(SPORTS SWAP)
My name is Vasek Pospisil,
tennis player from Vancouver, Canada.
The challenge of problem solving,
it can be very demanding,
but also very rewarding.
My two Olympic experiences
were some of the highlights of my career.
I'm Haylie McCleney, softball player with Team USA.
Softball is all about momentum, team chemistry and skill.
And to get that gold medal at World Championships
was a really big deal for USA softball.
Here we go!
- Yeah! - Oh!
No! I can't even reach it.
(SPORTS SWAP)
(TENNIS SOFTBALL)
(SOFTBALL TENNIS)
- Hey! - Hey, how are you?
Hey, nice to meet you, I'm Vasek.
Nice to meet you, I'm Haylie.
I don't want to interrupt your intense warm-up here, but...
No, it's OK. It's good, you're welcome.
But, yeah, we'll be swapping sports for the day, so...
- Yeah. I'm excited. - Yeah, me too.
You ever played softball before?
Never! I've never held a baseball bat
- or anything like that. - Cool.
- So super nervous, but, yeah. - Awesome. You'll be fine.
I won't hurt you, I won't hit you or anything.
- OK. - We should be OK.
- Haylie, what are you doing? - What's up?
I got lost. Sorry.
- We're playing tennis! - I don't...
- This is all the gear I have! - You're gonna try...
You're going to try and return my serve with a baseball?
- Yeah! I'm doing it... - A baseball bat?
I'm doing it with the bat. I'm doing it with the helmet.
- All right, well, good luck! - I'm doing it!
15-love.
All right, here we go!
A little bit faster than I'm used to.
Touched it!
All you can ask for is good contact!
So I think that's a win for me.
(THE INITIATION)
First off, you're gonna need a bat.
- Yeah, OK. - Obviously, if you wanna hit.
OK. So there's plenty of different options
I brought for you.
So the main thing that you wanna be worried about
- is the size. - Mm-hm.
How long the barrel is, and how light or heavy it is.
Most people think of softball and baseball
- as like the same thing. - Mm-hm.
But they're really a lot different.
So softball is gonna be obviously
- a different colour ball. - Yeah.
But the size is what really gets a lot of people.
It's a way bigger circumference.
So bat and a ball and we'll get you going.
All right, so I'm going to show you
how to hit balls off the tee,
and then we're going to see how you do
off of some live pitching.
The biggest thing, be as smooth as you can.
And hit the ball a long way. No big deal.
This is literally like the first time
I've ever tried to hit a ball.
- So... - OK. Let's see.
- Let's just see. - OK.
- There's the sun right there. - You're gonna be fine.
You're gonna be fine. All right, you ready?
Yes. Give me one practice swing.
- OK, yeah, go for it. - OK.
- Yeah, looks good! - OK, OK.
- Looks all right, here we go. - All right, here we go.
- Oh! - Yeah! Swing and a miss.
There goes the bat!
Oh!
OK, there we go.
Nice!
- Ahhh! - Oh!
Oh, that's not too bad.
Sounds good.
How did it feel? What did you think?
Uh, I don't really know what to think.
I feel like I made some good contact,
but I don't really know what I'm doing, so...
You... I didn't think you looked all that bad.
- It didn't look bad? - It looked really tennis-y!
- It looked tennis-y! - You know what I mean?
Like a lot of wrist action?
It looked like a really good backhand.
Yeah. Yeah, I didn't feel...
I didn't feel like I was playing softball.
So we're gonna dive right into it.
- OK. - You're gonna start
- returning my serves. - OK.
How... How fast are, like, softball pitches usually?
They're coming in usually around 65, 70mph.
On a good day, I might be serving
- around 130mph. - OK.
- So I'll try to hit 135. - OK. I'm gonna try not to die!
- All right. - OK. Sounds good!
- Let's do it. Good. - Let's do it!
Oh, dear.
Do I go on this side?
I am really nervous right now.
Is this a good stance? I don't really know what I'm doing.
- Oh, yeah! Good contact! - I touched it!
Ah! I couldn't even reach it.
Hello! I can't.
I can't even get there.
That was scary. I couldn't even...
I couldn't even see the ball.
Honestly, it's... That's a tough one to dive into.
- It's bad! - On day one, like,
I think first we have to cover the basics,
- like forehand, backhand. - OK.
Before you go into, like, returning a pro's first serve.
- OK. OK. Can we do that, then? - So...so let's do that.
I need some basic ground work!
Let's go over the basics first.
(THE BASICS)
The way you grip the bat's really, really important.
You always want to line up your door-knocking knuckles.
- OK. - A lot of people get here,
and that's when we have a lot of wrist problems,
- like you were having earlier. - Ahh!
So if you line up...
If you line up your door-knocking knuckles,
- when you make contact... - I see.
..you should be palm up here and palm down here.
Your front elbow is never really supposed to lock out.
- Oh, OK. - So this should always
- stay bent. - OK.
And I just load here. Boom!
You wanna stay on your back leg...
- Yeah. - ..as much as you can,
because that's gonna give you a ton of lift on the ball
when you're transferring all your energy.
Right. So it's...
There, boom! I like that.
When you're getting ready for...for the ball,
- to come your way... - Uh-huh.
..you wanna be, you know,
facing pretty much, like, up front,
and then as soon as you see the ball go to either side,
you know if it's gonna be forehand or backhand,
so then you just turn your body as if you were gonna swing...
- I gotcha. - ..a baseball.
Having to switch directions
and not knowing which side the ball is going to go to
is completely different from softball, where, like,
I know the ball is gonna come on this side of me
and I'm ready for it.
- Nice! - Yeah!
Oh, that's... that's a little high, that's gonna be tough.
Oh, good footwork, though!
I like it, I like it!
The backhand is a little hard.
That was a true softball swing! So you wanna give it some spin.
- That's good, that's good! - I love that!
Your forehand is money!
She's doing really well.
She's hitting from the ground, I'm very impressed.
To be honest, she's controlling the ball
better than... than I would expect.
So softball! Ahh!
For somebody who's playing for the first time,
usually you see balls flying all over the place
and lack of control, controlling the power,
but she...she's doing a really good job.
I would like to think that it's because of her softball skills.
- No! - I had to do it!
It's not fair!
All right, door-knocking knuckles.
Is this about the right...? I think this is about right.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, that was good.
- Whoops! - Yeah.
That's still probably a double.
Double is me getting, like, to the second base?
Yeah... Yeah, double would be going to second base.
If you're big time, you get a home run.
I hit a home run? Ooh.
All right, here we go with a home run.
Oh, that's not a home run! But you know what?
- I'd be out with that one. - You'd probably be out.
Whatever... whatever is gonna get me that home run!
If it's... If it's Happy Gilmore,
- it's Happy Gilmore! - Do it!
I think you hit it farther not Happy Gilmore!
Yeah, for sure!
All right, we're gonna jump right in
to another really tough part for a beginner,
and that's to actually hit a serve,
- not receive but to hit one. - OK.
So it looks something like this.
OK.
- All right, your turn. - That's all I get?
- That's all you get. - OK, hit it in the box.
Good speed, but we're gonna need a little bit of work.
One thing I noticed was your grip was wrong on the serve.
How did you hold it before?
It was like right here at the bottom.
- Yeah, yeah. So that's like... - Yeah.
That was more like the forehand grip.
So you want to hold it like that.
You were pretty, like, frontal.
You wanna have a really good shoulder turn,
so when you toss the ball,
you actually kind of want your back of your shoulder
- to be facing the court... - OK.
..so you can get the rotation to go through.
OK. That sounds good, let's try it out.
Let's try it.
- There you go! Look at that! - That was in! Look at that!
- Improvements already! - Ahh!
- Huge! - I'm so happy right now.
That's actually really good.
You're right, the more you turn back this way,
- the way... - Yeah.
I feel, like, way more powerful coming through.
That one felt really good.
(THE CHALLENGE)
Gave you some tips, you've had a little bit of time
to get comfortable,
had a lot of, like, time to practise,
so hopefully let's see if you can improve.
(3 PITCHES
(TO HIT AS MANY AS POSSIBLE)
If I get two of these, it will be an improvement.
- All right. Let's do this. - Let's do this.
- All right. - All right.
Ohh!
That's not much of an improvement!
- You're good. - But it's OK, it's OK.
- You're adjusting. - I can still get the next two.
Here we go!
- Aah! - That's not bad!
- That felt good! - OK.
Your swing looks a lot more compact, too.
- That felt good. - It was nice.
All right, I gotta get this one here.
That's a double! That's a double! Go, go!
That's what I'm talking about!
- Go, go, go! - Aah!
That was seriously your best hit, though, that was awesome.
Thank you, coach.
- That was a lot of fun. - Yeah, That was good.
Vasek really improved,
he made some adjustments in his mechanics,
and the ball ended up coming off his bat a lot harder
and his swing looked a lot more smooth,
a lot more comfortable the later on in the pitches
that we got, so I'm very, very impressed.
Haylie, she gave me some good tips,
and I felt like I was making
some good contact with the ball.
So, yeah, it was a good lesson for me and, uh maybe...
I don't think I'll be changing careers, though.
(3 ATTEMPTS
(TO SERVE SUCCESSFULLY)
All right, first ball, let's see what you've got.
All right, let's do it.
Your spin was there.
- That's good. - Yeah, the spin's there.
- Oh! - Great power, though.
- That was great power. - That was good power.
I feel... I feel, like, really good.
Take your time.
- Yeah! - Ohhh!
That was probably the best serve I think I've had all day.
Yeah, that was the best one.
(YES, BUT STILL OUT!)
Um, so we'll see if you can do any better returning my serves.
- All right. - I'm gonna serve four at you.
- OK, I can't wait. - All right.
- Let's see if I can do it. - Yeah!
(4 ATTEMPTS
(TO CONNECT WITH A PRO SERVE)
Yeah! Nice!
No!
Too on top of that one!
I'm hitting it, though.
Wow, that was really impressive.
- Thanks! - What an improvement!
I feel like I got a lot better.
- Yeah, you got a lot better. - I made contact, out of four,
- I think I touched three! - Yeah, you got...
Three out of the four, yeah.
To be in there...
No!
..trying to return 130mph serves,
obviously it was difficult, but after the pointers I got,
and after getting used to, you know,
what a tennis ball looks like coming at me,
and once I got a little bit of the hand-eye coordination down,
it was awesome.
I mean, he gets aces on, you know, pro tennis players
so I think it was cool that I,
you know, actually hit three out of four.
- Good job. - High-five. Thanks.
Pretty impressive to see,
especially since it was the first time
that she held a tennis racket and played,
so I was... I was pretty impressed.
I wasn't expecting her to do so well, full stop, all around.
(SHOWBOATING)
Four, five, six...
Ahh!
Ohh!
Yeah!
We've had our fun swapping sports,
now we're gonna do a little experiment, a competition,
and see, I guess, which one of us can hit
- our, uh, balls the furthest. - Our balls.
- I guess on three, two, one... - Yeah.
No!
Tennis ball wins. It's rolling, though.
- It's gonna keep rolling. Wow! - All the way to the fence.
- Check that out. - That's a good effort.
- That's a good strike! - That was pretty good.
- Softball's the winner! - There we go. Look at that.
(SPORTS SWAP)
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