slap hitting

[iMlearning]

Just curious...Should every player eventually learn to slap hit regardless of size, speed, etc???

 

[quincy]

They should definitely learn to place the ball where they want in the infield, bunting, do not think teaching all the footwork involved in slap hitting is necessary.

 

[FPMark]

No. There is no bigger waste of time than teaching a girl, who can't run to 1st in less than 4 sec., how to slap. I had one on my 14U team a couple of years ago (3.8 sec home to 1st). She could slap, but had no chance of beating the throw to 1st.

Head coach wanted a slapper, and since she looked athletic and could slap, he picked her even after I showed him her home to 1st times. She went from leading off to the bottom of the order to sitting the bench most of the time. Her confidence was a mess. In practice one day I asked her how long she had been slapping, and she told me "for the last two years". Before then, she batted right so I turned her around and started over. By the end of the year she was back in the middle of the line up hitting the ball. She went 3 straight tournaments without a strike out and her entire personality changed. She was happy and confident.

I don't know why her former coach convinced her to slap, but IMO, he caused her to waist two years that she could have been using to improve her hitting.

 

[iMlearning]

I was wondering because my 13 year old is 5' 7" 155 and runs a 3.3 home to 1st. They haven't asked her to on her new team and I don't know that they will, but they are going to have special focused lessons, and this is one of them. Although, she is a power hitter, bunting has really come in handy for her when they all back up in outfield.

 

[softballphreak]

I was wondering because my 13 year old is 5' 7" 155 and runs a 3.3 home to 1st. They haven't asked her to on her new team and I don't know that they will, but they are going to have special focused lessons, and this is one of them. Although, she is a power hitter, bunting has really come in handy for her when they all back up in outfield.

Bunting and slapping are two related but different animals. Everyone should be able to bunt. Many times "power hitters" don't spend enough time learning to bunt. They should, though.

I wouldn't waste time with slapping with a 3.3 home to 1st. Sounds like she would be better off honing her hitting or bunting skills.

 

[quincy]

I am all for showing players new skills, even if they do not utilize them, but to be a true slap hitter takes a lot of work. A few lessons might give a fielder a little insight into what a slapper is doing but not much else. I wouldn’t spend too much time on it if the batter is not going to be a slapper.

 

[starsnuffer]

A few things:

First, slapping takes a lot of time to learn and it requires constant practice. If your kid is a pitcher or already has a "secondary" skill requiring a lot of practice, it's not a good idea.

Second, it's great for kids who have a 3 second time to first. 3 seconds means 3 seconds, not 3 seconds and change.

Third, don't screw up a kid who is already a good hitter. Just because the kid is fast and athletic, doesn't mean she needs to slap. If she's already hitting great from the right, don't mess with it. A lot of kids want to learn to slap because it's "different". They'll spend a year working on it before figuring out that they were more useful to the team batting right.

Slapping is great, as a coach, you want options. I just get so sick of seeing kids who have great swings and success from the right being moved over "just because".

-W

 

[MsDinosaur]

No.

I've had to be mean Mom and say no to my DD. She's a good hitter, but not a sprinter. I don't want her to potentially mess up her right-side hitting, waste her time and get discouraged trying to master something that isn't going to work for her.

Thank goodness we haven't ever had a coach who assumed every girl should become a slapper!

Bunting is important though. IMO every girl should keep practicing that!

 

[Sparky Guy]

Just curious...Should every player eventually learn to slap hit regardless of size, speed, etc???

The short answer is a definite NO!.

The long answer is a player needs to have all the necessary components to learn how to slap. The first is speed. Not average or slightly above average speed. They need to be very fast with very quick acceleration during the first two steps. Usually a very fast girl is athletic and that fills in the second requirement. They need to be naturally aggressive at the plate. They also need patience and determination to learn how to slap correctly while learning how to develop a standard swing from the left side. The last thing is intelligence. They need to be able to decide in a fraction of a second what they are going to do with a pitch based on the game situation, defense and thrown pitch.

It takes two full years to learn how to slap effectively. It takes several more to accel at it.

Unless a girl has all the components it's a waste of time to try and teach them to slap. Usually the biggest obstacle is one of the parents. If they don't see results immediately they want to have their daughter give up on it.

The girls I've worked with who stay committed to it have mostly excelled at slapping. Had another goofy mom who kept bouncing her daughter from one side of the plate to the other. The girl had all the components. However, she is way behind the others her age because of the mom's waffling.

When I talk to a parent about turning their daughter around I tell them there is no turning back. I will use a quote from the move Karate Kid. It's the scene where Miaggi tells Daniel "Either Karate do or Karate don't. Get stuck in the middle and get squashed like grape."

 

[iMlearning]

Thanks. I doubt they'll ask her after hearing those responses. I think she's pretty fast for her size, but some of the girls are amazingly fast on her team. Her first couple steps are slow. She had a great batting average on her other travel team, so I agree with not messing with that.