Try lefty or stay righty

[Chris O'Leary]

Maybe this is just me being male, but I wouldn't turn a good hitter into a slapper. I'd consider adding it to the toolkit, but not make it her primary technique.

I went to back to back Cardinals games a couple of days ago. One day Rafael Furcal bunted/slapped twice for singles. The next day he pulled a ball for a (crushed) home run.

I guarantee you that the other team had no idea what he was going to do at his next AB.

Good hitters have multiple tools in their arsenal and put the appropriate swing on the ball. Ichiro will slap the ball if it's away and he will swing for power if the ball is inside.

 

[NJSOFTBALL]

Where did Furcal hit in the order? In baseball it very unlikley 3-4-5 are bunting. They do bunt but not very often.

 

[softballphreak]

I agree with Chris, the player should be able to do more than bunt or slap. I've seen too many players moved to the left side just because they were fast and not taught anything except slapping or bunting. Everyone MUST be able to bunt but everyone MUST be able to hit also.

 

[WinThemAll]

Here is the difference. In baseball you basically switch hit to battle the pitcher. In softball you switch to the left side because of speed.

 

[jinjet95]

My DD turned around to the left side 3 years ago. She bats 2nd. In a tournament this summer, her first 2 at bats, the opposing manager pulled his girls in a couple of steps anticipating a bunt or slap. Both times she sent the ball over the CF head for a double. 3rd AB he finally wised up and kept everyone back. She laid a beautiful drag bunt down the 3rd base line for an easy single. That was my favorite at bat of the tournament. A good lefty with all of the tools keeps the defense guessing. She'll never be a power hitter, but she hits for average with some power. 30% of her hits last season were for extra bases.

 

[MsDinosaur]

All you have to do is go to any college web page and put this to rest. Many players are under 5' 5" few if any switch hit.

That's good to hear. My DD is always very enthusiastic and is intrigued by the idea of slapping, but, sigh, she is not fast, at all. IMO she should concentrate on hitting as a righty--and on being able to get a bunt down when it's needed.

 

[starsnuffer]

I can understand what you are saying,but I don't want my dd to be just as good and maybe better from the left.She works on her swing all the time,I feel she needs to prefect"I say that knowing,prefection is not possiable"her swing and at that point why change.DD is 12yro not tall,but solid build.To a girl built like her,I wouldn't mess with switching to left.I think it all depends on the player,and how they feel,not the coach.

I used to think like that too. My daughter had the fortunate circumstance to be able to work out with Vicky Galindo (Team USA and NPF player). Vicky came in to work on her slapping, the same time my daughter was learning, so they were paired up and spent about 3 hours going through the same drills.

In addition to Vicky being an awesome person and a positive role model, she's also a natural righty that was turned around at about the same age as your daughter. She got to play for Cal and later Team USA batting for power from the left side. She's TINY compared to what you might consider an average D1 player, but man can she hit. We all thought it was kind of funny that an athlete of her caliber, playing at the top most level as a left handed batter never really concentrated too much on slapping, but here she was before the 2010 KFC tournament under instructions to learn to slap.

There's nothing that Vicky has genetically that your daughter, or my daughter, or anyone else s daughter does not have.

If your kid wants to be a power hitter from the right, then great, nothing wrong with that at all. If she's still in the learning stages though, and she is fast, there's also nothing wrong with switching her to the other side. Here's the simple truth: Kids get better when they have more playing time. A "contact" hitter is not an impact player, and will not get as much playing time as a "power" hitter. Move that kid to the left and teach her some skills, and she'll stand out, get more playing time, and become better at all the above.

-W

 

[StacieM]

Interesting question and comments regarding "contact hitters." Personally, I was always referred to as a contact hitter, not just because I was up there to "just make contact" but because I very,very rarely took a swing and missed the ball. You were NOT going to strike me out swinging, because if I swung the bat, I did not miss the ball. I could hit the ball pretty hard for a relatively small frame (I used to LOVE sending pitchers a message as a first batter of the game by hitting the ball right back at their ankles and make them dodge out of the way and have to watch the ball shoot into CF ). Believe me I got LOTS of playing time even when I was on one of the best teams in the state in high school.

I hit mostly 1 or 2 growing up and in college ended up hitting in the 5 slot often because even though I wasn't very big, was considered a "contact hitter" since I first started playing, wasn't even really using my legs properly in my swing according to my coaches, I could still hit the ball on a line to the fence without today's modern day bat technology - plus I hit my coach's ankle enough times when he pitched BP so that he would remember just how hard I managed to hit the ball).

Anyway - enough about trying to "defend" the contact hitter lol

About switching sides...
I switch my DD over to hit LEFT ONLY at age 12, BUT she was NOT performing well on the right side. The summer before that she dabbled a little on the left side and didn't really progress there nor on the right.

As a right hitter she would swing and miss A LOT. When we threw her on the left side, she made much better and much more consistent contact. She just wasn't quite used to the swing and seeing the ball from that side of the plate. One summer got her up to speed on that. She learned to slap AFTER that summer of hitting from the left side only.

As Crystl Bustos and I were discussing on one of her last nights here in Hawaii about a month ago, hitting from the left side does NOT give you a speed advantage UNLESS you are bunting or slapping. On a regular, full powered swing, hitting from the left side does NOT get you down the line quicker even though you are a step closer.

I'm not convinced that colleges are looking for lefties that ONLY know how to bunt and slap. I think it's an advantage to be a lefty that can bunt and slap, but they want someone who is a good hitter and also has bunting/slapping/speed as additional weapons in their arsenal and can, at will, attack the defense with whatever hits them hardest in any given situation, whether it's hit, slap, power slap, bunt, push bunt, etc.

A lefty that can read the defense, then hit/slap/bunt the ball accordingly is DANGEROUS. If they can't do that, they are just another hitter with no real advantage of being on one side or the other aside from the fact that they simply are more productive at the plate from a particular side.

This summer was my DD's 3rd summer of hitting from the left side. She is far better as a regular old hitter from the left side than she ever was from the right. Her slapping is getting better (2nd summer of slapping) as she is learning to direct the ball more as well as control whether she hits the ball sharp through a tight infield or bounces it to a deeper playing SS.

I think if she continues to work her slapping/bunting, she will get to the point where she can use them more effectively. She also makes it a point to work on her speed. She's gotten faster from her freshman year in high school 'till now (fall of soph year). I'm actually surprised at how much faster she is this year. I noticed a lot more balls being thrown away at first on her slaps than last season. I'm thinking it has to do with her increase in speed. Hopefully, she'll continue to progress because I believe she does need to get faster to really be a "pain-in-the-butt" type threat.

IMHO, if you're going to switch her to left, you leave her left. You don't go back and forth. She needs to master something, not kinda-sorta be able to do multiple things.