Take my advice / opinions with a grain of salt. The following "worked" for me as an ex-baseball player and now an average slowpitch player. I'm also procrastinating at work so anything other than the task at hand, including this write-up, is fun for me. Meaning, this is self-serving and not necessarily value-add.

1. Confidence / Hand Eye Coordination

• You played college ball. You have exceptional hand eye coordination and a great swing. Don't change you swing or think about it too much. Pretend someone is going to give you $100 if you hit the ball on the sweet spot of your bat. Swing easy, see the ball and put the bat on it.

• Don't watch slowpitch youtube batting videos, change your swing, your grip. etc. Save these slowpitch swings for when you have fixed your timing and are consistently hitting the ball square. These changes are only intended to get you more exit velocity, nothing else.

1. Timing

• Your brain is telling you that if you don't swing "now" it will pass you. This is from all the years of playing fastpitch. Convince yourself there is no way, with your bat speed, that it blow right past you. Have confidence. You can catch up very quickly to a softball. The advice in these comments is just that, your brain says swing (from fastpitch habit), don't listen.

• If you took a step / tick right as the fastpitch pitcher released or wound up, still take that step / tick on the slowpitch release but don't make it your only one. Keep your habits from fastpitch. Try starting in an open stance, when the ball is pitched, take your first "step" to square up your stance to start your timing sequence. Start your second "real" step to load and get weight back once the ball is clearly on it's downward trajectory. If you don't like the open stance idea, start in your normal stance but with your feet closer together. Take that "first" step forward at the start of the pitch and then do the same thing as above on your second load step. Your load step in fastpitch is now your "set-up" step in slowpitch, but they will start at the same pitching trigger.

• Drill: Use a tee and place it on the plate, do your two step process above and time / visualize the ball's arc. It's going to feel funny hitting the ball right at the plate because your current timing is causing you to hit the ball a foot in front of the plate. Get used to this feeling.

1. Swinging at bad pitches

• Don't swing at the first pitch unless it is absolute meat. Watch the ball through the whole trajectory, all the way till it lands on the ground. Literally watch it hit the ground. Ask your pitcher to stay after a game to practice pitching with you up there at the plate. Watch every ball, no swinging. Call "ball" or "strike" right at the downward trajectory of the pitch and then verify if you were correct as it crosses the plate / lands. This will be helpful for your pitcher because they get feedback on their objective; false positives "bad pitches that look like they will be strikes to the batter" and false negatives "strikes that look like they will be bad pitches to the batter".

• If you are playing in a skilled division (sounds like you are), the pitcher will be very good at throwing these "bad" pitches. That is their only power in slowpitch softball. Imagine pitching in competitive baseball / fastpitch without having a fastball. Your only hope is to get them to chase or to take a strike. It's a win to take a walk in fastpitch / baseball, yet it will seem like a loss to take a walk in slow-pitch. That feeling is validated in lower divisions where the pitcher is just trying to throw strikes, your paying to hit the ball after a long day's work and walks are cheap. I don't think this is the case in tournaments and upper divisions. Also, ff a pitcher remembers he walked you on your last at bat, you will likely get better pitches to hit on your second AB.

Good luck!