Posted by: I have a problem draging and slapping from the left side. I'm a natural left h (> >) on Thu Jul 11 08:10:37 2002

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> > Thanks to everyone that helps me!!!
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> > ~brittany~
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> Brittany,
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> This idea of drag bunting and slapping from the left side is very common in softball. You are probalby a very fast runner so somebody thinks that you will get on alot if you can put the ball in play with a running start. Unfortunaltely it is very difficult to do. Hitting is tough enough when the batter is standing on one place. Trying to hit the ball while running up on it compounds the difficultiy many times.
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> But, if you are set on doing it heres what you should do.
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> 1. Practice the foot work. You want to hit the ball on your second step. If you try three steps you will probably be out of the box and teams will want the ump to call it. If your first step is with your the foot away from the pitcher, your second step will put you in a postion similar to the stance, right foot forward left foot back. This will keep you upper body square to the pitcher and in a better position to hit the ball. If you start your forward move with your front foot, your second step will put what was your back foot forward this will have a tendancy to turn your body toward first base and away from the pitch.
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> 2. Practice this with soft tosses or use a tee if you have to. Use a pitching machine if you can control the timing. You must have time to think about what you are doing between pitches. So, if you can't control the timing, just don't swing at every pitch. Swing at every second or thrid pitch. (Hope your not paying)
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> While practicing the run up, make sure you keep your head at the same height. You dont want to be boucing up and down. It tough enough hitting when you are running forward. You can do this with the proper stride distance. Do it with a book on your head. You can practice this in your yard. You will be surprised how good you can get at doing this after a few days. Do it, its important.
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> 3. Practice sliding the hands into the proper position. Its big choke-up. I am not going to "over coach" you by telling you every detail but your hands should not be to high, you want to have enough of the bat above your top hand to get some "whip" but high enought to have control of the bat. Decide on a good hand position and stick with it. This move and the run up must be practiced until you do it everytime without thinking.
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> Machine practice is only for the mechanics. You will not learn to be a good slapper on the machine.
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> 4. Once you get the mechanics down, practice as much as possible, everyday if you can, against live pitching. This is what you will face in games. Machine pitching will not help you develop the ability to hit pitches that will come low, high, inside, out side. Remember when they know your a slapper they will pitch to stop you. I like to pitch slappers low and inside. Inside pitches can be scary when your running toward them.
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> Pitchers are practicing all the time. Even if you can't make real contact with the ball, just stand there and practice your mechanics and timing while she is practicing. You cannot spend too much time looking at live piching.
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> 5. After mechaincs you whole focus is on the ball and hitting a spot on the ball that will put it where you want it to go. For slapping the direction of the ball is controlled with the wrists. I think you will figure how this works during practice.
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> 6. Since slapping is difficult there are alot of foul balls, missed pitches or umps who call strikes because they think you offered at the pitch. As a result you will probably have a lot of two strike counts on you. Learn to hit with two strikes.
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> Good Luck