How fast should a slapper be?

[Lunatic Fringe]

12U & 14U
How fast should a player be to 1st to be considered a slapper?

[Gone in 2.6]

A top notch slapper should be fast enough that the pitcher or 3rd baseman are not able to check a runner at 3rd and get the slapper out at first on the same play.

As far as their "time", a stopwatch is inadequate for timing track athletes running the 100 meter (error margin of .26). Using it for 60 feet borders on useless.

[GO REBS]

Why LF they gonna make your DD a slapper??????????

GO REBS

[Lunatic Fringe]

Only if they move the fences to 600'

[jblabs]

As far as their "time", a stopwatch is inadequate for timing track athletes running the 100 meter (error margin of .26). Using it for 60 feet borders on useless.

Three girls that had good speed on our team last year. Ranked from tryouts as 1,2,3 by the stopwatch. In head to head sprints #3 beat the others by a step each time. When 1st to worst difference is less than half a second you know the results are subject to error.

[Tucson]

Less than 3 seconds.

[weekend4trvl]

12U & 14U
How fast should a player be to 1st to be considered a slapper?

The quality of the infields influence the times down the line. I have seen infields with an inch of sand on top. It's like running on the beach, but it helps deaden the ball which buys time for the slapper. As you more up the ranks only the super fast can be effective slappers...remember you can't outrun the ball. JMO

[Tucson]

Spaz, I would think so. DD was 3.25 at 14 and that was acceptably fast but not slapper fast. I think if you got wheels, it doesn't matter if you are 12 or 16, you generally don't get slower.

[Gone in 2.6]

Hand timing is too inaccurate. Even in track, when there is a CLEAR start to the race (the gun going off), hand times are considered meaningless. In that sport, it is generally accepted that hand timing has an error of .26. In a short distance like 60 ft, .26 is a HUGE percentage of your total time. I would think the margin for error in softball is even bigger with the start time being very subjective (timing it off the bat??).
The only method I know of to accurately time a softball player in a 20 yard dash is SPARQ testing which is timed electronically. I have never heard of anyone running under a 2.9 in SPARQ. Even Jamia Reid (Worth Firecrackers Gold), who is IMO faster than Natasha Watley or Caitlin Lowe, ran in the low 2.9's.

What I'm saying in a nutshell is most of us don't really know what our kids run from home to first. The times we all quote are mostly untrue.

[Whizzer86]

I agree manual times are only as good as the hand the stop watch is in. My DD has been timed electronically at 2.7+ but ranges anywhere from 2.6 - 3.0 with a stop watch. At 12U - 14U I think 3 is probably a good number but later on a 3 gets thrown out quite often, so does 2.9, 2.8............ they still have to be able to place the ball so fundamentals and ability still factor heavily.