Gators catcher Jordan Roberts is using a different approach in footwear this season for the Gators softball team. (Photo: Allison Curry/UAA Communications)
No Spikes, No Problem for Gators junior Jordan Roberts
Friday, March 29, 2019 | Softball, Scott Carter
Share:
By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A single swing during fall camp was all it took for Jordan Roberts to become a believer. And considering the All-American who served the pitch, Roberts didn't need much convincing after the softball landed way beyond the outfield fence.
"She took Kelly Barnhill about 280,'' Gators head coach Tim Walton said this week. "She was pretty surprised because she hadn't had a hit like that off Kelly probably ever."
Time to rewind and get the backstory on why Roberts, Florida's junior catcher/designated hitter, is now the focus of a season-long running joke among her teammates.
Inevitably, one of her teammates will walk up to Roberts during the No. 6-ranked Gators' three-game series at Ole Miss this weekend and toss her a well-worn quip.
"Hey, Jordan, you forgot your cleats."
Roberts will smile and return the best comeback she has in the moment. And then it's back to the game.
"In the beginning, I was kind of all in,'' Roberts said. "I was like, 'if I'm going to do it I don't want to change my shoes when I go from catching to hitting, so I'm going to wear them all the time.' It's awesome because I never have to change my shoes. It takes away that time when we are switching from our turfs to our cleats."
If you have watched the Gators play this season, perhaps you have noticed that Roberts is the only player on the team not wearing traditional cleats. Instead, she has worn a pair of soft-covered turf shoes that have rubber grippers on the bottom for traction similar to what lacrosse players wear. The Gators usually only wear the lighter turf shoes in the batting cage or when they take the field for pregame battling practice.
A closer look at the turf shoes Gators catcher Jordan Robers is wearing this season. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
Back in the fall as Roberts took some cuts in traditional cleats without the results she wanted, she said something didn't feel right. Walton, watching her closely, offered a suggestion based in part on a scientific hunch he would like to explore in more detail, and his familiarity with Roberts' bat speed.
He told Roberts to take off her cleats and put on her turf shoes. Roberts made the change and stepped back into the batter's box against Barnhill.
Boom! The rest is history.
"Her bat speed on a practice day is always really high and her power numbers are really high," Walton said. "The lower half of her body works a lot better. She gets turned a lot more, a couple more degrees that she is able to get, which obviously in turn increases her bat speed and power numbers. The thought behind it was sometimes her cleats appear to me to be stalled. She doesn't really use her backside in a game."
Roberts said she immediately sensed a lighter stance in the turf shoes. She has a history of taking the road less traveled if needed. Growing up in Live Oak, Roberts gravitated toward sports naturally. As a preschooler Roberts wanted to play softball. However, there was no league in her area. So, she joined a baseball team and played with the boys.
As Roberts got older she began to play organized sports year-round, dabbling in volleyball, swimming, cross country and weightlifting. She found her home behind the plate and at the plate at Suwanee High, developing into a softball standout and earning her way to a roster spot with the Gators.
Roberts played immediately at UF, batting .260 with eight home runs and 39 RBI as a freshman in 2017. As a sophomore, she hit .280 with six homers and 28 RBI. She excelled at defense, becoming the first player in program history to have back-to-back perfect defensive seasons with a minimum of 50 chances. Roberts enters this weekend's series at Ole Miss batting a career-high .325 with five homers and 21 RBIs. Her perfect fielding percentage remains intact, too, handling all 144 chances without an error.
Still, whatever she does on the field, her shoe game has received the most attention, which is fine by her since it's an easy conversation starter with fans.
"People ask me all the time, 'Have you slipped in these? I feel like you're going to fall.' I have not fallen,'' she said. "That's really the only thing we're worried about that one day I'm going to slip and bust it. If you have watched me play, I am obviously the slowest person on this team. I figure I honestly don't have anything to lose. I don't think turfs are going to make me slower, but they might make my faster."
Walton's interest in Roberts' footwear goes deeper than a quirky story.
A fierce competitor and head of a program that resides among the nation's elite, Walton seeks information that can lead to wins. With sports analytics more readily available than ever before due to modern technology, Walton is already thinking about a trip to the UF Health Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute lab not far from Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The institute has a biomechanics lab to analyze the kinetics of athletic motions for research/performance enhancement.
"I'd say our hitters probably [practice] at least better than 50 percent in their turfs or hitting shoes as opposed to their cleats,'' he said. "You can't measure it within our game too much yet in regards to bat speed and what her bat speed looks like on a game day. She is not fast, but I do believe that in her turf shoes she is faster.
"If we tried to prove this in a lab and broke out the [film] across the street at the OMSI lab, we'd probably see that she does get a little bit more of a degree turn in her lower half of the body in her turf shoes. I just see the turn of her back foot and her back knee and her back hip just seem to turn better as opposed to being in her cleats."
That's a conversation for another day. For now, Roberts is pleased at how she feels on the field and is eager to do what she can to help the Gators climb the SEC standings and get back to Oklahoma City.
If the turf shoes help, that's a bonus she had never thought of prior to Walton's suggestion.
"I've always worn cleats. I think it's more just like a comfort thing,'' she said. "Those spikes were kind of getting stuck in the ground when I was turning my back leg. This feels better. I haven't even worn my cleats this year, not even one time. I'm definitely not complaining. We're just going to go with it until it doesn't work."
