Switch Hitter, Do i leave her lefty??

[softballdad2]

I need some advice, My dd bats lefty and righty. Now I've been told to do both by some people and that is to leave her batting, and slapping lefty only and by other people I've been told to keep her batting both. She does good from both sides, more power from the right. Lefty, she's a good slapper and can hit, she's also a fast runner. Now, the team she's on know's she can switch hit, but only has her batting lefty. so what do i do??

[ZenMasterTao]

Bite the bullet - leave her as a lefty. Slapping takes time and a lot of work. Be patient, the power will come.

[Sftbll4ever]

I would want her to slap and hit from the left. That is a tough combo to defend against. Unlike baseball I don't really see a benefit from hitting from both sides in softball. Anything you do from the left side puts you closer to 1st.

Go with Spazsdad. My dd is lefty and can swing for power from the left as good as she can from the right. Leaves them off ballance when you slap on one swing and the next your bringing them the power swing.

[Gone in 2.6]

If she's already doing both, I would not allow her to ever take a right handed swing again.
Her power will return from the left side within a year.

That's what I did with mine (at 12) and it worked out great. In ensuing 5 years, there
has not been a single at bat where anyone said "gee, we could really use a right handed
batter here, wish she could switch".

I don't think there's really enough value for you to spend the time continuing the reps.
Devote those reps to the left so she can drive the ball with power and use
her speed/short game when wanted.

[jofus]

A slightly different question....what if your DD has only ever hit right handed, is 13 too old to try working on left-handed? She has some occasional bad habits that I am trying to fight on the right hand side, maybe it would be easier to just start fresh on the left hand side, work on getting her swing correct from the beginning, and at least see if she shows promise from there?

I dunno, she has decent power from the right side, but one of her issues is using her right hand/arm too much, maybe I could try some bottom hand swings from the left side to see how she does.....

I've already decided that if my 2 year old girl, who at this point seems to be right handed, ends up playing baseball/softball, I'm going to have her swinging left handed.

[ZenMasterTao]

A slightly different question....what if your DD has only ever hit right handed, is 13 too old to try working on left-handed? She has some occasional bad habits that I am trying to fight on the right hand side, maybe it would be easier to just start fresh on the left hand side, work on getting her swing correct from the beginning, and at least see if she shows promise from there?

I dunno, she has decent power from the right side, but one of her issues is using her right hand/arm too much, maybe I could try some bottom hand swings from the left side to see how she does.....

I've already decided that if my 2 year old girl, who at this point seems to be right handed, ends up playing baseball/softball, I'm going to have her swinging left handed.

13 is defintely not to old. I don't know your dd so it's difficult for me to have an opinion whether to switch her or not - its up to you. If she has speed, it's a no brainer. Mine was a good right-handed hitter with decent power. I switched her to the left hand side due to her speed. She absolutely hated it at first, why should I be a lefty? Why should I learn to slap when I can hit with power? Blah, blah, blah. Eventually you can do both and it'll open up your game and the game will be more fun. Ask her now, after more than year, she'd never go back.

[Gone in 2.6]

A slightly different question....what if your DD has only ever hit right handed, is 13 too old to try working on left-handed? She has some occasional bad habits that I am trying to fight on the right hand side, maybe it would be easier to just start fresh on the left hand side, work on getting her swing correct from the beginning, and at least see if she shows promise from there?

I dunno, she has decent power from the right side, but one of her issues is using her right hand/arm too much, maybe I could try some bottom hand swings from the left side to see how she does.....

I've already decided that if my 2 year old girl, who at this point seems to be right handed, ends up playing baseball/softball, I'm going to have her swinging left handed.

Jofus,

I can only go by my experience but we started at 12. And besides making her a "slapper" we also did exactly what you are considering. Starting with a clean slate abandoning the bad mechanics she had learned from the right side, in favor of carefully building mechanics that try to emulate those of MLB hitters from the left side.

Does your dd have good speed? If not maybe you could check out Steve Englishby's site and use that resource (or thers if you like) to help you rebuild her swing from the right side.

[greenandblue]

Jofus,

My DD who is a lefty, batted right handed from 5 to 14ish. Her HS coach encouraged her to hit left handed (even though I'd been trying for years). It turns out that everything she does wrong right handed (i.e., not swinging around, shoulders to the sky), she does right left handed. Her right handed swing is stronger, but the left handed looks great. Now her coaches have her switch back and forth depending on the situation.

So,... it's never too late.

[jofus]

Gi2.6, I got Steve's DVD's just last Friday, but with a tournament out of town this past weekend, and my son's LL playoffs the last couple nights, I haven't had a chance to watch all of them yet. Plus, I've been reading some on his private boards but have a ways to go to get through all of that still also.

I had my son (10 yr old) start on drill#1 last night a little, but I don't want to mess with him much til his season is over. The bad thing is, my DD's season isn't going to be over until October-ish, I'm not sure I can wait that long with her

She's not extremely fast (but far from the slowest on the field), but she has potential, if she would let me work on her running some too.

[Poseidon]

Hi all,

In regards to training athletes to become Left side hitters. Does anyone have some information on the Japanese national team training them all to be lefty?

Thanks for your time