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I have worked with Whately and her thinking was hitting the ball at a sharper angle than anyone I have ever met. One to two feet in front of home plate is her target.
I had modified the Instructo Swing to have a tilted base to make it adjustable for anyone including slappers and added a top tee. Whately had such a sharp angle I had to add three holes to the tee hole so we could still keep a ball on the tee.
Burg suggested she was trying to hit the holes or placement of hitting it where the defense was not.
Lowe had less angle however hit it harder in my opinion!
I would say all three seemed to have a mindset of swinging down as if throwing the bat head and for power slapping the elbow leading as if hitting and powering to the ball and through the ball with the head down. The target was over the shortstop and or third baseman's fielding position and the belly button was used as a direction indicator and hitting the ball first and thinking running after that to in their words, stay square on the ball with the hips.
SBFamiy Dan tried the TCB balls and we started using them for the slappers and it was an instant success. If you take a regular softball and drop it to the floor it will rebound. The TCB ball will not! Now when you practice slapping they will try to hit a target area about 5 feet in front of home plate and MUST drive the TCB ball off the bat as there is no rebound effect and you must power through the ball and it takes some effort to do it.
Then when you hit a regular ball the mindset is to drive it off the bat. It makes no difference if it is a power slap or a drive it into the ground slap and they work harder as if it is the heavier ball.
We toss one TCB ball and then 5 regular balls and repeat.
Thinking with the top hand index finger as a pointer where we want it to go when slapping down with the TCB balls works. Thinking elbow above the plane of the pitch and turning the belly button in the direction you want to hit works well for power slapping.
I had modified the Instructo Swing to have a tilted base to make it adjustable for anyone including slappers and added a top tee. Whately had such a sharp angle I had to add three holes to the tee hole so we could still keep a ball on the tee.
Burg suggested she was trying to hit the holes or placement of hitting it where the defense was not.
Lowe had less angle however hit it harder in my opinion!
I would say all three seemed to have a mindset of swinging down as if throwing the bat head and for power slapping the elbow leading as if hitting and powering to the ball and through the ball with the head down. The target was over the shortstop and or third baseman's fielding position and the belly button was used as a direction indicator and hitting the ball first and thinking running after that to in their words, stay square on the ball with the hips.
SBFamiy Dan tried the TCB balls and we started using them for the slappers and it was an instant success. If you take a regular softball and drop it to the floor it will rebound. The TCB ball will not! Now when you practice slapping they will try to hit a target area about 5 feet in front of home plate and MUST drive the TCB ball off the bat as there is no rebound effect and you must power through the ball and it takes some effort to do it.
Then when you hit a regular ball the mindset is to drive it off the bat. It makes no difference if it is a power slap or a drive it into the ground slap and they work harder as if it is the heavier ball.
We toss one TCB ball and then 5 regular balls and repeat.
Thinking with the top hand index finger as a pointer where we want it to go when slapping down with the TCB balls works. Thinking elbow above the plane of the pitch and turning the belly button in the direction you want to hit works well for power slapping.