Thoughts on slapping

Is slapping on the uptick or downtick at the upper levels of fastpitch? It seems to me more and more colleges are decreasing the number of pure slappers they have in their lineup, but I could be wrong. The days of the slapper that can only put the ball in play softly to the left side seem to be ending...defenses and defensive players are adapting to the slap.

I know when our Olympic teams were so dominant it was in big part because of the slap. We were doing it and the rest of the world was not adept at defensing it. Guess what, the rest of the world has starting doing it and learned how to better pitch to it and defense it and look what has happened. I am not sure how many slappers Arizona had this year, but they broke all kinds of records with the long ball (home runs)...I believe they hit well over 150 as a team this year, but their pitching was suspect and it caught up with them in the playoffs.

In the last 2 or 3 years I have seen travel teams at all ages with 6 to 8 slappers in their line-up at one time. It seemed everybody was a slapper. I can see where this is very effective at the younger ages and even at the upper ages against teams that do not have the players to defense it. There even seems to be more slappers on high school teams. I understand that a high school's won/lost record means more than in travel ball to a certain degree and I can see why it is beneficial to a HS team if it wins them games.

At the upper levels it seems slapping is more difficult and requires much more skill than it used to. A slapper now must be able to soft slap and hard slap as well as put the ball where they want it to go. They must also have lightning speed..not just average speed. Should we be turning around so many right hand hitters because they can run pretty well at the younger ages? Should we attempt to teach left hand hitters to slap even though they have average speed at best?

I am not advocating either position...I am just attempting to get a discussion going about this subject. Although I see slapping as a huge difference between baseball and softball, I do see softball becoming more and more like baseball every year...just my opinion and that is not necessaryily a bad thing.

 

Slapping

Slapping is an awesome weapon, has been in past and still is a weapon today. That said, it takes a great deal of work to be a quality slapper, one that can read the defense and handle the bat well enough to take advantage of what is offered. You can score with speed w/o hitting a ball out of infield even against the best defensive team. I love SPEED!!!!!! When I had Tish, Jordan, Kara, Jazzy, etc, we could flat hurt you with speed. Speed never slumps.
All that said, most schools want power, hitters that go out of park or in the alley as you can score in a hurry with pop! We hit 15 HR's at Nationals and when our power was handled, we lost! We did not have great speed and did not run bases well so that contributed as well. I guess point is power is a quick way to score and coaches like that for sure.
Good pitching and defense will take care of most hitters!

 

I would have to say that baseball is becoming more like softball. I say this because the short game has become more important in winning games in baseball. Also, due to seeing left handed players in baseball imitating or even running bunt/almost soft slap like many slappers in softball. There are also submariners/side arm pitchers in college and MLB that have or work with fastpitch softball pitching coaches. One of these pitchers, having success at the U. or Arizona and with the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. I myself, even worked with a submariner/side armer who played Double A a couple years ago. He had started as an overhand thrower, but the transition to submariner/side armer, he says this extended his career by another 2 seasons. There are major college baseball teams that focus on the short game a whole lot more these days as well. University of Miami in the past (did a lot of bunting, and even fake bunt/slaps) when they were in the Top 10 consistently. The University of Texas is a great, current example. They even verbally credit their success last year to the short game. The home run ball for them didn't come into play for them until their last 2 games of the College World Series for the most part.

The best slappers in the game can bunt, soft slap, hard slap, and swing away. They have had to evolve into "triple threats" so that they can be the most effective. Doesn't matter how fast you are, if you always bunt or slap to the same spot though, defenses will adjust to you. It does make it harder for defenses to align/setup/shift if they do not know what the slapper is going to do. Aligning/setup/shifting will lead to opening a hole up that the defense can exploit. The only player that can stop a talented slapper is the pitcher. The higher the level of softball, the faster a slapper has to be to be effective with the short game. Hence, the defensive players are quicker (feet, hands, arm) and smarter.

The best teams have talented slappers with great speed and players that can hit the long ball. If you do not have great speed and/or cannot hit the long ball (not saying home run hitter) a player has much less of a chance of playing or being effective on most teams. Not everyone and even coaches, really understand how to teach effective slapping. Everybody who coaches offense, attempts, tries, or does, try to teach hitting. Not everybody tries to teach slapping. It simply is not just running in/out/around the batters box.

I don't see softball transitioning towards baseball because it has become more of a power hitting game, it is because the players/hitters are much better these days. The softball players of the past didn't purposely try not to hit for power and home runs, they just weren't able to for several reasons.

 

The short answer is . . .

downtick. Slapping at the D1 level is becoming less prevalent. Why? It's lots of things. Defenses are improving. Hitters are profiting from strength training. DI pitchers are getting better at controlling the slappers (It's not that tough to do if you work at it). That said, a great slapper is still a weapon. The best slapper my DD daughter faced last year was this kid. She can flat out play!

Why more slappers in TB? None of these three factors are commonly present.

 

have to agree with all three posts above. I would say on the decline a bit, due to being educated on the defense side. The reason you see more in tb is that anyone thinks their player is fast enough to slap, they try to turn them to the left and run with it. I speak from some experience with this. sometimes locally, its great, but for the overall picture at the higher level its not. a players should be hitting about 200 or less, with blistering speed. not "really fast" I mean the track team wants to steal her for the 400 every year. to even consider making this change. and then, like was mentioned. spend a few years, learning all the techniques of slapping including quick bunts, drag bunts, line drives, an even swinging away lefty. If you dont believe, go play a tourney in cal one weekend, I promise itll change your thinking. that all being said, its a huge asset when you have a player that can do all that. I havent seen yet, but would expect AZ to have a few. but my kids last hitting coach was a student of Mikes, and I guarantee Mike C teaches power....a lot. he is picky about his slappers, which is why he so succesfull with them.

 

I will morph this just a tad but I will say first that if you have 2.7 +/- speed from the left side and you do not slap you are absolutley killing yourself to play at the highest level you are capable of. A ripped grounder to SS from the right side and getting thrown out by two steps from the right side impresses no college coach. On the other hand a tapper to the 5.5 hole that leads to a bang bang play at first even if you are out will catch a college coaches attention.

Based on my two years experience, and this is just my opinion, coaches look for the following based on the position you play:

Up the middle position and RF: Speed speed speed... if you play one of these positions and do not slap you are swimming up stream in the recruiting battle. My DD was not blessed with great speed (she was not slow) but she made up for it with heady play and an outstanding arm.. but even tho she was a good hitter with gap power and one of the best clutch hitters I ever saw she was playing CF.. a position they wanted a slapper playing. Much of recruiting (as real life) is perception.. never forget that.

SS: in addiiton to the above you must have an absolute cannon to go in the 5.5 hole and throw out a runner at first... having this will negate the speed requirement a bit for this position.

LF: can either be a speed position or a power position... see power below

1B/3B: they are looking for a girl who can hit the ball 260 ft... solid defense of course.. more so at third.

C: LEGIT 1.8 pop time; enough athleticism to jump out from behind the plate and aggressivley field bunts... AND be a leader!

(speed at any of the so called power positions will only further set you apart if you have the power also)

P: throw it 65 or in the opinion of the college coaches have the size and build that will allow the coaches the "teach" the kid to throw it 65.

And know that just because you are fast doesnt mean you can get out of the box I have seen kids burn it in the 40 but it doesnt translate into getting down the line. As Rodney said it takes a lot of work and you have the have the foot speed to begin with. I agree there arent as many slappers today seemingly but if you can slap and be successful you should.

 

thats a good point.

 

That's the truth

I ran a 4.3/40 in high school.We had linemen that beat me to 10 yards. How fast you get to top speed is key.

 

Thats Smokin'

....The fastest man in the NFL runs a 4.2 40.

 

Can't do it now

I'm too old and fat. Johnson does his in pads. My time was without pads.