Category Archives: Coaching
Beware What You Believe on Social Media
Don’t worry, I haven’t suddenly gone political here on Life in the Fastpitch Lane. But there definitely is a need to be careful about what you find on social media when you’re looking for information on how your daughter or players can become better hitters, pitchers, fielders, catchers, etc.
Here’s the primary issue, which I think many parents and team coaches don’t seem to realize: anyone can call themselves a coach and post videos on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter X, or whatever your favorite platform is.
That’s right, anyone. There are no qualifications or tests required to say you are a pitching expert, or a hitting expert, or a fielding expert, or anything else.
Sure, there are certification and training programs; I’ve completed several rigorous programs as a matter of fact. But it’s not like there’s a Board somewhere that checks up on what coaches post on social media and calls them out or pulls their certifications if it’s demonstrably incorrect.
Which means anyone can post anything, whether it’s good, bad, nonsense, or even downright harmful without any overall authority evaluating the validity of that information.
And this can be true of famous names in fastpitch softball as well as someone you’ve never heard of before. It’s amazing how many great players past and present have no idea how they actually do the things they do (or did).
Here’s the second issue that comes into play: social media is a hungry beast. You constantly have to feed it with new posts in order to maintain a healthy social media presence.
That can be harder than you think. So for those who are dependent on social media likes, clicks, and shares to drive their businesses, they must develop and post new content on a regular basis, often multiple times per week, to sustain their presence.
You can see where this is headed. Once they’ve exhausted all their good, proven drills and other material, the need to post is still there.
So they end up posting a lot of crazy stuff that looks cools and draws eyeballs but has little to do with hitting, pitching, throwing, or catching a softball. If it also helps promote their latest product gimmick so much the better.
It’s definitely a case where the buyer must beware, because if you follow some of this garbage down the rabbit hole and your daughter’s/players’ performance suddenly falls off, or she/they get hurt, it’s your daughter/players who will pay the price. In the meantime, the “coach” who posted the bad content moves on to the next crazy drill.
So what are you supposed to do? If you’re a well-meaning parent or coach, how do you separate the good from the bad?
One way to do that is to look for the “why” behind the “what.” Did the poster explain why the drill or other instruction exists, what problem it is trying to solve, how it will solve it, etc.? Or did he/she merely post the demo and say “have at it?”
A coach who is looking out for his/her players/students will want you to understand the purpose behind the drill or technique or product if there is one, as well as exactly how it solves the issue.
It’s then up to you to apply some common sense to determine whether what’s being presented seems like it will actually solve the intended issue or make it worse. Or even create a new, bigger issue in the process (see: the law of unintended consequences).
You might also want to do a little more research on the issue itself to see if what’s being presented in the social media content is aligned with what others are saying, and what you see the best players in the world doing, or if it’s more of an outlier.
Now, if it’s different it doesn’t necessarily mean the new content is wrong. Breakthroughs and new discoveries happen all the time.
But if it goes against the science in particular, you might want to let others try it first to see how it works out for them before jumping into that new technique yourself.
Remember that the great thing about the Internet is that there’s a lot of information out there. And the bad thing about the Internet is that there’s a lot of information out there.
It can be hard to tell the good from the bad.
But if you take a little time to think things through and dig below the surface or the excitement of finding a shiny new object, you can save yourself a lot of wasted time and money in the long run.
Lead photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Character Matters for Coaches Too
We often hear about how fastpitch softball players need to be good teammates and people of good character. Coaches will talk about what they look for during tryouts and recruiting beyond skills, and how they need to be able to hold their players to high standards.
But what about the coaches themselves? Shouldn’t being a person of good character matter for them as well?
What brings up this topic is an article my friend Jay Bolden of BeBold Fastpitch, who is a tremendous pitching coach by the way, passed along the other day. It’s one of several great things Jay has shared lately, so if you’re not following him on Facebook you really should.
The article was about a head coach at a D1 college who was recently arrested for shoplifting and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. What’s really sad is the shoplifting amounted to less than $70, and she only had a couple of the pills in her possession.
Not the amount matters that much for our purposes – right is right and wrong is wrong no matter the scope – but if you’re going to get caught committing an alleged crime that could cost you your job you would think it would be for an amount that would have people say, “I get it.”
Regardless, though, the real issue here is one of character and leadership.
There is more to coaching than than teaching skills, making up lineups, and running plays. Especially when we are talking about youth and amateur sports, which includes college.
The measure of a great coach isn’t just wins and losses, although that aspect is definitely important, particularly in the college ranks. It’s also whether the coach is making a positive impact on those players, helping them become better people who are prepared to live their best lives.
That’s hard to do when you yourself are not exhibiting good character. There’s an old proverb that says a fish rots from the head down.
I have definitely seen that to be true, not just in softball or sports but in the business world as well. Poor leadership and questionable ethics will lead others in the organization to follow their own worst instincts, or at least make decisions that may not be in anyone’s best interests.
Another example of poor leadership is shifting blame to players for poor performance to cover the fact that the coach really doesn’t know what he or she is doing.
I recently heard about a coach complaining that her team wasn’t hitting the ball well enough and wasn’t scoring enough runs. Rather than try to help them solve the root issue(s), however, the coach merely said, “You guys need to hit better. Figure it out.”
How is that helpful? It’s not. It’s just a coach worried that her players’ lack of performance will make HER look bad.
That’s a sign of poor character. Even if the coach doesn’t know what to do technically, she should either bring in someone who does or at least try to bolster her players’ confidence at the plate so they’re not making things worse by tightening up and making poor swing decisions in the hopes that something good will happen (it usually doesn’t).
I think most teams have a code of conduct of some sort that they expect their players to abide by. Coaches should be held to at least that standard, if not a higher one.
Some simple things coaches can do to demonstrate strong character:
- Not smoking, drinking alcohol, or using other substances in the dugout or parking lot, or really anywhere their players are in uniform
- Not playing favorites with certain players; everyone earns their playing time based on merit, even if the coach doesn’t especially like certain players
- Not talking about some players to other players on the team, or to their parents, whether in-person, through direct communication, or on social media
- Not establishing “overly personal” relationships with anyone on the team;
- Enforcing team rules fairly and equally, don’t treat the rules as rules for non-starters and merely suggestions for starters
I remember hearing a great example of this last point being demonstrated several years ago by Mike Candrea, the former head coach at Arizona.
One of his star players broke a team rule a few days before the team was scheduled to play I believe in Regionals. She was seen as critical to the team’s success, and obviously the game they were about to play wasn’t a throw-away game.
Coach Candrea told the player she would not be joining the team on the trip, which may have come as a shock to the player and probably a whole lot of other people. When asked about it he said the rules are the rules, and they apply to everyone.
That had to be hard, especially because if I recall correctly Arizona did end up losing. But Coach Candrea demonstrated to every player on that team that fairness and integrity are (or at least should be) higher priorities than winning, even if the game is “important.”
It takes a lot of character to make that decision. When asked later if he had any regrets about it Coach Candrea emphatically answered, “No.”
That decision set a standard to which we should all aspire. What a tremendous life lesson for his players, and really everyone who has heard that story.
We are all products of our decisions, good and bad. But when you’re a coach you’re not the only one affected by them.
Hopefully whatever drove the coach in the opening story to do what she allegedly did can be overcome with some help and she can make better decisions in the future. But it does create a learning opportunity.
Just as we demand excellence from our players, so must we coaches also set higher expectations for ourselves as well. While it might be tempting to take a shortcut, or cheat a little here or there, or fudge the facts, or pass the blame onto others it’s important to take responsibility and demonstrate the qualities we want our players to exhibit on and off the playing field.
Character matters.
Photo by Anastasiya Gepp on Pexels.com
There’s a Difference Between Being Demanding and Being Mean
We’ve all seen the stereotype in dozens of sports movies over the years: the coach who constantly screams at and demeans his/her players early in the movie only to go on to win the a championship during the climactic ending.
It makes for great Hollywood drama. But unfortunately too many people today watch those movies and think it’s a blueprint for how to become a successful coach.
So all they really do is learn how to yell and scream at their players, calling them names and telling them how horrible they are. And then punishing them physically for a lack of performance.
Do they really think that helps? Personally, I think it’s more of a symptom that the real-life coach has no idea how to help their team better so they just yell or do other things in the hopes that it will miraculously scare the players into playing better.
So does that mean coaches shouldn’t raise their voices to their players or hold them accountable? Absolutely not.
But what they need to understand is there’s a difference between being demanding, or being tough, and being mean.
Being demanding is holding your players to a high standard – after teaching them what the standard is. Take a baserunner who is called out for not tagging up at third.
My first question in that situation is whether the coach actually went over the rules on tagging up and explained what to do in that situation. If not, they shouldn’t be calling out the player.
As a team coach, I always assumed my players didn’t know anything if I didn’t teach it to them. That way I was encouraged to teach them as much as I could about the game rather than assuming they knew certain things only to be disappointed later.
If the coach did teach it and the player had a mental lapse then yes, the coach should call it out. While they may get a bit heated in the moment, a demanding coach will remind the player that they went over it, here’s what you’re supposed to do (teachable moment) and talk about staying focused and aware of the situation.
A mean coach will call the player a name or two, ask if the player is trying to make the coach look bad, and probably bench the player for making a mistake. The problem is, if the player made that mistake she probably doesn’t know what she should have done instead, and the situation is likely to repeat itself in the future.
Demanding coaches are tough because they want to get the best from their players. To paraphrase the old Boy Scout slogan, they want to leave the player better than they found her.
Mean coaches are tough because they feel anything players do wrong reflects poorly on THEM, and their egos can’t handle people thinking they are bad coaches.
Demanding coaches believe in their players and hold them accountable to a defined set of standards. They care about seeing their become better at the sport as well as better people.
Yes, they want to win just like anybody else. But they’re also careful not to sacrifice their players’ self-esteem at the altar of winning.
Deep down they want their players to enjoy the experience and maintain or even enhance their passion for the game. And yes, their overall goal is for their players to have fun.
Mean coaches don’t rally care if their players are enjoying the experience or having fun. They don’t care if their players get burned out or lose their passion for the game because hey, there’s always another player coming along and maybe that one will be naturally better.
Which is a good segue to the fact that demanding coaches love to teach the game to their players. As with our baserunning example above they don’t assume anything; they thrive on the details.
Take the story about UCLA basketball and all-around coaching legend John Wooden. The first thing Coach Wooden would do with his incoming freshmen was teach them how to put on their socks.
Now, these were 18 year old college students who had presumably been dressing themselves for more than a decade, and many at first thought it was silly that their coach was teaching them how to put on socks. But the process served two purposes.
First, the way he had them do it would help prevent them from getting blisters on their feet during the long and difficult practices they went through. Very practical.
But it also served to show them in a subtle way that there was a UCLA way to do things, and that these individual players, all of whom had probably been stars on their high school teams, needed to adopt the UCLA way of doing things if they were going to be part of the team.
I find that mean coaches don’t teach the game that much – often because they haven’t put in the effort to learn much beyond the basics or whatever they were taught when they were playing. They would much rather just try to recruit good players and throw them on the field to fend for themselves.
Then, if their performance doesn’t meet the coach’s standards (i.e., it causes the team to lose), the coach will try to harangue the player into doing better or bench them in the hopes that feeling bad about being taken out will make them play better the next time they’re on the field – if there is a next time.
In the end, it all comes down to intentions.
The demanding coach wants to see players reach their potential not just as athletes but as human beings, and will remind them that the pursuit of excellence has no days off. They may sound mean or angry at times, but underlying that surface is a layer of love.
The mean coach doesn’t really care about the player reaching their potential except as it affects winning and the accolades that the coach will receive for the team’s performance. There is no love there, or loyalty for that matter.
It’s simply a transactional approach that sees players as chess pieces to be used and/or discarded as-needed to bolster the coach’s self-image, regardless of the toll it takes on their players.
The good news is both players and coaches have a choice.
If you’re a coach, think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Is it helping your players to become better people as well as athletes?
If yes, great. If not, while you may think you’re being tough you may just be being mean.
If you’re a player, or the parent of a player, think about whether this coach cares about you as a person and is promoting your love of the game.. If yes, while you may not always enjoy it they’re being demanding to help you grow.
If not, they may just be mean. And you can either accept and understand it for what it is or move on,
Either way it’s not you. It’s them.
Angry woman photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com
It Pays to Know the Rules
When I was coaching teams, one of my yearly rituals was to read the ASA (now USA Softball) rulebook from beginning to end before the season started. Including the applications scenarios in the back.
I would also scan the rules for other sanctions my team was playing in just to make sure I knew about any variations so I didn’t embarrass myself or my team on the field.
Why would I do that? It wasn’t for fun, I can assure you. The rulebook is pretty dry.
No, I read it to make sure I was ready for those little odd things that can happen that, if you don’t know what you’re doing, could cost you a game. Or even a championship.
With the college softball season getting under way, the high school season about to start in many parts of the U.S., and travel and rec ball not far off, it seems like reading the rulebook and understanding it thoroughly would be a good use of coaches’ time.
What made me think of this is what happened in Super Bowl LVIII (58 for those of you who don’t read Roman numerals).
ICYMI, the game was tied at the end of the fourth quarter so it went into overtime. Which means the Chiefs and 49ers had to do a new coin toss, with the winner deciding whether to take the ball first or let the other team have it.
The 49ers won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball. Under ordinary circumstances that might seem like a good decision because usually overtime is “sudden victory,” the politically correct term for what we used to call “sudden death.” In other words, first team that scores wins.
But what the 49ers allegedly didn’t realize is that the overtime rules changed this year, which meant both teams would get a guaranteed possession, i.e., a chance to score. That rule change gives the advantage to the second team to get the ball because by then they will know what they have to do when it’s their turn.
So after the 49ers notched a field goal (worth 3 points for those who don’t follow football), the Chiefs knew they could tie the game with a field goal if they had to or go for the win with a touchdown, which is ultimately what they did. They succeeded, which meant a lot of third world children are looking forward to receiving free San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl LVIII Champions t-shirts.
After the game, it was brought up that where the 49ers weren’t aware of the new rules, the Chiefs had been going over them twice a week or something like that since the preseason. While it might have seemed boring at the time, it paid off.
There are always new additions (and subtractions) to the rulebook, so taking the time to understand them is critical if you want to serve your team best. Of course, one of the biggest examples here in 2024 is the change to the pitching rules which now allows leaping – although not crow hopping supposedly.
We’ll see about that, but that’s a topic for another post.
It would be pretty embarrassing for a coach to complain that a pitcher’s foot is coming off the ground on her drive forward when that’s now allowed. It would also be pretty risky for a coach to allow or encourage a pitcher to crow hop (replant the drive foot before the stride foot lands) thinking that that is the same as leaping, only to have it get called correctly in a critical game.
Knowing the rules can also help you prevent an umpire who doesn’t know the rules from costing you a game. I can speak to that from personal experience.
A team I was coaching was on defense in a “national” tournament. The other team had runners on second and third with one out so we elected to intentionally walk the current hitter to create a force at home.
My catcher moved behind the left hand batter’s box to receive the ball as I had taught her, and our pitcher threw a pitch. The umpire immediately called an illegal pitch saying the catcher was out of the catcher’s box, which meant the runner on third would score and the runner on second would advance to third. Not exactly the outcome we were looking for.
I went out to argue the call. I explained that unlike baseball, where the catcher’s box is narrow, in fastpitch softball it extends from the far edge of one batter’s box to the far edge of the other.
The umpire disagreed so I asked him to ask his partner. His partner also disagreed so I asked them to get the umpire in chief, which to their credit they did.
After about 10 minutes of consultation between them (and a rule book), they conceded the point, sent the runners back to their original bases and wiped the run off the board.
I’d love to say we got the out at home and went on to win the game. That would be a nice topper, wouldn’t it?
Unfortunately, the next hitter got a ground ball through the pulled-in infield and we went on to lose. But hey, at least it wasn’t because of a rule problem.
The fastpitch softball rulebook is filled with plenty of rules, some common, some obscure, but all worth knowing. Because you never know when a situation will come up where knowing the rules can change the situation immensely.
I know it’s boring, coaches, but do yourselves a favor. Either read the rulebook cover-to-cover yourself or assign someone on your staff to do it.
You never know when a season might turn on it.
The Downside of Being Coachable
One of the highest compliments a coach, journalist, parent, or other observer can pay to a player is to say he or she is “coachable.” I’ve said it myself many times, both about individuals and as a general character trait, and I still believe in the concept.
When you say an athlete is coachable, what you’re really saying is that he or she isn’t stuck in his or her ways, or doesn’t tune out coaches when they offer instruction, but instead embraces the opportunity to learn and grow their skills. Seems like a pretty important attribute in my book.
As with anything, however, there is also a downside to being coachable. One that doesn’t often get talked about, which is why I’m bringing it up today.
Basically, the downside is this: What if what the athlete is being told just isn’t good advice? Or worse, what if the coaching will actually make the player worse in the short- and long-term?
Lord knows there is plenty of bad coaching out there. Some of it comes from well-meaning volunteers who don’t have much experience so they rely on what they remember from their own youth playing days or something they may have heard at a coaching clinic they once attended.
The problem is they may not remember the information correctly, or completely, or they may remember it correctly but the fastpitch softball world moved on from those teachings years ago. Squish the bug, anybody?
Then there is the contribution of the Internet to spreading bad information. At least back in the day a poorly informed coach was only affecting his/her team, or program at worst.
Now with the ready availability of Facebook groups, Instagram posts, YouTube videos, etc., that bad information is being amplified and shared around the world. Some of it by famous names who really ought to know better but apparently don’t.
So what ends up happening is that the coachable athlete, especially at the beginner level, gets shown poor or sub-optimal techniques that quickly become ingrained habits.
They are able to get by with those techniques for a while if their natural athletic ability is superior to their peers who require more training. But eventually that natural advantage levels off and those peers start catching up to them.
At that point, the coachable athletes may find they have hit a plateau or are even falling behind their peers who, while not as athletic, have received better training. But since they may have two, three, six, or more years doing things the way they’ve done them, the techniques are so ingrained they may struggle to learn new, better mechanics or approaches.
It won’t be for lack of trying – they’re still the same coachable athletes they always were. But they’ve been down the rabbit hole for so long that finding their way out can be a long, painful journey.
How can you avoid this issue with your coachable athlete? The #1 way is to ensure you have good information about what is considered high-level in pitching, hitting, throwing, fielding, conditioning, agility training, strength training, and other pertinent aspects of the game.
It’s going to take some time to research, to be sure. The key is not to believe something just because a famous coach or athlete says it.
Seek out a variety of perspectives from a variety of sources, and see what makes sense. Give preference to those who explain the “why” behind what they’re saying, and see if that makes sense as well.
After all, if an explanation doesn’t seem to make sense from a biomechanical or physics standpoint, it’s probably just so much word salad.
Take the old “swing down on the ball to get backspin” belief in hitting. Its proponents will tell you that doing so will help the ball carry farther in the air.
But when you really think about it, any ball you hit on the bottom half will have backspin, regardless of whether you swung down or up. And any ball you hit on the top half will tend to spin downward.
Then realize that if you swing from the bottom-up you’re more likely to hit the lower half of the ball, while swinging from the top-down is more likely to give you contact on the top half of the ball. Also keep in mind that a popup has plenty of backspin, but it tends not to go very far.
And how much backspin is needed to actually overcome gravity to get more carry on a softball weighing 6.5 oz.? Probably more than you can apply with a bat no matter which way it swings.
Once you believe you have a pretty good idea of what makes sense, compare it to what high-level, highly accomplished softball players do. Notice I didn’t say compare it to what they say, because there are plenty of examples of high-level players (including former Olympians) who don’t teach the same mechanics they used themselves.
Use those high-speed video examples to see what most of them have in common. (Don’t use one player because there are always exceptions.)
Look across a variety of players once you know what you think you’re looking for. Then, when you’re pretty sure you know works best, look for programs, team coaches, and private instructors who will teach those techniques to your coachable athletes.
That way, when they’re a few years into their careers, they won’t find themselves having to break deeply ingrained habits that are no longer working for them.
Being coachable is a tremendous asset for athletes. But always keep in mind the old computer saying: garbage in, garbage out.
Be sure what your coachable athlete is learning is correct from the beginning and it will save him or her a whole lot of heartache and frustration later.
Why Good Circle Visits Are So Critical to Pitchers’ (and Team) Success
One of the toughest decisions a coach has to make during a game is when to take a pitcher out. That decision is based on a lot of factors.
For example, it’s easier to leave a pitcher in a game to see if she can work her way out of trouble if the game doesn’t mean that much. On the other hand, if you’re in a big tournament, the pitcher is your #1 (and thus perceived to be your best chance at winning) and a loss means elimination, it can be very tempting to stick with her even if you know in your heart of hearts she’s done.
If you do decide the current pitcher needs to be replaced, however, one thing that shouldn’t be a difficult decision is deciding how to take her out. That should be handled by a circle visit, either by the head coach or the team’s designated pitching coach.
(ASIDE: If the pitcher is the head coach’s daughter, the visit should probably be handled by literally anyone else. That’s the voice of experience talking, folks.)
The reason I bring this up is I recently heard a story about a team where, when they want to change pitchers, there is no circle visit. The coach just sends the new pitcher out from the bench to tell the current one it’s time to take a seat.
That’s just wrong for so many reasons, not the least of which is the mental game wellbeing of the pitcher – a factor which will no doubt be of importance down the road. It’s also just rude.
A pitcher would have to be pretty unaware of her surroundings and what’s going on in the game to not realize she is struggling. I mean, if she’s walked the bases loaded in 12 pitches she probably has a pretty good clue that she’s not exactly on top of her game.
A circle visit gives the coach an opportunity to say, “Doesn’t look like today is your day,” or something to that effect.
If the pitcher was doing well up to that point the coach can say words to the effect of, “Looks like you’re having some trouble with the umpire. Let’s give her a different look and see if we can’t get out of this jam.” If she wasn’t, the coach can say something such as, “Rough one today. I think we need to change things up right now, but if you keep working there will be other opportunities.”
I’ve talked to many current and former players, and nearly all agree that girls are far more likely to think the worst of themselves and believe it when someone tells them they’re not very good. Even if they know it’s not true.
A few kind words when making a pitching change can help mitigate some of that thinking and bolster the pitcher’s base confidence level. And as we all know, confidence is a critical element to have when you’re playing the position that is most under the spotlight, and has so much impact on the team’s success.
But circle visits aren’t just for pitching changes. Getting out in front of problems, especially if they’re happening to your #1, can help you avoid having to make that tough decision later.
Sometimes when a pitcher starts to struggle she just needs a little positive reinforcement from the coach. Sometimes she needs the visit just to slow the game down and give her a chance to regain her composure, or her mojo. Sometimes she just needs to get out of her own head for a bit.
One time when one of pitchers was struggling I called time, walked to the circle, and said, “A horse walks into a bar and the bartender says, ‘Hey, why the long face?'” I then turned around and went back to the bench.
She was a bit stunned at first, I think, but then she realized my Dad joke was just a way of telling her A) don’t take all this too seriously, and B) you’re doing fine, just relax. It worked too – she pitched herself out of the inning with no more trouble.
A circle visit isn’t really a time to offer pitching instruction, although I was known to draw a power line or two in the dirt in my coaching days when I thought it would help. It’s a time to help pitchers deal with the mental side, whether it’s calming down so they can continue or softening the blow of taking them out so they know the situation is temporary, not permanent – and that coming out of a game mid-inning doesn’t make them a bad human being or a terrible pitcher. Everyone gets pulled sooner or later.
Now, I know at this point some of you keyboard warriors are thinking this point of view is soft, and that female pitchers need to not be such snowflakes. They need to toughen up Buttercup and just deal with it.
So for those who think this way let me ask you this: when was the last time you saw a Major League Baseball pitcher get taken out of a game without a coach coming out to the mound to do it? You can count those times on the fingers of one ear.
So if an MLB pitcher who is a fully grown adult and is getting paid millions, or tens of millions, of dollars per year to throw a ball needs a coach to come out and tell them personally that they’re done for the day, why shouldn’t a young or adolescent girl who is just playing for the love of the game be offered the same courtesy? Or a college pitcher for that matter.
If you’re a coach who is managing pitchers in-game, be smart about it. Get off your behind and talk with your pitchers when they need it – whether it’s to calm them down or make a change.
They may not like seeing you come out of the dugout but that feeling will be temporary. Because they will appreciate you showing you care about them as a person as well as a pitcher.
Champions Take Their Warm-ups Seriously
You see it before a game or practice everywhere there’s a ballfield.
Teams positioned in two opposing lines, randomly throwing balls in the general direction of the other line. And then chasing said balls behind them.
Hitters casually knocking balls off tees into the bottom of nets – or over the top. Pitchers sleepwalking through a reps of a K drill or slowly strolling through a walk-through instead of going full speed.
Not just youngling rec teams either. The same behavior can be seen with high school teams, travel ball teams, even college teams.
It’s players sleepwalking through warmups as if they are something to be (barely) tolerated before the “real thing” begins.
That’s unfortunate on many levels, but mostly for what it says about those players’ dedication and desire to play like champions.
You see, champions realize that we are a product of our habits. They also realize the importance of paying attention to details.
Warm-up drills should be about more than just getting your body moving and your muscles loose. They should also be preparing you to play or practice at your highest level.
So if you’re just going through the motions, waiting for practice or the game to start, you’re missing a real opportunity to get better.
Take that hitter who is basically just knocking balls off the tee before a game. Hopefully she knows what she needs to do to hit to her full potential, and what she needs to work on to get there.
So if she’s just taking any old swing to satisfy the requirement of working at that station she could actually be making herself worse instead of better because she’s building habits (such as arm swinging, dropping her hands, or pulling her front side out) that may let her get the ball off the tee but won’t translate into powerful hits in the game.
Or take the pitcher who is sleepwalking through her K drills instead of using that time to focus on whether her arm slot is correct, she is leading her elbow through the back half of the circle, and she is allowing her forearm to whip and pronate into release. She shouldn’t be surprised if her speed is down, her accuracy is off, and her movement pitches aren’t behaving as they should when she goes into a full pitch.
Even the throwing drills that often come right after stretching require more than a half-hearted effort. Consider this: as we have discussed before, 80% of all errors are throwing errors.
Which means if your team can throw better, you can eliminate the source of 8 out of 10 errors. Cutting your errors down from 10 to 2 ought to help you win a few more ballgames, wouldn’t you think? That’s just math.
Yet how many times have you seen initial throwing warmups look more like two firing squads with the worst aim ever lined up opposite of each other?
That would be a great time to be working on throwing mechanics instead of just sharing gossip. Not that there’s anything wrong with talking while you throw. But you have to be able to keep yourself focused on your movements while you chat.
Even stretching needs to be taken seriously if it’s going to help players get ready to play and avoid injury. How many times have you seen players who are supposed to be stretching their hamstrings by kicking their legs straight out and up as high as they can go take three or four steps, raise their legs about hip-high, take another three or four steps, then do the same with the other leg.
Every step should result in a leg raise, not every fourth step. And if young softball players can’t raise their feet any higher than their hips they have some major work to do on their overall conditioning.
Because that’s just pathetic. Maybe less screen time and more time spent moving their bodies would give them more flexibility than a typical 50 year old.
The bottom line is many players seem to think warm-ups are something you do BEFORE you practice or play. But that’s wrong.
Warm-ups are actually a very important part of preparing players to play at the highest level and should be treated as such. If you don’t believe it, just watch any champion warm up.
When Scheduling, Leave Time for Practice
The other night as I was wrapping up from lessons I got into a conversation with my friend Dave Doerhoefer. In addition to being a private instructor, Dave is a long-time fastpitch softball coach with the Vernon Hills Stingers travel organization as well as Vernon Hills High School.
The question Dave asked was my feelings about the obsession many travel teams today seem to have with squeezing as many games as they possibly can into the brief summer season. It is not uncommon for travel teams – even those that only play a couple of months in the summer due to spring high school softball – to set a goal of playing 100+ games.
I’ve blogged about this before (actually back in 2012), and it only seems to have gotten worse. So much for me being an influencer.
Both Dave and I agree that teams that focus on playing a crazy amount of games are doing their players a disservice on several levels.
No time for practice
Probably the biggest issue is that if you’re scheduling 2-3 nights of games per week, plus playing tournaments every weekend, you’ve left little time for practice.
That’s a problem because games aren’t where you get better. That’s where you measure where your skills are currently. Practice is where you get better.
In practice you can field 100 ground balls or catch 100 fly balls, which allows you to really hone your skills. Especially if the coach is smart enough to make those balls just slightly outside your current level of competence and continues to raise the difficulty level as your skills improve.
In a game, you’re lucky if you get 7-10 touches on a batted ball. Most players will get far fewer, or perhaps not any, especially if you have dominant pitchers with good strikeout numbers playing in five inning games due to time limits.
Younger players playing in timed games, who are the ones that generally need the most repetitions, may only see three innings of play. It’s tough to get better when nothing happens.
Add the need to teach all the various situations and permutations a player needs to know to make the good, instant decisions required to play at a high or even decent level and the problem of not getting enough practice time grows exponentially.
Reducing the number of games to allow for more touches/repetitions and instruction time in practice will do more to grow a player’s skills and softball IQ than just throwing them out on the field and leaving it to random chance.
Keeping the excitement
When you play games practically every day what should be a happy diversion from normal life quickly turns into a job. And how happy are people with their jobs?
Research shows that while 65% of workers surveyed are happy with their jobs, only 20% are actually passionate about them. Translating that into teams, if you have a team of 12 players it means only 8 will actually be happy with the team, and just 3 will be passionate about it, if playing softball starts to feel like a job.
You never want playing to feel routine. You always want your players to be excited and ready to give their all – at least if you want to win.
Cutting back on the volume of games will help keep those you do play more special. It will also give the parents a little more time to keep those uniforms looking spiffy.
Reducing burnout
Burnout is a huge problem in today’s youth sports. In fact, research shows 40% to 50% of youth athletes report experiencing some level of burnout.
That doesn’t mean they stop playing necessarily. But they may not have the same level of enthusiasm for playing they once did, and that can lead them to dropping out of the sport entirely eventually.
We have to remember that while we may have big dreams and aspirations for these young athletes, they are still kids. A few may want to play all the time rather than pursuing other activities, but most need other stimuli to help them full enjoy their lives and reach their human (not just their softball) potential.
More general free time, or even more time spent in practices rather than game situations, can help them grow their social skills more effectively as well, which will also help prevent burnout.
Making time for multi-sport athletes
There is much talk about how college coaches love multi-sport athletes, and how being a multi-sport athlete is better for the youth athlete’s health. The cross-training of playing multiple sports can help prevent injuries, especially those caused by repetitive movements. It can also help prevent the burnout discussed above.
Yet it’s awfully tough to fit another sport into your schedule when your softball team is playing nearly every day as well as all weekend.
Of course, this isn’t just a fastpitch softball problem. EVERY sport seems to think they need their athletes playing an incredibly heavy schedule of games in order to compete, and they plan their years accordingly.
At some point nearly all athletes need to choose a sport to specialize in if they want to play at a higher level, i.e., college. But that doesn’t have to be prior to about 15 years old.
Younger teams that reduce their game schedules give their athletes the opportunity to pursue other sports, at least at some level, to help them fully develop their bodies and potentially reduce the chance of injury. In return, they get athletes who are better conditioned and mentally sharper, helping improve their performance on the softball field.
More is not always better
Yes, it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that more is better when it comes to scheduling games. But the reality is it’s not.
It’s time to bring some sanity back into the process. As you plan your 2024 game schedule, don’t get caught up in the “arms race” of which team in your area plays the most games.
Think strategically and prioritize quality of schedule (including the factors listed here) over raw quantity of games. I think you’ll find your results improve – and your athletes will have a better overall experience.
Scheduling photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com
The Power of Using Video When You Practice
One of the tools I use the most when I give lessons is my iPhone. If I see a player making some sort of awkward or inefficient movement, out comes the ol’ phone and I immediately shoot a video I can show that player (and often her parent, guardian, team coach, etc.).
Now, I can stand there and tell the player what she’s doing without using video, but often it seems like they either think I’m exaggerating the movement they’re making or I am making it up entirely. I said that because it has little impact on what they’re doing, and they frequently will go right back to doing it.
But when they see the video, they suddenly know I was not exaggerating for comic effect but if anything was dialed back a bit on it. Seeing is believing, and believing enables them to start making the correction. Things usually get better from there.
That’s great during lessons. But what about the other 90% of the time, when the player is practicing on her own or with a teammate, parent, guardian, team coach, etc.?
There is a solution that will help shortcut the time-to-improvement. It involves a little practice secret that I’m now going to share with you.
The Revelation
These days pretty much everyone’s personal phone has the ability to shoot video. And those video capabilities can be used for more than a Snapchat or a Tik Tok dance video.
Why not set up the phone to the video setting, hit the “Record” button, then take a video of whatever skill she is trying to master? Then she can play it back, watch herself, and see if she is leading with her hips (if she is a hitter), getting some elbow bend over the back side of the circle (if she is a pitcher), or making whatever movement she is supposed to be making at whatever point she’s working on.
I know, genius, right?
Sure, when I shoot video I use the OnForm app so I can easily slow it down, scrub it back and forth, draw on it, measure angles, or do whatever else I need to do. It’s really cool to be able to do that, as I describe here.
But you don’t absolutely need all of that, especially if your coach has told what to look for/work on specifically. The basic video any smart device shoots is enough to give you eyes to see what’s happening and whether the movements that player is making are the movements that player SHOULD be making.
I know on an iPhone you can even scrub it back and forth by tapping on the video and then using one finger to move the little frames at the bottom back and forth. I imagine Android and other operating systems offer the same capabilities.
Different Learning Styles
So what makes video so valuable?
Science has documented that different people learn in different ways. Some of us learn better from reading directions. (Most of those people tend not to be male, as most males tend to jump in first and then only read directions when they get in trouble – usually halfway through the project.)
Some learn better from hearing things explained, the way it would typically happen in a lesson or team practice. “Suzy, you have to get your butt down on the ball.”
Some learn best by actually performing the skill we are attempting to perform. Although in my experience a lot of young players actually have trouble feeling whether they are doing something correctly while they are in the middle of it.
But the vast majority of us (65%) are visual learners. If we see it, we can understand what we’re supposed to do, or what we’re not doing now, better.
Yet when it comes to actual practice sessions, players and coaches rely almost entirely on the two weakest preferences for learning – auditory/listening to instructions (30%) or kinesthetic/doing it and feeling it (5%). Doesn’t make much sense, does it?
By incorporating video into the learning process players can learn faster by using the method most prefer. And even if they are in the other 35%, augmenting auditory and/or kinesthetic instruction with video is neutral at worst and a plus beyond that.
Video Power in Your Pocket
The beauty of all this is that it doesn’t require a lot of work. Today’s teen or preteen carries more video power in her pocket or purse than was available when Debbie Doom (yes, that was her real name, and what a great name it was) was dominating hitters, Lisa Fernandez and Sheila Cornell-Douty were winning gold medals in the Olympics, and Linda Lensch was becoming a USA Softball Hall of Famer.
All you have to do is take that device out of wherever it is, prop it against a nearby bench, bat bag, or rock, and hit “record!” Then you have instant feedback on where you are and whether what you’re practicing is making the player better – or worse.
She can even do it by herself. And if the coach says it’s ok, she can even send it to the coach’s phone or other device to receive additional feedback to make sure she stays on track.
That’s sure a lot faster and easier than the early 2000s, when I started coaching. Back then it was a production.
I had to bring a laptop and separate video camera, set up the camera on a tripod, connect the video feed to the laptop and then whatever video tool I was using, and then manipulate it all to run it back. I had to plan it all ahead too, and hope an errant throw didn’t knock out the camera or laptop.
Now it’s just pull out the phone, open the app, shoot, and review.
Opportunity Knocks
The opportunity here is tremendous, and the cost is nil if you already have a phone or tablet. So why wouldn’t you take advantage of it?
By incorporating video into their practice sessions players can learn more effectively – and reach their goals faster.
Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Phone photo by Wendy Wei on Pexels.com
Body Language and Finding the Diamond Within the Coal
Today’s topic was suggested by a longtime friend and reader who is also a highly successful travel and high school fastpitch softball coach as well as a private instructor.
His name is Darrell, but he is mostly known to members of the Discuss Fastpitch Forum by his screen name of Cannonball. He is well known for offering great advice and counsel on a whole variety of subjects in the softball world.
The topic he suggested was about not being too quick to judge a player by her body language, or give up on her too quickly, because there may be more going on beneath the surface than we might realize. (As a corollary to that idea, players need to be careful about the story their body language is telling about them, especially when college coaches are around. But that’s a topic for another day.)
Cannonball then went on to tell me about a player who crossed his path whose every posture, gesture, and facial expression gave off an “I don’t like this, I don’t want to be here” vibe. It’s tough to work with players who seem like they don’t want to put in the effort to get better, so he was ready to write her off like everyone else.
But he was asked to work with her on hitting so he decided to dig a little deeper and find out what her story was before making any final decisions.
It turns out that she was A) playing for everyone else and their expectations instead of herself and B) constantly being compared to other players who were maybe a little more advanced at the time instead of being allowed to grow at her own pace.
This is definitely a common story, especially at the younger ages. Young people grow and mature and get control of their bodies at different times and in different ways. The girl who is scrawny and awkward at 10, or short and pudgy at 12, just might turn out to be an excellent athlete once she gets better control of her limbs and/or the puberty wand hits her.
There is even a blurb going around the book of many of faces that addresses this, and how the kid who is behind at 10 years old just may turn out to be the best of the bunch when she is 14 or 16. Anyone who’s been around kids for any length of time has seen that happen time and time again.
Yet all too often coaches whose obsession is winning or parents who desperately want their kid to be a star are quick to dismiss or even denigrate those kids when they fail to measure up to the coach’s or parents’ expectations. When that happens, something that should bring joy and be a relief from the challenges of everyday life instead becomes yet another burden.
And, since most youngsters aren’t too good at hiding their emotions, those negative feelings often show up in body language, facial expressions, and “attitude” that makes it look like those kids don’t want to be there or don’t care. In many cases it’s a defense mechanism to protect that child against any further expectations so their self-image or feelings aren’t hurt any further.
Then, after a while, that mask they’re wearing becomes their actual attitude or approach. At which point the downward spiral continues.
That’s why you don’t want to be too quick to judge poor body language or an apparent bad/sad attitude before taking a look under the hood to see what’s underlying it.
In some cases, it may be that the player really isn’t interested in softball and would rather be spending her time doing something else. If that is the case, a good coach will help her figure out what she really wants to do (and how to tell her parents) then do his/her best to make the remaining softball experience as pleasant as it can be for all.
But if there is a spark there waiting to be lit, instead of just relegating the player to the bench or shining her on entirely a good coach will dig below the surface to see what’s really going on and help turn that spark into a four-alarm blaze.
That’s what Cannonball did for the girl he thought didn’t want to be there. He says:
It seems that she was playing for everyone else and not herself. It seems that she could never be good enough. It seems that she was constantly compared to other players and did not measure up. I had to address that first. She had to be told to play for herself and if she enjoyed the game and her efforts, the rest was just noise she needed to avoid.
She was doing ok on her TB team and as we progressed and she understood the reasons why she was playing, she took off. She went from 7th in the lineup to 3rd. She became a hard charger this summer.
Heck, we were getting ready for a hitting session and it started sprinkling as she did her pre-lesson routine. I told her we might have to cancel since it was going to begin raining harder. She said that she had nationals and wanted one more lesson. We/she hit in the pouring rain.
Wow, what a turnaround, and what a story! All because a caring coach pushed past the surface to find out more about the player and why she didn’t seem too enthused about playing ball.
Yes, it can be difficult. It’s definitely much easier to take your best players and put them on the field while leaving out the others. Especially if your main goal is to win no matter what.
But think about the impact Cannonball made on this young lady.
Maybe she’ll go on to play in college, or maybe she won’t. But also maybe his believing in her, and helping her to believe in herself, will lead to her doing more in her life in some other aspect and contributing something great to society than she might have otherwise.
Oh, and while we have been focused on the younger ages, this also goes for older players. Perhaps you’re a 16U or 18U or high school coach with a player who came to softball late.
Maybe she doesn’t quite measure up to some of your other players yet. Maybe she’s a little intimidated by the others because she sees the difference in skill levels.
But if she’s working hard, why not find a way to encourage her and give her an opportunity to test her skills? The confidence boost you give her might just lead to her surprising you on the field – and making a difference in her life off of it.
It’s easy to dismiss a player whose body language makes it look like she doesn’t want to be there. But don’t fall into the trap of assuming.
Before you write her off as a lost cause, find out what’s happening below the surface. You may find there’s a diamond under there waiting to be brought out.
Diamond photo Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Natural white diamond.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Natural_white_diamond.jpg&oldid=610400260 (accessed November 18, 2023).
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 
