Author Archives: Ken Krause
Developing softball skills is like growing a plant
It’s springtime as I write this, and while it doesn’t look much like growing season yet where I live it definitely is in some parts of the country. So it seems appropriate to compare developing fastpitch softball skills to growing a plant.
At first, whether it’s a plant or softball skills it requires a lot of care and attention. For plants, if you’re growing from seeds you have to get the dirt prepared, plant the seeds, water them, feed them and watch over them carefully. If you let them go for even a few days they may not make it. If you’re transplanting, you have to remove it carefully from the old container and put it into the new dirt.
As the plant grows, its roots start getting stronger and deeper. You still have to watch over the plant and be sure it’s watered and fed, but it doesn’t take as much constant care. You can let it go a little longer than when it’s new and it will still survive.
Finally, as the plant matures, it just requires maintenance. Take good, basic care and it will do well.
Softball skills are the same. When you’re first learning, a lot can go wrong. It’s really important to get to those lessons and practice in-between so you can start building up the myelin layers and lock in on what you’re doing. If you miss a practice or two, though, it can really set you back – like not watering a plant.
As you get better, you can afford to skip a lesson or practice session here or there. It’s not ideal, but if your skill roots have “taken” you’ll have a strong enough foundation to be able to maintain your mechanics.
Eventually you get to the point where you’re not “learning” so much as tweaking or maintaining. Sure, there are always things to learn and improve upon. But your core mechanics should be there even if you’re not able to get to lessons or full-on practice sessions every week. Although I do have several pretty accomplished students who still come regularly, because they like to keep their games running at peak levels.
So as you think about yourself (or your daughter), what phase are you in? Have her skills taken roots yet? Does she require a lot of care and feeding? Or is she in full flower? Knowing the answer can mean the difference between success and failure on the field.
The biggest mistake in coaching
Actually, this doesn’t just apply to softball coaching. It also applies to work, and family, and just about any other interaction. But it’s something to keep in mind:
The biggest mistake in coaching is insisting on proving you’re right in face of all evidence to the contrary.
Yet it seems to go on all the time. Coaches will stubbornly adhere to a certain strategy or way of playing even though it doesn’t work. Or they’ll set a lineup and stay with it even though it’s not producing runs – or wins.
One of my biggest pet peeves is coaches who make a decision at the beginning of the season (sometimes even before the season) about the abilities of their players, and never bother to notice which players have improved and which ones haven’t.
Whatever it is, they may think it makes them important, or awesome. But it only hurts the players and the team.
It’s good to have opinions and convictions. But not to the point where you do things just to prove you’re right. Instead, be sure to constantly evaluate what you’re doing, and don’t be afraid to make changes for the better.
Handicaps for softball games
Finally! The weather finally got halfway decent, the snow had melted off the field, so I got to watch a high school softball game. It was a JV game, but softball is softball. Or so I thought.
It was pretty brutal. The team I was rooting for (because one of my players was helping out there today) just destroyed the other team by 20+ runs in each game.
Truthfully I started feeling bad for the other team.Their girls were trying hard, but they just don’t have the skills. I actually saw a ground ball roll through the second baseman’s legs out to right field, where the right fielder kicked it into center trying to pick it up, and the hitter wound up on second instead of being thrown out easily at first. All it was missing was the music from the Bad News Bears (the original 1976 version, still the best!).
That got me to thinking. Some sports use a handicapping system to make them more balanced and fair. Horse racing, for example. They add weight to the load the horses have to carry to make everything more balanced.
Or what about golf and bowling? They let the weaker player subtract strokes from or add pins to their scores to balance things out more. In sailboat racing they subtract time from the times of the slower boats to even things out a bit.
So why not softball? Rather than watching a complete blowout, which is the equivalent of watching paint dry, why not institute a handicapping system that gives the struggling team a chance at a comeback, and gives the far better team more of a challenge, which makes the game more worthwhile?
It wouldn’t kick in right away. But let’s say you set a 15-run limit. After that, the losing team gets to add an extra fielder or two to try and cut down on the number of errors by closing up the field.
Or you can do what we did as kids when we didn’t have enough players – close a field. For right handed hitters you could close left, i.e. any ball hit there is an out and a dead ball, and any runners on base have to go back. For lefties you’d close right field. Not only would that cut back on the scoring, it would force the hitters to have to learn how to go to the opposite field.
An obvious one is to have the hitters on the successful team turn around and hit opposite-handed. I remember doing that in co-rec softball years ago. Or you could force them to use cheap aluminum bats instead of their $350 super bats.
Here’s another idea. After 15 runs, the two teams switch pitchers. That way the better pitcher is pitching to her own team, challenging them, while the weaker team gets to hit off the pitchers who’s been getting pounded all game. Either they’ll hit better or the pitcher will feel better about herself.
The dominating team could start each inning with one out, and/or the hitters would have an 0-1 count. Or you could give the weaker team an extra strike. (I’ve noticed many umpires tend to do that anyway by closing up the strike zone for the better pitcher trying to make a game of it.)
Obviously, this is tongue-in-cheek. Truth is it’s up to the coach of the weaker team to coach his/her players up so they improve. Still, when you’re wondering if the inning will ever be over, the mind does tend to wander.
So how about you? What sorts of handicaps would you impose to help move the game along?
Tips for calling pitches in fastpitch softball
I imagine that calling pitching in baseball is similar to doing it in fastpitch softball, but since I only have experience with the latter, and this is a softball blog, we’re going to focus there. You baseball folks can let me know if it’s the same in your world.
In any case, calling pitches in fastpitch softball is definitely an art. Some people seem to have a natural feel for it, while others tend to struggle making the right calls.
Having charts on hitters’ tendencies makes it somewhat easier, although even at that you never know. Maybe that hitter worked on her game in the off-season and doesn’t have the same weaknesses she had before.
Of course, if you’re a travel coach facing many different teams throughout the season the odds are you’re not going to have much information on most of the hitters you face. Which means you’re going to be doing a fair amount of guesswork.
No matter whether you have a lot or little information, here are a few tips to help make it easier. We can debate who makes these calls — the catcher or a coach — another day.
1. Mix it up
Mixing pitches is the cardinal rule of pitch calling. I don’t care how good you are or how well or hard the pitcher throw a particular pitch. If you give the hitters a steady diet of the same pitch, or location, or speed, sooner or later they’re going to figure it out and start sitting on it.
Think about hitters hitting off a pitching machine. You can crank it up to its max speed, which will seem overpowering at first. But eventually, if the machine is throwing the same speed to the same location the hitters will start hitting it.
A smart pitch caller will go up and down, in and out, and will certainly mix changeups or off-speed pitches in. You can walk up the ladder — starting low and working your way higher as you go. Or throw inside, inside and then outside or vice versa. You want the hitter worried about the entire strike zone, not just a portion of it, and about looking bad being ahead of an off-speed or change.
You’ll also want to mix in pitches the pitcher is struggling with, just to keep the hitters honest. For example, if the pitcher is having trouble with her changeup you still want to throw it now and then – if for no other reason than to make her other pitches look faster. But mostly, you just don’t want the hitters getting comfortable.
2. Avoid predictability
This is a corrollary to #1. When you’re mixing pitches you don’t want to fall into predictable patterns. One of the classics, of course, is throwing a changeup on an 0-2 count. You can do it now and then, but if you do it every time, a smart hitter will just concede the first two strike to get to the meatball. (A strategy my oldest daughter Stefanie was very good at, by the way.)
You can have a couple of pre-set patterns, but you don’t want to use them over and over. The more predictable your pitch calling is the easier it is for smart hitters (or their coaches) to zero in on a particular pitch on a particular count and send it toward South America.
3. Know your pitchers’ strengths
Every pitcher has pitches they throw well, and those they don’t. That’s something that can change from day to day, too.
It’s one of those funny things – a particular pitch might decide to hide on a particular day. But assuming all is well, it’s important to know what the pitcher’s best pitches are, and which the weaker ones are, so you can call the game to the pitcher’s strengths while using the weaknesses as filler or for contrast.
For example, if your pitcher has a great curve but a weak drop, calling the drop over and over is unlikely to yield the results you’re hoping for – unless the result you’re hoping for is a lot of hits and/or a frustrated pitcher.
Knowing your pitchers’ strengths is especially important deep in the count. You want to know what the pitcher can throw to get hitters out reliably. Sure, sometimes your pitchers’ strengths will be the same as the hitter’s strength. But more often than not you’re going to want to match strength to strength and let the one who wants it most win.
4. Don’t assume what you see is what you’ll get
You’ve probably seen the charts that tell you “if the hitter does this then throw this.” For example, if the hitter is standing close to the plate, throw a screwball or inside fastball.
Yes, that might work. But the hitter might also be standing in close to the plate because her strength is inside pitches. And maybe she has trouble with outside pitches, so standing in close turns them more into middle pitches.
One other thing a hitter might be doing is standing up there to bait the inside pitches so she can back off a bit and drive the heck out of the pitch because she hates outside pitches. So don’t assume the charts are right – pay close attention and make adjustment to whatever is in front of you.
5. Remember Einstein’s definition of insanity
Einstein’s definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It doesn’t matter what else you make think or believe philosophically.
If you’re calling a particular pitch and it’s getting hit consistently, don’t be a fool. Call something else.
6. Work with your pitchers, not against them
Remember as a coach that your job first and foremost is to put your players in a position to succeed. A big part of that is building their confidence and setting your own ego aside.
You may want a particular pitch in a situation, but if your pitcher isn’t confident in that pitch it’s unlikely she’ll throw what you think she’ll throw and that you’ll be happy with the result. Personally, I’d rather see a pitcher shake off a pitch she can’t throw with absolute confidence than meekly go along and get hammered.
Confident players are successful players. Help your pitchers develop confidence in themselves and they’ll have more confidence in you.
Ok, what did I miss? What other tips do you have for calling pitches?
Look beyond the surface of fastpitch players
There is a tendency in all sports, not just fastpitch softball, to look for players who look like the best athletes. It makes sense on one level. You’d think the better the athlete the better the player will be.
But that isn’t always necessarily true, as evidenced by a post on Daniel Coyles’ The Talent Code blog. In it he takes a look back to the 2000 NFL Combine, and one player in particular. It was a quarterback who didn’t show too well in the tests they put players through.
He was fairly slow, running the 40 yard dash in about 5.2 seconds. (Understand that 4.8 is considered slow for an NFL player.) He didn’t have a bad arm, but it didn’t knock anyone out either. Still, one NFL team saw something in his character and thought he might just the right man for them.
The team was the New England Patriots, and the quarterback was Tom Brady. If you know anything about football, and probably even if you don’t, you know it was a pretty good selection.
You see, there’s a lot more to being a player than just athletic ability. Character plays a big part in an individual’s and a team’s success – especially in fastpitch softball, where there is so much adversity and failure. If you don’t have players of high character, they’re going to crumble pretty quickly under the pressure.
The IOMT Castaways
As at least some of the readers of this blog know, I am coaching an 18U team this year called the IOMT Castaways. IOMT stands for Island Of Misfit Toys. I recruited every single player on it, based not just on athletic ability but on character. 
They’re misfit toys because somewhere along the way some coach didn’t think very much of them, but I believe they can play. For the most part they’re not going to impress anyone with their time against a stopwatch, or the way they walk onto the field. But it doesn’t matter, because when the game is on they can flat out play!
The most important thing, at least so far, is how much they enjoy being together and playing together. Because of their individual histories there are no egos here, no one yelling at a teammate, none of the drama that often goes with the territory. Instead, they’re playing for the love of the game – as it should be.
It’s always tempting to go for that great athlete. But a lot of great athletes fail. In my book, and even at the professional level, character counts for more. Choose wisely and you can’t go wrong.
Fastpitch coaches behaving badly
Last week I had the opportunity to witness a type of fastpitch softball coach I thought was extinct. It was sort of like going to Jurassic Park and seeing a T Rex rushing at your Jeep.
The genus was Coachus Jerkus. In layman’s terms it was one of those old-style “command and control” coaches who seems to believe the more you yell at, embarass and humiliate your players in front of their teammates, parents, opponents and passers-by, the better of a coach you are.
It started with a pitcher (who was 15 or 16 years old) not hitting the spot the coach had called, with the result that the hitter hit a home run on a 1-2 count. (Understand that hitting a home run in this indoor venue basically meant popping a “Texas Leaguer” over a curtain about 120 feet away).
When the ball sailed over the curtain the coach screamed (and I am not exaggerating, it was like the aforesaid T Rex spotting prey) something unkind at the pitcher. I don’t recall the specifics of what was said, but it was along the lines of “What the hell are you doing?”
The intimidated pitcher’s first pitch to the next hitter went high and wide. To which the coach screamed “That’s where the LAST pitch should’ve been.” And on it went. If a player bobbled a ball, or didn’t make a throw quick enough, or didn’t get the bunt down she’d hear about it. As would all the rest of us. It went on from the beginning of the game all the way through the end.
To tell you the truth, I felt bad for the girls on the other team, although I understand this guy has been coaching for a while so they (or their parents) all probably knew what they were getting into. When the game was over that was unhappy-looking group of girls.
What’s really puts the capper on this behavior is that there was nothing at stake in these games. In fact, they were barely softball games. They were indoors on a short field with a 1-hour drop dead time limit. The purpose is to let the girls get out of the practice gym and try out their skills. Pitchers get to pitch to hitters, hitters get to hit off pitchers, teams get to work on plays, everybody has fun. Well, almost everybody I guess.
To go so over-the-top on any softball game when there are so many real problems in the world is wrong in my opinion. In this particular situation it’s particularly uncalled-for. The softball world could really use a governing board to report this kind of behavior so coaches who verbally abuse their players in this fashion can be disciplined.
The real shame, though, is that all that yelling and screaming really doesn’t help. Study after study shows that this old school style of coaching is actually counter-productive. Especially with females, where the old Mike Candrea admonition “Boys have to play good to feel good, but girls have to feel good to play good” comes into play.
Let’s hope this particular guy leaves the ’70s behind someday and learns that it’s ok to treat your players with caring and respect. In fact, it’s the way you get the most out of them.
Not fastpitch softball, but evidence that things are improving for women in sports
This morning I was reading the newspaper (yes, an actual paper newspaper) when I came across a very interesting article. Now, I will admit I am not really a NASCAR or auto racing fan, but something caught my eye about this story. And not just the picture that went with it.
The story was about how several well-known drives and champions on the NASCAR circuit were bringing their young daughters to meet driver Danica Patrick in the pits. Patrick, of course, is know both as being the first woman to drive Indy cars and for the commercials she does for GoDaddy.
All I could think of was how times have changed for women in sports since Title IX came into being. Back then, mostly male-run academic institutions has to be forced by law into offering athletic and other opportunities to women. Many men either thought that women were too delicate to play competitive sports or that they were taking away money that ought to go to men.
Now fast forward to today, and not only is Danica Patrick allowed to race, but the good ol’ boys of NASCAR are bringing their daughters to her as a role model. How cool is that?
There may be hope for us as a society yet.
Every pitch is a new day
One of the challenges with fastpitch softball is how difficult the game can be from a mental standpoint. A little failure here, a little failure there and things can start to get overwhelming.
Last night something occurred to me to help change that thinking. I held a ball up high and asked the students to imagine it without any seams. I then asked them what else is yellow and sits in the sky? A few seemed to think it was a trick question, but they eventually got that I meant the sun.
I then started moving the ball at arm’s length from hip high to overhead, and asked “What does the sun do each morning?” They replied various versions of “rise.” Then I kept moving the ball down and asked, “what does it do each evening?” Most said “fall” instead of set, but they got the idea.
Then came the point. I asked if they’d ever had a tough day, where they couldn’t wait to go to bed. They’re teenage girls, so of course they have. I asked, “But then after a good night’s sleep you felt better the next day, right? The world looked a little brighter.” They agreed.
I told them each pitch is like a brand new day, full of possibilities. Whatever happened the day/pitch before doesn’t limit the possibilities of today. They understood.
Tonight I told a girl named Hannah that story. Later we played the “High Fives” hitting game, and she got in the hole with -4. One more bad hit and she’d owe me five pushups. But she kept battling back, and eventually got back to -1 when we had to stop.
I complimented her on her mental toughness, because I really was trying to sink her. She told me she remembered what I said about the sun, and didn’t focus on what would happen if she missed. Instead, she focused on that pitch and that pitch alone, independent of everything else, and said it it worked for her.
If you’re looking for a way to explain playing one pitch at a time, give this one a try. And if you have your own way of explaining it, please share!
Contemporary way of explaining explosion to a pitcher
One of the biggest challenges of working with young fastpitch players is they continue to be young while I continue to get older. What that often means is that my frame of reference to explain things isn’t necessarily the same as theirs. Not to mention male v female — any
references to Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings and similar fare usually meets with blank stares. But I digress.
Tonight I was working with a high school pitcher named Maty. Getting the hang of leg drive has been a challenge for her because she didn’t use any for most of her pitching career. She’s improved quite a bit, but I know there’s still more leg drive (and speed) left in her.
I was trying to think of a way to explain the idea of being explosive when an idea popped into my head I thought she could relate to. I told her she needs to come off the rubber like she’s doing a photobomb. She laughed, but she got it.
So there you have it. A good photobomb usually requires a quick move to get in right as the photo is shot.
Never stop thinking!
Softball hitting: The Oh Yeah v the Oh No Moment
In my never-ending quest to help fastpitch hitters be more successful I’ve come across an interesting way of explaining how to get to that moment right before launch. It seems to be resonating with the hitters on my IOMT Castaways team, and with my students as well.
Essentially I tell them that when the front foot lands (toe touch), there can be two possibilities: you’ll either think oh yeah, or oh no. (This is the cleaned-up version; with my high school age students I use a more PG word.)
What does that statement mean? You’ve done your load, made your positive move into toe touch, and now it’s time to rotate and swing. If you’re in “oh yeah” mode, you realize you’re just ahead/right on time, and you’re feeling like “oh yeah, just bring the ball because I’m ready to hit it.”
If you’re in “oh no” mode, however, you realize that you’re late, and instead of taking your best mechanics to the ball you’re in survival mode. The ball will probably get too deep too fast and you’ll be doing anything you can to get the bat on it. Which more than likely will result in an out.
As a hitter you want to set your mind to work for that “oh yeah” moment. Learn the pitcher’s motion. See the speed she’s throwing. Figure out if she favors a particular location. Then use all that information to get to your oh yeah moment. It makes hitting a lot more fun.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 