Slapping Help

[Hoover's Dad]

Take a look a my DD working on slapping and tell me anything that is obvious to work on! She just turned 9, and we have been working on this for about 5 months.

YouTube - Slap Hitting-9yr old


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[starsnuffer]

Great job for a 9 year old! Getting the timing down off a real pitcher is very tricky. A few things:

- Great job keeping the hands inside the ball. Biggest problem I have teaching slappers is casting through the zone.
- After her cross step she needs to take her first step more towards first. This will put her in an open stance, seeing the ball better in the zone, and directing her momentum more towards first. It's good that she's headed towards the pitcher (another hard teach) but she's doing it for a few extra steps
- Decide what kind of slap she's doing and give her a target. It's hard to tell from the video what she's trying to accomplish. If she's slapping towards the shortstop, she needs to keep her shoulder down a bit more and hit the ball to the ground forcing a bounce. If she's bunting, have her choke up more.
- You may want to try having her start with a slightly open stance. Her first step back is really changing her body position because she's angling her foot different and getting ready to run. This first step should be more of a "get my front foot out of the way for the back to come through" step. If she starts slightly open, the front foot has to move less. Mendoza does this, and thus the first step is mostly back towards the back foot, rather then away from the plate and back.

It's hard to tell more because I can't see the pitcher and how she's setting up her timing, but it seems great for a 9 year old. Good job.

-W

 

[Hoover's Dad]

I understand what you are saying about getting her moving towards first a step sooner. I think that is my fault, I have been stressing the importance of going straight at the pitcher and not peeling off toward first to soon, that we have gone the other way too much.

We work on drag bunts as well, but mostly just making contact now and putting it in play anywhere she can. Her first step is to much back, instead of straight at her back foot. The first video I ever watched on slapping, the coach taught the style of stepping back/away at the same time. that is what i showed her the first day we tried slapping, and that sort of stuck with her. We are gradually fixin all the things that I did not know when we started.

Hopefully we are on the right track, with slower pitchers she has no problem making contact, the faster girls give her problems, but age and strength with help with that.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Look at team USA DVD's Caitlin Lowe how to play the short game. 1. They teach to step toward short stop not the pitcher. 2. They teach the cross over and why it is faster out of the box. Plus it goes into detail on each type of bunt and slap and how to coach the slapper. I think you will enjoy it.

 

[go4um]

i think you guys are off to a good start. i would suggest getting the back step fixed first...as you said straight back and don't rotate the toe toward the P so much...opens the hips and drains power for hard slap. then i would work on shoulder and hand load during back step and start of cross step to generate bat speed more quickly...her cross step and go step look pretty good...i wouldn't mess with planting idea of getting toward 1b quicker...peeling is a killer

i sent you a PM with my email if you would like me to send you some info and drills that i use to teach slap hitting

 

[absdad]

I would not step towards first before contact. Why step AWAY from the pitch? A skilled pitcher against a slap hitter, is going to work the outside. If your slapper is immediately stepping towards first, she is really extending to make contact.

A few things I see from the video that I would suggest; have your daughter start her swing slightly later. She appears to be starting her swing almost as soon as she begins her footwork. She should be making contact slightly behind, when slapping. That should keep her from pulling it to the 1st base side. If you look at my avatar, you can see my daughter is well into her footwork and her bat has just dropped, but she hasn't quite started her swing yet. You might pitch to her, and have her go through her footwork and not swing. Just work on her steps, and her timing. Once she's got that down, then start adding the swing. Another good drill is to take those ball buckets we all have laying around, and have her aim for them. Or put several in postion as defensive players, and to try and work around them.
The other thing I'd suggest, is choking up on the bat, a good ways, and work on her swing speed. If she can hit for power, power slap, soft slap, bunt, drag, she will be deadly.

Not sure what "style" of slapping you're going for. There are two styles. The Larry Ray or Arizona style. Then there is the 'deliberate' style (only thing i've heard it caleld) used by players like Raven Chavanne, Rhea Taylor, etc. Her footwork looks more like the latter, and looks good. My dd is also a slapper, and it's a not well understood skill. I hope you have a good coach who knows what it is, and appreciates it. Good luck to your dd.

 

[SoftSocDad]

I would not step towards first before contact. Why step AWAY from the pitch?

Correct, the only time you step towards 1st on a bunt is when batting righty.

A few things I see from the video that I would suggest; have your daughter start her swing slightly later. She appears to be starting her swing almost as soon as she begins her footwork. She should be making contact slightly behind, when slapping.

You explained it better than I could, but I noticed the same thing. It's possible that she was a bit eager because she knew she was being filmed.

 

[bobbleheadbill]

I would suggest putting her in a position in which she has already crossed over, ball on a tee slightly in front of her front hip. Make sure her hands are back and her shoulders are still more to the plate than towards the pitcher. Then work on keeping her hands inside the ball, driving everything down towards the SS/3B hole, with what amounts to a half or check-swing. Empahsize keeping her left hand above her right down through the contact position to help her accomplish that. Then, allow her to move through contact from a normal starting position, ball still on the tee. Place a bucket 5-10 feet out in front of the plate, in the direction of the SS/3B hole. Have her try and hit the ball into the bucket. First step from start should be straight cross-over, in the direction of the SS, right at the front corner of the batter's box, plate side. What you are essentially working on at this point is a "soft" slap. From there you can transition to a full, or "hard" slap, and hitting through the infield. Teach her to do both, makes it much tougher to defend her. Before any of this, make sure you are teaching her good swing mechanics from the left side. She will need to be able to do more than just put bat on ball and run to be a successful slapper. From the video, she looks to be athletic, and has pretty darn good form right now. Gets her shoulders early to the pitcher as mentioned above, the above drill will help her achieve the later, more powerful contact. If she starts the swing too early, she will not be able to transition to a hard slap, or a "running" hit. It'll always be more of a running bunt, as she'll push her hands to the ball due to early extension.

 

[SBFAMILY]

After taking a lesson on slapping we used Howard/hitters the rubber band on the top finger and used the TCB balls slapping. Those balls have to be driven off the bat. The regular balls bounce off the bat verses the TCB ball having to be driven off the bat. Night and day differences when the grip is corrected and they do the hand over drill prior to slapping and they can feel the difference when actually slapping the TCB balls verses a regular ball. What you see is how hard they now can hit the ball into the ground and how high it will bounce. We were at a college camp and the dd was bouncing them off the floor into the top of the net in the batting cage. The college coach watched and asked her how did you learn to do that. The dd calls it her Whatley slap.

 

[mkral]

You are off to a great start!! Keep her hands back longer, ie don't start the swing so soon. This will be a timing issue she will get on her own but it will take a lot of time. We practice in a gym all winter and we tape squares on the walls where the 5-6 and 3-4 gaps would be. We work hard on hitting those gaps. We also work on a soft liner over 2nd. A lot of coaches will pull their 2nd baseman up do defend slappers so a nice soft liner over her is a killer shot when done correctly. But as absdad said do not step towards first base before contact. All movement to contact will be in a straight line.
There is some great advise on here so far!! You are off to a great start!! Good luck!