When you think of a slapper...

Nice to see comments from those who have seen the value of "slapping". Love it when the opposing coach starts yelling to move his defense around. Problem is...the field is too big to cover it all against the speedy slapper. We love to see the OF start to cheat in...triples are fun!

DD1 started slapping because she was always small and fast and never had much power. I told her if she was going to be hitting ground balls to the infield she might as well do it with a running start from the left.

It seems like right now there are two extremes in our area. There's coaches who don't see the value and there's coaches that fall in love with it and try and convert 2/3 of their roster.

Probly wrong but the best slappers can hit ithe over fence. Hit first, slap 2nd.

quincy said:

Probly wrong but the best slappers can hit ithe over fence. Hit first, slap 2nd.

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Not wrong there...just not always practical. Certainly not all, but most slappers, especially conversions, may not ever get there since they probably lacked power to begin with. This can change over time though with work. DD converted to left side at 11. Slowly gained power over the years. At 16, she is now capable of hitting the long ball full swing. On her travel team, leadoff slapper, but HS...shes their 3/4 hitter, never slapping at all. Lead every offensive stat on her HS team last season and selected to 1st team all-conference..all swinging away. I will admit the hr's are rare for her, but in her 1st HS scrimmage this year she did go yard again. We focused on slap first, but we always worked on the swing away just to keep defense honest. Learning to swing away 1st isnt wrong at all, but over the fence hr power may be a bit out of reach for most.

MightyMO said:

DD1 started slapping because she was always small and fast and never had much power. I told her if she was going to be hitting ground balls to the infield she might as well do it with a running start from the left.

It seems like right now there are two extremes in our area. There's coaches who don't see the value and there's coaches that fall in love with it and try and convert 2/3 of their roster.

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Pretty much the same scenario as my DD and why she started slapping. Her first year of 12U she weighed about 65 lbs. soaking wet, but was always one of the quickest girls on the team. It took everything she had to hit a ball to the grass lol. Now in her first year of 14U it's another tool in the box that she can use to her advantage. In our tournament two weeks ago she bunted for a hit, slapped for a couple of hits, and hit a ball 190 feet to the fence in RF swinging away. Some people are under the misconception that slapping is easy, but to be effective that couldn't be further from the truth. DD does drills and tee work twice a week every week for slapping.

mudrunner said:

Pretty much the same scenario as my DD and why she started slapping. Her first year of 12U she weighed about 65 lbs. soaking wet, but was always one of the quickest girls on the team. It took everything she had to hit a ball to the grass lol. Now in her first year of 14U it's another tool in the box that she can use to her advantage. In our tournament two weeks ago she bunted for a hit, slapped for a couple of hits, and hit a ball 190 feet to the fence in RF swinging away. Some people are under the misconception that slapping is easy, but to be effective that couldn't be further from the truth. DD does drills and tee work twice a week every week for slapping.

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Mine stayed small and never developed the power. She's 19 now and is half an inch shorter and 30 lbs lighter than DD2 who is 12.

IMO slapping is much harder to master than swinging away. There are so many moving parts that have to be perfect if you want any chance of placing the ball. That's not even mentioning the mental part of it.

can anyone suggest some videos and drills for a beginning slapper?

KPower said:

When you think of a slapper - what goes thru your mind?

Since DD was not playing yesterday we went and watched some of her friends play. I was talking with some parents and we got to talking about slapping. One dad mentioned - "we don't need slappers, our girls can actually hit the ball". This was a new 12U parent talking and maybe he doesn't understand that slapping is more than just a moving bunt?!?

So, do you think of slappers as girls who can't hit the ball?

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At the younger age groups that are a lot of girls are taught to "slap" to avoid striking out. Most of those players are weeded out by 14U. True slappers need to be 2.8 seconds home to first or faster, and the most difficult to defend are players who can slap, bunt or swing away.

As a pitchers dad, I have always truly hated talented slappers, you know the one's who are just about an impossible out! Of course I'm kidding, I don't hate them, I very much respect them and as a pitch caller I love the challenge of going against them. When my DD joined our current organization, it was her first year 14U for Fall ball, we had this lead off slapper who was maybe 5'4" and maybe 110/115 lbs.......and she ran a 2.7 time home to first. We were playing in a showcase at Winthrop college and this girl went 21 for 23 for the weekend!! Her first out was her very first AB and she beat the throw to first by 1.5 steps, the opposing coach raised both hands at Mr. blue like "wow, how'd you miss that?" And her only other out that weekend was an absolute missile line drive to the LF who never had to move even a step! She could have batted 1.000 for that weekend.

I say all that to say that one girl really opened my eyes to what a truly talented slapper can do! She drove coaches crazy all weekend long! She bunted, slapped and hit the fence on the fly several times!

cvsoftball said:

can anyone suggest some videos and drills for a beginning slapper?

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Check out https://www.facebook.com/bethemomentumsoftball/

DD went to one of Emily's clinics, and follows her tips, drill, and posts on facebook. Slapper Nation is another good one.