Commit to Slapping -- Still Work Righty Swing?

[51sDad]

Thank for the input...so there's probably something here I missed in my thinking. Not only develop her slapping from the left, but a "full" swing as well, right? not just a power slap but also traditional swing..that's interesting....

I guess bye-bye, righty, right?

Tks.

2 things...
I'm making the assumption here that your DD is fast and prompted the change in the first place. While this is all well and good now, what is going to happen if she focuses all of her efforts on learning the short game, grows up, and isn't fast anymore? If she puts in the work to be a great hitter, it won't matter.

The last thing you want in the later years is to be one dimensional. Even with the power slap, inside pitches are going to generate a lot of ground balls. Not to say that a player can't have some success strictly running the box, but why limit your DDs game? A great slapper who is also a great hitter is the ultimate offensive weapon.

 

[rowdy]

With the pitching distances moving back at the younger ages you will start to see much more hitting. As a lefty myself I would say it is an advantage. I have also seen people take good right handed hitters and completely destroy their ability to contribute. At the end of the day unless you are amazingly fast hit from your best side and learn to hit it hard.

 

[ssarge]

Lots of good input here. I'd like to add a couple of thoughts as well. It will probably sound didactec, and that is not my intent. Not my desire to sound like a know-it-all, because I don't. Probably lots of approaches that will work. I 've just been fortunate enough to gain sufficient experience to know that this is ONE such approach.

1) The first consideration is whether SLAPPING makes sense. And even that depends on what the athlete's goals are. If college play is a part of her goals, then you have to determine realistically if she has / will have the speed to slap in college. A LOT of things work in 12U that won't ultimately work in Gold / college ball. Especially D-I college ball.

Kids who can make slapping work at the higher levels of play are REALLY fast. Pretty much in the 2.6s or better. Now, NO 12 YO is that fast, but there are indications that she might eventually be. The kids who slap successfully in college are ALL in the 99 percentile of speed from an early age. I'll hold Raven Chavanne up as an example. She hasn't played her first college game yet (for Tennessee), but she is going to be very successful as a slapper in college. And has been at the highest levels of JO play, being the lead-off hitter for the Batbusters the past two seasons. She also ran track, and made the CIF Southern section finals in the 100, and posted a top 10 in the state time in the 100. Mike Candrea / Larry Ray timed her around 2.5 FLAT at an Arizona clinic.

Not everyone who slaps successfully in college is THAT fast, but I'd stick with the 99 percentile guideline as a good one. Defenses in college are good. You can't make it as a slapper if you are merely faster than the average. You have to be REALLY fast.

Now if the goal is high school play, or smaller schools in college, you can back off on this a little. But I would urge anyone to be realistic about this, because you are building a plan at age 12 that is going to shape the rest of her career. If your entire skill set is slapping, and at age 16 you realize you aren't going to be QUITE fast enough, where do you go from there?

And no matter HOW fast she is, seek training from a sports development center / instructor who works with sprinters. It will absolutely make her faster. Virtually no one has perfect running mechanics without some instruction.


2) If slapping makes sense, based on her speed and aptitude at it, then by all means act upon it. There is serious interest among college coaches in athletes who can bat .350 or better as a slapper. And there is even a little advantage built in, since in college, slaps which advance a runner but which result in the hitter being out at 1B count as a sacrifice, not a fielders choice. So the batting average is helped. Artificially in my opinion, but who cares about my opinion? That's the RULE. So if you CAN slap successfully in (for example) Gold ball, you're going to get serious college interest.


3) I personally would not slap from the left side, and swing away from the right side. Switch hitting of any kind in softball has limited value, IMO. Unlike BB pitchers, most FP pitchers can break the ball either lateral direction, so the major advantage of switch hitting is off the board. And it is hard enough to learn to do things from ONE side.


4) There is a reason that the baseball Hall-of-Fame is disproportionally full of right-hand throwers and left hand hitters. Maybe it is because the right eye is dominant. Maybe it's because the bottom hand on the bat is the stronger hand. I don't know. I just know it often has strong results. Probably would work the other way too, but it's rare (Ricky Henderson comes to mind, and he probably proves the point, hitting close to 300 HRs as a lead-off / speed guy). Anyway, learning to bat LH sub age 12 is doable, and I think there are serious advantages. Probably for anyone, and certainly for a kid who also has slap skills.

A LH hitter who can swing away - especially with some pop - AND slap is the prototype softball hitter, IMO. Absolutely hamstrings the defense. Definitely worth trying for if the kid has skills in both directions, because the upside is HUGE in terms of who far she may go in the game.

Back to Raven Chavanne -she may well be the best 18 YO slapper in America, and she has spent the past two years furiously working at a full swing. I think she is going to surprise a lot of people in college.


5) Learning to hit LF will be a challenge. You'll have time to do it, because she will be in demand due to her slap skills. That is important, because if you are not in demand, you don't get to play at high levels and face meaningful pitching. And you NEED to do that to get good. She can slap twice a game, and swing away once, and still do very well. Other kids just learning to hit might not do well at all. HUGE advantage.


6) My first step would be 100 swings a day off the Tee for at least 2 months. The first month, all middle / middle pitches. This is a huge opportunity to learn without bad habits to overcome, and you should seek out guidance / instructional videos / etc. Don't know what part of the company you live in, but guys like Englishbey travel, and a weekend with someone like him to build the foundation would be HUGE. If that isn't practical / possible, use some instructional tapes as the basis. His or RVP would be my highest recommendations. But find some material you believe in to guide your swing process, and to be a constant check-point as you evolve. Also, find an instructor who espouses the same fundamentals, and consult him. Then take those 6,000 swings.

The second 3,000 swings should be split between the middle / middle and the four extremes of the strike zone.


7) Day 61, start working on a LH walk-up swing, a la Vicky Galindo. You'll be amazed at how this momentum adds to the power of the swing, and also DE-magnifies mechanical flaws. A lot of upper-body disconnection (the most common flaw in youth swings, in one of it's many manifestations) gets eliminated when the hitter has momentum. I think what causes most disconnection is the brain trying to figure out a way to get the hands / bat moving and gain momentum into the swing. Eliminate that, and the brain doesn't freak, and the kid has a MUCH better chance of staying connected.

Ultimately, this makes it way into the "standard" swing when the kid doesn't walk-up. At the Sorcerer Academy, where I am an instructor, we use the walk-up drill with RIGHT HAND hitters, to teach them to gain momentum, and stay connected. Works great, too, typically sooner than later. Believe or not, some RH hitters have even used it in games. One of those kids hit a triple and 2 HRs in the first 4 times she tried it in HS games (her coach made her stop because "it was too weird." And I don't know it IS a viable long-term strategy for a RH hitter. (For one thing, the hitter doing this was an early-commit full-ride kid to the Pac10, whose father played in the NFL. Pretty deep gene pool, and I'm sure her athletecism was a factor.). Might not work for most RH hitters.

But who cares? It IS a viable approach for a LH hitter, and is just part of the repertoire for a LH hitter who slaps AND swings away.

Final thoughts in next post. . . . .

 

[ssarge]

8) This last point is true for ANY young hitter, but especially true for a slapper who is so dependent on pitcher timing. Use the machine as a supplement, but find SOMEONE who can throw her live BP, at least 3 times a week. You should probably hit 5 times a week, and you can use the machine some of those times, but the live pitching is unbelievably valuable. And for a variety of reasons, rare in softball (I think mostly because there aren't 500 dads who can throw it as there are in baseball). If you have to PAY someone to throw, that's fine. At least half of the live pitches should be meatballs - standard MLB type BP stuff. There is a value to that, and the problem is it is hard to find active pitchers willing to do it. It is why you might need to pay someone no longer in the game, or find a mom / dad with previous FP pitching experience. The reluctance of an active pitcher to throw BP is understandable, but you need it. The other half SHOULD be pitches thrown with intent.


9) Put a practice plan in effect that emphasizes all aspects of the game. Not necessarily in each practice session, but over the course of a week. Need to work on sac bunts, bunts for base hits, slap, power slap, walk-up swing, and standard full swing constantly, not abandon some for a while to work on something else exclusively. Easy to fall into the later trap, and before you know it, a part of your game goes from strong to remedial.


10) CAN'T stress this last point enough. When in games - and you should think this way in practice sessions, too- the hitter CAN NOT look at the pitch, then decide what she is going to do. It flat out doesn't work, and she will end up with a lot of really crappy swings half way between a slap and a full swing. You'll cringe when you see it (and it will happen sometimes with the BEST plan and intentions). Decide before the pitch is thrown, then execute the skill. Despite my earlier admonition about the lack of value in switch hitting for a FP hitter, a kid who slaps AND full-swings from the left side almost has to treat it as a switch-hitting type skill. It's just that both swings are from the left hand side. But they are dramatically different. One stays closed, one rotates the body fiendishly. One keeps the hands back, one doesn't. Basically the ultimate linear swing contrasted with a VERY (hopefully) rotational swing. This is NOT a decision that can be made and implemented in the 0.25 seconds available after pitch release. Has to be decided, and then barring an incredible circumstance, implemented BEFORE pitch release.

Oh yeah, when building the full swing, build it with a stance in the back of the box so you don't give away intent to the defense. Or build a slap game starting from the middle of the box -0 the point being, you should always start from the same place so as not to give the defense a clue. Dramatically enhances your probability for success.

And have fun with it. If you're playing a GOOD team who isn't familiar with you, slap the first couple ABs, then come up right handed, and just drop down a bunt for an easy base hit. That will only work against a GOOD team, because an average team won't drop the 3B back deep when you change to the right side. But a good team will.



Most of all, enjoy the journey with your daughter. Sounds as if she has a great future, and it's a great adventure to undertake together. My daughter is now in college - looking back on the journey together, I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Best regards,

Scott

 

[pbj2000]

Wow, excellent responses. My DD is 9 and she is seeing a slapping instructor but also batting right in games. It's hard as a dad because I see her drive the ball from the right and then for the most part walk batting from left (slapper moving throws pitchers off at this 10U level). I've tried to work with her on hitting from the left but she casts her hands out every time. It is a struggle to make the decision. She is the 2nd fastest one on her team.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Sarge has a bunch of good points, I would like to touch on #10 and that is foot work. Don't change between slapping and hitting or everyone will know how to play you. We start at the same location , no matter what we are doing. I have already posted she works with hitter. I like the soft toss drill, that we call each pitch and the hitter must react to each.. Power Slap. Down slap, drag bunt, Bunt, Hit, soft Slap. We toss each pitch in, out, high , low. It is a very good drill and makes the hitter adjust . I was told by an Olympic coach that this is why they do so much film study. Many give the slap away and why they do not teach the drop step, like the use to. That is the front foot going back.