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No no no! But you don't have to be that big or strong to be a solid contact hitter. Hard grounders up the middle and line drives are everything a softball player dreams of. A girl doesn't have to be an Amazon to accomplish that.
If a small girl can get her weight into her swing, she can be a solid hitter.
It takes work, but that's what I see slapping too often used as -- an excuse for not learning to hit.
Home runs are few and far between, even for the best hitters. And lots of great hitters never hit a single one.
Just because a girl isn't a home run hitter doesn't mean she can't make solid contact and drive the ball.
There is definitely a place for slapping. But I've seen too many coaches encourage a player to slap when the girl isn't all that fast. And there's simply no way you're going to put a bouncer down and get to first against a good infield. Slappers almost never get on base against good teams unless they are very fast. That's all I'm saying.
I love to have a good slapper or three on my dd's teams. But a good slapper needs to be extremely fast -- period. Otherwise she's pretty much a sure out in any close game.
