I understand that slap hitting (soft slap, and power slap, etc.) can be extremely effective at all levels of play, including college and professional levels. At what age level do you start to see the slap hitters start to loose their effectiveness?
We (myself and hitting instructor) have been practicing slap hitting with my daughter who will be an 8u player playing up at the 10u level next year for about 9 months. She only bats left handed. She is the fastest player on the team and has very good quickness, but I don't think she will ever be a legit track star. That kind of speed just does not run in the family.
The slap hitting is definitely what you would call a work in progress. She can do it well in batting practice but come game time she struggles to put the ball between the lines, lots of foul balls. No big deal, she is only 8 years old. She also enjoys practicing slap hitting, it usually takes about 10 pitches in batting practice for her to get her foot work down correctly and keep her hand high. That is where the difference is come game time, you don't get 10 practice pitches in a game.
Now that I gave a little backround, back to the original question. Does slap hitting loose its effectiveness at older ages?
We (myself and hitting instructor) have been practicing slap hitting with my daughter who will be an 8u player playing up at the 10u level next year for about 9 months. She only bats left handed. She is the fastest player on the team and has very good quickness, but I don't think she will ever be a legit track star. That kind of speed just does not run in the family.
The slap hitting is definitely what you would call a work in progress. She can do it well in batting practice but come game time she struggles to put the ball between the lines, lots of foul balls. No big deal, she is only 8 years old. She also enjoys practicing slap hitting, it usually takes about 10 pitches in batting practice for her to get her foot work down correctly and keep her hand high. That is where the difference is come game time, you don't get 10 practice pitches in a game.
Now that I gave a little backround, back to the original question. Does slap hitting loose its effectiveness at older ages?