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WHEN Clint Myers replaced Mike Candrea as head coach of the softball team at Central Arizona College, he was baffled by what he saw some of his new players doing — left-handed hitters running at the pitch before they swung the bat.
That was 1986, not long after the slap hitter had emerged as a weapon in college softball.
Twenty-two years later, Myers — now Arizona State's head coach — is still baffled by the slapper, though now it is because of the talent, athletic ability and coordination they show rather than the oddity of the act.
<center><p><a href="http://newsok.com/keysearch/?er=1&CANONICAL=Ichiro+Suzuki&CATEGORY=PERSON" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
By Scott Wright
Staff Write
, THE OKLAHOMAN
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"It's tough enough to hit a ball when you're standing still,” Myers said. "Then you put the component of movement with it and you're talking about truly excellent athletes.”
The phenomenon of the slap hitter is unique to softball — unless you consider Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki an occasional slapper — and it has added a new dimension to the game.
"It developed on the West Coast because there was so little offense,” said Louisiana-Lafayette co-head coach Stefni Lotief, who makes regular use of the slap hitter. "They started using speed and try to make the defense work.
"Slapping and increased speed has become a bigger part of the game. With great athletes that run so fast that's now a big part of it.”
The purpose of the slapper is to put pressure on the defense, forcing the infielders to make a clean play and a quick throw with a runner speeding down the baseline.
"If you make the defense work, you're more likely to get an error,” said Lafayette leadoff hitter Vallie Gaspard, who is batting over .400 as a sophomore in just her second season as a slapper. "An overthrow, that's like a double, maybe a triple. You want to make the defense worry more about where you are on the base path than the ball.”
Gaspard, like many slappers, was converted to a left-handed hitter when she got to college and has found success, despite being a natural righty.
"My senior year of high school, I batted from the right side, but I would bunt from the left side,” she said. "When I got to ULL, coach (Mike Lotief) started working with me.
"Good hand-eye coordination has a lot to do with it, putting the bat on the ball and trying to beat it out.”
The slap has created a niche for a talented athlete who might not have all the other skills necessary to be a top-level softball player.
"It brings a component to the kid who can really run but can't do a whole lot of other things,” Myers said. "You can't teach athleticism, so if you have a girl who has some coordination and is very fast, this is a tool that can get her an education. It gives an avenue to those fast, athletic kids that are not great hitters.”
Slapping has evolved from being occasionally implemented to a regular weapon.
Now, nearly every team has at least one, if not several, in the lineup.
"We spend time every day at practice defending the lefty slapper. That's how important I think it is,” Texas A&M coach Jo Evans said.
"It's such a threat, laying down a bunt or having the quickness to beat out a grounder. It makes a difference in the game. They set the table, and you let your big hitters go. I think it's been a great addition to the game.”
And the art of slapping is working its way down into youth leagues, too.
"I think there are enough kids out there that could be good at it or have the kind of speed that they should at least try to get on the left side,” Evans said. "I think a lot of coaches, especially coaches of young kids with any kind of speed, would be doing their kids a service to start putting them over on the left side.
"If more coaches could really commit to it, it'd be more exciting for our game.”
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