Category Archives: Coaching
Why I like working with 12U-14U fastpitch players
Sorry, this took a little longer than planned, but here is the second in my series of articles on what I like about working with different age levels of fastpitch softball players. The first installment covered the very young players, essentially up to 10U. Today we’re talking about the next level, which I’ve pegged as 12U-14U — which is basically the pre-high school group.
To me that’s the most critical age for instruction, the one where doing a good job means you can really make a huge long-term difference. While you’re also setting a good foundation when working with the younger group, they can still get away with weaker technique. At this age, however, the difference between well-trained and poorly trained (or untrained) players really begins to show up.
As a rule, girls in this age group are starting to get more command of their bodies. Yes, they are often changing, but they still tend to feel more comfortable with themselves which means they can cut loose a little more. Their coordination is also improving at this point, and they are getting stronger. All of those things contribute to achieving good results.
Often they are aware that other players are improving as well, so they are motivated to try new things in order to become better players. They usually have some rivalries or things to prove, which also helps keep them working hard.
At this age most have gotten past their initial shyness so as a coach you can talk with them a little more. They’re becoming interested in more adult things (TV shows, movies, books, music, etc.) so you can base your relationship with them on more than just softball.
If you treat them right, girls at this age level are more willing to run through a wall for you. (Of course if you don’t they’ll shut you out completely.) They don’t have the distractions of boyfriends, jobs, college plans and all the other things of high schoolers so you can get more of their attention on the field or in a lesson.
There are some downsides though, too. If they experienced success in the past, even if it was just being a big fish in a small pond, they may be reluctant to listen or change what they’re doing to improve. Their limited experience has shown them that they are the best player in the league, so they assume that translates across the board.
It doesn’t, as they will eventually find out. I’ve seen plenty of kids who loved being studs in their rec league only to find out they went to the bottom of the pile in high school when they had to compete against experienced travel ball players.
As anyone who has had or been a 12 to 14 year old girl knows, they can also get some real attitudes on them. If they don’t want to be somewhere or doing something it’s not too tough to tell. That can get frustrating as you can see the potential but know it will never be unlocked until they lose the attitude and start listening. For those with helicopter parents you often have to break down that inward focus so they can learn to be a real part of a team.
Still, I’ve found those are the minority. Most are sponges, eagerly learning, and they really appreciate you not just telling them what to do but showing or explaining why it needs to be done.
Again, for a softball player this is a critical time. You can give players at this age a huge advantage going forward, teaching them skills and strategies that their peers will have to learn much later. Instead of catching up, they’ll be the ones showing well. And that’s a beautiful thing to see.
Ok, now it’s your turn. Why do you like coaching this age group? What challenges have you found? Having done it would you do it again?
Why I like working with young players
I was thinking about this the other day. I have a mix of students ranging from the 9/10 year old range all the way up through HS seniors. So I thought it might be fun to look at what’s good (and not so good) about working with those different age groups. Starting with the youngest players today.
What I like about working with them is they tend to be open books. What I mean by that is they usually haven’t acquired the bad habits (or ingrained bad teaching) that some of the older players face.
Very young players are usually eager to learn. Most of the time they don’t resist new things but instead try their best to do whatever you ask of them. They don’t need a lot of background information on why you’re trying to get them to do something, although I have had a few who have that natural curiosity (which I like, by the way).
They also tend to be a lot of fun to work with. Some are shy, so if you can get a smile out of them you’re doing well. Others are chatty. They’ll tell you whatever is on their minds, from news of their new puppy to something that happened at school. When I’ve had a bad day at my day job, just being around them can pick me up. They really are the Fountain of Youth.
The downside is sometimes it’s tough for them to pick up on how to do what you want them to do. They haven’t mastered their bodies yet, and their bodies may have already started going through some changes. Also, the attention span can wander quickly. You’ll be rolling through a half hour lesson when suddenly you realize you’ve accomplished all you’re going to accomplish for that day, and you still have 10 minutes to go in the lesson.
As a result of all that the learning curve tends to be a bit slower. It can take a lot of repetition for them to get a skill down because they just aren’t capable of the deep practice older kids can achieve. And every now and then you get one with an attitude, but those are pretty rare. And I doubt it has much to do with their age.
Some don’t like working with young players because of all the heavy lifting you have to do. It isn’t easy, and it does require patience. But if you can get past that it really is fun, especially when they do get the hang of it. You really feel like you’ve accomplished something.
So those are my thoughts. What do all of you think? I know there are a lot of coaches who read this blog. Let’s get some dialog going on the upsides (and downsides) of working with young players. I’d love to learn from you too.
Fastpitch softball hitting game — High Fives
One of the challenges of teaching fastpitch hitting, either in lessons or in a team setting, is getting some game-like pressure into practice. After all, just about anyone can look good in the cage when they’re relaxed. But when there’s something on the line it can be a whole different ballgame (so to speak).
Tonight I had that situation with a couple of hitters. I wanted to give them a little bit of skin in the game to see how they handled the pressure, and have a little fun while we were at it. So I came up with High Fives.
The rules are pretty basic. You can use a pitching machine, front toss or some other method of delivering the ball. You make the pitch, and if the hitter hits a line drive or strong fly ball she gets a point. If she swings and misses, fouls it off or hits a pop-up or weak grounder she loses a point. A strong ground ball is neutral — it doesn’t gain or lose her a point.
Score is kept in the same manner you use for basic card counting in Blackjack. (Originally I was going to make the game 21, but realized it could take forever to finish.) So if she hits a line drive with the first pitch, it’s +1. A fly ball on the next pitch is +2. A pop-up on the next pitch takes it back to +1 and so forth. You can also go into negative numbers, i,e, -1, -2.
Five is the magic number, which gives the game its name. If the hitter gets to -5 the game is over and she owes you five pushups. On the other hand, if she gets to +5, the game is over and you owe her five pushups. The hitters usually get pretty excited when they win and you have to drop and give them five.
Now, you don’t have to use the same exact scoring system I use. You can adjust it to the types of hits you’re trying to achieve.
If you’re looking for a way to spice up hitting practice give this game a try. Just be sure you’re ready to pay up!
Are you training Seal Team Six?
Let me start by saying there are a lot of wonderful fastpitch softball coaches out there in the world. They really do put their players first, and while they may be demanding they aren’t over the top.
Then there are the coaches who act like they’re training Navy Seal Team Six. They favor long practices, brutal conditioning (think about the scene in Norway in Miracle) and yelling/screaming constantly at their players to perform. Woe unto the youngster who makes a mistake and dares not to be perfect.
Why? What possible good could that do? The fact is you’re not planning to storm any beaches or hunt down any fugitives in the remote mountains of Central Asia. You’re going to play softball.
It’s important to have standards and to want your players to become all they can be. But making them miserable shouldn’t be part of the deal.
Keep things in perspective. It’s a game and games are supposed to be fun. Work hard, but keep it in perspective. Your teams will perform better and everyone will be a whole lot happier.
The real measure of an instructor
Had some time on a cold, snowy day to ponder an issue that perplexes many parents of fastpitch players — how to choose a private instructor.
One tried and true thing many people do is look at the top players in their area and assume that whoever coached those players up can do the same for their kid. Maybe that’s true. But it’s no guarantee.
In my mind, the real measure isn’t the coach’s top students — the kids just dripping with athleticism who blow everyone away. It’s the ones with average ability/athleticism who become successful that you ought to look at. Here’s why.
The outstanding athletes will probably be successful no matter who their instructor is. Sure, some instructors will take them farther than others, but the raw material has to be there first. As they say in the computer world, garbage in/garbage out.
The average ability players, though, test the instructor’s ability to take those student to the limit of what they can do. Which means there’s a far greater likelihood that that instructor will be able to do the same for your player, especially early in her career.
When you see a player who isn’t tremendously gifted standing out on the field, that’s a kid who has been coached up. That’s the instructor you’ll want to seek out. And if your player does have that little something extra, odds are the same magic will work for her too. Only a little better.
Keeping an open mind on fastpitch drills
In the world of fastpitch softball there are tons of drills. Some I like, others I don’t. Yet sometimes even a drill you don’t particularly like can be effective if you’re willing to keep an open mind.
One such drill for me is the pitching drill where you get down on the ground in a runner’s starting stance, like you’re in blocks. You then go into the regular pitch from that start.
When I’ve seen it done, it often feels like it works against using the legs effectively. The pitchers are down so far that they have to raise themselves up first, which means they don’t get a good launch. It’s not my favorite.
But last week I had a girl who was having trouble leaning into the pitch. At launch she would pull her head up early and if anything lean back, which was killing her speed. So I suggested she get down into the starter position and try pitching from there.
One good thing was she didn’t quite get all the way down, so she started from a little better position. But that did the trick. She got the feel of launching head-first and driving out with her legs, and was rewarded with noticeably more speed.
So I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks. Or at least get an old dog to try an old trick.
And once again it proves that the effectiveness of a drill is in the hands of the person running. That night we both learned something.
Definition of a good day
Today (or in actual fact tonight) was definitely a good day. Worked with four pitchers. One is almost ready to learn a new pitch. Two started on and pretty much got the hang of screwballs. Another had a curveball come together.
Gosh, I love this job!
Finding time to practice
This is probably a pretty timely message for most fastpitch softball players. Especially those involved with other sports and activities.
With the holidays upon us we’re all pressed for time. Between our regular day-to-day activities and responsibilities, holiday shopping, trying to finish things up before the new year, etc. it can feel like there’s no way to squeeze out a little time for practicing.
Yet that’s not true — if you approach practicing the right way. There’s no law that says practice has to be at least a half hour long and conducted in a gym, on a field, or in some other athletic facility. Any space with enough room to stand in and swing your arms around a bit will do. And even putting in five or 10 minutes of working on something specific is better than doing nothing.
For example, pitchers who are having trouble getting their arm circle to stay on line (or loose) can stand with their feet planted and slowly work on it while watching themselves in a mirror. Do that for 10 minutes while you’re taking a break from studying and you’ll be amazed at how much better your arm circle is at your next full practice session.
The same goes for fielders. If you are having trouble working your crossover step, clear a little space on the floor of your bedroom and try it there. Hitters can work on getting the feel of driving their hips first, or taking a better path, or getting a proper weight shift. You get the idea.
The key is to take the little piece of a skill you’re having trouble with and work on that exclusively for a few minutes. This is the type of deep practice most players don’t like to do in a full session because they’re more focused on the full skill. But when time and space are limited, working on these little nuances can pay big dividends.
I listed a few suggestions. How ’bout you? What quick, specific things do you recommend players work on?
Flip a coin
No, this post isn’t about winning the coin flip at the beginning of a fastpitch softball game. It’s about helping players to understand the concept of playing the game one pitch at a time.
One of the famous trick questions often used in statistics classes is the question about flipping a coin. You start by asking what the odds are of flipping a “head” or “tail.” Most players, even young ones, know the odds are 50-50.
So then you follow up with this question: If I flip a coin 50 times and it comes up heads all 50 times, what are the odds the coin will come up tails the next time? Often times the player will say 100%. But the fact is the odds are still 50-50. Over a long period of time — say thousands of flips — you’ll probably see heads 50% of the time and tails 50% of the time. But on any given flip the odds are always 50-50. What has happened up until now has no effect on what will happen next.
And that’s the point you’re trying to make to a player — especially a hitter but it works for any position. No matter what happened on the last pitch, or the last at bat, or the last game, it has no effect or influence whatsoever on the upcoming pitch. So there’s no sense worrying about those. Instead, you just have to worry about what’s coming up next.
I see it a lot with hitters who tend to get behind in the count. Tell me if you’ve seen this pattern too. First pitch, the hitter doesn’t swing, doesn’t even plan on swinging, and the ball comes in for a perfect strike. She realizes she should’ve swung at it, so she makes up her mind to swing at the next pitch no matter what. That pitch is high, or in the dirt, and now she’s sitting at 0-2 and feeling bad about swinging at a bad pitch. So now she decides to be careful, she gets all uptight, and with the next pitch she’s taking that short walk back to the bench.
A lot of that comes from worrying about what happened on the previous pitches. It gets in her head and she loses the aggressive focus she needs to be successful.
By showing the coin toss you can make the point each pitch is a separate event, and the only way to approach the at bat is to keep looking forward and stay focused in that direction. It gives a little more context to the concept of “it only takes one to hit it.”
Hitters have enough to worry about without trying to hit more than one pitch at a time. Pitchers have enough to worry about without letting what happened the last time affect this time. And so on. Show your players the coin toss and help them understand that every pitch is an independent event — and an opportunity to be great.
Gotta love the boomerangs
As most people know, coaching fastpitch softball is not my day job. It is something I do on the side.
Instead, I work for technology PR company Tech Image, which is one of the business units of a company called SmithBucklin, which is the world’s largest association management company. It was SmithBucklin who introduced me to the term “boomerang,” which is the name they use for an employee who leaves the company then comes back.
This off-season I’ve had a couple of boomerangs. One was a short-term loss of a couple of months. A student had changed teams, the rest of the team was using a different pitching coach, they went along with it, the girl started to struggle and now she’s back. The other was actually two sisters whose family situation changed; their father contacted me during the summer and they’ve now started up again.
SmithBucklin always says the company loves boomerangs, and I can see why. While I always hate to lose a student, things happen from time to time. Circumstances change, sometimes the grass looks greener elsewhere, there can be all kinds of reasons. I find, though, that those who come back are often among the most enthusiastic students because they’ve had a taste of what else is out there and have made a conscious decision that being with me is the place they want to be.
That’s not to say I want every student to go away for awhile and come back. Far from it! I definitely appreciate those who stay from beginning to end. But where many instructors might feel funny about a student coming back after going away (probably because they take it personally) I welcome it.
What about you, whether you’re a private coach or a team coach? How do you feel when a player goes away then wants to come back? Do you welcome her back, or do you feel like once you’re gone you’re gone?
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 