Category Archives: Coaching
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.
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.
Travel Softball’s Greatest Challenge
I was talking to a father the other day about how difficult it has been for his 12 year old daughter to find a team that will help her make the leap from rec ball/part-time travel to full travel ball. She had tried out for several teams, and like any good dad when the teams said they were interested he asked what was holding her back, i.e., what she needed to improve in order to increase her chances with the next team.
I found those responses both interesting and disturbing. The one I remember most distinctly was one team, which was touting that it had a “former college player” as a head coach, told him his daughter couldn’t hit the outside pitch.
Really?
First of all, the teams she was trying out for aren’t exactly on the top of the food chain. More like C level teams, perhaps middle B at best, so it’s not like she was overreaching in her ambitions.
But what struck me more about it was a simple thought: shouldn’t any halfway decent coach be able to TEACH a 12 year old how to hit the outside pitch?
It’s not that hard. You put a tee on the outside corner, a little deeper than you would hit a middle-of-the-plate pitch, and work with the hitter to keep her hands in instead of reaching out for the ball first.
But this encounter speaks to what seems to be the biggest issue in travel ball in my opinion. Which is that “coaches” either don’t want to or don’t know how to teach the game anymore.
More and more it appears that coaches just want to find players who already have great skills, throw them on the field, and wait for them to win ballgames. And if turns out the players they do select are lacking in any skills or knowledge, they just throw them on the bench until they figure out what to do – or hire an outside coach to tell them.
That’s just wrong to me. The job of a coach at any level, even college or professional, is to help their players grow and learn and improve.
Sure, at the higher levels it’s more refinement of existing skills than teaching new ones. But they are still looking for areas of improvement that can help each player get better, even if that improvement is incremental.
So there’s no reason a coach at the youth level shouldn’t expect to have to put in some work teaching their players too. At the 10U and 12U levels, that can involve a lot of teaching.
In my experience it’s impossible to know which players will ultimately grow to be the best by the time they’re 18, or 20, or 22. Many of the top players in the game today will tell you they weren’t superstars when they were young.
Everyone grows and learns at their own pace; every player follows her own path to get there. With a little encouragement and guidance a girl who seems weak in her skills, knowledge, or even athleticism today could just turn out to be great pitchers, catchers, fielders, hitters, etc. when they get older.
But they’ll never get the chance to find out if the people running teams are only looking for players they can throw out on the field today and watch them perform while the coaches sit back and watch.
To be honest, there is a lot of value and satisfaction in taking a girl (or a group of girls) who may not be fully baked right now but have potential and teaching them how to swing a bat, throw ball, run the bases, and perform other skills at a level above where they started. Much more so, in fact, than having them end the season at the same level they started – no matter how many trophies you may have won.
And while we’re on the subject of development, I also have to shake my head at all the ads I’m seeing right now from B and C teams looking for “one more bracket pitcher” or “A level pitcher” to round out their rosters. They might as well be wishing for those pitchers to bring a pot of gold along with them to the tryout because it’s just as likely to happen.
The reality is the A level pitchers are generally spoken for first, so it’s unlikely they’re available right now. Especially with the fact that tryouts for next season seem to be starting at the beginning of the current season these days.
A pitcher of that caliber may pop up later, maybe in the middle or end of fall ball if someone isn’t happy with their team choice. But if coaches are looking to settle their rosters today, they’d probably be better served looking for a pitcher who has the potential to be a bracket or A level pitcher if they are given the opportunity to work through a few disasters until they find themselves. Just sayin’.
Again, though, that would require sacrificing a few wins today for more in the future. It would also require actual, active coaching for improvement rather than simply managing lineups.
Look I get it. Coaching is hard. So is losing games, especially when you know you could have won them if your players had just been a little bit better on that day.
But as any good general or business leader will tell you, sometimes you have to accept short-term losses in order to realize longer-term gains.
That’s why it pays to learn how to be a true coach rather than just a manager of players.
If you’re a manager, you are at the mercy of your players’ abilities. If they play well, great; if they don’t, there’s not much you can do but yell and scream for them to do better.
But if you actually put in the work to become a true coach, you can change the equation by helping each and every player learn to play the game better. You can teach them how to hit that outside pitch, or turn the double play, or hit the cutoff, or lay down that bunt, or take the extra base on a hit to right center, or do any of the other hundreds of things that happen in a game that can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
And in doing so you don’t just change a game. You could end up changing a life – which beats winning a plastic trophy or a gaudy ring every time.
What Fastpitch Pitchers Can Learn from Pro Wrestling
NOTE: What I’m about to describe can be used by any player. But since pitchers are usually the ones who are most directly targeted, I’m going to focus on them.
The other day I was working with a pitching student who had played against a team she used to be on. She and her mom told me she pitched fairly well, but that she had gotten a little upset when the other team started doing a lot of sing-songy chants directed at her with the purpose of trying to rattle her.
This was in 12U travel ball by the way. First of all, I personally believe there is no place in the game for directing insulting chants or remarks at an opposing player.
Trying to ruin a teen or pre-teen’s confidence by saying insulting things to her is just plain classless. There’s enough of that on social media already.
It’s also a comment on the other team’s ability. If that’s what it takes for them to win maybe they’d better go back to the drawing board and work on their own skills.
But if you’re the pitcher who has that stuff being directed at you, there isn’t much you can do to prevent it from happening. You have no control over how the other team acts (and apparently neither do their coaches or parents).
People will tell a pitcher to just ignore it, but that can be difficult to do. In my experience young females are far more likely to listen to the bad things said about them than the good things anyway.
I have another solution that I told my pitching student about, and she seemed to like the idea. It comes from the world of professional wrestling, i.e., WWE, AEW, NWA, etc. and basically involves steering into the insults rather than trying to tune them out.
In pro wrestling there are “Faces” and “Heels.” Faces are the heroes, the ones you’re supposed to admire and root for, essentially the good guys, who represent Mom, apple pie, and all of that.
The Heels, on the other hand, are the ones you’re supposed to root against. They are demeaning to the audience and other wrestlers, cheat by doing dirty things to their opponents when the ref is looking the other way, hit opponents with chairs, and otherwise act outside the bounds of human decency.
When the Faces are introduced, everyone is supposed to cheer (and usually does). They’re there to see that justice is done and the forces of good prevail.
When the Heels are introduced, though, everyone is supposed to boo (and most usually do, although they have their fans too). It’s what the Heels do when they’re booed, though, that is the point of our story today.
They don’t act shocked, or hurt, or look like someone just ran over their dogs. Instead, they steer into the boos, drinking them up like they’re refreshing water. They strut around the ring and motion for the fans to give them more of it with a look of satisfaction or even pleasure on their faces.
That’s the attitude I think pitchers should adopt. When the insulting cheers come on, don’t sink into a shell; embrace them!
Pitchers can start by pretending they can’t quite hear the cheers and signaling to the opposing bench to say them louder by holding a hand to their ears. If they continue, pitchers can smile and walk around in the circle waving their arms as if to ask for more.
By showing it not only doesn’t bother them (even if it secretly does) but the pitchers are apparently enjoying hearing it, they can essentially take all the fun out of it for their opponents. The more the pitchers look like they are loving the insults – and that the only effect they’re having is pumping up the pitchers even more – the less likely the other team is to continue.
After all, why would you continue a behavior that seems to be helping the opposing pitcher instead of hurting her? Seems kind of counter-productive to me.
The thing pitchers need to keep in mind is that in most cases the other team wouldn’t be doing all of this if they thought they could easily win the game without it. No, they’re going to do it when they’re worried they might lose.
And even if that’s how they treat all pitchers regardless of skill level, showing you’re not only not intimidated but actually are enjoying the attention is a quick way to neutralize the other team’s behavior.
The only other X factor in all of this is how the umpire reacts to this little Heel performance. But if he/she says anything to the pitcher, she (or her coach) should just say, “You get them to stop with the negative cheers and I’ll stop what I’m doing.”
Nothing like a little self-awareness to put it all in perspective.
We often say the first step in being confident is to act like you already are confident – even if you’re not. Putting on a little Heel performance when the negative cheers or comments start to fly is a great way to get into the right mindset and help pitchers overcome the risk of their opponents getting in their heads.
And of course, the irony is by acting like a pro wrestling Heel, the pitchers actually present themselves as the heroes of the story who are standing up for themselves and all that is good and right in the world. Not a bad place to be!
The Two Options for Building a Team
Right now we are in the heart of the summer season for travel ball teams. But soon enough it will be time to start looking to the future with open or private tryouts.
(I know some teams have already started this process, and some actually started just as the season was getting going, but that’s a story for another day.)
College teams are also facing that challenge. They are hot on the summer ball recruiting trail, and now with the transfer portal they are also busy scouring the list of players who are thinking a change of venue might be just what they need to achieve whatever it is they’re trying to achieve.
If you’re in that position right now, it’s important to consider the path you want to take to building next year’s team. In my mind there are two options that will yield success: A) know the approach to the game you want to take and then work on finding players who fit that system, or B) bring on the best players you can find, then build your approach based on who you have on the roster.
Both are valid and can yield success if you do it right.
Let’s start with option A, the one where you have a system or approach you like to take. Say, for example, you want a team that can put up lots of runs.
You’re not too concerned about how many runs the other team scores because your plan is simply to out-hit and out-score them.
In that case you’re looking for players who can bang the ball, hitting it to or over the fence on regular basis. In that case you’re looking for big, strong players who know how to hit.
You’re not too worried about speed, although you’ll take it if it comes in the right package. You’re also not too concerned about defensive prowess; you need perhaps an average level of competence but that’s about it.
You can also get by with pitchers who have a bit higher ERA because you’re planning on out-scoring your opponents anyway. Although if you can find a couple of pitchers-only with higher levels of pitching skills you can also have someone else hit for them, giving you the best of both worlds.
On the other hand, if you believe (as many of the teams from Asia do) that it’s easier to win if you keep your opponents from scoring then find a way to scratch a run or two across the plate, you’re going to be looking for a very different set of players. They will probably be lighter and quicker, with great gloves and great arms.
You’re also more likely to want speed on the basepaths, so that will be another asset you’ll be hunting for. If you can find enough of those you’ll be able to run the game the way you prefer. If not, it’s going to be awfully tough to win with players mis-matched to the system.
With option B, you’re primarily looking for raw athleticism, and/or softball IQ, and/or whatever basic attributes you value. You want players who are the best at whatever it is they do, so you’re probably going to have a mix of skillsets.
The challenge here is once you find those players, you need to figure out how best to use that hodgepodge of skills. You have to figure out where to place them on the field to take advantage of their plusses and cover their minuses, and how to build a batting order that will use their skills most effectively.
It can definitely be challenging, especially if you forget and, say, put a slow girl with a powerful bat in front of fast girl or two. That slow one, if she hits a single, is going to clog the bases for the next 2-3 hitters, perhaps costing you a few runs in the process.
Regardless, either way can work as long as you understand what it is you’re trying to do.
Where coaches run into problems is when they land on a system and don’t select players who fit it, or go for the best athletes and then don’t use them properly.
If you’re dead set that you want to play the short game, take the extra base on a base heat, steal, etc., you’re best off not loading up on big, strong, slow players. If you want to sit in the dugout or the third base coaching box and wait for doubles, triples, and home runs (the Earl Weaver school) you probably don’t want to make the ability to hit a ball 225 feet your primary offensive yardstick.
On the other hand, if you don’t know how to take an eclectic mix of skills and mold them into a cohesive team, you probably shouldn’t be taking the best available athlete approach. You’ll want to find players that are easier to fit into a preconceived notion of how you want the game played.
Otherwise, you’re going to be disappointed in the results.
So as you start thinking about next year’s team and how you want it to play. If you’re committed to a system or approach, try to find the athletes who fit within that narrow box.
If you don’t have a consistent set of skills available to you, start learning how to take that stew of a team and mold it into something that works.
You’ll be a lot happier with the results in the end.
Building blocks photo by ClickerHappy on Pexels.com
8 Valuable Lessons from the 2026 WCWS
The Division 1 Women’s College World Series (WCWS) has come and gone – a little sooner than some would have liked, and not the outcome everyone was looking for depending on which team (or player) was their favorite. But it was definitely entertaining throughout and a great showcase for our sport.
According to Yahoo! Sports, the first five days saw an average of 1.5 million TV viewers per game, an increase of 33 percent year-over-year before the final series. Some games got more than 2 million viewers, with the peak being 2.6 million. No word yet on the final series, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they topped 3 million.
For me, though, one of the best things to come out of it for rec league, travel ball, and high school players, parents, and coaches is to see the approach to the game used at such a high level. There are, as always, several lessons that can be learned and applied if people are willing to do so.
Here are a few of the big ones from my perspective
Lesson #1 – Even the Best Players Make Mistakes
And sometimes at critical moments. Coaches and parents of youth players tend to get very upset or even angry when their fielders make errors in the field, catchers don’t block properly and a ball gets away from them, pitchers throw a pitch straight down the pipe that gets blasted for a game-changing home run, etc. Yet if you watched the WCWS for any length of time you saw at least some if not all of those things happen – and often to some pretty big-name players.
I didn’t get to see all the games (although I have the ones I missed on the DVR for later viewing), but I did see two fielding errors made on ground balls in the 7th inning of an elimination game. You wouldn’t expect that since they were fairly simple plays but there you go.
What I didn’t see is the coach of that team charge angrily out of the dugout and scream at those players, or even worse yank them out of the game in the middle of the inning yelling about how they have “expectations” and all that. Instead, the team just moved on, played the game, and ended up winning anyway.
The same with critical home runs. There were some big-name pitchers who have won many accolades and accomplished much during their collegiate careers who unfortunately didn’t quite throw the pitch they were going for and watched as their WCWS run – and in some cases their careers – essentially ended.
I saw fielders attempting to place a tag before fully catching the ball and instead knocking it away from them, allowing another run to score instead of killing the play. I saw fielders throw balls away on relatively routine plays, and catchers let pitches in the dirt get by them because they tried to pick the ball instead of blocking with their bodies.
None of them set out to make those mistakes. They just happened. unfortunately with 1-2 million people watching. Keep that in mind the next time you’re mad that your daughter or your player(s) made a mistake.
It happens.
Lesson #2 – The Changeup Is An Important Pitch
Not really a lesson for me – I’m quite aware of it, honestly – but it was probably a good lesson for many.
It’s easy to get caught up in speed, speed, speed. We all love it when we have pitchers who can throw harder than the competition can handle.
But speed alone is not enough. If you watched for any length of time you saw the top pitchers using their changeups liberally.
It may be a cliche to say that hitting is about timing and pitching is about upsetting that timing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Keeping hitters off-balance by changing speeds is critical when the hitting is that good.
Two things to note about changeups too:
- The speed differential between their fastest pitches and the changeup was generally in the 10-15 mph range. No one was taking 4 or 5 mph off and calling it a changeup. You need to commit to a big enough difference to make a difference.
- No one was slowing their arms or their bodies down to get that speed differential. To be effective you need to be able to go as hard, move your arm as fast, and generally look like you’re going to throw the fastest pitch you’re going to throw all day while having it be slower due to the design of the pitch. If you have to slow down any part of your body to throw a changeup I’m sorry, you’re not throwing a changeup. Just a more hittable version of your fastball.
Lesson #3 – Pitchers Need Time to Warm Up
I’ve seen multiple people point this out, and I have talked about it before as well, so I won’t belabor it too much here. But at no time did you see a coach make a pitching substitution by pulling a player out of a field position and just have her go in and throw cold.
The best example here was Texas Tech. When Coach Glasco decided to pull NiJaree Canady in favor of Kaitlyn Terry, who was already in the game in a field position, he didn’t just call time and bring her in from the field. He took her off the field, sent her to the bullpen, and had her do a proper warm-up.
The lesson here is if one of the best and most experienced pitchers in the world can’t just walk in and be effective, there is no reason for you to expect your 12, 14, 16, even 18 year old pitcher to be able to do it. Give them time to warm up and you’ll like the results much better.
Lesson #4 – Coach Your Players the Way That Works for Them
Coaches often like to talk about their coaching style. Some are proud of being tough. Others hang their livelihoods on being empathetic.
But the reality is, if you’re going to be effective you can’t have just one coaching style. You have to be able to adjust what you’re doing to what is most effective for each player, i.e., you need about as many coaching styles as you have players.
Some players need to be coached hard. If you’re not doing that for them they feel like you don’t care about them.
Others would crumble under that style. They need to feel like you understand them and have their backs; they need support not screaming.
As a coach, it’s your job to figure out what your players need and deliver it to them in a way that helps them play their best.
What makes it even more complicated is that some players may require different coaching styles depending on the situation. If you come down hard when they need empathy, or tell them “that’s ok” when they need you to be firm so they get out of their own heads, you won’t get what you want.
If you take the time to get to know the person first and then the player, you’ll stand a much better chance of giving them what they need when they need it. And getting their very best performance out of them.
Lesson #5 – The Short Game Is Still Important
Sure, no doubt about it, ESPN loves the long ball. You get a couple of hitters going yard and it’s going to show up in the between-innings highlights, and maybe even later on SportsCenter.
Bunting and slapping may be less glamorous, but if you work at them they can be more reliable.
No matter what it seems like on TV, it’s still difficult to hit the ball out of the park. A lot of things have to go right in order for that to happen, and you generally need a certain set of skills and mindset to do it regularly.
Bunting in particular, however, is a skill that every player can and should have. Now, I’m definitely not a fan of the automatic sacrifice bunt of a runner on first to second, especially early in the game.
But there are times when a well-placed, well-timed bunt can be a game changer.
Slapping seems to be making more of a comeback as well. As former Arizona coach Mike Candrea always said, speed never has a slump.
Put it in play, make the defense rush, and you can make something good happen. Especially in the postseason.
Lesson #6 – Be Ready When Your Opportunity Comes
Everybody wants to be a starter. If you don’t at some level you’re not much of a competitor.
But there are only 9 positions on the field, and teams usually have more than 9 players. That means some of them will be sitting out.
I can remember two instances offhand, however, where a pinch hitter came in off the bench and turned a game around with one swing. That doesn’t happen if she hasn’t mentally prepared herself to be ready if and when her number is called.
If you’re a bench player you have a tough job. But remember you’re there to do more than just cheer for the others.
Prepare yourself mentally and physically to go into the game at a moment’s notice to ensure that when your number is called you get the job done. And perhaps set yourself up for a more regular role in the future.
Lesson #7 – There’s No One Right Way to Do Everything
As we watched the 8 teams in the WCWS, not to mention all the others in the lead-up to it, if there’s one thing all the players had in common it’s that they were all at least a little different from each other.
Yes, there certainly are some core principles for various skills such as throwing, pitching, fielding, hitting, etc. But you could hardly say everyone doing each skill looked exactly the same.
Jordy Frahm, Karlyn Pickens, NiJaree Canady, Kaitlyn Terry, Tegan Kavan, and Citlaly Guitierrez were all great pitchers, but you could definitely pick out one from another. They shared some similarities, sure, but not enough to say if you clone this you will be successful.
So as you’re working with players, keep that in mind. Realize your 5’10” 155 lb. hitter is not going to have the same swing as your 5’0″ 95 lb. hitter.
Even the things they do have in common will probably look a little different from one another due to different muscular structures, levels of balance, injury history, conditioning and a whole bunch of other factors. So don’t try to get them all to look like each other – or like someone you saw on TV.
Instead, work within their own frameworks in a way that gets the best out of each individual and you will be a lot more satisfied with the results.
Lesson #8 – Sportsmanship Still Matters
The WCWS has become more of a high-stakes event than ever, which means any problems that were present in past years, or are present now at the lower levels, are far more magnified. No one wants to lose with all the NIL money at stake and/or in front of millions of fans.
Still, we saw plenty of examples of good sportsmanship, whether it was a baserunner and a fielder having a quick laugh between pitches, losing teams setting aside their sadness long enough to shake hands, or opposing coaches crediting the other team for its good play.
We also saw some questionable examples but there’s no need to go into those here. Just remember that while things can get tough in the heat of the moment, the moment will pass but how you conduct yourself will be remembered forever. Be a good person and a good example and you will never go wrong.
Plenty More
These were not the only lessons, but I think they were some key ones from the biggest stage in the fastpitch softball world. At least in terms of audience reach.
Keep them in mind and you’re likely to be a whole lot happier when you watch your own kids/players play.
Now it’s your turn. What lessons did you take away from the 2026 WCWS? Leave your thoughts in the comments please so we can all learn from them.
Improvement Often Comes In Small Increments
If ’80s training montages have taught us anything, it’s that going from bum or has-been to champion isn’t complicated. You work really hard for a few weeks and before you know it you go from barely functional in whatever sport you’re trying to do to ready to take on the world.
Unfortunately, reality looks a little different – a fact many coaches, parents, and players seem not to understand.
The truth is if you’re expecting miracle improvements after a handful of lessons or practices you’re setting yourself up for a huge disappointment. Because most of the time improvement doesn’t occur in chunks; it happens in small increments.
Take overhand throwing for example. You look at a player and she is standing face-forward the entire time, holding the ball about ear-high and pushing it toward her target. Or maybe she turns her body some and then kind of randomly slings the ball in a motion that vaguely resembles the Kraken attacking the Black Pearl.
You work with her on getting her body into the right position, taking the ball back properly, getting her elbow set at the right height, finding a good arm slot, and releasing with a whipping motion. Then she starts to get the hang of it and looks pretty good.
Problem solved, right?
Probably not. Even if she works at it on her own, the odds of her retaining all those movement changes from this practice or lesson to the next one are pretty small.
The reason is the old pattern is already pretty ingrained, because that’s the movement pattern her body figured out for itself to solve the issue or throwing the ball from here to there. It’s going to take time for the new pattern to settle in – even if she practices.
And if she doesn’t, or doesn’t practice enough, or doesn’t practice with her brain actively engaged? It’s going to take even longer, because every rep she does do will likely be reinforcing the old movement pattern rather than replacing it.
The same is true for any skill – pitching, hitting, fielding, sliding, etc. As humans we tend to be most comfortable with what we know.
This is true even if we are willing to change – which most people aren’t, at least at the subconscious level.
The problem comes when expectations don’t match realities. If you’re expecting a coach or instructor to help your hitter go from striking out to hitting bombs in a couple of weeks, or your pitcher to gain 8-10 mph or go from walking 8 hitters a game to not giving up any walks after a handful of lessons you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
Instead, the changes will most likely come slowly. You may not even notice them at first, but they will be there.
As you continue they will become more obvious. That doesn’t necessarily mean a great outcome, but it will be trending that way.
So for a hitter, it might be she goes from no or weak contact to hitting the ball hard – right at someone. She still doesn’t get on base, but the contact is better.
In time, the law of averages will kick in and those hard hit balls will start finding gaps between fielders, the strikeouts will go down, and she will be a lot more confident every time she strides to the plate.
Pitchers will start throwing a little harder and a little more accurately. Fewer opposing hitters will get on base, the strikeouts will go up, and she will carry herself with a self-assuredness you haven’t seen before.
So as you start getting more serious and putting in the work keep that in mind. You may not see the improvement at first, but if the player is working at it, and receiving good, quality coaching, the improvement will come.
Hang in there and trust the process. Because from small improvements, larger ones will come.
True Confession: I Can’t Make You Better
This is a tough admission but I think after all these years of coaching it’s time for me to drop a major truth bomb. And that truth bomb is: I can’t make you/your daughter better.
Shocking, I know, but hear me out I’ve spent a lot of time instructing fastpitch softball players, and even more time studying the latest research and thinking on the subject as well as what the best players in the world actually do (versus what they say they do sometimes).
Yet for all that work and effort, I am admitting that I can’t make the students who come to me better.
I can show them how to perform various skills. I can explain and demonstrate the movements required to perform at a higher level. I can offer corrections to help shortcut the learning process.
I can help them understand the “why” behind the “what” to make it easier to internalize and execute the necessary techniques. I can even help them overcome a crisis of confidence when adversity strikes.
But for all that knowledge and experience, I still can’t make them better. Because in order for students to get better, they have to take an action.
The first action is to listen to and try to understand what I’m telling them. That might seem obvious, but it’s actually not.
Any honest instructor will tell you they’ve had students who showed up to lessons but didn’t want to listen to what that instructor said. They wanted to do it their way.
In my case, I’ve had “students” who, when I said “here, try this” would give me a side eye as if to say, “You can’t make me do that.”
And they were correct. I can’t.
Of course, if you want to keep doing it your way that’s fine, but you’re going to stay where you are instead of getting better. And pretty soon you won’t see progress and decide to move on to the next coach whose instruction you don’t want to follow either.
The second action is to get off your butt and actually work on what the instructor told you during the lesson and whatever homework you’ve been given.
Taking lessons is a good thing, and it’s even better when you’re interested in learning. But the time in-between lessons is where the real magic happens.
Not working between lessons is like buying a really nice car but never actually getting in and driving it. It may look beautiful in the driveway or the garage, but you’re not going anywhere.
The specific actions you take once you decide to take action are also important. For example, a pitcher who is having trouble with accuracy probably doesn’t need to be throwing from the full distance.
She needs to move in closer and work on her release – including the way the arm and hand approach release, the exact point where she releases the ball, and what her hand and forearm do at that precise moment. All of those factors can and will affect where the ball goes.
If the pitcher moves in close she can rid herself of all the distractions of the rest of the pitching movement and just focus on the part that’s doing her in – the release. And the great thing about that is she doesn’t even need a field or facility, a catcher, or much of anything else.
A bucket of balls and a net to throw to, or even a rolled up pair of socks and a handy wall, will give her everything she needs to work on those movements and lock them in.
The same goes for a hitter. Let’s say that hitter is having trouble keeping her hands from leading the swing (instead of letting her body turn first).
She can work slowly on that part of the swing while shooting a video of what she’s doing so she can check. If she doesn’t have access to a phone or other camera, she can look in a mirror.
She doesn’t need a bat or the space to swing it either. She can take a sawed off dowel rod or the core from a roll of paper towels with some rags stuffed in it to work on getting her sequence so ingrained that when she gets back on the tee or even faces a live pitcher again it happens automatically.
That’s the type of work it takes to get better. But I can’t make you do any of that, which is why I say I can’t make you better.
Going back to our car analogy, the instructor or coach is like the GPS system for getting better. He or she can tell a student turn-by-turn how to get started and how to get to her destination.
But it’s up to that student to get in the car, start driving, and then follow those directions. Otherwise she’s either not going anywhere or putting herself at risk of following a path that will take her even further away from her destination.
So again, I fully admit can’t make you better. You have to do that. I can only show you the way.
