The Softball and Baseball Slap Shot
In 2013, I wrote an article comparing the powerful slap shot of former Chicago Blackhawks great Patrick Kane to the softball and baseball swing. What stood out immediately was how much puck speed Kane generated despite his average-sized frame. As I broke down the fundamentals of his elite slap shot, the parallels to the softball and baseball swing became impossible to ignore.
I have more to share now—a new hitting drill that unlocked greater power and consistency and sparked a breakthrough in my own golf game.
While the tools in hockey and softball/baseball are different, the underlying movement pattern is the same: ground force, rotation, and a well-sequenced kinetic chain.
In hockey, players slide their back foot sideways during a slap shot. At first glance, it appears simple—even incidental. In reality, that movement is the key that unlocks power, accuracy, and efficiency. That same concept exists in high-level hitting—just without the literal slide (or… maybe now with it).
The Feet and Legs Are the Engine
In a slap shot, the sideways slide of the back foot allows the player to transfer weight, rotate the hips, and engage the core. The legs create the force—not the arms. Everything above the waist simply responds to what starts from the ground. This is the essence of torque, a concept I’ve been teaching and writing about for many years.
In hitting, the back foot doesn’t slide sideways, but it naturally rotates and drives the rear hip. Elite hitters load into the rear leg through a powerful leg lift, then unloads that energy by rotating the hips toward the pitcher. Just like in hockey, the feet and legs are the engine that powers the entire movement.
Weight Transfer Without Linear Drift
Hockey players shift nearly all their weight from the back leg to the front leg during a slap shot. This isn’t a forward lunge—it’s a rotational transfer that stores and releases energy like a spring.
High-level hitters do the same thing. Pressure moves from the rear leg into the front leg as the body rotates. The front leg firms up and “blocks,” allowing energy to rebound upward through the hips, torso, and shoulders. Power doesn’t come from drifting forward—it comes from rotating against a stable front side.
Rotation Creates Torque
The sideways slide of the back skate in hockey enables the hips, shoulders, and chest to rotate aggressively toward the target. This sequencing maximizes torque and ensures that energy flows efficiently through the body.
In hitting, I refer to this concept as “Independence Day” in my book Hitting With Torque: For Baseball and Softball Hitters. The hips fire first while the torso resists as long as possible, creating stretch and tension. When the upper body finally releases, the result is explosive bat speed. This separation is one of the most consistent traits of elite hitters.
Stick Flex and Bat Lag: The Same Whip Effect
In a slap shot, the player drives the stick into the ice behind the puck, bending it and storing energy. When the stick snaps back, the player reaches full extension with both arms, launching the puck with tremendous speed.
In hitting, the bat doesn’t flex into the ground, but rotational acceleration creates bat lag. The hands lead, the barrel trails, and energy is stored until it releases at contact. Like hockey players, both arms and wrists should be fully extended at impact—like a bolt of lightning. The barrel is whipped through the zone, not pushed. The result is effortless-looking power.
The Drill
I decided to test my theory about the close relationship between the hockey slap shot and the softball/baseball swing. I asked one of my hitters to take swings off a tee—but instead of the traditional swing, I asked her to execute a slap shot using her bat.
The objective was simple: apply the same rotational hitting mechanics we had been working on, with one deliberate adjustment—allowing the back foot to slide sideways like a hockey player as the lower body began to rotate.
With no additional cues or reminders, the effect was immediate. The sliding back foot freed her hips to rotate more aggressively, improved sequencing from the ground up, and shifted the responsibility for power away from the arms and into the legs and core. The swing became more connected, more explosive, and noticeably more efficient—without any conscious effort to swing harder.
The feedback was undeniable. The ball jumped off the bat, her movements looked smoother and more athletic, and she could feel exactly where the power was coming from. What stood out most was how quickly the drill created understanding. Instead of talking about rotation and weight transfer, she felt them.
When she returned to her normal mechanics, that sensation carried over, reinforcing a more powerful, efficient, and repeatable swing. We continue to experiment with ways to incorporate this sideways movement of her back foot into her game swing.
Below is a video of her first ‘slap shot’ swings:
This is hitter is Sara Steinecker (Uncomitted 2027) from Elmhurst, IL. She is an elite all-around player with bat speed (not exit velocity) in the upper 70’s.
Now Let’s Do Pitching
After sharing the drill video and my observations with several coaches, I received an insightful response from Greta Cecchetti—Olympian and star pitcher for the Italian National Softball Team. Her reaction was immediate: “It reminds me of a pitcher’s drag.” She was exactly right.
Power pitchers rely on the same kinetic linkage principles that drive an elite slap shot and a high-level rotational swing. As a pitcher moves down the path toward the hitter, the back leg drags along the ground, leaving a visible trail in the dirt. That drag isn’t incidental—it’s evidence of how force is generated, transferred, and sequenced through the body.
Just like hitters and hockey players, pitchers use the ground as their foundation. The back leg applies force, the hips lead, the torso follows, and the arm is the final link in the chain. When this sequence is efficient, velocity increases, control improves, and stress on the arm is reduced.
Play Golf Like Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler’s swing is one of the most dominant—and misunderstood—motions in modern golf. While it may look unconventional, especially with his dynamic footwork, it mirrors the same movement pattern that powers an elite hockey slap shot. Different sport, different tools—same kinetic chain, same sideways finish of the back leg and foot.
My Turn
I’m an average golfer with a swing that can be erratic and inconsistent. Like many amateurs, I’ve chased fixes—grip changes, posture tweaks, endless swing thoughts—only to end up more cluttered and less confident. Curious whether this concept could work for someone like me, I went to the driving range with one simple focus: allow my back foot to slide sideways as my lower body rotated.
The results were nothing short of remarkable. Every club flew straighter—and farther. The swing felt freer, more athletic, and far more repeatable. The club moved faster with less effort, as if the motion was finally being powered by my body instead of my hands. Even more telling, the long checklist of swing thoughts disappeared. I simply gripped it and ripped it.
As you can see, I deliberately exaggerated the sideways movement of my back leg, similar to the hitting drill. Even though my friends think it looks odd, I found that the more my foot moved laterally, the more power I generated. Most astonishing of all, after just a few swings, my mind was completely free of technical clutter—allowing me to swing naturally, aggressively, and with confidence.
I honestly don’t care how it looks if the ball goes farther and straighter when I move from the driving range to the golf course. If you play golf, trust me—you’ve got to try this to believe it.
A Timeless Power Move
As I was writing this, I kept picturing famous baseball players who used a similar sideways movement of the back foot, but I couldn’t immediately place who they were. Then it hit me—Hall of Fame players, Babe Ruth, Henry Aaron, and Frank Thomas, two of the most prolific home run hitters in baseball history noticeably and naturally moved their back foot during the swing sequence.
Perhaps this isn’t just a drill or a training innovation. It may be a timeless movement pattern—one that has quietly powered some of the greatest swings in the game and can still be an effective way to generate more power and consistency today.
And now a video of my favorite baseball player and perhaps the greatest all-round player of all time–Roberto Clemente. This video highlights the powerful sideways movement of the back leg during his trademark swing.
As Clemente’s body begins to rotate, the back foot doesn’t simply spin in place—it releases and moves forward and laterally, freeing the rear hip and allowing the lower body to lead the motion. That sideways action mirrors the same ground-force and rotational principles seen in a hockey slap shot. The clip provides a clear visual example of how great hitters use the ground and their lower body to generate effortless bat speed and consistent contact.
Power, Reimagined
Sometimes the fastest way forward isn’t inventing another mechanical cue—it’s borrowing one from a different sport or era and letting the body do what it was designed to do.
Softball and baseball players don’t need more swing thoughts. They need better movement. Power becomes easier. Consistency improves. And the game starts to feel simple again.
Whether it’s a hockey slap shot, a softball/baseball swing, a pitching delivery, or a golf swing, the body follows the same universal principles—ground force, rotation, sequencing, and efficient energy transfer.
Different tools. Same engine.