Author Archives: Ken Krause
Captain Picard’s Lesson on Winning, Losing, and Errors
Sorry to nerd out on this one, but there is a great Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called Peak Performance that puts some perspective into the challenges of competing in fastpitch softball. Even if you’re not a fan you might one to check this one out.
The part that’s interesting here is a side story involving Commander Data, the highly advanced android crew member. An outsider named Kolrami who is a grandmaster at a game called Strategema (sort of a holographic version of Space Invaders) comes on board and quickly irritates the crew with his arrogance.
A couple of crew members encourage Data to use his computer brain to take Kolrami down a peg by challenging him to a game of Strategema. At first reluctant, Data finally does it to defend the crew’s honor – and promptly gets his butt kicked by his flesh-and-blood opponent in about a minute.
Shocked, Data immediately surmises there must be something wrong with his programming and tries to take himself off duty until he figures out where the “problem” is. Captain Picard, who is captain of the ship, rather harshly tells him no he can’t do that, he needs Data, and that Data should quit sulking even though Data has no emotions and so presumably no capacity to sulk.
Then Picard tells Data something that every fastpitch softball coach, players, and parent needs to hear: It is possible to make no errors and still lose.
In our case I’m not talking only about the physical errors that get recorded in the scorebook. Playing error-free ball and losing happens all the time.
I’m talking more about the strategic decisions and approaches to the game that seem like they’re sound but still don’t produce the desired results (a win). Here’s an example.
There are runners and second and third with one out in the last inning of a one-run game. The defensive team opts to intentionally walk the next hitter to load the bases in order to create a force at home and potentially a game-ending double play at first if there’s time. They also pull their infield in to give them a better shot at that lead runner.
The next batter after that hits a duck snort single behind first base that takes a tough hop and rolls to the fence after landing fair and two runs end up scoring.
No errors were made, and the strategy was sound. But the result is still a loss.
Here’s another one from my own experience. Down one run with no outs in a game where they have been unable to hit the opponent’s pitcher, the offensive team finally gets a runner on first.
She’s a fast, smart, and aggressive baserunner, so putting the ball in play somehow could go a long way toward tying the game. The obvious solution would be a bunt to advance the runner to second, giving the offense two shots to bring her home from scoring position.
But the defense knows that and is playing for the bunt. So the offense opts for a slug bunt (show bunt, pull back, and hit the ball hard on the ground) combined with a steal of second. If the hitter can punch it through the infield the runner on first, who already has a head start, will likely end up on third and might even score, depending on how quickly the defense gets to the ball. Best case the batter will end up on second, as the potential winning run, worse case with good execution she’s on first.
Unfortunately, the batter does the one thing she can’t do in that situation – hit a weak popup to the second baseman. The batter is out and the runner who was on first gets doubled off.
Now, you can argue that the failed slug bunt was an error, but was it really? It was a failure of execution but not necessarily a mistake in the classic sense. It was just one of those cases where the hitter lost the battle to the pitcher.
The point is that sometimes, despite our best efforts and doing all we can to play the game correctly, things don’t work out the way we’d like. There are things that happen beyond our control that can influence the outcome of a play, an inning, or a game.
We can’t beat ourselves up over it or spend endless time second-guessing ourselves. We learn what we can from the experience and move on.
Sometimes we make different decisions the next time – and sometimes we don’t – and hope for a different outcome.
In case you’re wondering about Data, at the end of the episode he requests a rematch. This time he keeps the game going until Kolrami finally gives up in frustration.
When asked about it, Data explains that Kolrami entered the second game assuming both he and Data were trying to win and played accordingly. But Data’s strategy was to play not to lose, basically playing defense the whole time, until his opponent essentially forfeited the game, giving Data the victory.
Anyone who has played an international tie breaker can relate.
Not every decision you make on the field is going to work out the way you hoped, even if you’re making it for the right reasons. All you can do is learn from the experience and hope it works out better the next time.
Captain Picard photo by Stefan Kühn, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
How “Garbage Time” Can Become Your Treasure
There is an old saying that states “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” (Actually it says “one man’s” but I have updated it for the modern era. You’re welcome.)
This concept definitely applies to softball, especially if you are one of those players who is struggling to get playing time at a particular position so you can prove what you can do. It all revolves around what football fans call “garbage time.”
The term “garbage time” typically refers to a point in the fourth quarter where one time is so far ahead the other team has no chance to catch up, but there are still several minutes left to play. That’s usually where you will see the second string quarterback (as well as other bench players) take the field to run out the clock while keeping the starters from suffering a stupid injury.
The softball equivalent would be a game where one team is clearly over-matched, down by several runs, and there is a time limit. It’s clear the team that’s down isn’t going to be able to overcome the deficit in time but they have to keep playing anyway.
Here’s how you can turn this unfortunate situation into an opportunity.
Let’s say you’re the third or fourth pitcher on your team. You started the fall season kind of rough but have been working hard over the offseason and have improved your pitching considerably over the last few months.
Now that it’s summer you’re eager to prove what you can do, but your coach still thinks of you as you were back in the fall and is reluctant to put you in to pitch.
So suggest to your coach that you will take all the “garbage time” innings you can get. (Although you may not want to refer to them as “garbage time.”)
Frame in the context of helping the team: The team still has to play, but why waste one of the “good” pitchers on meaningless innings? Wouldn’t it be better to save them for a game where you have a better chance of winning?
That logic should make sense to most coaches – at least the ones who are honest with themselves. Worst case you go out there and give up a bunch of runs and the game ends early due to the run-ahead rule.
Embarrassing, sure, but does it really matter if you lose by 7 runs or 10 runs? And if you do get run ruled your team gets a little extra time to rest, relax, and reset before having to play their next game.
But you’re not actually planning to give up any runs. In fact, your plan is to show the coach that you’re ready to pitch by holding your own against a team that was beating up on your #1 or #2 pitcher.
Do that a couple of times and your coach may start to look at you differently. Perhaps he/she will let you start or relieve in a pool play or “friendly” game where the outcome isn’t already decided.
Do well there and he/she may start giving you more opportunities, and eventually turn to you as a regular member of the staff instead of the pitcher of last resort.
All because you volunteered to eat up the innings no one else really wanted.
While this strategy probably works best for pitchers, it can be applied to other positions as well. After all, field players need a break from time to time too, especially if they’re already nursing injuries or you’ve been playing a lot of games either in one day or on back-to-back days.
And who knows? Maybe your eagerness and positive attitude can spur the team to keep fighting and do better even when it feels like all hope is lost.
In the right conditions it just takes one spark to light a major fire. You could be that spark.
It’s said that luck doesn’t just happen; we make our own luck. Volunteering for “garbage time” is a way to make your own luck – and turn what looks like trash into your own personal treasure.
Gold bars photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Why You Shouldn’t Let Today’s Setbacks Define You
Not sure who needs to hear this story today but I have no doubt there are some who do – and others who may in the future. So I thought I’d share it, courtesy of my friend Tim Boivin who first shared it with me.
Hopefully the link works and you can read the full story. But just in case I will summarize it here.
Today we all know Mike Trout as an 11-time Major League Baseball All-Star and a standout hitter and outfielder ow playing for the Los Angeles Angels. Even those who don’t follow baseball closely have probably heard the name.
He’s definitely one of the top current players in the game and will likely make the Hall of Fame in either his first or one of his first years of eligibility. His career stats include a batting average of .299, on base percentage of .410, slugging percentage of .510 and on base + slugging (OPS) at a hefty .991.
Back in 2008, however, Trout was invited along with 99 other players to try out for the USA Baseball National team. You would think someone with his skill and athletic ability, demonstrated over years at the highest level of the game, would be a lock for something like that.
But he wasn’t. He was kind of an unknown going in and didn’t have the hype some of the other players did.
So when the powers that be assembled the final 18-player roster, Mike Trout’s name wasn’t on it.
I’m sure it hurt, to come that close and not make it. But he didn’t let it deter him.
Instead, Mike Trout continued to work on his game and play his heart out, and he eventually rose to outshine all those players who were selected instead of him.
You see, that’s the thing. It really doesn’t matter where you start the race, only where you finish it.
I mean, the world is full of stories like this – Michael Jordan not making his high school varsity basketball team as a sophomore, The Beatles being turned down by every major record label in Britain, and so forth.
So maybe you tried out for a team and didn’t make it. Or maybe you’re on a team but not getting many opportunities to show what you can do.
It’s easy to get discouraged and give up in that type of situation. But instead of hanging your head and letting others define you, keep working at it.
You may only have so much natural ability or athleticism but you can have a boundless supply of desire, determination, and positive attitude if you want it. Use those qualities to lift yourself up and someone will recognize it.
At some point, you will get an opportunity to show what you can do somewhere. When that happens, make sure you’re prepared to take advantage of that opportunity.
Give it all you’ve got and good things will happen.
And always remember sometimes the things we desire most may not be the things that are best for us in the long run. But as they say in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, the universe tends to work out the way it should.
So if you’re facing disappointment today, shed a few tears or overturn a few tables or deal with it however you deal with it. Then get back to work.
And someday you may find someone writing an inspirational story about you.
There’s No Good Reason to Squeeze the Strike Zone
Before I start I want to say that this is not your typical rant about how umpires are terrible and shouldn’t be allowed to walk free with the rest of us. To the contrary, I have tremendous respect for umpires because I know it’s a tough and often thankless job, and that nearly all umpires do the best they can to keep each game fair for all involved.
That said, one thing I’ve never understood is why some umpires seem to have a strike zone that is roughly the size and shape of a child’s shoebox. Who do they think it’s benefiting?
According to the USA Softball Rulebook (which is the book all other sanctions are based on) the strike zone runs “from the batter’s arm pits to the top of the knees.” Further, it is “that space over any part of home plate, when a batter assumes a natural batting stance adjacent to home plate.” (Rule 1, Definitions. I looked it up so you don’t have to.)
That’s a pretty big area, really. Note that it doesn’t say the entire ball must be over the plate when it crosses, just that the ball must cross some part of the plate.
So that’s about 18-19 inches wide if you just catch the corners. The vertical area will vary by the height of the batter and her natural stance, but it’s still a lot larger than the 4 inches to either side of the beltline that some seem to demand.
If that’s the case, what reason could there be for shrinking it any smaller than that? Who does it benefit?
Let’s look at all the possibilities.
The Pitcher
That’s a big negatory. You could try to make an argument that the pitcher must learn to spot her pitches better when the strike zone is small.
But the effect that happens in 99.999% of the cases is it forces the pitchers to throw meatballs all game long because that tight little zone sits over the heart of the plate. Pitchers should be learning to pitch the corners – preferably no more than half a ball on – and nip at the very top and bottom of the strike zone.
When she’s forced to throw it down the pipe or have it be called a ball all you’re doing is discouraging a pitcher from growing her craft and creating unnecessary frustration that might discourage her from continuing in the position.
There is already a shortage of pitchers at the older ages. Squeezing the strike zone, especially on younger pitchers who are just beginning to find their way at the position, encourages their abandoning the position.
The Hitter
Sure, you would think forcing pitchers to throw meatballs would be a great thing for hitters. Who wouldn’t love a steady diet of easy-to-hit pitches?
But in many cases it has the opposite effect. Coaches who are more interested in winning a game today than in developing their players will often tell their hitters to keep the bat on their shoulders and wait for the walk instead of swinging.
At least until they get two strikes. Yes, they get lots of extra baserunners that way and might even get some extra runs on walks or wild pitches. But the HITTERS DON’T LEARN TO HIT.
They learn to stand there. At some point they’re going to have to swing the bat, but if they’re not getting reps because umpires are squeezing the zone they’ won’t develop the skills or the mechanics under pressure to execute a successful swing.
Once they’re playing in a game where a more realistic strike zone is being called they’ll be toast.
The Fans/Parents
Nope. Of course, the pitcher’s parents will be apoplectic watching a game with a shoebox-sized strike zone.
A little less if it’s being called the same way on both sides, but still angry that little Maizey is getting screwed over by the person in blue.
But even the hitters’ parents aren’t going to care for it much because it’s BORING. No one wants to watch a walkfest. No one.
The Coaches
Truthfully some coaches will be happy about it. Those are the ones for whom winning is the only important thing.
They’re the ones who are sending their kids to the plate looking for walks.
But any coach who is truly in it for the kids will want their kids to have the opportunity to learn all aspects of the game. That means pitchers learning to give their all instead of trying to hit one tiny spot, hitters swinging at pitches when they’re hittable, balls being put in play so fielders can make plays and learn how to react to different situations, and baserunners can learn how to run the bases.
The Umpires
Finally we get to the folks causing all the commotion. Why any umpire would squeeze the strike zone when it is counter to their own self-interest is beyond me.
Umpires should want to keep the game moving. If it is an untimed game, the more strikes they call the faster the game will go and the sooner they can get off the field and onto whatever they want to do after the game.
But even in a timed gameall they’re going to do is make coaches and parents angry. The last thing they need to do is encourage any more of that.
Not to mention that not calling the strike zone by the rules hurts the players as well as the game. Normally, well-meaning people volunteer to become umpires because they want to serve the game and those who play it.
Whether it’s due to a power trip or just not caring about calling a good and fair game, squeezing the strike zone goes against everything they are supposed to be doing.
At the end of the day there is simply no reason to shrink the strike zone into a belt-high, middle of the plate box. Call it properly and everyone will benefit.
The Risks and Rewards of Playing on the Edge
We all love watching those SportsCenter highlights where outfielders dive for balls in front of them or go flying over the fence to rob a hitter of a home run. Or the ones where a pitcher strikes out a hitter with the bases loaded, a hitter comes through with a clutch hit on a pitch that should be out of her reach, an infielder tosses the ball straight from her glove to get a baserunner out by inches, and so on.
The reason they’re so exciting is that they are unusual because every one of those players is playing to the edge of their abilities. They’re leaving nothing on the field, as the old cliche goes, risking it all to get the biscuit, holding nothing back.
While it’s fun to see when it works, there is also a dark underbelly to these spectacular plays. Take the outfielder who dives head first for a sinking line drive.
If she gets it, great! She’s on SportsCenter. If she misses, however, the ball could squirt behind her and go all the way to the fence, scoring a run or three in the process.
That’s why so many youth and even college players are reluctant to get out there and play to the edge of their abilities. They simply don’t want to deal with the aftermath if something goes wrong – basically getting yelled at by a coach or parent for making a mistake that cost a game.
As they adopt that mentality, they start to play it more and more safe. They’ll pull up on that sinking line drive and let it drop in for a hit that could have been an out.
They will let a close strike go by rather than taking a chance on swinging at a “bad pitch.” They won’t throw a changeup when the situation demands it because they’re afraid it won’t work and they’ll look bad.
As a result, teams lose opportunities to win close games because their players have become conditioned to play it safe.
It’s understandable. No one likes to look bad if they mess up.
But if that’s how they’re thinking, how are they ever going to find out how good they can become?
If coaches really want to see their players develop to their full potential it’s important to create an environment where players feel comfortable and support taking chances that place them at the edge of their abilities.
Maybe it’s a catcher trying a quick pickoff on a runner on third. If she makes a good throw it’s an out that takes a potential scoring chance off the board, and maybe gets the team out of an inning. But if she misses, that run scores, and maybe another if there was a fast runner on second.
Create an atmosphere where that throw is never allowed because of the risk and you could stunt the development of a potentially great catcher. Give the catcher some leeway and you could end up with a stud behind the plate. Even if that particular play doesn’t work.
Just be sure your catcher also understands there’s a time to try it and a time not to. Risk and reward.
Or perhaps you have a pitcher who is working on a new pitch. She can practice it all she wants, but sooner or later she has to throw it in a game for it to have any value.
At first, you’ll throw it in a safe situation, such as a 1-1 count with no one out. That way if she sails it to the backstop it’s not big deal.
Eventually, though, you may need her to throw it even if you’re not sure it will end up somewhere the catcher can reach it. Showing the confidence in her now could pay off today, or it could pay off down the road as she gets more comfortable throwing that pitch in tight situations. Risk and reward.
These opportunities crop up all over the field in all aspects of the game. If you never let your players face the risks of a mistake they will never develop the aggressiveness to take the kind of chances that lead to big rewards.
Yes, it can be tough to see an individual game lost because someone took a risk. But if that loss helps you develop a player who can consistently play to the edge of her abilities without fear, you’ll most likely find that the rewards greatly outnumber the risks.
One last thought in this area. You also have to make sure that when players are given this leeway they are able to understand when the risks outweigh the rewards. Taking chances just for the sake of taking chances or looking cool or building your own personal stats isn’t good either.
Arm them with that ability to make decisions quickly, however, and you’ll have the best of both worlds.
Playing it safe is one way to go. But if you truly believe your mission is to develop your players (versus that just being a statement that looks good on a recruiting post) give your players the permission and support to play at the edge of their abilities.
And maybe one day you’ll see one of them on SportsCenter.
Product Review: Chargeball a Bright Idea for Extending Practice Time
So there you are. You rushed home from work, fighting traffic all the way (and getting home 20 minutes later than usual) so you can take your daughter out for a little practice session to help her improve her skills and/or get ready for the next game.
Unfortunately, it’s the time of year (early to mid-spring or late summer to early fall) where it starts getting dark just about the time you get going. You’d like to stay a little longer and give her a full practice session, but twilight is setting in and, since there are no lights on the field and you can barely see your hand in front of your face, you’re worried one of you (probably you) is going to end up finishing tonight’s session at the local immediate care facility covered in blood.
Sound familiar? Well, don’t despair. There is a solution, and it’s the subject of today’s blog post: the Chargeball glow in the dark softball.
I recently aquired one of the Chargeball kits and can tell you from firsthand experience it’s a great option for extending lesson or practice time for an extra 15-20 minutes past when it would normally be safe to continue.
(Full disclosure: I paid for the product with my own money and have not had any contact with anyone at the company. My review is based strictly my own user experience, with no financial incentives or product offerings promised for delivering a favorable review. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.)
I have used the Chargeball this week that took place after the official sunset (roughly 7:00 pm) and during the civil twilight hours. At that point I could see the pitcher and catcher, but just barely
As we went along I asked the catchers (who were also the pitchers’ fathers) if they could still see the ball okay and both said it was fine. This despite the fact that by the end I could barely see either of them from my vantage point about 20 feet away.
Ordinarily we would have had to stop about 15 minutes into the lesson at most. But by using the Chargeball we were able to go the full 30 minutes with no incidents or problems.
So how does the Chargeball work? It starts with the ball, which is the same size and weight as standard softball. It has medium seams, and so far good tack once you rub it down a little – same as any other brand name softball.
The key difference, however, appears to be a coating that is on the ball. It’s what gives the Chargeball its ability to glow in the dark.
To activate the ball you need to put it in the included vinyl case and connect it via a built-in USB connector to the included battery pack. The one that comes with the standard Chargeball package requires four AA batteries, but there is also a rechargeable battery pack available. More on that later.
You place the ball inside the case, close the lid, connect the battery pack, and wait about 20 seconds. When you connect the battery pack it actives a whole bunch of LEDs inside that light up with incredible brightness.
I know it’s that bright because I made the mistake of opening the lid and looking inside before disconnecting the charger and felt like I’d tried looking at the sun. In space.
When you take the ball out it is glowing brightly, and retains a decent glow for several minutes. That makes it easy to see as it is pitched, thrown, or hit.
When the glow gets too dim, just pop it in the case again for 20 seconds and you’re ready to continue.
The ball itself seems pretty durable. I haven’t used it much yet, but it has taken a few dives into the dirt and bounces off a chain link backstop and hasn’t sustained any damage.
The manufacturer says you can use it for batting practice so I imagine it holds up pretty well. While it would be expensive to purchase enough balls to do a full-on batting practice on an open field, it might be a good way to help hitters who are having trouble tracking the ball from the pitcher learn to watch it better.
If you use it when it’s fairly dark there would be little else to see BUT the ball. So it might help them get a feel for how to home in on the ball as it travels through space.
You could also use it pretty easily for fielding and/or throwing practice. Again, if you want your fielders to learn to watch the ball into the glove a little practice in the gloaming might be just the ticket.
For me, I’ve only used it so far for pitching lessons, but it’s worked well there. I recommend purchasing more than one ball so you can minimize downtime. While the pitcher is using one you can be charging the other so it’s ready to go when you need a recharge. Then rinse and repeat until you’re done.
Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it? But, you think, surely all this wonderfullness must be expensive.
Actually, not really. You can purchase a single kit that includes the charging case and battery pack, one softball, and one baseball for $55 as of this writing. If you’d like two softballs and no baseball, it’s $59.
The package I purchased, however, is the real steal. They had a promotion going on that included not only three softballs but also one baseball AND the rechargeable powerbank all for just $79. Perfect for the coach or parent who wants to keep things going without breaking the budget.
I don’t know how long these promos will go on for, but they are active as I write this in September of 2024. The promos don’t show up or even get mentioned until you add the product to your cart so you may need to do that to verify the one I got is still available.
If not, an extra softball currently costs $35 and the powerbank if purchased separately costs $10, although I’m assuming any powerbank with a USB connection will work. As you can see, though, your best value is purchasing the bundle if it’s available.
Also, for those who are interested, they also have footballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, rugby balls, and basketballs so you never have to come in at night. At least until the neighbors complain.
For anyone who finds themselves constantly trying to squeeze in a few more reps before it gets too dark, I recommend checking out the Chargeball. It’s definitely a bright idea for extending practice – and avoiding injuries!
There’s More to Calling Pitches than Calling Pitches
One of my favorite jokes is about a guy who goes to prison for the first time. As he’s being walked to his cell by a guard he hears a prisoner yell “43!”, which is followed by howls of laughter from the rest of the population.
About 20 seconds later someone else yells out “17!” and again there is laughter. After a couple more numbers are called out the new guy asks his escort what that’s all about.
“A lot of our population has been here a long time and has heard the same jokes over and over,” the guard explains. “To save time, each joke has now been assigned a number. Someone yells the number and the rest react to the joke.”
“Hmmm,” the new guy says to himself, “seems like a good way to try to fit it on day one.” So he takes a deep breath and calls out “26!”, which is followed by silence.
“What happened?” he asks the guard. “Why didn’t anyone laugh?”
To which the guard replies sadly, “I guess some people just don’t know how to tell a joke.”
The same can be said for pitch calling in fastpitch softball. While it might seem straightforward, especially with all the data and charts and documentation available (including this one from me), it’s actually not quite that simple.
The fact is pitch calling is as much art and feel as it is science and data, and like the newbie prisoner trying to fit in, some people have a natural knack for it and some don’t.
That can be a problem because nothing can take down a good or even great pitcher faster than a poor pitch caller.
Here’s an example. There are coaches all over the fastpitch world who apparently believe that pitch speed is everything. As a result, they don’t like to (and in some cases refuse to) call changeups because they believe the only way to get hitters out is to blow the ball by them.
But the reality is even a changeup that’s only fair, or doesn’t get thrown reliably enough for a strike, can still be effective – as long as it’s setting up the next pitch. And if that changeup is a strong one, it can do more to get hitters out than a steady diet of speed. Just ask NiJaree Canady, who can throw 73 mph+ through an entire game but instead leaned heavily on her changeup during the 2024 Women’s College World Series.
The reality is the ability to change speeds, even if it’s going from slow to slower, will be a lot more effective in most cases than having the pitcher throw every pitch at the same speed no matter how fast she is. Sooner or later good hitters will latch onto that speed and the hits will start coming.
There’s also the problem of coaches falling into pitch calling patterns. Remember that great change we were just talking about?
If you’re calling that pitch on every hitter and hitters are having trouble hitting your pitcher’s speed, the hitters can just sit on the changeup and not worry about the rest. It gets even worse if you’re calling a particular pitch on the same count all the time.
A truly great pitch caller is one who can look at a hitter and just feel her weaknesses. That great pitch caller can also see what the last pitch did to the hitter and call the next pitch to throw that hitter off even more.
I’ve watched it happen. When my younger daughter Kim was playing high school ball she had an assistant coach who was a great pitch caller.
She was never overpowering, but she could spot and spin the ball. The coach calling pitches knew her capabilities, and when they went up against a local powerhouse team that had been killing her high school the last few years he used those capabilities to best advantage.
The team lost 2-1, due to errors I might add, but that was a lot better than the 12-1 drubbings they were used to. The coach called pitches to keep the opposing hitters guessing and off-balance all game, Kim executed them beautifully, and they almost pulled off the upset.
The coach didn’t have a big book of tendencies, by the way. He just knew how to take whatever his pitchers had and use it most effectively.
And I guess that’s the last point I want to make. All too often pitch callers think pitchers need to have all these different pitches to be effective.
While that can help, a great pitch caller works with whatever he/she has. If the pitcher only has a fastball and a change, the pitch caller will move the ball around the zone and change speeds seemingly at random.
The hitter can never get comfortable because it’s difficult to cover the entire strike zone effectively.
Add in a drop ball that looks like a fastball coming in and you have a lot to work with. In fact, for some pitch callers that’s about all they can really handle; throw in more pitches and they’re likely not going to understand how to combine them effectively to get hitters out.
Some people have the ability to call pitches natively. They just understand it at the molecular level.
For the rest, it’s a skill that can be learned but you have to put in the time and effort to get good at it, just like the pitchers do to learn the pitches.
Watch games and see how top teams are calling pitches. Track what they’re throwing when – and why.
Look at the hitters, they way they swing the bat, the way they warm up in the on-deck circle, the way they walk, the way they stand, the way they more. All of those parameters will give you clues as to which pitches will work on them.
Then, make sure you understand how they work together for each pitcher. For example, maybe pitcher A doesn’t have a great changeup she can throw for a low strike, but the change of speed or elevation may be just enough to make a high fastball harder to hit on the next pitch.
Your pitchers aren’t robots, they are flesh and blood people. So are the hitters. If you understand what you want to throw and why in each situation you’ll be on your way to becoming a legend as a pitch caller – and a coach your pitchers trust to help them through good times and bad.
Remember to Celebrate Progress and Successes
The other day I went to visit a healthcare professional (HP). Nothing serious, just basically checking a box for the insurance company.
Anyway, we were talking about some lifestyle changes I’ve made to try to stay healthier longer. Yet it seemed like every time I told the HP about some improvement I’d made she countered with I should be doing this or that too.
It was kind of frustrating, because rather than feeling encouraged to continue doing better I was made to feel like no matter what I did it would never be good enough. The focus would always be on what more I could do or should be doing.
That experience got me to thinking about how we coach our fastpitch softball players. (Take that Google algorithms.)
Often times we coaches are so focused on trying to get our players ready for “the next level” (whatever that is) or trying to make them look just like the players we see on TV that we fail to acknowledge all the great work they’ve done to get themselves to this point. And that can be just as discouraging as my experience with the HP.
That’s why it’s important every now and then along the journey to stop and take a look backward even as you’re trying to look ahead to the next goal. Showing a player how far she has come can give her a real boost to continue putting in the work to keep moving forward.
Let’s take a hitter who has been working on her swing. Honestly, I get a fair amount of students whose only goal (or their parents’ only goal for them) is to not strike out every time they come to bat.
Mom and/or Dad aren’t looking for little Amelia to hit home runs or have the highest batting average on the team. They’re simply hoping she doesn’t get totally discouraged from playing because she wouldn’t hit water if she fell out of a boat.
They don’t want to have to cringe every time she comes to the plate, but that’s another story.
So Amelia gets help from a coach or instructor, fixes whatever was causing her to just randomly swing the bat and hope she hit something, and now she’s making contact with greater regularity and getting on base now and then. At which point the goal becomes to start hitting the ball to or over the fence.
That’s great that everyone wants Amelia to keep growing and improving. But maybe in the midst of all that take a step back to appreciate the fact that the original goal has been met and let Amelia feel good about what she has accomplished so far – at least for a few minutes.
Video is great for that, by the way. Even if Amelia isn’t quite getting on base often enough, showing her a video of how she used to swing the bat versus how she is swinging it now will probably help her build confidence and continue to focus on the process instead of the outcomes.
Then let the law of averages take care of the rest.
It’s the same for pitching. Maybe you have a goal of having a pitcher throw faster, or throw more strikes. Or both.
Regardless of the goal, the path to achieving it starts with improving her mechanics.
So perhaps when she started out she looked less like she was trying to pitch and more like she was trying to fold a fitted sheet.
Showing her a video of how she used to look versus how she looks now might give her some encouragement that she’s on the right track, even if the radar isn’t reflecting it or she’s still throwing a few too many in the dirt. That doesn’t mean you still don’t want to hold her to a higher standard.
But you can acknowledge the fact that she is improving so she has something to feel good about while she works toward the bigger payoff.
All of this doesn’t mean you should provide false praise just to spare the player’s feelings. If she’s not putting in the work and showing improvement that needs to be called out. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Often, however, we are in such a hurry to get to the ultimate goal (being names an MVP, making a particular team, winning a scholarship, etc.) that we don’t take the time to appreciate the progress that’s already been made.
So think about that today. If you’re a coach, what can you do to recognize how much better your players are today than they were a month ago, or three months ago, or a year ago, etc.?
If you’re a parent, what can you point to that lets your daughter know you are proud of how far she has come so far? Even if she still has a ways to go.
That little bit of encouragement may be just the thing your player needs to keep grinding – and build a level of confidence that will carry through not just her softball career but her whole life.
The Way You’re Training Your Players Could Be Hurting Their Performance – And Health
We’ve all been there. We have a player who turns out to be great, or we watch what great players do, and we study them intensely to figure out what they’re doing so we can replicate it with all our other players.
But then when we try to apply what we’ve learned we find it works really well for some, pretty well for others, and little or not at all for the rest. Some even see their performance level go down or even get hurt trying to implement what we’re telling them.
How can that be? we wonder. We did our due diligence and we know what we’re saying works. We’ve seen it work. So why isn’t it working here?
The answer is very likely to be related to something called “motor preferences®,” which can be simply defined as working with the way each body is designed to move from birth.
This is a concept I have been dabbling with for the last few months since learning about it from my friend and colleague Linda Lensch over at Greased Lightning Fastpitch. (If you’re in the Jersey Shore area she’s definitely the person to see about fastpitch pitching.)
I had previously taken an online course offered by Volodalen, a French organization that has performed 20 years of research into motor preferences and how they help athletes in all sports perform at a higher level while reducing injuries. But last weekend I had the opportunity to join a couple dozen of the best pitching coaches in the country for a two-day, in-depth, in-person training clinic hosted by James Clarke at United Pitching Academy in Centerville, Indiana. (Again, James is the guy to see in that area.)
The clinic was led by David Genest of Motor Preferences Experts, the only organization in North America authorized by Volodalen to teach how to identify and take advantage of motor preferences in this part of the world. To say it was mind-blowing and potentially game-changing is still greatly understating the impact that understanding your players’ motor preferences can have.
I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here, but I’m going to share some of these concepts to help you get a better feel for how learning about your players’ motor preferences can help you train them better.
One of the core concepts is that athletes can be classified into one of two groups: aerials and terrestrials. These are not black and white classifications but, as David told us, more 50 shades of gray.
So while some players may be totally aerial or terrestrial, most will fall somewhere along a spectrum in-between those two extremes.
Aerials tend to move rather light and bouncy, especially when they run. They like being up in the air, with their center of balance leaned more forward. Think of a kangaroo.
Terrestrials, as the name implies, tend to be more earthbound. Their center of balance tends to sit further back, and they pull themselves forward rather than bound forward. Think more like an elephant.
Those are two very different movement patterns. So you can see why, if you tell an aerial to spring forward when they move you’ll get great results, while telling a terrestrial to spring forward will probably not get the success you’re looking for. One is designed to do it, the other is not.
Another key factor is which side of the body favors being in extension and which side favors being in flexion. All of us have one of each, and it’s built into our DNA.
So if you have, say, a catcher who can block well to her right but struggles to get to her left, it could be her left leg is her extension leg, which is good at pushing/extending, while the right flexion leg is not so much.
There are many other motor preferences, such as a preference for red or blue, that need to be taken into consideration to develop a complete, individualized profile of a player, but you get the idea. The more you understand how their body is designed from birth to move, the better you can train them to take advantage of what they can do easily while avoiding what will be more difficult for them to do..
Now, I don’t claim to be an expert in motor preferences. While I am now certified in motor preferences use by MPE as well as Volodalen, I am still very early in this journey.
But I have already seen results within a single lesson after testing a few students and making suggestions based on the outcomes. For example, a hitter who hitting pop flies on front toss suddenly started hitting bombs after we adjusted her swing to use her motor shoulder more effectively.
I’ve also seen a pitcher improve her stability and pick up a couple of mph in a lesson after changing how she launches. Several pitching coach friends who were at the clinic are reporting similar improvements just through understanding their students’ motor preferences better.
If you are serious about helping your players become the best they can be – whatever that ceiling is – I highly recommend signing up for a Motor Preferences Experts clinic. You can find a list the upcoming dates and locations here.
I will tell you it’s not cheap. Attending a clinic is a $900 investment, although you can then attend additional clinics for a refresher at no charge, at least as of this writing. But in my opinion it is well worth the expense, especially if you plan to keep coaching or teaching for a while.
If you want to get started but can’t make it to a live clinic right now you can also do the Volodalen online course as I did. That will be a $990 cost (which cannot be applied to the cost of live clinics in case you were wondering because they are offered by separate organizations). It is not as complete as the live training, nor as valuable in practical application in my opinion, but you do get videos you can refer back to again and again.
Either way you go, however, spread that cost out over a few years, and compare it to the benefits you and your players will receive, both in terms of improving their performance and helping them prevent unnecessary injuries, and I think you’ll find as I did that it is an incredible bargain.
And you’ll better understand not only why things that work with some players don’t work with others but also how to change what you’re teaching to what WILL for those players. You can’t put a price on that.
Helping Pitchers Transition from 10U to 12U
Ask just about anyone who has gone through the full softball journey and they will probably tell you that the toughest transition is going from playing 10U to 12U (or 11U for those who like to talk in one-year increments). While it is challenging for all players, with new rules to keep in mind, greater disparities in size and strength due to the puberty fairy touching some earlier than others, and a generally higher level of play and expectations, nowhere is it harder than on pitchers.
The reason, of course, is two key rule changes that can have a huge effect on pitcher success: 1) the size of the ball increasing from an 11 inch circumference and roughly 5.5 oz weight to a 12 inch circumference and roughly 6.5 oz weight, and 2) moving the pitching rubber back from 35 to 40 feet.
Either of those changes would a challenge on their own for reasons we are about to go over. Having them occur together can be downright daunting, especially for the size-challenged.
Let’s take the size of the ball first, since that was the order I listed them above. Have to be organized when you’re a coach, after all.
Increasing the size of the ball by an inch or an ounce doesn’t sound like much to an adult. But it can be tough on girls who already felt like the 11 inch ball was filling up their hands.
If you’d like to get a feel for what it’s like, find one of those 14 inch softballs they sell as a training aid and try pitching or even throwing it overhand. Feel how insecure it is in your hand for a while, how it kind of slips out instead of getting propelled out.
Now imagine trying to throw that to an actual hitter in a game, where a couple of weeks ago you were throwing a smaller ball. Scary, isn’t it?
Then there’s the pitching rubber moving back five feet. Again, it may not seem like much to an adult, but to someone who is still 10 or recently turned 11 it looks like a long distance.
Suddenly all the old mechanics break down as pitchers try to push the ball more to make sure it gets there (even though they really don’t need to). That extra distance also gives hitters more time to see the ball and react, so even if the pitcher is able to maintain her previous speed during this transition time (which often doesn’t happen) the hitter perceives the ball as being slower, making it easier to hit.
And suddenly, that pitcher who was dominating in 10U is getting beat up in 12U. Discouraging, to say the least.
It can take a while before those newly minted 12U pitchers get used to all these changes and start feeling confident again. But there are a couple of proven strategies to shortcut the process.
Strategy #1: Just hold a ball
This is going to seem so simple you’re going to wonder why you didn’t think of it, or wonder if it will work. But trust me it does.
The bigger ball will feel strange in your pitcher’s hand, especially if she already has small hands. As a result, the fear of having it slip out could cause her to cup her wrist as she makes her arm circle, pretty much killing general arm speed and whip at release. So…
Have her hold a 12 inch ball whenever she can – while she’s standing around at practice, while she’s reading or watching TV at home, while she’s riding in the car, etc. Familiarity will breed comfort.
Within a couple of weeks the larger ball will feel normal to her and she won’t think about it much. And if she goes back and picks up an 11 inch ball she’ll marvel at how small and weird it feels.
Strategy #2: Pitch from short distance
Actually this applies to overhand throwing too, but we’re focused on pitchers today so we’ll describe it as such.
Basically, have your pitcher get in close to a net, screen, tarp, etc., and throw from the K position, full circle while facing in 45 degrees, and even a full windup/pitch. Basically, take distance out of the equation as she gets used to the feel of the ball in her hand while pitching.
Let her feel that she can go full-out into the pitch without the need to cup her wrist or do anything else to keep the ball in her hand. The more comfortable she gets, the more she’ll relax and quit over-thinking it.
Strategy #3: Do long toss
This may seem like a contradiction with the last strategy but it’s really not. Instead, the two work hand-in-hand so to speak.
The previous strategy was part of getting comfortable with the size of the ball. This one is about getting comfortable with the new, longer distance.
As mentioned earlier, when pitchers see the new distance they can get intimidated and feel like they have to force the ball out more. But as soon as you start pulling them back you start to take the arm by itself out of the equation and let them feel more of how the whole body contributes.
The ultimate goal, of course, is when they’re finished and you bring them back up to the rubber, suddenly 40 feet doesn’t look so far away. I highly recommend doing this outdoors so you’re not limited on how far back your pitcher can go.
To do this type of long toss, draw a line in the dirt a few feet behind the pitching rubber and have her throw from there with a full windup. If she makes it on a fly (as she almost certainly will) move back five or six feet and do it again.
Rinse and repeat until she just can’t get it there anymore. Then pull her back to the rubber and watch her amazement at how close 40 feet suddenly looks.
Pro tip: To help pitchers get back further than they otherwise might, as soon as they start to struggle tell them to get more air under the ball, or try to throw it over the backstop instead of to the catcher.
This exercise will not only help with the psychological side of moving to a new distance. Performed regularly it will help pitchers increase their speed by increasing strength and general effort into the pitch.
Easing the way
Although some pitchers can make the transition from 10U to 12U without trouble, most will have some issues at one point or another. Jumping on these strategies early can help speed the process along and prepare your pitcher(s) to continue to have success going forward.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 