Slapping resources

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Oct 18, 2009
17
1
Indiana
Not sure if this is the forum for this, but we'll give it a go. I am looking for advanced slapping resources: drills, video, etc. We have done the beginning stages with the batter at the plate with a glove working on catching the ball and progressed to the tee. What I am looking for are more advanced keys, drills, analysis, and the other.
 
Oct 18, 2009
17
1
Indiana
I am working with kids that have been slapping between 2-4 years. Read an interesting two part article by NFCA that did some really good work on looking at elite slappers, but wanted to see if there was anymore stuff out there.
 
Aug 4, 2008
2,364
0
Lexington,Ohio
USA Softball Merchandise Slapping and the short game by Team USA coaches and Caitilyn Lowe. I have been doing this for a few years and this is one of the best on slapping and bunting . A must if you coach a slapper. The best new drill . Use the TCB weighted balls. It forces your slapper to keep the bat on the ball longer. Then when you switch back to a regular softball you will see the difference. We have been lucky that the dd has got to work with some of the best at this. The dd after training with the above drill has what she calls her Whatley slap. She can hit the ball about 5 ' in front of the plate and the ball will go straight up on a hard field. When it comes down ( normally the catcher has it) she is standing on first. We practice with cones as targets. Or old milk jugs, work fine. There are many resources on slapping. Just goggle it. I have many printed out and used them over the years. Larry Ray has some good ones.
 
Last edited:
Sep 3, 2009
675
0
I'd look around see what works best for the girl. Larry Ray is very good at what he teaches; but he only teaches one style, his. Watley is a good example of this. Players like Raven Chavanne, Rhea Taylor, etc are a different style altogether.

One of the better drills to get the slapper focusing on making contact with the ball, is to bring the bat down as if starting the swing, but to make contact with the ball with the knob of the bat. This will also help them in their hitting.
Another drill if you have access to a field, is to setup some plastic 5 gal buckets or something similar as infielders. Work on hitting around them, and move them up or out, to work on soft and power slap.
 
Oct 18, 2009
17
1
Indiana
Can somebody explain the drill of catching the ball with the glove? Thanks.

It's an introductory drill we use to get the footwork going without the use of the bat. You have the glove on the left hand and have a pitcher throw to them. The hitter works on the crossover step and and bringing the glove down to catch the ball in the strike zone. Mainly, it just gets the player to work on moving in the box without all of the other stuff thrown at them right out of the gate.

A lot of good suggestions. Sounds like Larry Ray is the place to continue my research. I have the stuff from Tennessee and Karen Weekley's slap attack video. Any more stuff out there other than what has been listed?
 
Jul 26, 2010
3,567
0
FYI the USA Softball video is fairly useless to actually teach slapping. It's a great video that touches very briefly on many different short game offensive tactics and when to use them, but as for the mechanics side of things, it's pretty weak. If you're good about picking up mechanics just by watching, it does have a ton of reps being completed by Kaitlin Lowe, but if you need something explained and broken down, it's probably not the video for you.

Anyone have Natasha Watley's videos?

-W
 
Oct 18, 2009
17
1
Indiana
FYI the USA Softball video is fairly useless to actually teach slapping. It's a great video that touches very briefly on many different short game offensive tactics and when to use them, but as for the mechanics side of things, it's pretty weak. If you're good about picking up mechanics just by watching, it does have a ton of reps being completed by Kaitlin Lowe, but if you need something explained and broken down, it's probably not the video for you.

Anyone have Natasha Watley's videos?

-W

I have that video also. A good starting video that talks about footwork, depth of the ball at impact, etc. Does a good job with some drills off the tee, but again, not a lot of technical keys are given. I guess for my money the two part article in the NFCA magazine that was in the last two issues gave a lot of info on foot placement and footwork. Not a lot on bat mechanics, but still good. I will try the Larry Ray stuff.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,474
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top