Kendyl Lindaman transfers to Florida...

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Oct 2, 2015
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After watching Lindaman pound the ball in 2017 with Jessica Allister as a coach, you knew the next 3 years were going to be a blast watching Kendyl crush the ball...
Allister leaves... and a new coaching staff comes in, in 2018
TO ME...it seemed as if Kendyl changed her swing in 2018 with the new head coach and hitting coaches at MN. After setting the State HR record in Iowa HS, I don't think she would change the swing herself
In 2018, with the new coaching/hitting staff, I saw alot of the Minn/Dak small ball swing...
Maybe it was just me, but Lindaman didn't seem like herself in 2018

In 2017 she was crushing the ball to center and left center and punching holes in that dang concrete wall past the left field fence...
(for a while there I thought she was trying to make a mosaic on that concrete wall with all of the balls she hit out there)

And in 2018 I saw alot of Inside/Out swings, and Minn/Dak swunt, with the ball getting pounded down into the ground or up the middle.
I have a good friend down in S. Central Iowa who followed her softball career through HS, who said the same thing about her swing in 2018....something is off...

Did they change Lindman's swing?
I dunno.. but it sure looked like it to me
Why would you change an unbelievable power hitter, into an Inside Out Minn/Dak small baller?
Oh ya...where did MN's new head coach come from?...

I can guarantee Kendyl knows the green light is on in at Florida in regards to the power hitting...

Best of luck to Kendyl Lindaman at Florida! (Looking forward to seeing her on SEC Network throughout the season, and on ESPN in OK City...)
 
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Nov 18, 2013
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I understand what you’re saying, but some of it is a little off the mark. Her HR totals were the same in 2017 and 2018 so they didn’t exactly turn her into a small baller. The “minn/dak” swing pertains I think much of it was a short sophomore slump aided by the fact that the Gophers had a much more difficult non-conference schedule than the prior year. Obviously there were issues with the new hitting coach because as you said, there was a noticeable difference in her swing. That’s on the hitting coach though more than Trachsel. She can be blamed for many of the issues with the team’s performance, but I think with Lindaman it had more to do with tension she created than anything she did to her swing. Would have loved to see her return to her hometown to play for the local university, but there was never much chance of that happening.
 
Dec 11, 2010
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MNdad- curious about your thoughts on the Big 10. Coaching wise I think there are some up and comers that will challenge the old guard....
 
Oct 2, 2015
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MN Dad, you are right in a sense.
At NDSU, Trachsel was more of the defensive coach than a batting coach it seemed...(at least at the multiple camps we went to, and what the players said)
But she's still the head coach....
Bringing Heifner in at MN, the batting average dropped around .040 across the board for all batters, didn't it?
Yes, that very well could have been a tougher schedule.
But TO ME, it just seemed like Lindaman's swing was different, as well as the launch angle of the balls she hit...
So reminiscent of the NDSU/MinnDak small ball we've seen up here for so many years. (Ugh...please make it stop!...and coaches...please turn on the SEC channel to see how a bat is supposed to be swung!)
The only team up here that SEEMS to remotely allow any type power hitting/SEC swing is UND.

How was the hitting for the one year Trachsel was at ISU?
Did you see any changes in batting techniques from the previous year when Trachsel wasn't there?
 
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panthadad2

fastpitch pops
Jun 27, 2017
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I did not notice a significant change in swing. Her swing is pretty unique, so a significant change probably would have been noticed by most people.

* Early in the season, her pitch selection seemed to be out of whack. She got behind in the count quite a bit. She seemed to have the most trouble with outside pitches late in the count. Good pitchers on good teams in non-conference play had a whole year to study her body-of-work going into her sophomore year.
* She had less protection in the line up in 2018 and didn't see many meatballs. The batter(s) that typically followed her in the lineup and had a great year in 2017, subsequently struggled in 2018.
* Later in the season, it looked like she adjusted to the outside pitches and started taking them to opposite field with good success and with power...some of her late season batting average improvement was probably due to adjustments (and maybe some due to weaker BG10 competition) but it didn't carry over into the NCAA regional vs. Washington.
 
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Nov 18, 2013
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MNdad- curious about your thoughts on the Big 10. Coaching wise I think there are some up and comers that will challenge the old guard....

It’s interesting that most of the B1G coaches when DD was on the recruiting trail are long gone. I don’t follow the conference close enough to know about all the new coaches. Mainly just the teams that have MN kids. I like what Healy is doing at Wisconsin. Gardner didn’t want my DD so didn’t mind seeing her get fired  The new coach is doing a much better job with the Hoosiers than she did. Iowa made a good choice dumping Looper. They should have done it several years ago when she said Iowa girls were too far behind California kids.

The only team up here that SEEMS to remotely allow any type power hitting/SEC swing is UND.

How was the hitting for the one year Trachsel was at ISU?
Did you see any changes in batting techniques from the previous year when Trachsel wasn't there?

Interesting about UND. I haven’t seen them since they got a new coach. I was hoping DD might want to go there because I loved the Sioux. We went to a January camp and it was like 20 below so she had no interest in ever going back!

I really liked Trachsel when she was at ISU. They needed a hard-nosed coach to come in and shake things up. I was curious how that would play out with an established team like the Gophers and it wasn’t great. We weren’t a very good hitting team, but there wasn’t much talent. She had a strained relationship with the hitting coach at ISU too. We’re still not great, but considerably better under Coach Pinkerton and should be much improved again. I honestly don’t know enough about hitting to notice any differences other than we hit the ball over the fence a lot more
 
Dec 11, 2010
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I’m not from Iowa and her comments about the Iowa players even irritated me. Looper was 69-114 in conference overall. So much for that plan.

I think Perry at Illinois is a possible up and comer along with all those you mentioned. Like them all and would like to see the Midwest compete better nationally.
 
Oct 2, 2015
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It’s interesting that most of the B1G coaches when DD was on the recruiting trail are long gone. I don’t follow the conference close enough to know about all the new coaches. Mainly just the teams that have MN kids. I like what Healy is doing at Wisconsin. Gardner didn’t want my DD so didn’t mind seeing her get fired  The new coach is doing a much better job with the Hoosiers than she did. Iowa made a good choice dumping Looper. They should have done it several years ago when she said Iowa girls were too far behind California kids.



Interesting about UND. I haven’t seen them since they got a new coach. I was hoping DD might want to go there because I loved the Sioux. We went to a January camp and it was like 20 below so she had no interest in ever going back!

I really liked Trachsel when she was at ISU. They needed a hard-nosed coach to come in and shake things up. I was curious how that would play out with an established team like the Gophers and it wasn’t great. We weren’t a very good hitting team, but there wasn’t much talent. She had a strained relationship with the hitting coach at ISU too. We’re still not great, but considerably better under Coach Pinkerton and should be much improved again. I honestly don’t know enough about hitting to notice any differences other than we hit the ball over the fence a lot more

Ya, my oldest DD liked Trachsel at the NDSU camps.
Oldest DD jokingly said, ..."Dad, I think her smile muscles are broke"...meaning she didn't smile much and she was keepin' the players movin'! A hard nose indeed!
My DDs HS coach, is a rotational/power hitting style instructor.
And I teach the same thing. So when they go to many of the Minn/Dak camps that are literally all linear hands/inside hands, that type of hitting instruction it is very foreign to them
After the last UND camp, the DD stated they didn't change her swing very much when she was in the cage. And they didn't frown upon her rotational swing
She was happy about that...

I'm going to be cheering for Lindaman this year, and I hope she can keep up the Slugging %....because she's a blast to watch hit the ball!
 
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