's important to remember that the underhanded throwing motion or the windmill pitching style is about as foreign to them as teaching them to write with their opposite hand, so expecting them to be accurate with their throws initially is expecting a lot.

NOTE: this drill only comes into play once you and your pitcher have an understanding of the correct mechanics. If at any time during this or any other pitching drill you see them getting away from the correct mechanics, STOP and ONLY work on that particular area of the motion! Our muscles remember bad just as fast as they remember good mechanics, do it right from the start!

Now that we're ready for this beginner pitching drill, the first thing we'll do with our youngsters is establish a reasonable target. No, you're not looking for them to paint the outside corner right out of the box dad, we'll get there soon enough! A reasonable starting target for my young pitchers is a target as wide as my arms held straight out from each side down to my knees. The second thing we do is find an area, in the yard, at the park, in the gym etc that doesn't have a wall, fence or backstop right behind you (the catcher.) Now you're ready to begin. Any pitch thrown with the PROPER MECHANICS will be able to find this target, when they fail to use the proper mechanics or rush through the motion they'll begin to miss this target. If you can't reach the thrown pitch and it get's passed you, simply say "see ya wouldn't wanna be ya" and have them chase after the ball. Time them from the time they start, one one thousand etc until they get back and ready to pitch again,  this will keep it fun. Trust me after a couple of "see ya wouldn't wanna be ya's" they'll start hitting their spots, or be ready for the track team, one or the other. As they progress start making your zone smaller until you reach the size of the regular strike zone.

This fastpitch softball pitching drill can be used for your more experienced pitchers as well, of course with them you're now making the target area much smaller. Have them throw 10 pitches to a certain location inside the strike zone, say, down and on the inside half of the plate, if they don't hit a minimum of 5 or pitches in this area, "see ya wouldn't wanna be ya" would be in order.

Again, with all fastpitch softball pitching drills it's mechanics, mechanics, mechanics! Do it right from the start! If you found this beginner fastpitch softball pitching drill to be helpful we would appreciate you sending it to a friend or tweeting it to all your friends and let them know about The Softball Clinic.

The first question that seems to be asked is what's the right age to begin the college recruitment process? Well, you've heard that old saying "time fly's when you're having fun" it also fly's as soon as your kids reach High School, so don't wait until they're junior year because that really is too late. If your daughter is playing on a decent 14U travel team, that is playing at a competitive level, it's time to start the process.

We're living in the information age and they're plenty of college recruiting websites out there. Most of these softball recruitment websites offer you the opportunity to post your latest fastpitch softball skills videos, some are free and some charge a small fee. At The Softball Clinic we endorse National Fastpitch Coaching Association or nfca.org. This site provides a list of Colleges ranked by division and conferences, and also provides links to these college websites. Many (if not all) of these colleges have softball recruiting camps at various times during the year. While most of these softball camps are merely fundraisers for their college programs, they still offer the opportunity to be seen by the coaching staff of that particular college. NFCA also does a fine job of Summer and Fall ball tournament camps, here there list of college recruiting camps for 2011. In addition to searching the web, as we just mentioned above finding the right college recruiting softball tournaments to play in is also important. Use your judgment here as to which team you play for etc.. while the intentions of these teams are good, not are all what they're made out to be and it can be pricey. Do your research!

Getting recruited to play college softball does not happen by accident. It is a marketing process done on the part of the softball player, and/or their parents. In today's highly competitive college athletic environment, it's hard enough just to get noticed. You'll need every advantage possible to get recruited. As we just stated above we live in an information age and "information is power". Arming yourself with the right "how to get recruited to play college softball" information is a must. Parents never want to say it out loud, but we know you think it; "How did she get recruited over my daughter?" Happens all the time, kids of similar ability, one gets a scholarship and the other one doesn't, how did that happen? Some of it is pure timing, like excelling on the field when a coach happens to be watching, but most of it's doing the proper leg work. Like anything, there isn't one clear path, getting recruited to play college softball is a very competitive endeavor. The key is to better your chances, and avoid the classic mistakes and gain as much information as you can about the entire process. Here's a quick read that will give you a solid foundation to the process College Softball Recruiting Success.

Best of luck with your college recruitment process. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us if you have any further questions, we'll do our best to answer them. If you like this information a tweet or retweet would be appreciated.

His reply was this:
The key to velocity is developing the proper fastpitch softball pitching mechanics, that include the understanding of the arm circle and release or snap of the pitch in relationship to a powerful push off of the rubber, and delivering the pitch against a strong front side. Makes sense right? Then he proceeded to discuss the importance of building strong legs and core muscle training for the explosion needed for the powerful drive off of the rubber. And lastly he pointed out that we are individuals and as individuals we all have ceilings, meaning control your expectations.

I'm sure you've heard this phrase before: "You can't teach speed."  You're only going to be able to run so fast, some of us are faster than others and some of us have the ability to throw the ball harder than others. That's just our DNA, so does this mean if we're softball pitchers and we can't throw the ball 60mph + we should all give up? Of course not!

There is a big difference between throwing hard and pitching. Let's take a look at 355 game winner Greg Maddux, and compare the speeds of his pitches to that of a female fastpitch softball pitcher. Speeds of Greg Maddux pitches were taken from this Sports Illustrated Article http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/05/12/scoutingreport.maddux/

Maddux threw his fastball in the 82 to 86 MPH range; that translates to softball as 57 to 60 mph range. Many high school kids are at this level. His slider was measured at 76-79 MPH range, which translates to 53 to 55mph in softball, and his curve ball was clocked at 69 to 72 MPH, which translates to 46 to 50 MPH in fastpitch softball.

Clearly if you were to post those speeds on your daughters college softball recruitment page you wouldn't get a sniff from a college, why, because they too are wooed by the cheap thrills of seeing a 65mph pitch, yet often miss on the subtleties of an 57 MPH pitch with movement and accuracy.

So as we strive to develop to help our young athletes to reach their best lets understand that they all won't have Monica Abbott speed. Focus on helping them reach their maximum potential, developing the correct rotation on their pitches, teach them speed control, or how to vary their speed with location, and instill in them the confidence that it takes to stand in the circle and trust that they can do all the above and you have developed a pitcher.