Category Archives: Coaching
Love playing NSA fastpitch
The fastpitch softball team I coach is in the midst of an NSA tournament. It’s our only one with NSA this season. That’s unfortunate from a coaching standpoint because I love their playtime rules.
Specifically I love the two EPs you get to use. It’s sort of like the “bat everyone/free substitution” rules some tournaments use in pool play, but you can actually do it all the time.
Of course, how much you like it probably depends on how well your team hits. Mine has been hitting pretty well overall so it’s working well for us.
Players sign up for summer ball to play. When you can only bat/ play nine, a few are on the bench waiting to get in. With NSA rules you can keep more kids active and give more of them an opportunity to play. You can also rest players without risk if you get ahead, because if something happens you can always put your starters back in.
The other thing it helps with is the injury risk. With a straight nine, if you use up all your subs and then a player on the field gets hurt, you’re screwed (unless it was a sub). You have no one left to take their place. With the EP, you have a couple of moves left so you can use everyone without being penalized.
So if I love it so much why aren’t we doing more NSA tournaments? It has to do with the World Series — their equivalent of Nationals. The one we would’ve played in is down in Georgia, and I just didn’t feel like traipsing all the way down there. Sorry Georgians — I’m sure you’ll do a great job and your fields are lovely — but the thought of driving all the way down there from Illinois was a bit overwhelming. Maybe next year!
An exercise in communications
One of the challenges many teams face is getting players to communicate on the field. I saw it happen in a high school game yesterday. A throw came from right field to the second baseman, and she had no clue where to go with the ball. She turned toward third to make a throw, saw it wasn’t there, and then tried to throw to second from an off-balance position. Needless to say it didn’t work out too well, and a run scored and the runner on second advanced.
That’s not unusual. I’ve seen it happen on teams I’ve coached too. So today at practice we did a little experiment that I got from John Tschida at the University of St. Thomas. We sent the girls out into positions with one instruction: absolutely no talking. We then had a couple of coaches act as baserunner while I hit balls into the field.
The girls didn’t like it at all. It was very difficult to know where to make the play and there was a lot of confusion. After about 10 minutes we called them together and talked about it, then sent them back on the field while removing the “no talking” restriction.
It really made the point. We had a lot more talk — not all of it correct, but most of it — and they started making more plays successfully.
If a lack of communication is an issue you face, give this one a try. It probably won’t be a problem for long.
Congratulations to Stephanie Youngman, all conference
Got some more good news today. One of my former players, Stephanie Youngman, was named to the all conference team for her play at College of Lake County, our local junior college.
The cool thing about this is Steph is one of those players whose high school coach never seemed to think much of her. She was overlooked her first couple of years, then made varsity as a junior. But she always seemed to struggle to perform, and to get playing time. That lasted throughout her varsity career. In her final game as a senior, at Regionals, the coach suddenly decided to sit her out in favor of a freshman. Not exactly the time to be experimenting.
For us, Steph always played well. After starting slow her first couple of years she found her rhythm hitting, and ultimately became one of our leading hitters. She was also an excellent fielder, particularly in the outfield. She could play extra shallow to cut off the Texas Leaguers because she was so good at going back on a ball.
I share her story for two reasons. One, obviously, is that I am happy for her that she finally has received the recognition she so richly deserves. The other is an inspiration to other players. This is the time of year when many players seem to be feeling a lack of love from their high school coaches. (Their feelings about their travel coaches come later.)
So I want to show that no matter what, it’s only one person’s opinion. Keep playing and perhaps someday you too will be all conference in college.
Coaching, playing and the success delusion
Funny how sometimes fastpitch softball and my day job in PR coincide. I was just reading an article in the journal of one of our clients — HRPS (HR People & Strategy) talking about neuroscience research into the brain and how it affects leadership when I came across a description I thought is worth sharing with the softball community. It’s about a phenomenon many of us fall victim to at one time or another — the success delusion.
According to the article, the success delusion follows this line of thinking: I am successful. I behave this way. Therefore, I must be successful because I behave this way.
We see this all the time, especially on discussion boards. Someone will post the results of research that has been completed recently that says the optimum way to perform a particular skill is to do X. Then someone else will get on and comment “I’ve been doing it the old way for 20 years. I’ve had many students/players get colleges scholarships and be the best player on their team. Therefore, I’m not going to change no matter what the science says.”
That’s the success delusion. You ignore the facts because you believe what you’ve been doing has been the key to your success, without a thought that perhaps your players/students would’ve been even more successful had you taught them differently.
Players fall victim to it too. I’ve certainly seen this as an instructor. A parent will bring his/her daughter in for a lesson and I will recommend some changes that will help her reach her potential. But she’s already the best player in her rec league, or on her travel or HS team, so she doesn’t want to make any changes. She has confused success with excellence and therefore has shut the door on making any changes. That’s fine — it’s her option — but she shouldn’t be surprised when one day in the not too distant future some of the kids she used to be above are suddenly passing her. Or that despite her awesome record, college coaches aren’t interested in looking at her.
Success is a good thing. We all like to get that rush from winning; it’s what keeps us going. But it’s also easy to assume a particular behavior is the reason for that success when it could actually be a barrier to greater success.
Never be so caught up in what you’ve done that it prevents you from doing what you can do. Keep learning, keep striving and be open to change. You’ll be amazed how much farther it will take you.
Pitch calling — you have to mix it up
Just finished up a lesson with one of my high school pitchers. Understand this is a girl whom I recently clocked throwing 60 mph, so she has good speed.
Unfortunately, so far her team is 0-2 behind her. When I asked about it, she told me a tale that’s all too familiar.
It seems her coach has been calling the pitches, and he’s apparently not to clever about it. She said he’s mostly calling low outside fastballs and drops. It works for a while, but eventually the other team figures it out and starts jumping on the pitches. Then the coach gets annoyed and wonders why she keeps getting hit.
Anyone who knows anything about the game can figure that one out. If you throw the same pitch at the same speed in the same location all the time, you’re going to get hit. It’s just like using a pitching machine. No matter how fast you set it, sooner or later everyone can hit it.
Now, this pitcher has an excellent change — 15 mph off her fastball with no loss of arm speed. She also has an excellent rise and a pretty good curve. Using those pitches, and moving the ball inside as well outside would help keep hitters off balance rather than letting them get zoned in. But for whatever reason this coach doesn’t seem willing to do that.
The real killer is both the pitcher and I consider the drop her weakest pitch. At best it’s competent, but it’s hardly reliable. But she can toss the change and the rise like there’s no tomorrow. Seems to me the coach needs to take a little time to learn what his pitcher can throw (and throw well) rather than calling what he likes.
The pitcher is quite frustrated by the pitch calling. She’s been trained on what each pitch is for and longs to use them properly. I told her perhaps she needs to take matters into her own hands a bit more. Like when the coach calls for the umpteenth fastball, throw a rise instead. Who will know? Or if the situation calls for a change, then throw it, get the out, and shrug your shoulders and smile saying “It seemed like the right thing to do.”
I hate to advise a player to go against a coach, but sometimes a stubborn coach has to be saved from himself. Maybe when he sees what she can do he’ll broaden his pitch selection a little more. We can only hope.
What about you? Have you faced this situation before? If so, how did you handle it/advise it should be handled?
Product review: A Coach’s Guide to Training Catchers DVD
Ok, I will admit I am a little behind the times on this one. A couple of years ago (at least I think it was a couple of years ago) I received a complementary copy of a video called A Coach’s Guide to Training Catchers from Dave Weaver, owner and head instructor of the New England Catching Camp.
I sat down to watch it then without realizing how long it was. I didn’t have enough time to complete it so I stopped it and set it aside, meaning to come back to it. But then life happened, and I didn’t get back to it. Until recently, that is. A change in my work schedule has me on a train three days a week, which gave me plenty of time to give it a look.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive resource for training catchers, this is it. The DVD is 2 hours and 40 minutes long (more on that later), and covers everything from stances to receiving the ball to blocking to fielding bunts to throwing out runners. It appears to be shot during one of Coach Weaver’s camps, so the kids demonstrating are not necessarily the “best of the best,” hand-picked athletes but instead regular players. Some of them may indeed be excellent catchers, but it doesn’t appear that the video was skewed toward it like so many are. Instead, their skills are the results of training, making what’s shown more relatable to the bulk of the people toward whom the video is aimed.
I liked many of the techniques demonstrated by Coach Weaver. A good example is his take on displaying the ball for an umpire, aka framing the pitch. For many people, framing means catching the ball and then pulling it in toward the plate or making some other sort of move that is likely insulting to the umpire’s intelligence. Coach Weaver shows it as catching the part of the ball that’s furthest away from the plate, i.e. if the pitch is high, catch the top half of the ball.
The stances and blocking are pretty much the same as what I teach, so of course I like those as well. Catchers make their bones through their ability to block balls in the dirt, especially with a runner on third. All too often catchers want to “catch” those balls, which leads to disaster when the ball takes a bad hop and gets away. Coach Weaver shows how blocking the ball keeps it close, so runners (especially those on third) stay put. It takes some work to get catchers trained to let the ball hit their gear instead of trying to get it with their gloves, but it will definitely help you win a few more games.
One technique he advocates that I am not a fan of is having the throwing hand in a closed fist behind the glove with runners on base. His take is that it creates a faster transfer of the ball from the glove to the throwing hand. Honestly, I’m not convinced of that. And that comes from an ex-catcher who used to keep his throwing hand behind his glove at all times, because that’s how old I am. The Johnny Bench hand behind the shinguard didn’t come in until after I was pretty close to done. That being said, I wouldn’t stop a catcher from doing it if she’s comfortable. I’m just not sure it’s necessary. I’d need to see some hard numbers to convince me it’s the way to go.
The one thing I found as a negative to the video was it seemed a little ponderous to me. One of the reasons it runs 2 hours and 40 minutes is Coach Weaver has several kids, male and female, demonstrate the techniques. In a live setting it’s probably not a problem. On video it can feel like it’s taking forever. I actually found myself running it a 2X speed or more, which give Coach Weaver a bit of a chipmunk sound to his voice but speeds things along.
Here again, I will note that I’ve been teaching catchers for a while so a lot of the information wasn’t new to me. That may have colored my thinking as I watched it. If you’re coming at it new, all the repetition may be necessary so you can grasp the concepts. On the other hand, it’s video. If you need to see it again you can just run it back as many times as you want. A little judicious editing would be appealing in my book. Coach Weaver says he’s coming out with a new video soon, so perhaps he will incorporate that suggestion (which I have made to him directly).
It is definitely worth owning, though, especially at $39.99. Parents of young catchers, or coaches who understand the value a top-notch catcher can bring to their teams, will want to invest in this video. Catchers are the backbone of your team. Be sure that backbone is strong.
Success requires patience
I’ve talked before how we live in an “instant results” type of world. If we want popcorn we toss a bag in the microwave and three minutes later there it is. If we want to see our favorite TV show or movie we just hit the On Demand button and there it is. And so forth.
Yet it never fails to surprise me when a player or student lacks the patience to learn something new. Last night I was working with a pitcher, second lesson for her with me. Her mom brought her to me because she felt she was stalled where she was. After we worked basic mechanics and locations, I asked what other pitches she threw. She told me a changeup, so I said let’s see it.
After watching a couple I asked what type of change she was throwing. (I always ask in case what I see isn’t what they’re supposed to be doing.) She told me a handshake change. Not my favorite, personally, because to make it work I find most pitchers slow down as they go to release. So I asked if she was willing to try something different. (Normally I don’t ask, but with HS tryouts around the corner I figured I should check.) She said sure — what else was she going to say — so I showed her the backhand change.
After trying it two or three times, and having it work better each time (although not great) she said she was getting frustrated. I was shocked. I mean, how good do you think it will be throwing it three times ever? But apparently she just figured it was like instant cocoa — add a little water and you’re all set.
We continued to work at it and she got better. But I wonder how much she’s going to continue to work on it. Work being the operative word.
Learning to do anything well — pitch, hit, play an instrument, ride a bike, perform brain surgery — takes time. If you’re not willing to put in the time, you’re going to have a tough time competing. Accept getting a little better each day, as Bobby Simpson likes to say, and you’ll find yourself happier and better in the long run.
Getting players to move from static to dynamic stretching
By now it’s been pretty well established that dynamic stretching — stretches that have the body in motion — are far better for preparing teams for athletic competition than the old static stretches where you assume a position and hold it.
The big revelation is that static stretching does nothing for injury prevention (beyond adding a little flexibility), and actually turns the nervous system off, making players slower and less able to respond. Dynamic stretching turns the nervous system on, which is particularly important in a speed game such as fastpitch softball. Here’s a link to an article that explains it much more detail. (Full disclosure: I am affiliated with Softball Performance as administrator of the Discuss Fastpitch Forum community, but have nothing to do with the DVDs shown.)
Even if you buy into it as a coach, though, you may find it’s only half the battle. The tough part sometimes is getting your players to buy into it and change their old habits.
Seems hard to believe, doesn’t it? You wouldn’t think that 12 or 14 or even 18 year olds are so set in their ways that it would be difficult. But I’ve been there and know the kind of resistance you can face.
One thing you’ll often hear when you’re showing them the new, improved stretching routine is “I feel stupid.” Not sure why being in motion would make them feel any stupider than standing there holding a stretch but it often does. Perhaps it’s that your team is the only one flailing around like that, while the others do what they’ve always done. In truth that’s good news for you, because it’s giving you a competitive advantage. But only if your team is doing it.
Make the transition requires some effort on your part. First, you don’t ask the team if they want to do it. You just tell them this is what we’re doing. You’re the coach, make it mandatory, just like every other rule you have. I doubt you give players the option of whether they get low on a ground ball. Tell them this is the way it is and have done with it.
That’s how you get them to compliance. To really get the benefit, though, you have to make sure they’re really putting the effort in. Static stretching is really easy to do; it takes little effort, and your players won’t break a sweat. Dynamic stretching, however, requires a great deal more work, which is another reason they may resist. So you have to stay on them.
If I see players just going through the motions, I will stop them and demonstrate what I want done. I can still do a straight-legged kick in front and get my toes up even with my shoulders. Not sure how I can do that but I can. So I show them what I can do and tell them if they can’t beat a fat, out-of-shape old man then they’re pretty pathetic. That usually gets their attention, and they start pushing themselves more. Which is what you want.
The last thing you might hear is “It makes us too tired.” If that’s the case, tell them it sounds like they need to work on their conditioning, so you’ll be doing ladders and poles for the first part of every practice from now on so they’re not too tired to stretch properly. That usually ends that discussion. If it doesn’t, be prepared to follow through.
There are a great many benefits to dynamic stretching — too many to ignore. Make it an absolute, and pretty soon it just becomes accepted as the way your team does things. You not only get to win the battle; your team gets to improve its performance and prevent injury. It’s a victory for everyone.
Book review: The Talent Code
Here we go, as-promised, my review of the book The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. Its premise is that talent isn’t something you’re born with — it’s something you acquire over time. High performers are the result of practicing a particular way (deep practice) for 10,000 hours, or roughly 10 years.
I had heard about the book a couple of years ago, and then again recently. Howard Carrier (aka Hitter) recommended it to me too, so I figured it was time to take the plunge and added it to my Christmas list.
The book examines three parts of being a high performer. The first is the deep practicing I just mentioned. High performers tend to practice differently than most. They break down a skill into pieces, and work through the individual pieces. When they practice, the part of their body that is most fatigued at the end is their brains because of the effort they go through to understand what they’re doing. They make mistakes as part of the learning process, and each mistake takes them closer to their ultimate goal of performance.
The second part is ignition — getting the performer to perform. Getting him/her excited in a way that leads to the desire for that performance level. The final part is master coaching — someone pointing the way and helping them along.
It really is a fascinating study of the way people learn, and the way performance is brought out in some and not in others. Coyle spent a lot of time visiting talent hotspots — Brazillian soccer training, musicians on the east coast, baseball players in the Caribbean — in an attempt to look for the commonalities and see if there are particular things that make it happen.
He also looks at research that has been done on how people learn as additional datapoints. Some of it is the same as I read in Talent is Overrated, which covers some of the same ground. But each book presents a facet of the jewel, helping the reader gain a better understanding of the factors behind great performers.
The book is an easy read. Coyle’s style is to illustrate by telling stories rather than lecture, and he makes it easy to move from one topic to the next. He also adds some personal insights from his own life and family that show he not only took the intellectual pursuit, but also applied the principles himself.
If you are interested in what drives high performers to achievement, or you want to improve your own coaching to help your players, I highly recommend this book. It will give you a whole new perspective on practicing.
So, what did Softball Santa put under your tree?
Now that we’re a few days past Christmas/Channukah/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice, I’m wondering what Softball Santa brought you. Would love to get a little dialog going on this topic. I’ll start.
I received a dozen Jugs Lite Flite balls and a dozen TCB balls . The Lite Flites are actually for vision training, not hitting. I will be marking them with the numbers 1-4 in black and red Sharpie and adding them to the ones I already have. That way the girls won’t be able to cheat by remembering which balls have already gone by and guessing by process of elimination.
The way we’ll use them is to shoot them through a Jugs pitching machine and have the girls try to identify the color and the number on the ball as it whizzes by. Sounds impossible, but actually it’s not.With a bit of practice and effort you can actually see the number as well as the color. It’s a nice, cheap imitation of the expensive Vision Trak training that uses tennis balls and a specially designed machine.
The TCB balls are for hitting, obviously. I’ve heard a lot of good things about them. If you hit them square they fly well. If you’re off a bit, they deform momentarily and you know you need to improve your bat path. I’m anxious to try them out at the next practice.
The other thing I received is a copy of the book The Talent Code . It’s about how top performers are made, not born with innate ability — and how you can create them too. Watch this space for a more detailed review.
So that’s me. What did you get? And what are you still looking to get?
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 