New Slapper: Still left and Right. What's the plan in the box?

[Long Baller]

As others have stated: Do not go back and forth. Pick a side and stay committed. Which side is she a bigger offensive threat from? Is her ob% higher from the left than right?

As far as a plan in the box; Have her read the defense then pick it apart. Don't overthink the "force out on the bases" thing. Push bunts are very effective when runners are defenses are moving. Slappers and speedy runners complement each other. Unless you have ox carts rolling around the bases, fast base runners help slappers get hits and good slappers help fast runners steal bases because of the defenses that teams try and implement to defeat them.

If she becomes truly committed to the craft, she will learn additional offensive threats and be able to deal with any situation that arises. The elite slappers spend as much time working on their game as pitchers do.

 

[murphdog]

Also wanted to add, don’t just focus on slapping/bunting. Work on hitting too. Get her to the point where the offense doesn’t know what she’ll do.
My DD was never an extra base hitter from the right, she was fast enough to beat out a lot of infield hits but hitting lefty she hits double and triples with regularity and has hit a few home runs.

 

[CoachJD]

She can drag bunt and soft slap from the left for now. No experience in hard slapping and cannot swing away from the left yet.

It seems absolutely insane to me to teach someone to slap before teaching them to hit from the left side.

 

[Vertigo]

It seems absolutely insane to me to teach someone to slap before teaching them to hit from the left side.

It takes a ton of reps and drills for a natural righty to get to the point where they feel strong enough and coordinated enough to full swing effectively from the left side. One essentially could get away with drag bunting and soft-slapping from the left side if they are fast and can place the ball well. It wasn’t until my dd did a lot of weight-training and drills to be able to swing her bat quick enough and effectively enough from the left side against good pitching.

 

[CoachJD]

It takes a ton of reps and drills for a natural righty to get to the point where they feel strong enough and coordinated enough to full swing effectively from the left side. One essentially could get away with drag bunting and soft-slapping from the left side if they are fast and can place the ball well. It wasn’t until my dd did a lot of weight-training and drills to be able to swing her bat quick enough and effectively enough from the left side against good pitching.

I know how much work it takes since I taught myself to switch hit. I also taught myself to slap so I could teach it (though I have never faced high level fastpitch pitching). The slapping would've been much harder if I didn't have a solid left-handed hitting base to work with.

I can see how someone might be proficient at bunting/soft slapping a little more quickly, but my impression was they're teaching slapping before they're teaching hitting. I think that's going to slow the whole process down.

 

[Vertigo]

I know how much work it takes since I taught myself to switch hit. I also taught myself to slap so I could teach it (though I have never faced high level fastpitch pitching). The slapping would've been much harder if I didn't have a solid left-handed hitting base to work with.

I can see how someone might be proficient at bunting/soft slapping a little more quickly, but my impression was they're teaching slapping before they're teaching hitting. I think that's going to slow the whole process down.

Possibly. I feel, however, that they are two totally different skill sets (slapping vs hitting away).

I look at it like this, most slappers (especially younger) moved to the left side because they are small and quick. Hitting righty, they could barely put the ball out of the infield (hence why they switched over). When you are smaller and don’t have much weight/muscle behind you, your hitting mechanics have to be perfect in order to drive the ball. More solidly built players can probably still drive the ball with a less than perfect swing. Same as pitching. You’ll see more solid girls be able to get away with bad mechanics while being able to still throw hard. Smaller girls more than likely need the perfect mechanics in order to throw hard.

For those smaller girls, I don’t think teaching them to hit away lefty will help them much with the slapping or be effective for them until they are older and stronger. Many times you don’t even see elite slappers standing still in the box because they have learned to drive the ball over the fence while still using slapping footwork.

Learning to hit away from the left side is beneficial, though, because it causes the defense to have to think more about how to defend that hitter.

 

[WI Dad]

Daughter did the whole left right thing first year 16s is when she stayed full time on the left, because of that her transition from hitting away to slapping didn't become as smooth as it should be until last year. The great thing about being able to do both is when one isn't working you have other options to go to.

I have seen kids that can only slap and against "better" teams they will shift the defense.

 

[MikeP]

I know how much work it takes since I taught myself to switch hit. I also taught myself to slap so I could teach it (though I have never faced high level fastpitch pitching). The slapping would've been much harder if I didn't have a solid left-handed hitting base to work with.

I can see how someone might be proficient at bunting/soft slapping a little more quickly, but my impression was they're teaching slapping before they're teaching hitting. I think that's going to slow the whole process down.

I watched two girls on dd's team last year do this. They couldn't even soft slap correctly because it was so foreign to them. I know everyone is different but we worked on only hitting from the left for most of the winter when dd switched sides and everything else came fairly easy to her. I say easy but it was/is still a lot of work but compared to the two girls I watched last season taking the opposite approach I think it's the way to go. Again, I know everyone is different and dd is odd with the things she can do that should be hard and struggles with some things that shouldn't. Taught herself to juggle like it was nothing, started swinging away from the left and picked it up pretty quick. Ask her to balance on one leg and she falls over

 

[MikeP]

Possibly. I feel, however, that they are two totally different skill sets (slapping vs hitting away).

I look at it like this, most slappers (especially younger) moved to the left side because they are small and quick. Hitting righty, they could barely put the ball out of the infield (hence why they switched over). When you are smaller and don’t have much weight/muscle behind you, your hitting mechanics have to be perfect in order to drive the ball. More solidly built players can probably still drive the ball with a less than perfect swing. Same as pitching. You’ll see more solid girls be able to get away with bad mechanics while being able to still throw hard. Smaller girls more than likely need the perfect mechanics in order to throw hard.

For those smaller girls, I don’t think teaching them to hit away lefty will help them much with the slapping or be effective for them until they are older and stronger. Many times you don’t even see elite slappers standing still in the box because they have learned to drive the ball over the fence while still using slapping footwork.

Learning to hit away from the left side is beneficial, though, because it causes the defense to have to think more about how to defend that hitter.

Even if they never swing away in a game I feel like learning to swing first will make it easier once you add the footwork. Hitting is hard, adding in movement is another level of hard, not that you don't know that just expressing my thought process. After seeing other girls only work on slapping and struggling, I think swinging first is the way to go in my admittedly limited experience. The thing that makes no sense to me is the girls that struggle hitting from the right so they want to slap, and their coaches let them! What makes them think slapping will be easier?

 

[Long Baller]

It seems absolutely insane to me to teach someone to slap before teaching them to hit from the left side.

Teach it concurrently.