Switch hitting daughter

[bulldogcatcherdad]

New here. Very nice forum you have.

My daughter is in her second year of tra velball. 14u this coming season. How common or uncommon is switch hitting in fastpitch softball? She does it very well. Wasnt taught and didnt have any lessons for it. Just picked it up. Is this something she should pursue?

Thanks.

 

[quincy]

This comes up occasionally and it is not necessarily unusual that a player can switch hit but very few actual do because there is little or no advantage in softball being able to do so. You are probably better off having your DD (darling daughter) picking a side and sticking to it, preferably lefty.

Spend your training time working on that side. If she does go lefty and has some speed maybe look and see if slapping might be a skill she would be good at.

I have seen Teams look for power, speed or a lefty but never for a switch hitter.

 

[kjmpa]

Last winter my DD's travel team hitting coach taught her to hit lefty (at 16 yo-18U). They worked on it all winter in the cages, including bunting - not slap. In their opinion she was struggling on the right a little. This was her 2nd yr of travel ball - 1st at 18U. HS V coach used it more and recognized that she saw the ball better - hit .487 and higher on left (50/50 split in plate appearances). College camp this summer, batting coach wasn't impressed that she could switch / DIII championship team - said you have to have a purpose for it. DD confuses opponents - they come in for a bunt, thinking she's got nothing but a basic bunt, but she gets a lot of different locations - drops it in nicely into shallow outfield, hard grounders between 1st and 2nd baseman, etc. She can drop the bunt too - so this has helped her. This winter she's working on getting the power - I read here that it takes a year or so to get the power. In a nutshell, I think it's what you do with it - not that you can. But that's really with anything.

 

[CoogansBluff]

New here. Very nice forum you have.

My daughter is in her second year of tra velball. 14u this coming season. How common or uncommon is switch hitting in fastpitch softball? She does it very well. Wasnt taught and didnt have any lessons for it. Just picked it up. Is this something she should pursue?

Thanks.

Why does she switch hit? What advantage do you feel she is getting?

 

[Cannonball]

Team dd played for at 14U level had 3 girls who could switch hit. However, all of them were right handed hitters who turned around to slap from the left side. All were very fast. Of the 3, 2 hit from left side in high school ball. One had too much power from right side and was signed in college where she was then turned around to left side. If your dd is fast it is a positive, imo, that she can do both.

My dd grew up hitting from both side but only had one at bat from the left side which happened in a blow out game. For her, it was fun to take a few bp swings from the left side. Her coaches didn't want to give up at bats with her to experiment with her in games.

 

[vdubya]

A common line of thinking is that SH yields no advantage in fastpitch. I would be willing to bet that the college athlete who switch hits would take issue with that argument. She would tell you that she isn't hitting off of a robot. Pitchers have strengths and weaknesses at any level. If every pitcher she would face had a great left-breaking pitch and an equally great right-breaking pitch...if every day and every game she had both of those pitches really working...equally well...without ever having a day when say her drop curve was hanging>>>you get the point. I believe that a good switch hitter would study the pitcher on any given day and look for any weakness or tendency she could find. She looks at where the runners are as well. Just like a slap/drag/swing triple threat artist looks at pitching and 'D' and then pulls the appropriate weapon out of her arsenal, a SH can decide how best to choose her weapon to give herself an edge with which to carve up the pitcher. Don't forget that the umpire is human and he may be giving the pitcher this corner but not that one today.

The point here is that at 10u, 12u there is likely no advantage to switch hitting. (except getting to first base faster from the left) True enough. Eventually as players learn the game and hone their skills and reach higher and higher levels, you can bet that there is most certainly an advantage to having an extra weapon in the arsenal...at least for some skilled students of the game.

Good luck!
VW

 

[vdubya]

Another common fallacy IMO is that there is no advantage in converting a kid to the left side unless she has excellent speed. That line of thinking would give inferior golfers the handicap, and women golfers would be using the back tees and the men hitting off of the front ones.

We can all agree that decreasing the time it takes to run from home to first would be a good thing for anyone. I would argue that any player can cut their time from the left handed box, not just those with excellent speed. Every kid on the team gets thrown out by a step once in a while, or misses that extra base hit by an oh-so-close tag play. Yet many still argue that it only makes sense to move to the left if she is fast.

It is always good to use your brain and occasionally go against the mainstream thinking on this here flat earth
VW

 

[Cannonball]

vdubya, if you have the time and the facilities and your dd has the time as well then more power to you.

 

[bulldogcatcherdad]

She hits with power both directions. Has topped a 185 foot fence both ways. She is fast and actually is right handed. Never really "worked" on the left handed hitting she just did it once and coach liked what he saw. So now at BP she hits both ways. Her coaches feel the same way as to its another weapon to pick apart a pitcher with. She has more power from the left side, uses more of her body as well compared to when she bats right. She just turned 13 in july.

 

[softballphreak]

Video is needed here. 185' sounds ok but it's more important how she swings. 185' isn't that far. There are some horrible ways to hit it much farther; you don't want those.