She has a green light to steal on any off speed pitch.. So good point Mark. Power hitters love to have these kids on base, because it makes them better hitters. The girl behind her lead the team in extra base hits and RBI's. While mine lead in run scored and SB's. She was my dd's best friend with a steady diet of fast balls.
When to consider converting a slap hitter?
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Converted 2 players on our team
As a coach who converted 2 righty's 12 months ago in 12U A ball I can tell you it's a lot of work! The player must be committed (as well as the parents) and you must put up with a lot of failure / learning curve especially at the more advanced TB levels. At the end though as second year 12U both these players are at the top of the heap as slappers in our area. (Socal) The best advice I can gice is to get video of Caitlin Lowe that you can observe frame-by-frame to study the feet and hand movements. This helped my players quite a bit.
Good luck!
Scott
As a coach who converted 2 righty's 12 months ago in 12U A ball I can tell you it's a lot of work! The player must be committed (as well as the parents) and you must put up with a lot of failure / learning curve especially at the more advanced TB levels. At the end though as second year 12U both these players are at the top of the heap as slappers in our area. (Socal) The best advice I can gice is to get video of Caitlin Lowe that you can observe frame-by-frame to study the feet and hand movements. This helped my players quite a bit.
Good luck!
Scott
When your DD is stealing how does she know it is an off speed pitch? If she is fast enough to get her lead, watch the pitch in flight to the plate to decide if it is an off speed pitch and can still steal the base that is impressive. When players on my team are going to steal they take off at the pitcher's release. Would love to know the answer to this. Is she guessing based on the count or the pitcher's tendencies?
Unless you are 2.5. Even then, enough pop from the left side to keep the defense honest would be huge.
Love to have kids like yours on base when the middle of the order comes up. My bangers are much less likely to see an off speed pitch with the pitcher worrying about your pest stealing second.
I have been involved with 2 kids who had that kind of speed. One, was older than my DD but her team would occasionally use my kid as a pick-up. That kid was incredible because she could bunt, slap and hit for power as well. She was a nightmare for opposing coaches. Couldn't walk her and couldn't pitch to her either, which is why she later went on to hold the NCAA record for stolen bases for a while.
The other, I coached and came to me in HS and had never played SB before but in tryouts, after I looked at my stopwatch, I knew she had a spot on the team. She rarely got it through the infield but when we went to Colorado, she had no shortage of DI offers.
If the kid has world class speed, she can pretty much go on any pitch she wants to. In my earlier post, the kid who was the NCAA record holder, she could go at will. I watched a tournament one time and, as usual, she was on first. Coach gave the steal sign, off she goes to second and safe by a mile. The opposing coach comes out to talk to blue and yells she left early. He got blue to agree she left early and called her out. The next time she was on first, her coached yelled out "Everybody watch now, she's stealing on this pitch", off she goes and, again, safe at second. True, she was an anomoly but it was amazing to watch.
Absolutely, I attended a NFCA clinic on team defense last year with the head coaches from Alabama, Northwestern and Michigan State and they had the percentage of stealing second sucessfully and it was really in favor of the baserunner. Their advice to us was to run whenever you have a girl with good speed on base.
Agree go4fpsb. It is learning how to get a jump out of the box at first , as much as speed. The steal of third she is jumping on the release and if she notices it is a change up she continues without being told to steal third. Should have been more clear on that. We have stolen home and many delay steals of third and my opinion you steal more on the catcher than the pitcher. Catcher are not holding runners on base and if you are 1/2 to third or home when she throws it back to the pitcher third or home is for the taking.
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