New Slapper: Still left and Right. What's the plan in the box?

[Vertigo]

Teach it concurrently.

That’s how dd learned.

 

[Vertigo]

Even if they never swing away in a game I feel like learning to swing first will make it easier once you add the footwork. Hitting is hard, adding in movement is another level of hard, not that you don't know that just expressing my thought process. After seeing other girls only work on slapping and struggling, I think swinging first is the way to go in my admittedly limited experience. The thing that makes no sense to me is the girls that struggle hitting from the right so they want to slap, and their coaches let them! What makes them think slapping will be easier?

Two totally different skill sets. Timing is much different between the two. Bat is typically swung a little differently with slap vs swinging away. Don’t really have to worry as much about loading and weight transfer with slapping.

 

[Gags]

She’d get to strike two and her HS coach would have her switch back.

I thought once you reach two strikes, you couldn't switch sides? Is that a baseball-only rule?

 

[murphdog]

I watched two girls on dd's team last year do this. They couldn't even soft slap correctly because it was so foreign to them. I know everyone is different but we worked on only hitting from the left for most of the winter when dd switched sides and everything else came fairly easy to her. I say easy but it was/is still a lot of work but compared to the two girls I watched last season taking the opposite approach I think it's the way to go. Again, I know everyone is different and dd is odd with the things she can do that should be hard and struggles with some things that shouldn't. Taught herself to juggle like it was nothing, started swinging away from the left and picked it up pretty quick. Ask her to balance on one leg and she falls over

You totally just described my my DD
She’s juggled in her college media day pictures for the past two years and has now decided that she wants a unicycle so she can juggle while riding one.

 

[Vertigo]

I thought once you reach two strikes, you couldn't switch sides? Is that a baseball-only rule?

Must be. It’s allowed in softball.

 

[MikeP]

Two totally different skill sets. Timing is much different between the two. Bat is typically swung a little differently with slap vs swinging away. Don’t really have to worry as much about loading and weight transfer with slapping.

Not about the skill sets, to me it's about becoming comfortable on the left side and you are learning new motor patterns despite the differences in swinging away and slapping. I'm just giving my experience here, not saying who's right or wrong, everyone has their way of learning that works for them. It just seems easier to me to learn to swing and control the bat before adding a nothing level of difficulty. You go through a progression when learning to slap, one more step added up front shouldn't be a deal breaker.

 

[MikeP]

Going to start working with a friends dd, she wants to learn to slap. She's already a lefty so we won't have the swing/slap first issue fortunately.

 

[murphdog]

Going to start working with a friends dd, she wants to learn to slap. She's already a lefty so we won't have the swing/slap first issue fortunately.

Tell her not to be discouraged if it doesn’t work right away. It takes time and a gazillion swings. I know far too many girls who give up because they don’t see immediate results and then they don’t want to put in the work.