December 29, 2003
The Sue Enquist Method of
Fastpitch Softball Hitting
In the last 2 newsletters I started a discussion on the difference between girls' fastpitch softball hitting and baseball hitting. If you missed them, you can read them by clicking this link and then clicking on issues #004 & #005. I left off telling you about a shock wave that will be hitting the softball world this year. And you are some of the first people in the world to be exposed to it!Know this -- it is fundamentally different in approach, so a choice will have to be made by yourself and/or your coach to avoid having different elements to your swing.
I talked with Sue Enquist about her teaching a baseball swing
December 9th I drove down to UCLA to meet with Sue Enquist who was very anxious to show me her findings and have me help her get the word out about what she had found. I told her I wasn't sold on what she was doing, but either way I would give her a forum on theInternetHittingCoach.com to explain what she was doing. Either I was going to be convinced and change my website to feature her techniques or I would make up some other pages to fully explain her methods so that people could make an informed choice about her or my (along with all the other coaches mentioned in newsletter #005) style.She proceeded to show me a collection of her film clips of the best hitters from baseball and softball and how similar their swings were. She said that apparently no matter what they had been taught, they ended up swinging in a way that was like the baseballers.
This is pretty revolutionary stuff. So she now teaches that instead of teaching something different than how they should swing, how about teaching the way that you would have the most success? It sounds good in theory and who can argue with someone who just won the NCAA national championship?
There are similarities with our traditional teaching in the stance and placing the bat in the fingers, then it starts to get different as it actually moves the center line from the center to a shift up over the lead leg. This is done by shifting the weight from the back to the front with a move that Elvis would've been proud of vs. the traditional "squish the bug" approach.
Then the other 2 departures are 1) the bat plane actually goes below the plane of the hands and 2) ends up in a "palm up - palm down" position.
The finish is pretty standard having the hands fully extended and then following through.
Here are my thoughts about Sue's techniques
I'm impressed enough to use this method for teaching the boys I work with, since it seems to create more bat speed and it delivers a natural upward path to the ball, which naturally follows the flight of the ball coming in from the release point of a baseball pitcher. It also seems to be an easier swing to learn which should help younger kids.Although I'm not ready to abandon the traditional methods, I did find some of the findings quite interesting. But I think there are merits to my techniques and I've had great success in teaching kids and young ladies how to hit hard.
I am working with Sue Enquist to get her method accurately and easily conveyed to anyone who wants to learn and teach her method. As soon as we're both satisfied with it, it will be on our website.
Do know this, you can't teach both to your kids or you'll get them more confused than picking one and following it whole heartedly.
Either method will be better than 95% of what is taught at the local levels. So take your pick and master it and teach it like crazy.
Next Issue - the Phil Bruder Method of Hitting
A couple of weeks ago I had the wonderful privilege of sitting down and talked hitting with Phil Bruder, 11 ASA national championship coach, who has coached 7 Gold Medal Olympians, and 240 full ride College Scholarship athletes. I had the great fortune of recording his thoughts, so you'll be able to get this later.Phil doesn't have any of his techniques available in any format, but you'll be the first to be able to do so.
For our next newsletter I'll share some of his thoughts. Look for it.
Here's a recommendation if you'd like to build a website
If you need to make your own website, either to help your existing business or start your own.Here's some information that's free on how to do that from the source I use to create my website and this newsletter.
If you move fast they are having a 2 for the price of 1 sale that ends January 5th, 2004. SiteSell Free Downloads
Tell me what you want to know
Is there something you'd like to know or to talk about? Please e-mail me, I'd love to hear from you Click here to write to meDon't forget to sign up for my Free Hitting Lessons that will make you a better hitter. (You may have thought signing up for the newsletter was for the lessons, but it's actually two separate sign ups.) link for free hitting lessons
Welcome to the new subscribers, especially to those from my clinics.
I want to help as many kids (adults) as I can. If you could help me by passing this newsletter on to your teammates or anyone you know that could use the help we're offering here, please forward this to them. Thanks in advance.
Happy New Year. Let's make 2004 our best hitting year ever!!
Talk to you next time.
Coach Andy