Product Review: Fieldy AI Notetaker
Let me start this post by sharing that I have always had a tremendous memory. It’s nothing I had to work at either – from the time I was young until now I just have had an ability to pull up random facts and information on demand.
It’s what allowed me to score highly in tests in school (including those national fill-in-the-little-dots tests) and to absolutely slay in Trivial Pursuit, to the point where our extended family quit playing entirely because I could not only answer almost all of my own questions but all of their too. Winning through intimidation, baby!
But even I could get confused at times after a long day of lessons about what we worked on with a specific student, especially if I had two girls who were similar. I would know we did X; I just wasn’t sure whether it was with Felicia or Tiffany.
That’s why, when I started seeing ads for apps and devices that would listen in on my lessons and create a transcript along with an AI-driven summary of said transcript, I was intrigued. I knew some of my pitching coach friends had already made the leap and seemed to like it, but I still hesitated before finally pulling the trigger, afraid I might choose one that didn’t do what I needed it to do or quite frankly would be a pain to use in the way I wanted to use it post-lesson.
But as you can tell, or if you’re a regular listener to the From the Coach’s Mouth podcast where I talked about it on this episode, I went ahead anyway and got one – specifically the Fieldy AI Note Taker 3, the latest model from Fieldy. Mostly I got it because of those pitching coach friends who said they all loved it.
And in case you were wondering, I bought it myself and am not receiving any promotional or other consideration for this product review. It’s strictly me sharing something I am finding valuable.
The Basics
So what is Fieldy and how does it work? Fieldy is a small wearable device that you can wear in a variety of ways.
It comes with a small elastic band that you can wear around your neck, inside or outside of your shirt (I usually wear it outside), but you can also purchase a separate watch band so you can wear it on your arm. Since I already wear an Apple watch I’ve opted for the original neck band.
The neck band itself is held together by magnets so it’s easy to slip on and off. The device itself is quite small so you don’t really notice you have it on – at least I don’t. That also makes it easy to store in my car between lessons, at least while the temperatures are not at the extremes.
You also have to download their app (no surprise there) but it’s free and easy to use. More on that in a bit.
Like any Bluetooth device you first have to pair it with your phone or tablet for optimal performance. While it can record up to 3 hours locally, it’s better to pair it to a device with more storage capacity, especially if you have a long day ahead.
Once your Fieldy is paired you can train it to recognize your voice in about 5 minutes. That makes it easier when you’re looking back on conversations to tell who was speaking, at least for yourself.
Then, when you’re ready to use it, you just click the front of the unit and it starts recording. You’ll hear a single beep to confirm it started, but if you’re still not sure (especially early on) you can also look at the front to see a tiny LED; if it’s on, you’re good to go.
You can also confirm it’s running by checking the app on your phone. It will show whether it’s recording, and you can also use the app to start and stop recording.
When you’re done, you can either let it keep going to capture more conversations down the road or turn it off by clicking the button again if you want to fully separate the conversations. Pretty simple.
Transcription Capabilities and Summary
Once you start recording, the Fieldy listens in and creates a full transcription of everything that was said, separated by speaker – although that means unless you designate names it just says Speaker 1, Speaker 2, etc. The transcription can be a little wonky at times like any AI transcription, especially if you’re using words or concepts that are more specific to fastpitch, but overall it’s solid and good enough to get the gist of what was said.
The real value, though, is the summary it creates. Fieldy comes with several built-in summary templates that are oriented toward various uses, such as a business meeting, a phone call, a lecture, or even a casual conversation.
The template then takes the same basic information and organizes it for you in a way that it thinks makes the most sense for how you plan to use it.
But you can also create your own custom templates, either from scratch or by modifying an existing template, and save it under whatever name you choose. That way it’s putting the information you need right up front for you.
For example, my Softball Lessons template put’s the student’s name right up front so I know whose lesson it was (some of the phonetic spellings it comes up with are hilarious) and the highest pitch speed achieved if the lesson was with a pitcher. If it’s a hitting lesson, that section is left blank.
Of course, in order to populate that part of the summary you first have to announce what the highest speed has been so far; it’s not a mind reader. But as long as you remember to do that it will capture that information and put it up-front for me.
The same with anything else. One of my favorite parts of the summary is when it talks about the general atmosphere of the lesson.
I don’t really use that part but it is funny to look back and see the conversation was lighthearted and casual, or that the dad and I were discussing what TV shows we’re watching. So definitely be careful with what you say out loud.
In case you’re wondering, Fieldy’s website says it supports more than 100 languages, so if English isn’t your first language, or the one you use at practice, no worries. You’re covered.
And, since it’s great for overall note taking, if you want to give it to your daughter to use while she’s in school, there’s another justification for buying one (in case you need to convince a spouse you have to have it).
How I Use It
While I could leave it running throughout the entire time I’m doing lessons – Fieldy is good about figuring out when one lesson ends and another begins – I usually turn it on before each lesson and off at the end. That way each one is separated and I can be sure the information or instruction it captured is specific to each student.
As mentioned earlier, you have to be careful to spell out the information you want captured. For example, you can’t just say “Bring your arm to here” if you want to know exactly what you said.
Instead, you have to say, “Bring your arm to your hip” or “Keep your hands near your back shoulder.” It takes a little getting used to since a lot of instruction can be visual, but with a little time you’ll get used to it. I did.
When all my lessons are done and I’m ready to create my notes for the day, I open my PC and review the summaries on the desktop app. I have kept student notes in an Excel spreadsheet for a long time and like that way of organizing them, so I then have the task of moving key notes from the Fieldy app to the spreadsheet.
I would do this anyway, so I’m finding it to be a timesaver. I no longer have to ponder what was said and create everything from scratch. I usually write one or two lines freehand, and then start to copy and paste from Fieldy to Excel. Fieldy’s summaries are bulleted to I have to do a little manipulation to get the notes the way I want them, but it doesn’t take much work.
I can pick and choose selectively from the summary to keep it a little shorter, and I can also use the summary as a prompt to write my own notes if I want to organize the information a little differently or add other thoughts or reminders for next lesson. It’s all pretty simple and seamless.
My template also creates a list of Next Steps, which are good reminders of things I need to do, such as create a corrective exercise program for a player or apply a particular drill in the next lesson. As long as it’s said out loud it will be in the list. It’s also good for reminders to players of things to work on until the next lesson.
Once I’m done using the summary I usually delete the whole conversation. That way I don’t have to scroll through a bunch of old ones to get to the ones from that day. If you’re doing verbatim cut-and-paste of the transcripts or summaries that makes even more sense.
Other Use Cases
While I’ve been describing how I use Fieldy as a private coach, it makes sense for team coaches and parents as well. Maybe even moreso for team coaches because there is typically a lot more going on in a team practice with multiple players than in individual or even group lessons.
A team coach can run an entire practice as a single Fieldy session, with commentary about how particular drills are going, events that happened during practice, things to work on at the next practice, etc. If you attach a name to it you can also give yourself reminders to work on a particular skill with a particular player, send a follow-up about something, or plan ahead for the next practice.
Parents can use it at lessons to use as reminders of what their daughters should be working on during the week based on the coaching. If they stay for team practices they can make notes about what was worked on and what their daughter needs to work on based on that. They can even wear them at games if they want to create a quick list of how individual at-bats went or whether the ball and strike counts in the score book/GameChanger match up with what they saw on the field.
Fieldy is great for summarizing Zoom calls too, whether for fastpitch softball or business uses. I recently recorded a Zoom call with just the PC app (no wearable device), and it created a pretty good summary of everything that was talked about. That can come in handy if you’re trying to remember a particular point and don’t want to scan through an hour-long Zoom to find it.
Battery Life
I’ve been amazed at how much battery life the little Fieldy device has. While my lesson days haven’t been as long as usual due to a lot of my students doing school sports (love those multi-sport athletes) and the light fading at about 6:45 right now, I’ve been able to go for a week between recharges, and even then there was 30-40% battery life still available.
That may change once my lesson days get longer again in the winter, but even then I expect to get about a week’s worth of captures before it needs a recharge. The Fieldy comes with its own USB cable, or you can use one you already have lying around.
Cost
So, you’re thinking, that all sounds wonderful. But how much does it cost?
That’s a two-part answer. The first part is the Fieldy device itself.
I think it can vary from time to time, but right now as I write this a single Fieldy is $129. If you buy more than one (say, for two parents or a full coaching staff) the cost per unit is even less.
Here’s the thing, though. The basic unit only comes with 150 transcription minutes per month. That’s 2.5 hours for the math-challenged.
Clearly, that wasn’t enough for me doing lessons pretty much every day for several hours at a time, and it likely won’t be for coaches running more than one practice a week.
The good news is you can get unlimited minutes for a subscription fee of $15.99 per month if you subscribe for a full year, or $19.99 per month if you go month by month. I’m pretty sure I paid for the whole year up front and saved a little extra over the full year but paid per month plan. But I couldn’t confirm that on their website so be sure to check it out before you assume anything.
Wrapping It Up
So there you have it. I wasn’t sure if it was something I needed at first, but the more I use my Fieldy the more I’m glad I made the investment.
If capturing what happened at practice, at a game, or at a lesson accurately and completely is important to you, definitely give Fieldy a look.
Is it better than other AI note taking devices or apps? I don’t know, I haven’t tried them. But it sure does everything I need it to do, and I’ve only explored the basics.
If you have a different recommendation, be sure to let us know in the comments, especially if yours does something that wasn’t mentioned here.
Pitchers Don’t Need to Be Strikeout Queens to Win
Everybody loves to watch a strikeout queen do her thing. Well, not everybody – I’m sure hitters and their parents are less enthralled – but pretty much everyone else is enamored by the ability for pitchers to get hitters out all by their lonesomes instead of relying on their defense.
I get it too. As a pitching coach, when I check the stats for one of my students on GameChanger the first thing I’m going to look at is A) if she pitched that game, followed by B) how many strikeouts she got. It’s an easy way to measure how well your pitcher did against opposing hitters.
But I think sometimes coaches get a little too enamored of that stat, to the point where they tremendously under-value other pitchers on their staffs that may not get the big K stats but are equally effective, game after game, at getting hitters out. Maybe even more effective in a way, because it takes them fewer pitches to do it.
This whole discussion came up after I read a Facebook post by Kassie Rhodes, a former collegiate pitcher and now a pitching coach herself. (You’ll have to scroll down a bit to read her post at the link because I couldn’t figure out a way to link directly to it. My bad.)
In it she argues that a pitcher who can get her team out of an inning and off the field quickly by inducing weak contact and easy to field balls is every bit as valuable as one who can strike out the side on a regular basis. It’s just not as dramatic.
I agree. In fact, I’d say that pitcher who can produce a 7-pitch inning on a regular basis is probably more valuable to her team on a sunny 95 degree day with 95% humidity when you’re playing on turf than the pitcher who takes 9-15 pitches to strike out the side. Especially if you have a misting fan waiting in the dugout.
Now, I understand the other side of the argument. When your pitcher can get you a strikeout, it removes some of the risk in getting an out.
All you need is a catcher who can avoid dropping the ball on strike three versus a popup/fly ball where one other player will have to touch the ball, or a ground ball where you need a clean field, a good, on-time throw, and a good catch to get the out. More touches equals higher risk.
But if your team is capable of making the plays they’re supposed to make, the risk factor of extra touches should be extremely low. At which point you can say an out is an out no matter how you get it.
And if it’s not, you have some work to do as a coach to get it that way.
Another advantage to the team with a pitcher who doesn’t accumulate a high number of strikeouts per game is that your defense gets more practice. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen plenty of teams that failed in big games because they were used to their pitcher carrying most of the load.
When she ended up facing a team that actually could hit off of her, the defense was often under-prepared to field the ball and make the play, especially when the heat was on. There’s a difference between doing it in practice and doing it in games.
Teams that regularly have to make those plays often fare better. Repetition in games conditions is valuable.
Here’s another thing to consider. It’s easy to assume that it’s easier to win a championship when you have a high-strikeout pitcher.
But if you look at this list of the top 10 all-time strikeout leaders in NCAA Division 1 play, only three of them won a WCWS, and the top three have zero WCWS championships between them. That’s right, you have to wait until #4 (Danielle Lawrie) before you find one whose team won the last game of the season.
This is to take nothing away from the other 7 in the top 10. They were all outstanding pitchers who won a lot of games and other tournaments with their teams.
But as good as they were, it still takes a team to win.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the #1 pitchers for the two teams who faced each other in the 2026 WCWS championship series came in at #6 (Tegan Kavan) and #7 (NiJaree Canady) for this season.
The bottom line is, in a standard game each teams gets 21 outs (or 18 if the home team is ahead by the middle of the 7th). They are the currency of the game, and should be treated like gold, because once you’re out of them (no pun intended) your chances of winning are zero.
So the faster you can take away your opponent’s outs, the faster you can get to a victory celebration. And the game doesn’t care how you get those outs.
So if you have a pitcher who is capable of inducing easy outs on a regular basis by getting hitters to pop up, or hit “can of corn” fly balls or weak ground balls, along with the occasional K when you need it, who cares how they got out – as long as they’re out? Instead of considering her as being “less than” your big strikeout stud, take advantage of her abilities and give her the fair share of circle time she’s earned.
Not only will it help you get the wins you desire. It will save some wear and tear on your stud pitcher’s arm for when you really need someone who can blow the ball by the opposing hitters.
Not Doing It Versus Can’t Do It
If you’ve been coaching for any length of time you start to recognize certain movement patterns that you know are going to hurt a player’s performance. While there may be a million ways TO do something and still be successful, there are definitely some movements you don’t want to do because they will cause problems up and down the kinetic chain.
Examples of things you don’t want to see are pitchers not letting their shoulders open enough when they go over the top, hitters letting their hands drop to their waists in a “scooping” motion, fielders pulling the ball back like a bow-and-arrow when throwing, and so forth. No matter what your overall approach is, if you see one of these issues you’re going to want to correct it sooner rather than later, both to help players perform better and in some cases avoid injuries.
But just because you show them how to correct it doesn’t mean it will happen right away. It’s easy to attribute that to habits, and to believe with enough coaching and repetitions the player will eventually overcome the issue.
What if it’s not, though? What if the player is putting in the work and trying to do better but she’s still having trouble replacing that old pattern with a new, better one?
In other words, what if the problem isn’t that she’s not using the newly prescribed pattern, but that she CAN’T do it?
The human body is a marvel of engineering. There are so many complex systems and sub-systems, and sub-systems of those sub-systems that you can spend years studying it intensely and still feel like you’ve only scratched the surface.
All of these systems and sub-systems are designed for one basic thing: to keep you alive and safe. My favorite way of putting it is X happens so you don’t fall down and get eaten by a tiger.
But what if X can’t happen? Then your body will find another way to get the job done to keep you from becoming a Fancy Feast for said tiger.
For example, if you’re trying to run away from a threat and the muscles that are primarily responsible for that important task aren’t up to it for some reason, your central nervous system (CNS) will put out a call to the rest of your body essentially asking if anyone else is available to pick up the slack and get you running. That’s when another muscle, or muscle group, takes over.
It may not be the ideal choice, but it’s better than just lying there and waiting to get eaten.
Now put it into the context of playing softball. That hitter is trying to hit the ball but she’s dropping her hands to move the bat toward the ball.
Sure, it could be poor training or a total lack of training. But what if the issue is the muscles that are required to keep the bat on a better path to the ball aren’t up to the job?
Maybe the hitter has some weakness in the muscles or fascial lines that are supposed to keep the bat where you want it to be. She isn’t able to follow the best path for hitting, so her body sends out the call and other muscles or fascial lines that are capable of moving the bat in some way take over instead.
You can tell her to do this or do that until you’re blue in the face. But until the physical issue at the root of the pattern is fixed she’s not going to be able to make the change you want her to make, no matter how willing she is to try (or how much you yell at her in some cases).
Again, the human body is designed for protection, not performance. So in this case if the overriding goal is to move the bat toward the ball instead of standing there like a statue, the body will find a way to do it – even if it’s not a very good way to hit successfully.
All of which points out why it’s important to study not just the techniques but also at least some measure of the underlying anatomy of movement if you really want to help your players perform.
At the very least, read some books or watch some videos that discuss human movement patterns in more general terms. Get an idea of what happens under the hood, i.e., how muscles work together to cause movement and the role fascia plays in it.
If you want to dig deeper there are plenty of ways to do that too. A few years ago I became a certified Corrective Exercise Specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
It was not an easy course, but it gave me a much better understanding of how to look for deficiencies and compensations in the body as well as how to develop simple stretching and exercise programs to correct them.
I have been trained in identifying motor preferences through Motor Preferences Experts. That training has helped me understand better how each athlete moves naturally – and whether what I’m observing looks like it’s totally natural or perhaps a compensation that might be due to an underlying cause.
I recently attended a course and received Level 1 certification through The Farm System to learn more about the specifics of movement as they relate directly to pitching, hitting, and throwing in softball. In the process, I learned even more about recognizing asymmetries and other issues in the body and how to develop strategies to help players overcome them.
There are plenty of other resources out there as well if you really want to go after it.
But even if you’re just simply volunteering to help with your daughter’s rec team that’s going to play for eight weeks, it’s important to understand there is a difference between not doing something and not being ABLE to do something.
If you have no expertise in these areas yourself, maybe suggest that a player who seems willing but is having trouble making adjustments be checked out by a qualified trainer to see if there is some restriction that may be preventing that player from becoming the player she is meant to be. Especially since some of the issues (such as flat feet) that are causing performance problems on the field may also cause general health problems off of it.
The bottom line is that sometimes correcting performance problems isn’t just a matter of teaching a better technique. Instead, there may be underlying issues that have to be fixed before you focus on those techniques.
The more you learn about the differences, the better-positioned you will be to help all your players become the athletes they’r meant to be.
Don’t Let Throwing Become Throwaway Time
You see it all the time at practices and even at games. One of the first things teams will do is split into two lines of partners facing each other.
Then one side throws the ball, followed by the other side throwing it back. Both lines are doing it badly.
I see the same thing before pitching lessons. Sometimes it’s so bad I can’t stand it anymore, at which point I will stop the student and tell her “Let’s work on your overhand throwing first.” It’s just that bad.
It’s also frustrating, because no matter where it’s happening, I can’t believe coaches aren’t taking the time to correct this clearly terrible throwing motion. I guess they don’t think it’s that important, as long as the ball isn’t getting thrown away too much.
Spoiler alert: it is.
An oft-quoted statistic is that 80% of all errors in baseball as well as fastpitch softball are throwing errors. I believe it.
It’s far more common to see a ball thrown away than booted in the dirt or dropped. And the consequences of a poorly thrown ball are also often more devastating to your team’s chances of winning.
Think of it this way: If an infielder boots a ground ball, or an outfielder fumbles an easy fly ball, the batter gets on base instead of being out. One base.
But if that same fielder throws the ball past the person receiving it, there’s a much higher likelihood that that batter (and anyone else who is on base for that matter) will advance two or more bases, depending on how bad the throw was and where it ended up. Runners now have either scored or moved that much closer toward scoring.
So from that perspective it becomes obvious that working on throwing instead of just using throw as a warm-up before you get to the “real” stuff in practice can have a pretty high payoff. i mean, you don’t have to be Mike White to understand that cutting out 80% of your errors gives you a much better chance of winning more ballgames.
Now we come down to how to improve throwing. Start with the basics.
I personally am a big fan of Austin Wasserman’s High Level Throwing program. If you can get to a clinic of his I highly recommend it; if you can’t, his online program is really good too.
There are other good throwing programs out there as well that will take you step-by-step through the mechanics. If you want to start with some free advice, check out this old blog post of mine that walks you through a progression as well.
(One adjustment I would add to those instructions is that when you pull the hands apart, do it by using the scapulae to pull the elbows rather than pulling the ball or hand back. I didn’t specify in the old post but it works much better.)
Once you have an idea of how to teach throwing, here’s the thing you need to do: make a commitment to helping all your players improve their throwing skills. This is not a “do it once to cover that base” type of thing.
You really need to work on it purposefully at every practice to ensure ALL your players can execute the skill under pressure, when it matters most. Early on, that may mean throwing your overall practice plan out the window and spending an hour or more on it until your entire team can throw the ball 60 without throwing the ball away (or dropping it; might as well work on receiving skills too).
Some key things to look for are:
- Can they transfer the ball after a catch to put themselves in a good starting position?
- Are they making an arm circle/turning the ball away from them to start or are they pulling the ball back like a bow and arrow?
- Are they using their bodies in a hips-shoulders-throw pattern or is all the energy concentrated in their arms?
- Is the throwing hand elbow above or below the shoulder when they are going into the actual throw?
- Is the glove arm doing anything or does it look like they’re holding a loaf of bread?
- Are they letting the arm whip at the end or are they pushing/guiding the ball toward the target?
- Does the motion look comfortable and natural to them (everyone will throw a little different so don’t try to create clones) or does it look forced and tight?
- Again, can they throw accurately from 60 feet away, which is the distance between bases?
Once they are starting to look like they know how to throw without pressure, start adding pressure into the mix. One of my favorite drills was the One Minute Drill.
It’s pretty simple. Start the ball with one set of partners and, while you’re standing there with a stopwatch, tell the team all they have to do is complete 100% successful throws and catches for one minute. There’s no minimum number of throws to achieve, they just have to keep going.
When you’re ready, say “go” and they start throwing. You as the coach can call out 15 second intervals to add a little extra pressure, especially if they make it to the “15 seconds left” mark.
It sounds like you should only have to do it once, but be prepared to spend a fair amount of practice on it, especially the first time you do it. Again, you may end up having to skip major sections of your practice plan, even at the high school or college level.
But it will be worth it. Because once your team knows you take throwing seriously, they will take throwing seriously, and you will see the improvements in their warmups, in their fielding drills, and ultimately in the game.
Make great throwing a priority, and more importantly a habit, and you’ll be amazed at how much better your team plays – and how much better they get at avoiding shooting themselves in the foot at critical times.
It’ll save you a whole lot of heartache too.
Product Review: Fastpitch Fuel Not Just Another Sports Drink
Staying hydrated and maintaining healthy levels of electrolytes and other minerals is always a challenge in hot weather – even with the best intentions. And now that summertime heat and humidity has returned with a vengeance here in September it should once again be top of mind for those participating in round robins, weekend tournaments, even college softball games.
That’s why I thought this would be a good time to talk about a product I came across not too long ago that can help players, coaches, and parents keep themselves from suffering the effects of oppressive heat, including general dehydration and heat exhaustion: Fastpitch Fuel.
(FULL DISCLOSURE: I liked the product so much when I tried it that I became an affiliate, so if you use this link I get a little bit of money from each purchase. But I promise that every word in this review is true.)
Fastpitch Fuel was designed by a guy named Dino Scrivani, an entrepreneur who has developed food supplements for some of the biggest names in the health industry. Yet he is also a fastpitch dad and PaulyGirl certified pitching instructor who recognized that the commercially available sports drinks weren’t really designed for the needs of fastpitch softball players. So he set out to invent one himself, using his years of experience in the food supplement industry.
One big difference with Fastpitch Fuel is that your typical sports drinks focus mostly on delivering two things: electrolytes and sugar. As a result, their effect is quick and temporary; the electrolytes help prevent dehydration while the sugar provides a quick energy spike.
But softball players, and especially female softball players, don’t just lose electrolytes when they sweat. Over the course of a long tournament they can lose other minerals, such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium, that affect not only immediate performance but their longer-term ability to continue playing.
Fastpitch Fuel replenishes all of those minerals while eliminating the sugar, helping players avoid periods of high energy followed by a crash. It’s made to sustain players through three or four back-to-back games in extreme heat so they can continue to perform at a high level.
I’ve tried it myself on days when I have a lot of lessons stacked up on hot days outdoors, and can say I didn’t feel the usual effects of the heat. Sure, it was uncomfortable and annoying (as you might expect), but I was able to maintain my energy through an extended exposure period to both heat and humidity.
I’ve also given Fastpitch Fuel to a few students to try on those days, and they’ve reported feeling fewer effects from the heat as well. It comes in a powder form that includes a measuring spoon, so it’s easy to add to a standard water bottle – either the plastic, disposable kind or a refillable bottle.
So what about the taste? No matter how good something might be for a player, she’s not going to drink it if she doesn’t like the way it tastes.
Fortunately, everyone who has tried it (including me) has liked it. So far I have only tried the electric lemon-lime flavor, but there is also a sour strawberry that is supposed to be really good. I plan to try that one soon.
One other good thing about Fastpitch Fuel versus the other commercially available sports drinks is that there are no artificial colors, sweeteners, or other ingredients. It was also reviewed by a top-level pediatric specialist to be sure it is safe and healthy for youth players as well as adults.
If you’re looking for a sports drink that provides a healthier approach to hydration on these long softball days or weekends, give Fastpitch Fuel a try. It’s a great way to stay ready to play all day.
A 50+ Run Differential Is Not the Brag You Think It Is
Well, here we are, with fall ball tournaments starting up again. Hope y’all enjoyed your two-week break. Now it’s time to get back to business.
And one of the things you can count on with social media posts on Sunday night or Monday morning is the proud parent who can’t wait to tell the world that their daughter’s team went undefeated in their tournament (or round robin) over the weekend, outscoring their opponents by 50, 55, 60, or even more runs.
I get it. They’re happy to feel like they made a great choice during tryout season, and that their daughter is an awesome team with strong players.
But honestly, folks, going 6-0 and putting up a run differential of 50+ isn’t the brag you think it is. Instead, what it means is you probably weren’t in the right tournament.
When was the last time you heard about a team in the Women’s College World Series, or any collegiate tournament for that matter, ripping through the opposition and outscoring them all by that much? Sure, they may have had a double-digit run rule victory on one opponent, but not on everyone they faced.
There’s a reason for that: Because you don’t get better by beating up on weak opponents. You get better by being tested by opponents of equal or better quality. Iron sharpens iron and all of that.
Now, I understand sometimes things happen, especially at the B or C levels. Coaches might be unsure of how good a brand new team will be, so they go into a lower-level tournament to avoid having the type of weekend that leads to a Sunday night filled with parent calls asking questions and offering advice.
But if it turns out your team is actually a lot better than the coaches might have thought, it’s not a time for bragging and boasting. Quietly take the win, then make sure your team will be playing higher-quality opponents next weekend. Even if it means some schedule reshuffling.
Yes, it’s fun to win, but it’s a lot more fun when the opponent is able to challenge you for the win. There’s a much greater sense of satisfaction in it, and again, what you learn on the field by scrapping and clawing your way to victory instead of dominating every game from the outset will serve all the players better down the road should they decide they’d actually like to be (or play on) a more competitive team.
Because let’s face it. I’m pretty sure you could beat a bunch of three year olds in a game of basketball, no matter how bad your skills might be. But would it really be an accomplishment?
So if you find yourself in that situation this fall, take the win with a big heaping helping of salt, and keep the bragging and boasting to a minimum. Then make sure your team is seeking out better competition rather than trophy hunting in the shallow end.
You’ll be a lot more satisfied in the long run.
If You Want Them to Learn, Let Them Struggle
Most people have heard the old saying, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” But what happens when the man is having trouble learning how to fish?
He’s working at it, but not having much success. In the meantime he’s getting hungry.
What do you do? Take over and catch a fish for him so he doesn’t feel hungry anymore? Or let him continue to struggle until he gets the hang of it?
In my opinion, unless the hunger situation is growing dire, you should probably let him continue to figure it out for himself. Nothing like a little hunger pang to push the learning process along.
It’s the same with fastpitch softball skills – without the hunger part of course. It can be difficult to watch a player – especially one who is your child – struggle to learn a new skill.
We all want to see our kids be successful. We don’t want to see them in distress, or feeling confused, and we certainly don’t want to have them feel like they’re falling behind their peers.
So it’s tempting for a parent to jump in the minute their daughter doesn’t seem to be getting some new concept. It’s tempting for a coach to start firing off instructions after every repetition to try to force the learning process to go faster.
Believe me, I’ve done both of them.
But here’s my sincere advice to you: don’t. Instead, push down those protective instincts and let them struggle to learn whatever it is they’re supposed to learn.
Not because it’s acceptable to be mean to them, but because they will learn whatever it is better.
That’s not just me saying it. Learning experts across the spectrum will tell you that the struggle is a part of the process.
When we struggle to learn something, we have to dive deeper into it, giving us a better understanding of what we’re trying to do. Yes, it may take a little longer, but we will internalize it better, getting us to the unconscious competence state that enables the highest level of performance.
Neuroscience research shows that when learners struggle with a concept or a task, it changes the brain. Neural pathways are strengthened and become faster – a pretty important benefit when you consider the speed of our sport and the complex decision trees that have to be run through in most plays.
When players have to struggle through learning a skill they also tend to learn it at a deeper level, making it more repeatable over the long term.
Think about it this way: If you jump in and try to shortcut the learning process by giving players the answer instead of learning to solve the problem on their own, it may solve the short-term issue of them not being able to perform.
But you’re not exactly going to be able to do that for them when the game is on the line. If they haven’t internalized the solution themselves through their own struggles, they’re unlikely to be able to perform under pressure in the heat of the game.
So does that mean no coaching at all? Of course not. That would be a silly conclusion to come to.
It’s more a matter of once someone explains what needs to be done, give the player time to understand how to accomplish the task within her own frame of reference, and on her own timetable.
Let’s say a player is trying to learn how to field ground balls. The team coach explains how to get down to the ground, how to position the glove, whether to stay back or charge in depending on the speed of the ball, when and how to set her feet, etc.
Then a ground ball is hit to her and she completely whiffs the play, not doing anything the coach said. As a parent should you jump in and try to explain it to your daughter because you know her best?
I would say no, at least if the coach seems to know what he/she is doing. All you’re going to do is become a distraction to the learning process.
As I keep pointing out, kids are not just short adults. Just because something was explained to them doesn’t mean they understand everything that was said.
For the very young, keep in mind they’re not that many years away from when their whole process of learning about the world around them involved sticking it in their mouth.
Instead, give them the opportunity to learn through trial and error. They try something, and it either works or it doesn’t.
If it doesn’t, they move on to try something else. And if they don’t try something else on the next round, hopefully the coach will give them another cue, or type of cue, that will help guide them down the path to discovery.
There’s a place for letting them struggle, and there’s a time to step in.
It’s important to keep in mind too that unless you are the player’s coach as well as parent, you have a different relationship with your daughter than the coach does. She will hear things differently from the coach than she will from you.
Basically, when the coach tells her to do something she will hear guidance. When you say the same thing, she will hear criticism and will be more likely to shut down automatically. That’s a different type of struggle for another day.
At the same time, regardless of the actual volume, your daughter will tend to hear your voice over the coach’s voice because her brain has been tuned to hear you whether she wants to or not. That will ultimately get in the way of her developing a strong player-coach relationship and will likely stunt her softball growth even further.
And if you are both parent and coach, take my advice on this one from personal experience: Have another coach give your daughter the corrections. She’ll take them a whole lot better.
Yes, it can be difficult to watch your daughter struggle to acquire a new skill or improve an old one. But don’t take that struggle as a negative sign – or as something you need to fix for her.
It’s simply a part of the process – an important part of the process. By letting her work through it in her own way, and on her own timeline, she will ultimately learn it better, at a deeper level, and be able to draw upon it when she needs it most.
And she’ll get greater satisfaction from it when it finally does come together.
New Season, New Opportunity, New You.
Welp, the 2025-2026 season is completely behind us now. Hopefully you had a little opportunity to take some time off, do some non-softball things, and generally put some space between what was and what is to be.
Now, as the new season gets under way for many (at least at most levels), there is an important question to be answered: who do you play to be as a player? In other words, do you plan to make this season a continuation of the last one, or are you looking for something more?
If you’re happy with the way last season went you may not have a whole lot of incentive to change things up. It was working well, and while you are always looking to get better it’s more on a straight line from where you were.
There’s nothing wrong with that; in fact, it makes a lot of sense. No sense jumping off a winning horse in the middle of a race.
But if you weren’t happy with how last season went, this time of year presents a golden opportunity to make next season a better experience. This is true of players, coaches, parents, and even umpires by the way.
Essentially, you don’t have to settle for who you were last season, particularly if you have joined a new team. Instead, you have the opportunity to be whoever you want to be – as long as you’re willing to put in the work to back it up.
For example, suppose you were a .220 hitter, batting toward the bottom of the lineup if you were in the lineup at all. Once you have established that is where you should be, it becomes difficult to climb out of that hole.
The new season, however, resets the clock, especially if you’re with a new team. They won’t know how you struggled before.
They will see you where you are now, and if where you are now is someone who is hitting .345, the new team is far more likely to find a place for you higher up in the batting order – not just in pool play or throwaway games but the games when everything is on the line.
It’s the same all over the field. Give up too many walks or hits (or both) as a pitcher last season? Here’s your opportunity to show you can get three quick outs.
Make too many errors on the field? Here’s your chance to show that you are now a sure-handed fielder with a strong, reliable arm.
The weight of the past has been lifted from you. It’s like removing all the old plastic bottles and other debris (including those old batting gloves that have been fermenting in sweat) that have been accumulating at the bottom of your bat bag since the first time you used it.
It feels lighter and cleaner, making it easier to cart around while helping you get ready for a fresh start. So how do you replace the old you with, well, You 2.0?
It starts with taking some action. If you just sit around hoping this season will go better than the last one, nothing is going to change, because while your thoughts may reveal what you want, your actions are what determine what you get.
Start by changing your mindset or your attitude. Instead of being mad or sad that you don’t have what other people have, start figuring out what you need to DO to get what they have, then start doing it.
It might be practicing more – or at all. If you’re a fielder who wants to make fewer errors, find someone who will hit or even toss you lots of ground balls, fly balls, whatever you need to work on.
If you can’t find anyone to help, bounce a rubber ball off a concrete wall. Don’t let what you can’t find limit you; instead, be creative in order to get what you want.
If there are skills you need that you can’t acquire on your own, get lessons from a qualified instructor. If you can’t afford a qualified instructor, ask a team coach for extra help.
Working with a team coach will not only help you with those specific skills. It will also help build a relationship between you and the coach that will make them a little more inclined to select you when decision time comes.
If you can’t find a coach, look up videos on YouTube or other sources, and then video yourself performing the skill to see if what you’re doing looks like what you’re supposed to be doing. A word of caution though: there are a lot of bad drills and incorrect techniques being taught online, especially on social media sites such as Tik Tok and Instagram, so be careful whose advice you follow.
Once you’re on the field in a team setting, make sure You 2.0 acts the way you want coaches and fans to perceive you. Act confident, even if you don’t feel confident, and be aggressive rather than tentative, even if you’re unsure of yourself.
People in general respond to confidence, and are much less willing to assume a bad play is how you play normally. And the funny thing is if you fake that confidence in the beginning, you’ll probably gain it as you go along, growing into the player you want to be perceived as being. You’ll have more fun that way too.
The bottom line is you don’t have to be stuck with who you were before. If you’re on a new team you have the opportunity to be whoever you want through your action, your attitudes, and your overall approach.
Even if you’re on the same team, however, a change in performance, a change in approach and a change in attitude will be noticeable. While you will have to overcome some old assumptions about you, there’s no better time to start changing those assumptions than when everything feels fresh and new again, and your team is looking 100% ahead.
Take advantage of the new season to build a new you, or at least You 2.0, and you’ll be much more likely to enjoy the outcome.
The Three Basic Types of Players – Which One Are You?
Today’s post comes from another lesson by Dr. Rob Gilbert, sports psychology professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey. If you’re not already doing it I suggest you call his Success Hotline – (973-743-4690 – where he provides a daily message about how to become a high performer, and listen to his Success Hotline podcast, which is a collection of older messages.
You can also check out this interview that Jay Bolden and I did for the From the Coach’s Mouth podcast a couple of months ago. You’ll thank me if you do it.
In any case, Dr. Gilbert talked about how there are essentially three types of players in the world: those who are Serious/Serious, those who are Serious/Fun, and those who are Fun/Fun. If you’re a player, which type you are can have a huge impact on how successful you are .
Fortunately this isn’t like Motor Preferences, which are baked in at birth; you can change which type you are at any time if you’re willing to do so. Before we look at each type, though, see if you can guess which one has the best chance of being successful.
Got it? Good. Let’s dig in.
Serious/Serious
This type of player is all business all the time. She never smiles, never gets into goofing around with her teammates, never takes a minute in the dugout to just enjoy the moment.
She is there to do a job, and by golly she’s not going to let anything distract her. Honestly, a lot of coaches, especially newly minted ones, fall into this category too.
This type of player is never going to be satisfied or happy with her performance because there’s always something to improve on, always something she could do or could have done better. While that might sound like dedication, it can also lead to frustration and depression because nothing is ever good enough.
She’s also probably going to be a bit lonely in a team setting because nobody will want to be around here. She may excel, but she’ll never enjoy it.
Fun/Fun
We’ve probably all known someone like this. Unlike the Serious/Serious player, this one is a lot of fun to be around because she’s like a walking birthday party (without the cake).
Nothing ever gets her down. If she makes a mistake she legit laughs it off because really, who cares? It’s just a game.
The problem here is much of the time she can’t focus enough to be a strong contributor. There are times when you need to have your head in the game and be distraction-free so you can perform well and the team can continue to win.
But this player is too busy having a good time to notice. Which means you can’t really count on her to perform when you need her most.
Maybe she’ll get lucky and make the play or get the hit anyway. But do you really want to count on luck?
You might think well, at least she’s good to have on the bench to keep the team “up.” This is true up until the point her antics become a distraction. Then it can be a detriment.
Serious/Fun
This player combines the best of the other two without the obvious downsides. She takes her game seriously, and works hard to be the best she can be.
Like the Serious/Serious player she will likely take extra reps when she can, will work on the little nuances that can help her improve her game, and will be able to bring a laser focus when it’s needed.
Yet like the Fun/Fun player she doesn’t take a “life or death” approach. She still knows it’s a game, and while she may take a critical loss hard, she will also be able to let it go after feeling what she needs to feel.
She will also have an appreciation for the fact that she gets to play this beautiful game regardless of the outcome, and that she gets to become friends with people she might never have met or hung out with otherwise.
Essentially, her approach is balanced, and she can move between being serious and fun as appropriate, allowing her to become not just the best player she can be, but the best human being she can be.
The Big Question
So there you have it – the three basic types of players. Now the question is which type are you? And which type do you want to be?
From my (and Dr. Gilbert’s, by the way) point of view, the optimal is Serious/Fun. You want that balance that we talked about so you don’t get too down on yourself when things don’t go your way, and you don’t let distractions keep you from developing yourself into the player you’re meant to be.
If you’re in the Serious/Serious category, try to find someone who is more Serious/Fun and perhaps adopt them as a role model. If you have direct access to them (a teammate, a friend, etc.) ask them how they manage to find the fun even when they’re being serious. Their answer might surprise you.
If not, look for a famous player, maybe even in a different sport, and see what they do to lighten themselves up. If they’re a high-performer you can be sure they’re serious at least some of, if not most, of the time.
Read about them, look for YouTube or podcast interviews, and see what they have to say. I’ll bet you’ll find some who used to be Serious/Serious but learned how to lighten up along the way.
They don’t have to be from your sport, or even sports at all for that matter. They could be actors, or business people, or doctors/nurses, or from any other profession. Every type of job has its challenges; learning how others keep those challenges in perspective just might help you with yours.
If you’re Fun/Fun on the other hand, you have to make sure you’re playing at the right level. Even if you have the physical ability, you’re probably not going to be that happy on a super-serious A level travel team or a Division 1 college team.
So you have a choice: you can either make a decision to take your softball more seriously and put in the work required to improve your focus and mental game, or find a team with like-minded players and coaches. You may not win a lot, but if you’re a true Fun/Fun that probably won’t matter as much. Just getting out and playing will be good enough for you.
This is not a question of right and wrong. It’s more of what’s right and wrong for you.
Figure out which type you are, and whether that’s the type you want to be. If it is, run with it.
But if it’s not, put in the work to become the player you want to be and you’ll be more satisfied with your experience in the end.
Greatness Starts with Polishing the Forks
The Hulu TV show The Bear just concluded its five-season run. While I get that it’s not for everyone (my wife for example), I thoroughly enjoyed the show and am sorry there will be no more episodes.
Since this isn’t a pop culture blog you’re probably wondering why I’m talking about some random show. The answer is fastpitch softball players (and their parents) can learn an important lesson from what I think is one of its best episodes.
The premise in the second season is that Carmen, a high-end chef as well as the youngest brother in a family that owns a Chicago-style sandwich shop called The Original Beef, wants to create a new high-end restaurant as an offshoot of the sandwich place. As part of that, he has to get one of the employees on board.
He has known this employee, Richie, since childhood. In fact, they call each other “cousin” (although they’re not actually cousins because that’s how close they are). Richie has been managing the sandwich shop since the older brother’s unexpected death, and he’s not too keen on the changes Carmen is making. A lot of detail, I know, but bear with me (no pun intended).
Richie argues with Carmen all the time about the way he’s doing things. But Carmen is the boss, so at one point he sends Richie to go work at a local high-end restaurant owned by a friend of his that is recognized internationally as the world’s best restaurant. Needless to say Richie is not happy about it, but he goes, reluctantly.
On his first day he walks in expecting to be given something important to do. I mean, after all, he’s been running his own successful sandwich shop.
Instead, he’s assigned to polish forks. For nine hours. That’s it, just polish forks.
At one point he asks the manager who has been assigned to oversee him what comes after polishing forks, expecting the next step will be something more at his perceived level. The manager drily replies “spoons.”
Richie is convinced Carmen sent him on this assignment to punish him for disagreeing with him, and his bad attitude continues to get worse. He does a half-baked job of polishing some of the forks and he’s told to do it again to remove the streaks. Richie asks what difference does it make, and he’s told in this restaurant a lot.
Because people don’t come there just for the food. They come for the experience. The restaurant is very expensive, and some people save money for a year just to be able to afford to eat there once.
At one point after more complaining the manager asks Richie to step outside, and Richie says “You’ve really drunk the Kool-Aid here. Why?” The manager tells him why, and from that point on Richie’s attitude totally changes and he launches on the best redemption arc in the entire series. In my opinion. From that point on he buys in to what Carmen is doing with The Bear more than anyone else, even Carmen, and it totally changes his own life.
If you’re still with me, the lesson here is how important doing the little things (like polishing the forks) is within the bigger picture.
All too often players want to skip the drills and working on the nuances of particular movements and go right to the finished skills.
Pitchers want to throw full pitches, not work from the K position or on spins close-up. Hitters want to hit off machines or live pitchers instead of doing one-hand drills off the tee or working on specific elements of their swings.
Fielders want to take ground balls or fly balls off the bat instead of working on their glove work or on positioning from a toss. And so on.
To be the best you can be, you have to realize every detail of what you’re doing matters. A one-degree difference in throwing angle on a riseball can make the difference between a swing and a miss and a walk – or a home run.
A one-degree drop of the bat or reduction of the angle as it’s approaching the ball can make the difference between that home run and just a dramatic fly ball out. A slight rearrangement of the feet when throwing across the infield under pressure can mean the difference between an inning-ending out or a game-deflating two-base error.
To do any of that or a thousand other things that are required for success in fastpitch softball you can’t just take them for granted. You have to work on them. Every. Single. Day.
Yes, “polishing the forks” can be mind-numbingly boring. It can make you wonder who’s going to notice, and it can make you feel like you’re falling behind on learning all the fancier skills your peers are telling you they are learning
But trust me, nothing is more important than perfecting these little details to the best of your ability. They are the foundation of everything else that is to come.
If your foundation is shaky, it doesn’t matter how fancy the rest of the building is. It’s not going to be built to last, especially when the pressure is on.
Breaking things down this way isn’t a punishment, Like polishing the forks, it’s the start of a path to enlightenment that will help you learn and grow and ultimately excel.
So the next time you’re given something basic to do, don’t feel bad or angry about it. Don’t complain about how you’re past this, or you deserve better, or your coach hates you.
Carmen sent Richie to the other restaurant not because he was mad at him, but because he saw something special in Richie that even Richie himself couldn’t see. And Carmen wanted to help Richie get out of his own way so he could fulfill that destiny.
Carmen was also smart enough to know Richie would never learn that lesson directly from him. He needed to hear it, and see it, and experience it through someone else.
So the next time you’re told to “polish the forks,” don’t see it as a punishment or a failure. See it for what it is – an opportunity to rise above where you are now and chase after greatness.
You just may surprise yourself.
