Is the softball swing different from the baseball swing? 

In a word – NO

And if anyone tells you they are or should be – then I challenge you to ask them “why”.  And make them back up their argument with facts and information.  Not just make claims.

For many years, the softball world yelled and shouted that the swings were different and needed to be mechanically different.  It was just the accepted view for a long time.  In fact, many coaches and instructors will still try to push this on their players and teams.  

But the science of the game has changes a lot of things in last 5-10 years.  The truth is, with the exception of slapping, the best baseball and softball swings are the basically the same.  And if you won’t take my word for it, how about legendary coaches like Mike Candrea and Sue Enquist – who have both gone on record as saying what has been taught in the past, has been proven wrong, and they both now believe the high-level softball swing is the same as the high-level baseball swing.

There have always been 2 primary arguments used for why the swings should be different.
     1. Softball Players require a shorter/quicker swing due to reaction time differences.
     2.  The plane of a softball pitch – specifically the rise ball – is different than a baseball pitch. 
     3.  Girls are not as strong or athletic as boys/men.   

Let’s take a look at these arguments one at a time.

Reaction Time – without getting in to too much detail or math, the reaction time of a for 60 mph softball pitch from 43 ft is equivalent to the reaction time of about an 83-84 mph baseball pitch.  And a 65 mph softball pitch is equivalent to about a 90 mph baseball pitch.  So the reaction times are actually very similar between the two.  Plus, a softball is actually moving more slowly through the “hitting zone”, and thus stays in the hitting zone longer… so there is actually more time to make contact. 

Plane of the Pitch – again, without getting in to a lot of the details, it has been proven that the all pitches, including the rise ball, is actually dropping as it crosses the plate and passes through the hitting zone.  The effects of gravity are just too much for a pitcher to physically overcome.  A "good" riseball will actually "drop less" than a normal pitch - actually giving it appearance to the hitter of "rising".  But that doesn't change the fact that the ball is still dropping vertically as it crosses the plate, and thus doesn't change the swing mechanics to best handle this pitch.    So does that make mean the rise ball isn’t a good pitch?  Absolutely not. It’s a deadly pitch when thrown correctly.  Maybe the toughest pitch out of all of them to hit.  All I’m saying is the trajectory of the ball as it crosses through the hitting zone of the hitter is still downward and does absolutely nothing to support the argument of needing a different swing to efficiently hit this pitch.  In fact, the plane of a rise ball in softball and the plan of a high fastball in baseball are very close when they are crossing the plate. 

Also, keep in mind that girls will see VERY few good, true rise balls.  The vast majority of girls who claim they throw a rise ball do not have the proper spin or hard enough spin to really be a rise ball.  Most of the rise balls the girls will see are just high fastballs with improper spin. 

Size & Strength – lastly, let’s look at the size and strength argument.  To me, this is the easiest one to address.  Why would we ever consider teaching our girls anything but the best, most efficient swing possible?  Do we teach girls run differently than boys?  Do we teach girls to shoot a basketball differently?  Do we teach girls to throw differently?  Etc.  No!  So why would we teach them to swing differently just because they are girls.  It just makes no sense to me.  Let’s teach the best, most efficient swing possible.  Period.

So to go back to the original topic – Should the softball and baseball swings be the same?  The answer is yes.  And if anyone tells you differently, make them explain why.  And if the arguments are different than we wrote about here, come back and let us know.  We’ll address those arguments too.

Nebraska Fury Fastpitch