Slapper Problems

[covrec1]

I have a fast slapper that when she tries to put everything into the ground at the 5/6 hole she hits 90% of them into the 3rd base fence. If she doesn't do that the 10% are at the 3rd baseman. Now every team is playing her in and I need some advice.

 

[go4um]

It sounds like she is trying to use the soft slap technique which focuses on direction control. If so, the player has to open her shoulders slightly to the right of the P before her cross step while allowing her front elbow and hands to move forward with the shoulder opening move. To her, her front elbow will look like it is slightly in front of her front shoulder. Once set, the front shoulder does not open much further during the actual stroke but the front arm does continue to move the knob forward and the back arm does a push/punch while partially releasing the wrist but not so much that the hands roll over or the barrel passes the knob. The player needs to try to keep the bat level. In summary, get her hands forward compared to a full swing handset.

Something like this.

 

[MightyMO]

Make sure she isn't drifting away from the plate as she moves forward during her approach. I see this happen a lot with slappers and they end up hitting the outside pitch off the end of the bat or missing it completely.

If that's not the issue, then have her work on driving the pitch over the pulled in 3B like OILF mentioned.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Set up cones at targets and have her practice hitting between those cones no matter what the pitch she is trying to hit. You can do it by setting up T's in different spots. My DD use to use that drill for hrs at a time so she could place the ball no matter what the pitch was. I'm a firm believer in that you must have other weapons such as the duck hit and the power slap to make the defense honest to be a good slapper.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

It sounds like she is trying to use the soft slap technique which focuses on direction control. If so, the player has to open her shoulders slightly to the right of the P before her cross step while allowing her front elbow and hands to move forward with the shoulder opening move. To her, her front elbow will look like it is slightly in front of her front shoulder. Once set, the front shoulder does not open much further during the actual stroke but the front arm does continue to move the knob forward and the back arm does a push/punch while partially releasing the wrist but not so much that the hands roll over or the barrel passes the knob. The player needs to try to keep the bat level. In summary, get her hands forward compared to a full swing handset.

Something like this.

View attachment 6468

Please explain the 'bolded' portion above. What is the batter trying to keep the bat level to, and at what point in the motion?

 

[go4um]

Please explain the 'bolded' portion above. What is the batter trying to keep the bat level to, and at what point in the motion?

For soft slap, primary objectives are to control direction and avoid a popup. This is best achieved by bat being level to the ground at contact...i.e. barrel level with or slightly above knob and hands. If the barrel is dropped..i.e. lower than the knob..then the batter is trying to control direction with a curved surface so there is a very small margin for error. With a level bat, the player is trying to control direction with a near linear surface so there is a large margin for error. Likewise, barrel level increases likelihood for a non-popup.

Don't want this for soft slap.

Note> Soft slap technique is, in many ways, the exact opposite of hard slap technique or full swing technique which is one of the reasons slappers must practice a lot to keep it straight. Trying to soft slap by hitting a hard slap gently doesn't work very well.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Slap Single RBI .....

At contact .......

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Slap Single:

At contact .....

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Slap Single:

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Slap Single: