# Softball - What's with my swing? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 19, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/softball-whats-with-my-swing/619276 "2012-04-19T15:03:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SanDiegoTim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/softball-whats-with-my-swing/619276/21 "2012-04-23T16:15:50Z")
“No offense, but how is your eyesight?” Not as good as it used to be due to a couple of retina detachments/sugeries in one eye. Vision is distorted. Doesn’t help on offense or defense, but over the last two years my other eye has become more dominant. On the subject of slo-pitch batting averages, I’ve always equated a .650-.700 average with a .300 average in baseball. Mine will indeed fluctuate with league I’m playing in on a given day. The pitchers in the younger/more competitive leagues and in tournaments are more effective. It’s amazing what some of them can do with a ball. Everyone has an opinion, but in senior ball, at least in the younger (55-65) divisions, I think you need to hit at least .500. Referencing an earlier comment about the dangers of pitching, it’s very real. Up against a hard hit ball up the middle a pitcher can be defenseless. A big guy on my tournament team hit a pitcher last year. …4 broken ribs and his spleen had to be removed. For some time now I’ve advocated “deader” balls. I’ve had limited success. Regulating bats doesn’t seem to work as they are too easily doctored. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/softball-whats-with-my-swing/619276/22 "2012-04-23T19:24:31Z")
> [@Age\_Quod\_Agis](#): > > Was that directed at me? If so, I’m curious how you think a softball swing should be different than a baseball swing. My slow pitch stance and swing are miles away from my baseball stance and swing. I suggested the exaggerated uppercut swing to gain more distance in slow pitch. Just look at a slow pitch softball. It’s coming in at a pretty serious downward angle. Any lift needs to be generated by your bat. The only danger of dropping your shoulder is that if you do it unintentionally, you’ll get under the ball and pop it up. But if you purposely swing upward, hopefully you can still hit the ball square. And if you do that and have enough strength, you’ll launch it out of the park. When I first started playing slow pitch I kept my baseball swing, which resulted in a lot of line drive singles and doubles. I found that if I took what felt to me like a ridiculous uppercut, I could get a lot more distance. If you’re not comfortable messing with your swing, then by all means, don’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Age\_Quod\_Agis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d07c76/32.png) [@Age\_Quod\_Agis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Age_Quod_Agis)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/softball-whats-with-my-swing/619276/23 "2012-04-23T23:51:43Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > I suggested the exaggerated uppercut swing to gain more distance in slow pitch. Just look at a slow pitch softball. It’s coming in at a pretty serious downward angle. Any lift needs to be generated by your bat. The only danger of dropping your shoulder is that if you do it unintentionally, you’ll get under the ball and pop it up. But if you purposely swing upward, hopefully you can still hit the ball square. And if you do that and have enough strength, you’ll launch it out of the park. > > When I first started playing slow pitch I kept my baseball swing, which resulted in a lot of line drive singles and doubles. I found that if I took what felt to me like a ridiculous uppercut, I could get a lot more distance. If you’re not comfortable messing with your swing, then by all means, don’t do it. That’s fair. I’ve never had any trouble getting lift in softball, and when I try to get lift by upper-cutting my swing gets thrown completely out of whack, but that could just be me. If it works for you, then it’s probably a good suggestion to at least try. > [@SanDiegoTim](#): > > Ok, played a couple of games and took some BP since this posting. Maybe I haven’t given it enough time, but I think I’ll leave well enough alone. Changing my swing didn’t feel comfortable and the results didn’t show enough promise to warrant screwing up my batting average. Good for you. If it ain’t broke, etc. A .700 average is great, and now that you’re thinking about it, you can always work on power when you’ve got the time by making slight adjustments. Try some different things when you’re way ahead or behind in a game, or when you hit the batting cages. See what works without messing with your swing, and go with that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/softball-whats-with-my-swing/619276/24 "2012-04-28T22:49:45Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Sure, it’s hard to calculate, but it has in fact been done, and the verdict’s long in; people use bats that are too light to play softball, especially slo-pitch. > > The thing is that _no matter what the weight of your bat is, you can only swing your arms so fast_. If you can take a swing of speed X with a 28-ounce bat, you can’t double it by using a 14-ounce bat. Assuming these people ([Bat Weight, Swing Speed and Ball Velocity](http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/bats/batw8.html)) are accurate with their investigations, here is the rule of thumb formula for slow pitch softball: Bat Oz=Weight/115+24 For me that’s 195/115 + 24 = 25.69 oz bat, which seems pretty light to me, I think I typically use a 28oz bat. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/softball-whats-with-my-swing/619276/25 "2012-05-01T10:28:57Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Curiously, the OBA drops like a stone in the weekend tournaments. I admit I don’t quite understand this phenomenon, but it’s true; I believe it drops to something like .350-.400, and you see scores like 4-2 pretty commonly. This seems counterintuitive to me because the pepple most likely to get fatigued (and in a weekend tournament, you play six games minimum in less than 48 hours, seven if you make a final) are, logically, the pitchers. Yet it’s the batters whose performance drops. Damned if I know why. Pressure? Could be. I’m going to surmise that pitcher fatigue in slow pitch softball isn’t nearly as big a deal as batter fatigue. The pitcher is not exactly exerting himself, he has to manage his fine motor control to place the pitch, but he’s not going to lose 10mph off his fastball because his pitch count is too high. The batter is exerting himself, and I can easily see him losing bat speed if he’s tired, and losing precision if he overexerts to get bat speed back up to normal. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/softball-whats-with-my-swing/619276/26 "2012-05-02T17:17:38Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Assuming these people ([Bat Weight, Swing Speed and Ball Velocity](http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/bats/batw8.html)) are accurate with their investigations, here is the rule of thumb formula for slow pitch softball: > Bat Oz=Weight/115+24 > > For me that’s 195/115 + 24 = 25.69 oz bat, which seems pretty light to me, I think I typically use a 28oz bat. So if I weigh 115, it’s a 25 oz bat, but if I weigh 230, it’s a 26 oz for me? To get to 28 oz., I have to weigh 460 lbs? That can’t be right. ---
**Author:** ![dngnb8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@dngnb8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dngnb8)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/softball-whats-with-my-swing/619276/27 "2012-05-02T19:48:58Z")
> [@Age\_Quod\_Agis](#): > > Was that directed at me? If so, I’m curious how you think a softball swing should be different than a baseball swing. Very different. Baseball has a more upward motion. Softballs larger surface area hinders its ability to travel. Upward swings are very typically fly outs ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/softball-whats-with-my-swing/619276/28 "2012-05-02T22:34:03Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > So if I weigh 115, it’s a 25 oz bat, but if I weigh 230, it’s a 26 oz for me? To get to 28 oz., I have to weigh 460 lbs? That can’t be right. I can’t tell you if it’s right or not but they have studied the physics and math pretty extensively, this isn’t just someone with an unsupported guess. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/softball-whats-with-my-swing/619276.md?page=1)