Interestingly, all these remedies eventually appear to work--not because they have any merit, but since all slumps come to an end, the fortunate player often credits the remedy.

But is there a slump cure that, due to sound athletic reasons, really does work?

One procedure that likely has merit is stepless batting practice. In this drill, the hitter takes normal batting practice, but does not take the usual front foot stride toward the pitcher while swinging. Instead he/she leaves both feet firmly planted, swinging with arms only. Obviously, this forces the batter to concentrate on meeting the ball, rather than driving it with power.

Once this technique is mastered, and the hitter is squarely meeting the ball, hitting soft little line drives to short outfield locations, a second procedure is added. This is following the pitch with the eyes long enough to observe the split second when ball meets bat. The late Ted Williams advocated this practice for fine-tuning hitting form.

There is no written evidence that Williams ever suggested combining watching ball meet bat with stepless batting practice. Nevertheless, the two methods are mutually compatible for use during batting practice, thus providing a doubly effective means of slump elimination.

The third phase of the slump cure is for the hitter to hit several batting practice pitches using normal form, which of course includes a customary front foot step. Ideally, this should result in line drives to center field. To retain the psychological component of the slump cure, only a few balls should be hit, at most five or six, before ending the session. If the batter has not made good contact during those five or six swings, the whole three stage slump cure routine should be repeated, but only once.

Why does this so-called scientific slump cure work? Eliminating legs and feet forces greater attention on what hands, arms and eyes are doing. The hitter knows that without leg action, he'll have little power, so he might as well focus on meeting the ball squarely. When the attempt to see bat meet ball is added to the routine, this heightens emphasis on good contact even further. Finally, putting leg action back into the practice session causes the batter to reconceptualize what the act of hitting a baseball really entails. In other words, the drill promotes self-appraisal and greater insight. Getting away from good hitting form is probably what caused the slump in the first place.

The technique of stepless batting practice, followed by the trick of watching ball meet bat, has three possible additional applications besides curing slumps. These are:

1. Helping baseball players improve their ability to hit breaking pitches.
2. Providing young children with an effective introduction to baseball hitting.
3. Adapting its benefits to the baseball-related sports of fast pitch and slow pitch softball.

Occasionally a coach will have a player who hits fastballs quite well but has difficulty hitting curves. This phenomenon is probably caused by the athlete having received positive reinforcement for hitting fastballs well, so he subconsciously begins to think "fastball" whenever a pitcher's arm begins to come forward. Whatever the cause, what can be done to help this athlete become a good all-around hitter?

If a baseball squad is blessed with a good curve ball pitcher who is the same handedness as the batter having trouble hitting curves, the slump cure methodology may be employed during a curve balls-only batting practice session. This is not the same as practicing hitting curves thrown low and away, high and tight, etc. Rather, the pitcher just concentrates on getting curves over the plate, where they are more easy to hit. The hitter goes through a stepless phase, followed by a watching bat hit ball phase. In the final phase, the batter delivers several line drive hits to center field, using normal hitting form.

Unlike the slump cure, the practice session is not immediately repeated if the line drives fail to materialize. It's more productive to repeat this curve ball hitting drill over the course of a season, with several days elapsing between sessions.

Using a curve ball-only batting practice session raises the question of what about other breaking pitches. Could a batter improve his ability to hit sliders or sinkers this way, too? What about curve balls breaking in to a right-handed hitter from a left-hand pitcher? There may be merit in those endeavors, but at this point in time, there is no evidence suggesting that applying this slump cure technology for such purposes is helpful.

"My kid wants to be a ballplayer!"

The writer of this article was discussing the concept of stepless batting practice with an aged veteran of the old Negro League. The response the writer received surprised him. "That's how African American parents teach their children to hit," he was told.

The ensuing conversation discussed in detail the merits and specifics of using stepless batting practice to teach the art of hitting a baseball to the very young. Generally, the age range five through seven years is a good time to introduce a child to hitting.

Some parents will be surprised when they discover that little girls at that level learn faster and are better hitters than little boys. There's both a physiological and a psychological reason for this. Girls are about a year or two ahead of boys in development of neuromuscular coordination. Then too, when boys are introduced to hitting, they already have the idea of "hitting a home run on every pitch" whereas girls, if told to "just meet the ball" will invariably try to do just that.

First of all, get a bat the child can handle, probably a very light Little League or softball bat. The child starts out with legless hitting off a batting tee. Next, the parent pitches underhanded tosses from about 20 to 30 feet depending on individual needs; the child continues to hit leglessly. If the kid can't hit well at the chosen distance, shorten things up.

Several sessions of tee hitting may be needed before moving up to moving pitches. It all depends. When the child is making reasonable contact, taking a step is introduced, first with the batting tee, then with underhand toss pitching.

Even after the child is hitting tosses reasonably well, it may be desirable to have occasional legless sessions. This is done so hitting form evolves normally, with parents constantly evaluating progress.

Does stepless batting practice apply to softball?

Since the late 1930's, fast pitch softball has been a popular adult recreational sport, for both men and women, and remains so to this day. Then the advent of Title Nine during the late 1970's gave a tremendous boost to women's scholastic sports. Today, almost every high school, college and university athletic program in America has a women's fast pitch softball team performing at the official, varsity level.

Another trend, largely in recreational sports during this same general time period, saw the rise of slow pitch softball, usually played coeducationally. City recreational and college intramural programs adopted this sport in large numbers. It continues to grow in popularity, expanding its age range to senior citizen and elementary school physical education programs.

Looking at fast pitch softball first, yes, hitters can benefit from legless batting practice. Softball hitters experience slumps as do baseball players, but there's a difference. Softball batting slumps generally involve either beating the ball into the dirt or popping it up more, and hitters may not experience a greater frequency of striking out. Slumping baseball hitters may do these things too, but also frequently experience a greater frequency of striking out during their slumps.

Because of factors inherent to softball -- closer pitcher, larger ball, lighter bat, etc. -- the biggest batting mistake that hitters fall into is overstriding. Legless batting practice is especially helpful in correcting this fault, as not striding at all gets a batter to notice what he has been doing.

What about learning to better hit breaking pitches? There are curves in fast pitch softball, but their break is less than those used in baseball, just a few inches. A softball curve's speed is much closer to that of a fastball whereas the speed of a baseball curve is much slower than that of a fastball. For these reasons, legless batting practice has less to offer fast pitch softball hitters than baseball hitters when it comes to improving breaking pitch hitting.

Since all pitches must rise above an imaginary line drawn from top of pitcher's to top of batter's head, slow pitch softball presents a challenge not found in baseball or fast pitch softball. This is the considerable vertical drop in elevation caused by gravity a slow pitch delivery experiences as it passes through the strike zone. While a baseball sinker and split-finger fastball drops and a fast pitch softball fastball rises as they pass from pitcher's hand to catcher's mitt, those changes in vertical elevation are but a few inches.

A slow pitch hitter has an easier job of timing speed of an approaching pitch because it's relatively slow. However, he has a greater challenge of judging verticalness of a pitch at moment of impact with the bat than does a baseball or fast pitch softball hitter. This situation has "overstriding" written all over it! It follows that legless batting practice would be of considerable benefit to a slow pitch softball player, enabling him to develop pitch timing more precisely.

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