Softball Triple Threat: Slapping, Bunting & Hitting

Develop as many offensive tools as you can, so the defense is left guessing what you're going to do next.

Five time NCAA Regional Champion Ricci Woodard expertly details the fundamental techniques of successful hitting and slapping. Each skill starts with clear coaching and is followed by drills designed to reinforce that technique. You learn what to do-and how to do it.

You will see how Coach Woodard uses certain training devices, including the insider bat, the metal/wood bat, and the small bat. This is a great tutorial for novice coaches and athletes interested in building their fundamentals or the more advanced player or coach interested in fine tuning their offensive arsenal.

Slapping (15 mins)
Discover three types of slaps, the fundamentals to execute them and drills to perfect your technique. Woodard covers the soft slap, bouncy slap, and hard slap, explains the goals for each, and when to use them based on how the defense is playing and field conditions. Woodard then has a few of her players demonstrate drills she uses with her slappers to help develop those techniques.

Bunting (5 mins)
To counter the slap, Woodard demonstrates a bunt that looks like a slap using the same form and footwork and that forces the defense to prepare for either. Included is a push bunt which adds yet another option to your offensive arsenal. Woodard explains how each bunt can be effective as her players demonstrate them.

Hitting (36 mins)
The majority of this video focuses on the swing. The swing is a complicated skill and requires repetition after repetition to train muscle memory.

While her players demonstrate the swing, Coach Woodard discusses the basic fundamentals for hitting. She identifies six key positions in the swing and points out what the hitter looks like at each of the six key positions. Woodard reveals nine drills she uses to develop her hitters and includes demonstrations of the drills.

In 12 years at the helm of the Texas State softball program, Coach Woodard has guided her team to 10 conference championships while making five NCAA Regional Championship appearances. Now, you can develop your hitting and slapping skills and improve your offensive output with Coach Woodard's proven approach.

54 minutes. 2013.