He's making her slap her thigh.

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Oct 22, 2009
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Ugg. I have a talented young lady that has taken pitching lessons from me, for a year. She recently has started slapping her thigh, because the coach is making all of his pitchers do. I was quite surprised to see her doing that. I asked her to stop and to pitch the way she has been taught. She stopped for about 2 pitches.

Her mom wants the girl to speak up to the coach.


The coach has no expertise in pitching. So, I may lose a student, because I can't instruct her, when someone else is overriding my decisions. It is just to difficult for the little girl to be in the middle.

I don't have a problem with thigh slappers, most of young pitchers that do it, eventually grow out of it. The ones that complain about pain, I give them drills to stop, but I don't make a big deal otherwise about it.

But, in regard to your pitcher getting instruction from a league coach and undermining your instruction, that is a big deal.

I had to make a dad choose between me and his DD's 10u league ball over this.

The coach had a DD attending a step style instructor and he was making my pitcher, step and slam the door, hello elbow.

I explained to the dad the difference in the styles and she was not to slam the door and hello elbow while releasing.

This went on for a couple of months where the girl would continue to this and not make progress. I talked with the dad yet again, and he said he was allowing her to do it, because it made the coach happy and she was allowed to pitch as long as she was doing it.

I asked him, if making a 10u league ball coach happy was more important than his DD's long term pitching goals, then he needed to start giving that coach money and stop seeing me. So he quit.

She doesn't pitch anymore.
 

Ken Krause

Administrator
Admin
May 7, 2008
3,911
113
Mundelein, IL
Of course, if they're not going to listen to you, you can always tell them they can just give you the money or mail the check and not bother coming to the lesson. Because it's essentially the same thing. That should get their attention.
 
Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
Hiya folks - I'm new here, and just read this entire thread. Very interesting. I'm still learning about softball pitching, trying to educate myself in a hurry. I have no skin in this game, but here's what I am getting out of the discussion:

1. To slap or not to slap is a very technical question with no "right" answer. Seems to be very subjective, and some very good pitchers do it while others do not. I saw a lot of requests for data but only 1 scientific study mentioned, and that not directly related.
2. I think the larger issue that the OP is looking at is not slap/no-slap, but more PC teaching one method and new HC forcing a change. I've been a rec HC for several years now, and what I have learned is this: if the player has a private PC, I leave the technical coaching to the PC and the parents (my input is limited to managing the player, which was mentioned in an earlier post). IMO, HC's need to ask the parents about private PC's before trying to adjust/change the delivery.
3. I'm not a pitcher, but I'm a darn good hitter. Thigh slap, if used for the ONLY timing mechanism, would definitely be too late to help much. No decent hitter relies on only one cue, though. ANY repeated, synchronized action or sound is a timing mechanism, at least for me, and I expect for most hitters whether they're aware of it or not. DISCLAIMER: I have no hard data to back this up, it is anecdotal.

Anyway, thanks to you all! This board is really helping me to learn about softball!

Ray
 
Last edited:
Jul 14, 2008
1,800
63
The "thigh slap (or grunt) being used as a timing mechanism" is complete BS......Especially if one slaps the thigh on EVERY pitch......Including but not limited to:

66mph fastball........
60mph curveball......
63mph riseball........
50mph change.......
62mph drop.......

Yea kids.........The "thigh slap" is an excellent tool for timing your swing..........

Please use it on MY pitchers........:rolleyes:

Edited to Add: If your pitching coach insists on 1 speed for all your pitches, you might want to avoid the "thigh slap"..........BETTER YET........You might want to avoid that pitching coach.....
 
Last edited:
Jun 21, 2012
74
0
I got to page 7 before I stopped reading. Here is my take on it.

I believe in the correctness that the glove-slap does not help the batter. It does help the runner though. It is an audible of ball release on a steal. My runners will not have to look for release, they can listen for it. (Now, this varies on the speed of the pitcher, which during my signals I can say see the ball, or listen).

If my runner doesn't have to "watch" the pitcher release the ball, she can exit the bag quicker, do to not having to do a pre-move of her head. It helps them to stay down longer if they are focused on the bag. Works wonders on right-handed pitchers who hide the ball with their body.

Not having a pitcher glove-slap could make for more "leaving early" calls from the umpires, but if you give them an audible, then they tend to get that call right, more times than not.

So, if you have a pitcher who glove-slaps, you give me a tool to use against your team. Now you need to have a fast pitcher and a good catcher, or I will have second base. You also make it easier to squeeze bunt because you are telling my runner when to go. Why give me the advantage?
 
Last edited:
Jun 17, 2009
15,105
0
Portland, OR
I got to page 7 before I stopped reading. Here is my take on it.

I believe in the correctness that the glove-slap does not help the batter. It does help the runner though. It is an audible of ball release on a steal. My runners will not have to look for release, they can listen for it. (Now, this varies on the speed of the pitcher, which during my signals I can say see the ball, or listen).

If my runner doesn't have to "watch" the pitcher release the ball, she can exit the bag quicker, do to not having to do a pre-move of her head. It helps them to stay down longer if they are focused on the bag. Works wonders on right-handed pitchers who hide the ball with their body.

Not having a pitcher glove-slap could make for more "leaving early" calls from the umpires, but if you give them an audible, then they tend to get that call right, more times than not.

So, if you have a pitcher who glove-slaps, you give me a tool to use against your team. Now you need to have a fast pitcher and a good catcher, or I will have second base. You also make it easier to squeeze bunt because you are telling my runner when to go. Why give me the advantage?

Your base-runners will be late leaving the bag if they wait for the sound of the ‘glove slap’ and are not watching the pitcher.

First, the ‘sound’ of the glove slap takes place “after” the ‘release’.

Second, if your runners are not watching the pitcher then they are not able to ‘anticipate’ when the release will take place. You see, runners don’t wait for the ‘release’ to happen before they start to leave the bag …. They time their motion so that they are leaving the bag on ‘release’ …. And that requires looking at the pitcher.

If you are going to wait for the sound of the ‘glove slap’, which occurs after the ‘release’, then you will go through a ‘delay process’ as the body ‘reacts’ to the audible. In a sense you wait to hear the slap, a message is sent to the brain, sent back to the body to initiate running, and finally the base-runner leaves the bag …. And that will be later than the base-runner that used their eyes to time leaving the bag on ‘release’.
 
Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
I think you guys are missing something here in regards to helping the batter. If there is a synchronized, repeated "tell", regardless of when it happens in the delivery, it will help a good hitter. Speaking directly to BM's speed differences, you're talking about 0.07 sec difference in travel time of the ball between 60mph and 70mph from 43': the slap will not tell me when the ball will arrive, but it will tell me where I should be in my swing, and it will tell me if she's changed her arm speed if the slap occurs at a different point in my swing. My only point is that a good hitter uses every piece of information available on every pitch. It might not be a lot of info, and it might be late in the process, but it might also be the difference between fouling it off and a clean K. It's just a consideration. I don't think anyone is claiming that the slap is the only timing mechanism, but it is a timing mechanism.

JMO and all that. This might belong in the hitting forum, dunno.

Ray
 
Jun 17, 2009
15,105
0
Portland, OR
BG ... a good hitter blocks out the sound of the glove slap. The 'sound' of the glove slap takes place within the boarders of the critical timing boundaries of a good swing .... and therefore is not of use as something to be used for timing. The glove slapping sound is simply too late to start the movement of the COM, and once the ball is released the focus needs to be on 'timing the ball'.

Just as a good base-runner needs to be watching the pitcher's motion to establish their timing, so does a good batter.

To a hitter, the sound of the glove slap represents a distraction.

Just as a good pitcher blocks out distractions, so does a batter.

 
Last edited:
Jul 23, 2014
191
16
Midwest
I don't think a thigh slap is that much of a big deal one way or another. Unnecessary? probably. Detrimental? doubtful.

I'm currently working with my 10u and although I don't have her slapping, I have considered adding it as a last resort way to keep her from throwing out her glove hand and shoulder to the left at delivery. An audible clue that she isn't making a backstroke motion with her glove hand. We'd then later replace it with more of a light-brushing motion.
 
Jun 24, 2010
465
0
Mississippi
This has been a very interesting thread to a novice of pitching. Thanks to all involved.

I'll leave the "slap", or "not to slap" to the experts. I will say that if I'm paying for pitching instructions, a coach isn't going to FORCE a mechanical change to her pitching. If they want to make suggestions, that's completely fine. This mindset of "I don't like it so I'll force them to change it.", is completely ludicrous. It's that God-like personality that too many coaches have.
 

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