showing bunt and pulling back to hit

[alexander58]

I see this a lot in the college game, used as a timing device. I won't allow my kids to do it with threat of capital punishment. What are your thoughts?

 

[amanda_cake]

We call this right handed slap. I am the only one that does it on my team. Most of the infielders by now are smart enough to know that I'm not actually going to bunt, most of the time. I don't see where it hurts anyone, they ought to know better. As early as I show bunt, it is pretty obvious that I'm not going to bunt... I'm a sneaky bunter when I do. However, if they sit back on my right handed slaps, I'm going to drop a bunt in there. All depends on the situation, but as defense they need to be prepared for it.

 

[fastpitch]

I see this a lot in the college game, used as a timing device. I won't allow my kids to do it with threat of capital punishment. What are your thoughts?

Depends what age group and level of play. This is sometimes called "slash" hitting or bunting. I'd say for most 12u and below rec programs you can do without this. In TB this is done at all age groups. It's a skill that should be taught both offensively and defensively. It's part of the game at the higher levels of play and legal for most organizations.

You'll find that as the level of comp gets higher and pitching gets faster its harder to really drill the ball after doing this so it ends up being more of a slap type hit the other way.

 

[JimB]

This hitting action only makes sense if you perform the maneuver correctly. When the batter squares to bunt with the hands separated and then, when the pitcher is in the middle of her wind-up, moves their back foot to the regular stance and slides her bottom hand up the bat to the top hand. Instead of a full swing the batter "punches" the ball into the holes created by the shortstop moving to cover 2nd (or 3rd depending on the situation) and second baseman moving to 1st.

Expecting the batter to square-up and, in the middle of the pitcher's wind-up, return to her normal hitting stance and take a full swing is akin to taking the bat out of her hands. Although there are a few girls that can pull that off, most will fail.

 

[redhotcoach]

Funny....I talked to dd two nights ago about that, I saw her doing it playing baseball the other day with some boys, then that night was on the deck doing it while pretending. I wish they would pick up on what we coach as quick as they pick things up from a few college games. I told her she can learn to do it when she is half her dating age which is 30.
Wife said they did it alot in HS, she said the girls thought it was stupid because it didn't fool anyone, and most of them bunted by letting bat slide down their hands. Once in college she said no one did it.

 

[BoardMember]

We call it "2 strike hitting" and ALL my teams do it, and have for 15 years.......10U through 18Gold.....

We aren't "showing bunt"........We're "measuring" the contact zone. Similar too a lumber jack measuring the impact point on a tree or log for the first chop stroke........Then we deliever a "measured swing"........Short and sweet........

This move cuts K's down by 75%.........

 

[lhowser]

Amen BoardMember. My kid batted in the low 400's last summer and I credit a lot of it to success with the controlled, shorted two strike swing like you described. For her not only is it a "measure of the contact zone" but it allows her to feel a simple rotation that she can smoothly duplicate moving back to the ball.

In certain 2 strike situations (maybe less than 2 outs with a speedy runner on third in a close low scoring game) where I need it on the ground I also like a fully squared bunt position where the back foot crosses over to the front corner of the box. Show bunt, pull back and hit it down. It's basically like a 2 striike bunt you can push to second and send the runner as the ball is angling down.

 

[RichK]

BM and LH are right, I was skeptical but I've seen this work as a nice rhythm, measuring tool....but I've also seen girls that don't do it correctly and put themselves at even more of a disadvantage and more OUT of any rhythm...."a simple rotation" that can be pulled back and then repeated in rhythm is what you want, per BoardMember....

 

[druer]

in addition to what's been said .. It's also used to visually define the top of the srike zone either for the batter as a reminder if she's chasing high stuff, or for the umpire if they are calling them to high.

 

[alexander58]

I'm surprized by how many coaches employ this. Our local high school does it . They have had the worst team batting average for years in their conference. Most of their kids have alot more experience than the other teams , yet bat 100 points lower and have just as many strikeouts. I suppose hitting a weak grounder to second is preferable to striking out, but I would think most high school infielders can catch a groundball. I'd heard Mike Candrea introduced it to the college game , so when others adopted it, he'd have a bigger advantage.