Thoughts, ideas, tips, and general musings on the game of fastpitch softball.
Gotta love the boomerangs
As most people know, coaching fastpitch softball is not my day job. It is something I do on the side.
Instead, I work for technology PR company Tech Image, which is one of the business units of a company called SmithBucklin, which is the world's largest association management company. It was SmithBucklin who introduced me to the term "boomerang," which is the name they use for an employee who leaves the company then comes back.
This off-season I've had a couple of boomerangs. One was a short-term loss of a couple of months. A student had changed teams, the rest of the team was using a different pitching coach, they went along with it, the girl started to struggle and now she's back. The other was actually two sisters whose family situation changed; their father contacted me during the summer and they've now started up again.
SmithBucklin always says the company loves boomerangs, and I can see why. While I always hate to lose a student, things happen from time to time. Circumstances change, sometimes the grass looks greener elsewhere, there can be all kinds of reasons. I find, though, that those who come back are often among the most enthusiastic students because they've had a taste of what else is out there and have made a conscious decision that being with me is the place they want to be.
That's not to say I want every student to go away for awhile and come back. Far from it! I definitely appreciate those who stay from beginning to end. But where many instructors might feel funny about a student coming back after going away (probably because they take it personally) I welcome it.
What about you, whether you're a private coach or a team coach? How do you feel when a player goes away then wants to come back? Do you welcome her back, or do you feel like once you're gone you're gone?
Book recommendation: The Score Takes Care of Itself
This may seem a little odd for a fastpitch softball blog, but I recently finished reading a book that I think is a must-read for every coach. It's called The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership, by Bill Walsh with Steve Jamison.
Yes, it's that Bill Walsh, the former San Francisco 49ers coach who was the brain behind the West Coast offense. While the book is ostensibly written as a guide on leadership for business leaders, there is a lot in there for any coach in any sport to learn. After all, coaching is a lot about leadership as well.
Now, you would think that a book like this would focus on his triumphs and how brilliant he is. Yet Walsh comes across as very humble, and is equally at home (maybe moreso) talking about his tribulations and failures.
I found the opening of the book particularly helpful. You see, this past summer was a rough one for me. I had a very good team with very good players, but somehow we just didn't win as many games as we should have. I kept beating myself up, wondering why, when we'd do so many things right, we didn't win more. Then I read this book.
It starts with Walsh talking about his first couple of seasons with the 49ers. He'd waited a long time to get a shot at being a head coach in the NFL, and finally got it with San Francisco.
The year before he joined them, he writes, they went 2-14. Then, in his first year as head coach, after instituting many changes and establishing his Standard of Performance, the 49ers went — wait for it — 2-14. The exact same record.
His second season they started off better, but then hit an eight-game losing streak. The 49ers were finally playing the Dolphins in a must-win game, and it came down to the last play. The Niners had three shots at a come from behind victory, but ultimately lost due to penalties on that final play.
Then came the part that really struck me. Walsh said on the plane ride home he broke down in tears and considered handing in his resignation. He just didn't know whether he had what it took to be an NFL head coach. Fortunately he slept on it and by the time Monday came he'd decided to continue. His teams went on to win the Super Bowl the following year, and two more in 10 years while dominating the NFL.
For me, I figured if someone who had experienced so much success had also had so many difficulties, maybe I hadn't done such a bad job after all. Maybe all we'd needed was a little more time for what I'd tried to do to take effect — time we didn't have.
The book is full of anecdotes like that, along with plenty of practical, step-by-step advice on how to turn teams into classy champions. Yet Walsh is more than willing to share the things he did wrong as well as what he did well. He also spends a considerable amount of time on how to treat people — both players and people in the organization — that's worth reading all on its own.
I know that for me, reading this book really helped me see my own coaching style and philosophy more clearly. I actually found myself thinking "yeah, I do that" at many points, and got many new ideas on how to improve on what I do.
This is a book I highly recommend every coach read. I think you'll find it fascinating and inspiring. Walsh was always a class act, and in this day and age we can really use a lot more of that.
So what about you? What books have you read that have inspired or affected your coaching that way?
In a perfect world, when a fastpitch player comes in for softball pitching lessons the first thing that would happen is she would immediately get faster. Unfortunately, often the opposite happens.
A player will come in throwing hard, but wildly and inconsistently due to poor mechanics. Then, as we work on correcting those mechanics, she notices a drop in speed. It's usually not a lot, but enough to cause her some concern. Some can get quite frustrated, at which point they begin to wonder whether learning new mechanics is worth it.
But seeing a temporary loss of speed is fairly normal. And it makes sense when you think about it.
When that player walks in, she's usually totally comfortable with what she's doing. She may not like the results — too many walks or hit batsmen — but she is used to doing what she does. Which means she does it with 100 percent enthusiasm and effort.
When we start to change the mechanics, though, she is then out of her comfort zone. She actually has to think about what she's doing, and because she is uncomfortable with the new mechanics she tends to be hesitant in her approach. The natural result is a loss of speed.
Think of it in terms of running. If you are assigned to run a 100 meter sprint, and do it with 100 percent effort, you will get a particular time. If you then run another sprint with 80 percent effort, you will almost certainly get a noticeably slower time. You wouldn't expect it to be any different either.
The same applies to pitching. Until you are comfortable enough with the way you're throwing the ball to go 100 percent, your speed will be down. But it's a temporary effect.
Eventually, better mechanics should result in even more speed than you had before; you just have to have a little faith and patience to get there. And you'll be more accurate to boot. It's a win-win!
Another good reason to keep the hands up while hitting
In the past I've written about the importance of keeping the hands tied to the back shoulder (more or less) for the major part of the swing. Doing so allows hitters to get the proper bat angle, which is around 30 to 45 degrees rather than flat, at contact.
There's another good reason when you think about it, though. When the hands stay up, it's easier to get the big muscles in the chest, shoulders and core involved for more power.
Try it. First feel what it's like to swing with the hands held high. Then try it by staying in the same position but letting the hands drop to your waist. Do it slowly so you can really feel what's going on.
With the hands around shoulder high you should feel yourself able to drive the bat fairly easily. You should feel strong and powerful.
With the hands more around waist-high, however, you should feel the disconnection. It will likely feel a lot weaker and tougher to bring the bat through. It likely will feel like a lot more work. The bat will likely also be pretty flat as it comes through the hitting zone.
Which begs the question: why would any hitter want to drop her hands to her waist to swing, even on a waist-high pitch? Yet they do all the time.
To really drive the ball, the hands need to remain connected to the back shoulder. Which means if the pitch is low, you have to go down and get it.
Rather than dropping the hands down, bend at the waist. Stick your nose down there toward the ball and use the same basic hitting mechanics you do on a higher pitch.
It's similar to making a throw from a low position rather than standing up. You use the same mechanics, you're just tilted over.
For hitters, bend at the waist, tilt in toward the ball and hit the heck out of it.
One of the most important pitches for a fastpitch pitcher to develop is a good changeup. While everyone is always impressed with speed, the ability to change speeds without visibly changing the delivery is key to keeping hitters off balance and getting them out.
Now, there are all kinds of ways to throw a changeup. My favorite, though is the backhand change. Some call it the "flip" change, but I don't because I don't want the pitcher to flip her wrist at the end. Instead, I prefer that she drags the ball through the release zone and just flings it forward at release.
Not long ago I had a pitcher (Larissa) who was having trouble feeling the drag and fling. She was stiffening up and flipping the ball, and as a result it was going too fast and too high.
As I often do, I stood across from her and started to explain the release in a mirror image. But I forgot to use my left hand, and demonstrated with the right hand instead. That's when the light bulb came on over my head, and I had her try what I had just done. It worked like a charm. Here's a video of Larissa demonstrating the drill:
The reason I think it works is that it takes the pitcher out of the normal context of pitching, and allows her to focus strictly on the release. Whatever the reason, though, I've tried it with several pitchers and it has worked for all of them.
If you're using this type of change and have a pitcher who's having trouble feeling it, give this a try. If you have a pitcher who's struggling with the flip change, give it a try as well. You might like the results.
This is one of those fastpitch softball topics that I've written about before, but it bears repeating. One of the biggest challenges players today face is developing the patience to succeed.
What I mean by that is we live in an instant world. Hot chocolate and popcorn isn't cooked on the stove for 10 or 20 minutes. You pop it in the microwave and it's ready in three. You want to watch a particular movie? You don't have to wait until it comes on anymore — you just dial it up on-demand.
Becoming a high-level, or even a decent, hitter, pitcher, fielder, etc. doesn't happen instantly. It takes a long time — 10,000 hours to achieve mastery according to the experts, several hundred or thousand hours to get reasonably good.
That can be tough to take for kids who are used to instant pudding or five minute oatmeal. They take a couple of lessons and right away expect to be awesome.
Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Think of it like this: the goal of excellence is five miles away. You can see it, but it's well off in the distance. You don't have a bike or car, so how will you get there? You can't leap there in one shot. You'll have to walk, putting one foot in front of the other, over and over again.
It will take some time. You may get bored, you may get tired, you may get frustrated now and then. But if you keep walking, step after step, you will eventually reach your goal.
In my last post I talked about getting rid of the "hello elbow" and replacing it with a finish that is long, loose and natural. After that post, a reader named Melissa asked if I could post a video that illustrated the point.
This week I had the opportunity to shoot video of one of my students during her lesson. Justine is very long and lanky to begin with, so you can really see the follow-through. Here it is. Note that this is video is running at 1/3 the normal speed to make it easier to see.
Justine demonstrates a long, loose finish
Using this finish allows her to deliver maximum velocity without placing strain on the elbow.
So yesterday I started with two new pitchers — teammates with little pitching experience. Both had attended a few sessions of a pitching "clinic" in a large group put on by some local instructor or another.
As I always do I asked to see how they pitched before we launched into the lesson. One of the things I saw right away was something called the "hello elbow."
The "hello elbow" is a form of forced follow-through at the end of the pitch. After you release the pitch, you bend your elbow and bring your hand up to your throwing hand shoulder. You're supposed to then point your elbow at your catcher.
It may be well-intended, but it actually works against the mechanics that make up a good pitch. A finish should be long, loose and natural.
If you keep your arm loose and focus on whipping the lower arm past the elbow at release, the last thing you're going to be able to do is touch your throwing-hand shoulder. You would have to stop the arm and change directions to do that.
As I was working with each of the girls, we focused on learning to be long, loose and natural at the finish. They both struggled at first, but I used a drill called the "low five" to help them get the feel. With an empty hand, I had them start with their pitching arms at the 12:00 position, then bring the upper arm down, then bring the hand through and give me a low five with their hands to my hand.
As they focused on slapping my hand, they started to find a new finish. Both wound up with their pitching hand by their glove-side shoulder. Luckily, from there it was an easy transition to throwing the ball that way too.
They weren't perfect with it — the "hello elbow" showed up from time to time. But they were definitely better. At the end of the lesson I had them throw to their fathers, and the ball was straighter and faster than it had been when they walked in.
Follow-through is important, but you have to be careful not to trade one issue for another. Keep the follow-through long, loose and natural and your pitchers will find their own way.
The short answer: His/her video collection is on VHS.
The longer answer: A lot has changed since the 1980s. High-speed video has given us insight into things we couldn't see before. But some people still cling to the "old ways," like the Pagans in medieval times.
Their rationale is that they've been doing it that way for X number of years and have had success. Yet it's likely they had success in spite of what they teach instead of because of it.
There is plenty of good information out there. And tons of video of top-level players out there. The simple test — aka the Hanson Principle — is compare what people tell you to the best players in the sport. If what you're being told doesn't match what you see, it's time to find a new coach. There's simply no excuse for accepting bad teaching.
One of the interesting phenomena I have observed in my years of teaching lessons is how important context is in really understanding what you're learning and putting it to use.
That's kind of a long-winded way of saying it seems like students seem to "get" what we're trying to do better after they've had a season of playing following an off-season of lessons.
You can try to put context around lessons all you want. I know I certainly do. But once students are in the game trying to execute against an opponent, I found most understand better the reasons why we're doing what we're doing, and why we're focusing on certain aspects of their skills.
Take pitchers, for example. They can look like world-beaters in lessons or practice sessions. But once there's something on the line, i.e. they're facing live hitters, they seem to get why we focus so much on repeatable mechanics versus the immediate results.
That can be discouraging for some — they've worked hard all off-season, but then in the games they're not see the payoff right away. But for most, it seems they remember us talking about certain things, they remember themselves not putting the effort into it, and they understand that was a mistake.
Has that been your experience? Has your daughter, your students or your players struggled to put lessons into practice the first year but then come back ready to learn more and at a fast pace?
Ken Krause has been coaching girls fastpitch softball for 15 years. Some may know him as a contributing columnist to Softball Magazine, where he writes Krause's Korner -- a regular column sponsored
by Louisville Slugger. Ken is also the editor of Marc Dagenais' "No BS Softball Performance Newsletter." He is currently a Two Star Master Coach with the National Fastpitch Coaches Association
(NFCA), and is certified by both the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) and American Sports Education Program (ASEP). Ken coaches the Lake County Glory 14U team and is a private instructor
specializing in pitchers, hitters, and catchers. He is Head Softball Pitching Instructor at North Shore Baseball Academy in Libertyville, IL and teaches at Pro Player Consultants in McHenry, IL.
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