Category Archives: Coaching
Crazy stuff people teach about hitting
So tonight I was doing my last lesson of the evening. It was scheduled as a pitching lesson, but the dad asked if I would take a few minutes at the end to look at his 13U daughter Hannah’s hitting. When we got to that part I asked what exactly he wanted me to look at and he said the whole thing. It seems Hannah wasn’t hitting the ball very hard.
I figured the best place to start would be to ask her what she thought she should be doing — what has she been taught in the past. She told me that she had been to a few hitting clinics at a local D1 college, one I think most people would consider a top 25 program. I couldn’t believe what she then told me.
Apparently, all of the instruction had focused on the following: to start the swing raise your front elbow, and bring your back elbow down into the slot (my term, not hers). Next pull the front elbow, and then push the hands through at the ball.
That was it. No mention of the lower body, or the hips, or how to use the shoulders. Nothing. Nada. It wasn’t that she didn’t remember. It’s that’s all there was.
I then had her demonstrate what she’d been taught. After a couple of swings, where she perfectly executed exactly what she’d been told, I stopped her and said no wonder she is having trouble. We then started working off a tee.
We only had a few minutes so I couldn’t get into a full bore hitting lesson. But I figured I could at least help her use her arms correctly. I put her into the “turned” position, where the hips have mostly come through while the shoulders were still in their starting position. (Some call this the “stretch” position, I believe.) I had her keep her bat angled, then hit the ball off the tee.
In just a couple of swings she was hitting the ball harder than she had with a full swing. We finished by having her take a few full swings, focusing on maintaining what we’d worked on for the end of the chain.
I don’t know if it’s going to help her much this weekend. I mean, I’m good but that’s spelled with two “o’s.” If she works the drill I gave her during the week it may. But at least it’s a start toward becoming a better hitter.
The reason I share this story, though, is as a cautionary tale that can’t be told too often. Remember, just ’cause someone coaches at or plays at a D1 college or has some other impressive-sounding credential doesn’t mean they know the first thing about hitting. Or pitching, or fielding, or any other aspect of the game.
When you’re told something, don’t take it as gospel. Look at what great players do and compare that to what you’re being told. If the instruction doesn’t match what you see, find a better instructor. (If it’s a team coach, find a diplomatic way to ignore it and seek out better advice.) There’s a lot of bad information and theories floating around there, and listening to it will actually make you worse than if you just tried to stumble your way through it yourself.
Fortunately, there’s a lot of good advice out there as well — advice that will match what you see being done by top players. Some of the “experts” may disagree with one another on certain points, because it’s not quite an exact science. There is still room for interpretation. But what you’ll see is a lot more similarities than differences among good instructors, especially in the bigger picture. Certain aspects, such as the sequence of events in hitting (hips, then shoulders, then bat) are universal.
In tonight’s case, I’d bet good money that not a single even decent hitter on this college team does anything close to what was being preached in the clinics during their games. They may think they do, but they don’t.
If you want to be successful, don’t take anyone’s word for it. Even mine. Verify what you’re being told by comparing it to what great players actually do. If it’s wrong you’ll save yourself a lot of wasted time, and you’ll experience success a whole lot sooner. And if you find it’s right, you’ll be able to pursue it a whole lot harder. As it should be.
Fighting ignorance
I saw a “fact check” website yesterday that had a great motto. The first part was “Fighting ignorance one day at a time” or something to that effect. Then in parentheses under that it said “It’s taking a lot longer than we thought.”
I know the feeling. I’ve spent a lot of time and effort studying, evaluating and re-evaluating the optimum techniques for executing fastpitch softball skills, I’ve also had a number of years’ experience teaching those skills to players of varying levels of athletic ability. So I have a pretty good idea of what works and the way things ought to be done.
I won’t say I know everything — there’s always more to be learned and new information comes out all the time — but I do my best to remain current, and confirm my thinking with what other top coaches are doing. That’s what I share here on Life in the Fastpitch Lane and other places as well.
Yet sometimes it can get awfully frustrating when I hear that there are still people teaching drills and techniques come from the era when mullets were in style, i.e. the ’80s. Especially when they try to foist that junk on one of my students.
I’ve seen it happen with hitting, where some team coach will start telling girls who can really rip the ball to squish the bug, take the knob of the bat to the ball, swing down on the pitch and other stuff that will actually prevent them from continuing to hit well.
Recently it happened with one of my pitchers. She was at a practice with her new team, which is connected to one of the local high schools, when the team’s “pitching coach” came over and started talking to her about snapping her wrist and pointing her elbow at the catcher (aka using “hello elbow”). I put “pitching coach” in quotes because the guy’s only qualification is that his daughter pitches at that school and he’s worked with her some.
Luckily the girl’s dad texted me right away, and he’s going to talk to the head coach, who said he knows some players have private coaches and let him know if there are conflicts. Still, until it’s resolved you have yet another person who doesn’t have a clue about how top pitchers actually pitch offering advice that was either told to his daughter at some point or that he got off some VHS tape.
People, listen up! Focusing on forcing a hard wrist snap is a gigantic waste of time! I can’t emphasize that enough. There are no muscles in the wrist. The muscles run from the elbow through the forearm to the hand. The wrist’s primary contribution is flexibility and quickness, not power.
What’s viewed as the wrist snap occurs as the result of a pronation (turning in) of the lower arm as it passes the elbow during release. It’s nothing you have to or even want to try to do, especially if you are also achieving brush contact. Trying to force a hard wrist snap actually gets in the way of the wrist making its contribution because it slows it down. It’s not where power comes from. The best the wrist can do is add a little bit. But if you make it the focus – for example doing endless wrist flips — you’ll actually defeat the whipping motion and slow the pitch down.
If you don’t believe me, how about seeing what NFCA Hall of Famer Cindy Bristow, one of the fastpitch world’s most accomplished coaches and instructors has to say about it? Or what about Bill Hillhouse, a former men’s National Team fastpitch pitcher and another highly sought-after pitching coach thinks about the wrist snap? If those two authorities tell you don’t waste your time on it, why would you continue to do it? Or listen to anyone who says you should?
The same goes for the hello elbow. It’s completely unnecessary as well as unnatural. Follow-throughs should be long and loose. You don’t need to touch your throwing-side shoulder after you pitch. You don’t need to point your elbow at the catcher. Again, that kind of stuff will get in the way of maximizing the pitcher’s potential.
For my part, I guess all I can do is keep trying to bring good information to people as best I can, and teach my students to remain strong and steadfast in their commitment to learning why we do the things we do. We’ll continue to fight ignorance one day at a time – even if it takes a lot longer than we thought.
When You’re A Coach, Timing Is Everything
This past summer, since I didn’t have a fastpitch softball team of my own to coach, I got to spend more time going out to various tournaments and watching my students play. I find it’s very valuable to see them perform under game pressure — especially to see if they’re maintaining the mechanics we’ve worked so hard to achieve. 
Of course, when you do that you’re always taking a chance. When things go right it’s great. When they don’t it can be, well, a bit uncomfortable.
Fortunately, the day I went out to see a 10U pitching and hitting student named Sydney play was a good one. It was about 100 degrees, but you’d never guess by the big smile on her face. The game I watched she was voted the MVP by the opposing team. No surprise there since (as I recall) she struck out five or six hitters in three innings of work, She also had a couple of solid hits and a walk.
Mostly, though, I am sharing this story because I just love this picture!
At tryouts, there’s always someone watching
We’re smack dab in the middle of the fastpitch softball travel ball tryout season right now. For the next couple of weeks, players will be heading to tryouts to show their stuff, and coaches will be trying to determine which players will give them the best chance of achieving their goals next season.
I’ve provided some hints to successful tryouts in the past, both here and in my Softball Magazine articles. But there’s one I haven’t covered before (at least that I remember) that players trying out should keep in mind: at a tryout, there’s always someone watching.
What I’ve noticed over the years is that when you’re running players through a drill, most will give 100%. Let’s take fielding fly balls in the outfield. Coaches hit the ball, or fire one out of a pitching machine, and players run after it. Normally what you’ll see is what you’d expect — good hustle, a sprint to it, and maybe now and then even a slide or a dive.
Really, though, those are table stakes. What I want to see is what players do when they aren’t being given a specific test. Like when they’re sent out to shag balls during batting practice.
I don’t know about other coaches, but when a ball is hit well, I usually want to give the fielders time to catch it before bringing the next pitch. So what do I do? I turn around and watch the fielders.
It’s amazing how many of them laze after the ball, sort of trotting to it and letting it drop in front of them instead of bringing that great effort they showed a few minutes before in the outfield portion of the tryout.
That tells me a lot about their attitude and makeup as a player. You know what I’d love to see? The kid who sprints full out to try to get to the ball, and maybe slides in or dives to get one that might seem out of reach. I see that and it’s going to catch my attention. I now know that player is serious about her game, and will play hard all the time. Because if she’ll go for it while “just” shagging BP, imagine what she’ll do when the game is on the line.
One of the big keys to tryouts is to do something memorable. You want to find a way to separate yourself from the pack. Especially at the older ages, everyone has skills. Or at least nearly everyone does. The way to stand out is to show you have something extra, a fire inside you that inspires you to always do your best, not just when you think someone is watching.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Let’s hear from some other coaches. Do you watch what happens away from the main action? How much does this sort of thing influence your decision, especially when you’re coming down to the last couple of roster spots?
Fastpitch ability is also in the eye of the beholder
Regular readers know how much I love a good fastpitch softball success story. With the tryout season upon us I have a great one to share.
This one involves one of my pitching students, a girl who was 10U eligible but played up on an 11U or 12U team. (I’m old school, so I don’t really buy into the odd-numbered levels, but they seem important to others.)
Anyway, she isn’t the biggest kid in the world, so pitching at 40 feet instead of 35 and throwing a 12 inch ball instead of an 11 inch one was a bit challenging. She probably could’ve dominated hitters in 10U ball. She worked hard in lessons throughout the off-season, though, and got herself prepared.
Unfortunately, the season didn’t go quite as expected. Although the coach recruited her hard during tryouts, convincing her parents to have her play up and not even try out for the 10U team, when the season rolled around he just didn’t seem to have much use for her. I saw her pitch a game and she actually did her job. But her team had trouble making basic fielding plays, and struggled more than they should have. They won, as I recall, but it was tough.
After that she had a tough time getting playing time, either in the circle or on the field. Weekend after weekend she’d come to the games only to watch most of them from the bench. She was very discouraged, and her mom told me she was in tears on a regular basis. She even thought about giving up.
The last two weekends she’s been trying out with some new teams, and it’s been a completely different story. In fact, both teams she’s worked out for so far made offers right away, and are very interested in having her pitch for them next year. She’s gone from unappreciated and discouraged to having her choice of teams for which to play.
There’s a lesson in there for other players, and for all of us, really. While you always want to be working on your game, sometimes it isn’t you. It’s just someone else’s perception of you. Keep working hard, keep battling, and you’ll come out ahead in the end.
Something to keep in mind as the season winds down
Hard to believe the summer softball season is nearly over. Seems like it was getting started just yesterday.
As the number of games grows shorter, I have a suggestion for coaches. I know how tempting it is to narrow the number of players you’re using in a game, especially if you’re desperately trying to win something big before it’s all over. But remember why your players signed up in the first place.
Be sure to continue using your bench, and finding every opportunity to get all your players in the game. You are building memories for them — and what you choose to do now will determine whether they are happy or unhappy ones.
Long after the results of games have been forgotten and trophies are tucked in a box in a crawlspace somewhere, your players will still remember their teammates, their coaches, and time spent hanging out together between games. They’ll also remember whether they were on the field or always watching from the sidelines.
Do them a favor. Make sure those memories are good ones. Find a way to make it happen for them all.
Stuff fastpitch softball coaches say
There’s a big ASA softball tournament coming up this weekend, one of those that carries a lot of prestige for being successful.
One of my students told me her coach is very uptight about it, and has been telling his team “There are no bad teams in this tournament. Pitchers, you can’t walk anyone. Fielders, you can’t make any errors.”
Gee, I thought that was always the goal, no matter how good or bad the other teams are!
Lesson learned: why it’s important to use video
I’m never shy about pointing out problems with things other fastpitch softball coaches do or say. So it’s probably about time I told a story on myself which illustrates a great point: no matter how good you think you are, it never hurts to shoot a little video to check on what you’re saying.
Last year I was working with a girl named Megan in a lesson. She had a good swing overall, but when she finished I could see that she hadn’t gotten off her back side enough. At least that’s what I thought I saw. Instead of having her toe down, heel up and an L in her back leg, her heel was pointed backwards and her back leg was pretty much straight.
She wasn’t feeling the lack of drive, so I pulled out my trusty Kodak Playsport video camera and shot a swing off a tee at 60 frames per second (fps for those who don’t know video shorthand). I figured if I could show her what she was doing wrong she’d be able to correct it.
By now you’ve probably guessed what happened. I stepped through the video frame-by-frame, and everything looked good. When she got to contact her hips had come through, she was up on her toe, and her back leg was in a lovely “L.” Continuing through she held that position until after extension, then sort of settled back into what I’d seen to catch her balance.
“Hmmm,” I said. “I guess I suck. Remember everything I told you about finishing? Forget it. You’re doing fine.”
Since that time I’ve learned a valuable lesson about the importance of shooting video whenever possible. Most of the time I’m right, and can use it to illustrate the point. After all these years I’ve gotten pretty good at diagnosing skills in real time.
But every now and then it shows me that what I think I see, and what is actually happening are two different things.
Footnote: Little pocket videos such as the Kodak Playsport are pretty cheap, and make a good investment. Yes, you can also shoot video on your iPhone, iPad or Android device, and even telestrate it, but usually there are a couple more steps before you can use it. That’s why I like the dedicated video camera. You can shoot it and show the video right away, saving time that can be applied into working on the skills.
So how about you? Ever have an experience where you’ve believed one thing but video told you something else? Go ahead and share — you’re among friends.
Fastpitch hitting: sometimes you just have to say huh?
Last night I was doing a hitting tune-up with one of my students. She’d been hitting the ball pretty well, but over the weekend she struggled a little bit. She told me her coaches told her she was dropping her back shoulder and her hands.
I just sort of rolled my eyes because usually when people say that they don’t know what they’re looking at. But then, before she stepped up to the tee I discovered the cause of the problem. She quietly said to herself “Hands to the ball.”
“Where did you get that?” I asked. “Did those knuckleheads tell you that?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“Ok then riddle me this,” I said. “If you take your hands to the ball, what are you going to do?”
She thought for about a second, went through the motion of doing it and the lightbulb came on.
“I’m going to drop my hands,” she said.
And there you have it. Her coaches were telling her to do the exact thing they were saying was a problem. It’s no wonder so many players have trouble hitting.
This is why you have to be careful about what you say as a coach. It also helps to actually know what you’re doing instead of repeating the same bad advice that limited your own playing career.
Most importantly, when you’re instructing a skill, listen to what you’re saying. You just may find what you’re saying, and the result you’re trying to achieve, are at odds with each other.
Fastpitch success story
Heard another great fastpitch softball success story yesterday that I had to share. This one involves a pitcher who has gone from what Jeff Janssen might call forming to performing.
Her name is Tina Kliver, and she is a second-year 16U. I met Tina after the last summer season (2011). Her dad Bob contact me about getting a pitching lesson for Tina to see if I could help her. She really wanted to pitch, and they’d been to a couple of pitching coaches in the area who have good reputations (and one of whom has a great resume), but she was struggling.
When I met Tina her basic pitch was a fastball in the dirt at the hitter’s feet. I could see some core things I thought would help and we gave them a try. They did help in that first lesson, but more importantly Tina and I seemed to click. She has the same quirky sense of humor I do.
We worked throughout August and September, and then every other week in the off-season. (She was a two- or three-sport athete in HS plus doing some other stuff so every week wasn’t going to work.) It took a little while to lock in the core mechanics we wanted.
Her first time out throwing with the new mechanics was pretty much a disaster. She struggled and had to be taken out. But there were some good things that came out of it, and she understood what she needed to do. We kept working, not just on basics but on throwing different pitches too.
She didn’t get to pitch more than a couple of times in the HS varsity season since her team had a couple of very good, established pitchers ahead of her. Then fast-forward to yesterday.
I received the email every coach hopes to get. Tina pitched a six-inning no-hitter (have I mentioned I hate time limits?) plus a few innings in a couple of other games when other pitchers struggle. So she went from hoping to get a couple of innings here and there to being the go-to pitcher for her team.
Time will tell whether it’s permanent, but I have a feeling it is. Yesterday should give her the confidence to go out and be the pitcher she’s capable of being. It just goes to show you what you can do when you’re motivated and determined. For those of you who are struggling right now, take heart! If you want it bad enough you can make it happen.
