Category Archives: Coaching
Re-Thinking the Traditional Batting Order
One of the most important responsibilities a team coach has is putting together a batting order that will produce runs. Yet all too often these same coaches become so bound to a particular way of thinking that they don’t take advantage of opportunities that might be available to them if they’re willing to think a little bit outside the box.
Let’s start with what is the norm for most teams. The traditional batting order usually looks something like this:
- Leadoff – Fastest girl who can put the ball in play reliably; often a slapper if one is available; tends to hit mostly singles; often called a “table setter”
- Two hitter – Primary job is to move the leadoff along when she gets on base, either by hitting a single, bunting, or hitting behind the runner; mostly puts the ball in play on the ground
- Three hitter – Best all-around hitter on the team; can hit for power, hit for average, doesn’t strike out much; her job is to bring the table setters in
- Cleanup – Your most powerful hitter, the girl who is a threat to go yard any time she steps up to the plate; not too worried about average so it’s ok if she strikes out a lot as long as she hits those deep balls
- Five hitter – Second-best all-around hitter on the team; she’d be the three hitter if three wasn’t there; maybe has a little lower average or slugging percentage than three but still a huge threat at the plate
- Six hitter – She’s ok and you hope to get her on base but you also know it’s not as likely; mostly a singles hitter, might be good at drawing walks
- Seven hitter – Great defensive player
- Eight hitter – Shows flashes of being good but not strong enough to make the top five; probably there to drive in six and/or seven in case either one is fortunate enough to get on base
- Nine hitter – Second base candidate for leadoff; while she thinks you put her there because you think she’s bad, you’re actually hoping she gets on base so the top of the lineup can drive her in; generally fast, could be a developing slapper; OR, your worst hitter who you’re trying to limit in how many times she comes to the plate
That’s a lineup that has worked for many teams for decades, and certainly a valid approach. But it’s not the only one.
One of the determining factors should be your personnel, i.e., your players and how they hit. A smart coach will look at who he/she has available and will try to take the best advantage of them regardless of what the “experts” say.
And in doing so, he/she may just catch the more traditional-thinking coaches off guard as they call pitches based on their assumptions. Here are a couple of examples.
More power at the top
Instead of opening with a couple of table setters, try taking a traditional five hitter and batting her at leadoff. She hits for average so will likely get on base, and since she also hits for power she could lead off the game with a double or triple.
That way you already have a runner in scoring position after one batter and have three outs to bring her in. Statistically you’re more likely to score in that situation than if you get a runner on first and sacrifice her to second. You also deflate the opposing team (and especially their pitcher) psychologically by opening with a big hit.
Then put your traditional three hitter in the two spot. A second big hit in a row scores the first one and probably leaves this hitter in scoring position as well.
Worst case you have two runners on base with no outs, with one or both already in scoring position. Then put your cleanup hitter in the three slot.
If she goes yard you have three runs before you have any outs, and even if she just hits a deep fly ball that’s caught you score one and probably advance the other runner to second or third where you still have two outs to bring her in. Worst case she strikes out but you still have two more outs to score at least one run.
From there, you can bunch your traditional one, two, and nine hitters to see if you can scratch a couple more runs together. You might want to put two in the four spot so that the traditional four, if she gets on base, isn’t in the way of your speedsters.
With this lineup you maximize the number of at-bats your best hitters get while minimizing the at-bats of your weakest hitters. It does create a potential hitter desert at the bottom of the lineup so you have to hope the top does its job so you’re not depending on the bottom to win a close game.
But hey, no risk, no reward.
Focus on speed
What if you don’t have any (or at least not many) big hitters? In that case you might want to bunch your fastest players (who can hit) at the top and try to create havoc and errors with aggressive baserunning.
Your leadoff hitter would be the same as a traditional lineup. But then bring the traditional nine up to the two slot, and follow her with another speedster in the three slot.
With three girls who can get on base with a slight bobble you are putting a lot of pressure on the defense to perform. And as we’ve all seen, errors often happen in bunches.
Force one bad throw that results in an extra base or two, then keep applying the pressure, and you may get another, or a fielding error as the fielder tries to rush her play on the ball. You could easily end up with a run or two without the ball leaving the infield.
You could also end up with demoralized opponents, especially if the opposing coach has to stop the game to yell at his/her players about making plays.
After those first three, put in whoever is closest to a traditional three (great power, great average) to see if you can clear whoever is left off the bases. You can then start again with speed, or if you have a traditional cleanup hitter put her in there before going back to the speed game.
The 5-4 lineup
There is probably a better name for this one but this is what I call it.
Basically what you’re doing is structuring the lineup so the first five hitters follow the tradition lineup. But then then next four act like a second top of the lineup.
In other words, your six hitter would probably be your traditional nine – the girl who would be leadoff if you didn’t have your one hitter. The seven hitter will be a traditional six – decent hitter but not good enough to crack the top five.
The eight hitter would be the same, a budding traditional three or five. Then the nine spot would be that great defensive player. You’re basically willing to take the out, or maybe that’s a good spot for the designated player to add one more decent bat to the lineup.
The turtle parade
This one is definitely driven by your personnel. And as you can probably guess by the name, while your team can hit pretty well it’s not exactly blessed with speed.
In this case I’d say take your fastest player who can get on base regularly and put her in the leadoff spot. She may not be all that fast, but compared to the others she’s a rabbit so give her the opportunity to run.
From there, if everyone is about 4 seconds or more down to first, base your lineup on batting averages – highest in the two spot, second highest in the three spot, etc. Figure you’re going to mostly be running station-to-station, so give the most reliable hitters the most at-bats.
Just be sure not to put the slowest turtle in the nine spot, because if she gets on base your only girl with any speed at all is going to be stuck behind her.
Be creative
Those are just a few options. A lot of what you can or should do will depend on who you have on your team and how consistent they are.
One other thing to keep in mind is how they handle things psychologically. I can tell you from personal experience I was a good three or five hitter, but for whatever reason struggled at four.
I’ve also coached girls who could hit .750 from the seven spot, but put them at one or two and they folded like a cheap card table. When weighing your options be sure to account for those factors.
With a little creativity, however, and a willingness to buck the norms (even when the parents don’t get it) you can find a lineup that helps you produce more runs and win more ballgames. And look like an offensive guru in the process.
How to Increase Your Coaching ROI
If there’s one thing just about every coach complains about when talking about coaching challenges it’s that they simply don’t have enough time.
It seems like there’s always a hundred things to go over in every practice and about 20 minutes to go over them. Hopefully things aren’t really that bad, but it can certainly feel that way.
So with that type of work/time pressure it’s important for coaches to invest their limited time where it will do the most good. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, many seem to do the opposite of what they ought to be doing.
What mistake is it that so many make? Spending too much time trying to “fix” their best players, i.e., the ones who are performing best on the field, while ignoring or giving scant time to every one else.
I see it and hear about it all the time. Let’s say you have your top three hitters, all of whom are hitting the ball for average and power.
Their batting averages are above .333, which is pretty darned good unless the teams you’re playing are pretty darned bad, and their on base percentages (OBP) and on base plus slugging (OPS) are equally on the high end.
Then you have the bottom part of the order that can’t hit water if they fell out of a boat. (Thank you Bull Durham – one more funny line to add to last week’s blog post.)
Every time one of them comes to the plate in a tight game you suddenly rediscover religion, hoping and praying that somehow they manage to put the bat on the ball, even if it results in a duck snort or a swinging bunt, so for once you can move those runners along and score a little more than you usually do.
So where do you think you will get the best return on investment for your time and effort in practice?
To me, logic says that if you can improve those bottom few players and get them to go from poor to even below average, you’re going to score more runs and win more games. That would be a huge gain that would continue to pay dividends throughout the season.
Ok, now, answer this: where do most coaches tend to spend the bulk of their time? Unfortunately, it’s trying to make incremental improvements with their top three hitters.
Why do they do that? Because A) it’s more fun to work with a good or great player than with one who seems to barely know which end of the bat to hold and B) they often want to get a share in the glory that comes with seeing a player they’ve coached go on to do well. In other words, they want to stake their claim that they helped that player become the star she is today – even if their suggestions were actually getting in the way of that great player playing great.
The reality is it isn’t that hard for a bad coach to screw up a high-performing player. All he/she has to do is give bad advice and then insist that it be followed.
For example, the coach can tell a top-performing hitter that she should widen her stance and not stride, even though her narrower stance and normal stride have been resulting in her hitting bombs. Then the coach stands there during batting practice and forces the hitter to follow the advice he/she gave until that hitter is dragged down to the level of everyone else.
Or there’s the case of the coach who thinks he/she knows everything about pitching and decides to have all his/her pitchers do a certain set of drills he/she saw at a coaching clinic instead of realizing that the top pitcher(s) got that way by doing whatever it is they’ve been doing.
Throwing in an arbitrary set of drills just because he/she can could end up hurting the top pitcher’s performance on the field, creating unnecessary losses. If the coach feels he/she has to contribute to the pitchers, do it with the ones who are already struggling. They have far less to lose – and so does the team.
As the high school and college seasons end and the rec and travel ball seasons begin in most of the country, please keep this idea in mind: You will gain far more benefit by investing the bulk of your time bringing your least-performing players up to an average level than you will by trying to wring a little more performance out of players who are already playing at a high level.
This is a team sport, after all, and no single player, no matter how good they are, can make up for eight others who are below average. But bring the rest, or even a few of the rest, up to a higher level than they were and you’ll stand a much better chance of putting more Ws on the board.
One last thought: don’t assume you know who your best players are just by gut feel. Look at their stats too.
You may just be pleasantly surprised – and it will help you narrow down where you spend your limited time.
Funny Lines for Your Back Pocket
We’ve all experienced this phenomenon at one time or another. You get into an argument or a tense situation and instead of defusing the situation with a witty one-liner you just choke out some nonsense.
Then later on you think of the perfect comeback or bon mot, but by that time it’s far too late to say it because the moment is over.
Well, my softball friends, I have a solution for you. Instead of trying to think up something clever to say on the spot, it’s better to have a set of great one-liner in your back pocket that you can pull out when the occasion warrants it.
But you’re not a funny person who can come up with one-liners even when you’re not under pressure? Or the ones you do come up with tend to thud?
Not to worry, because we’re going to put some of Hollywood’s and the entertainment industry’s best writers on the job for you. Spend a little time committing these lines from movies and TV shows to memory, along with my suggestions on when use them, and you’ll quickly be revered as that person who always knows what to say when the need arises.
I know all the lines aren’t exactly from the movie or TV show, but they have been adapted to match the situation or reference softball or keep it appropriate for all ages. Attributions are in parentheses afterward.
- Your pitcher gives up a home run and you have to make a circle visit #1 – Wow. Anything that travels that far in the air should have a flight attendant on it. (Bull Durham)
- Your pitcher gives up a home run and you have to make a circle visit #2 – Don’t worry, that wouldn’t have been out of a lot of parks. Like Yellowstone, Yosemite, etc. (Major League)
- Your pitcher gives up a home run and you have to make a circle visit #3 – Looks like she launched that one toward South America (Major League)
- You take a risky suggestion from an assistant coach or even a player, then send the team off to do it; you then look at the person who made the suggestion and say – This had better work. (Moneyball and The Imitation Game)
- Pre-game speech before an important game – A win right now takes us to the championship (or whatever) so it’s very important we don’t stink today. (That Thing You Do)
- Answer to the above statement from a player – I make no guarantees. (Also from that Thing You Do)
- Response to a parent who has “a few thoughts” on how you should run the team – I have your phone number. When what you think becomes important to me I’ll give you a call. (NYPD Blue, although that one may not quite defuse the situation. It’s still funny though.)
- When a pitcher throws a wild pitch into the backstop – JUST a bit outside (or wherever it happened to land. (Major League)
- When someone tells a hitter her brain is getting in the way of her hitting – Well, can’t say that’s happened very often. (Tin Cup)
- When the whole team is getting down on themselves or getting nervous – Remember that softball is a game, and games are supposed to be fun. (Mr. Baseball)
- When the team has a particularly bad inning or makes a particularly bad series of goofs on one play – Well, that was a defining moment, and the definition was *poop* – (Tin Cup)
I think that’s plenty to get you started. Just think of the situations you think you’re most likely to find yourself in and focus on those first. Then you’ll be ready for whatever comes your way.
Laughing photo by Hannah Nelson on Pexels.com
The Art of Pitch Calling
Whenever a group of fastpitch softball fanatics gets together to talk about pitching, they (we) often talk about the three S’s – speed, spin, spot. You need a healthy dose of all three to be successful, especially at the higher levels.
Within that, however, there is one significant caveat.
Success with speed and spin is almost entirely pitcher-driven. In other words, when you get into a game the pitcher takes whatever skill she has acquired in these areas and applies it to the best of her ability.
Spot, however, is a little different, because often the pitcher doesn’t really have a choice in which spot she is throwing to. She may want to (or prefer to) throw high and inside in a particular situation, for example, but if whoever is calling the pitches wants it low and out that’s where she’s expected to throw it.
That’s what makes pitching calling such an art. No matter how great the pitcher is at hitting her spots, that alone isn’t enough. The pitch caller also has to be smart enough or experienced enough to call the right pitch in each situation or all that spot-hitting ability is essentially neutralized. Or even detrimental.
So how do you go about calling pitches? That really depends on the level of play and the ability of the pitch caller to determine what will work based on all the available information.
For example, in the P5 conferences, and I’m assuming many other collegiate programs, the team has a wealth of data on each hitter and what her tendencies are. Especially for long-term players. There’s a lot of data science in it.
They know what pitches and locations a hitter strikes out on the most and what she pummels over the fence on a regular basis. They know if she’s susceptible to certain locations based on past performance and they know which pitcher threw that particular pitch.
After all, if a hitter has trouble on the inside against a pitcher who throws 70 mph, it doesn’t mean she’ll always have trouble in that location. The more varying the data is, and the more of it you have, the better chance you have of making a good decision.
That, incidentally, is why some freshmen or newly elevated-to-starter-status players will start out hot and then cool as the season wears on. At first there isn’t much reliable data about them, but eventually it starts to accumulate.
But what if you don’t have the luxury of well-populated spray charts and other data? That’s where it becomes more of an art form.
There are some charts out there (like this one) that offer some guidance based on things you can observe. Most of them are based on common sense, such as if a hitter is crowding the plate try to jam her inside with your fastest pitch.
Again, however, it’s not quite that formulaic. It could be that this particular hitter is crowding the plate because she is awesome at hitting inside pitches and not so good at hitting outside pitches.
You try to smoke her inside and she’s going to turn on the ball and launch a very long, dispiriting home run.
That’s why it’s important to develop a feel for pitch calling rather than simply relying on charts or conventional wisdom or other things from the past. You need to be able to look at a hitter and see what she’s bringing to the plate that day.
Another important skill is learning how to set the hitter up for the outcome you want. For example, if she awkwardly swings at a low outside pitch for strike one, she just showed you she’s probably not comfortable out there.
Try another one a little further off the plate. If that induces strike two, see if you can get her to swing at a curveball off the plate.
If she doesn’t bite, you can try coming inside, then going back outside again if necessary. The idea is to make sure she never gets totally comfortable with what she’s seeing.
Another good strategy is if the hitter fouls a ball straight back on a speed pitch (fastball or drop ball), come back at her with a changeup. If you make her look bad with that she’ll probably figure you’re coming in for the kill with a speed pitch again so maybe throw her another change that falls off as it reaches the plate.
The possibilities are endless. The key is to see where she looks least comfortable and use that information to keep her off-balance and uncertain.
One other key piece of information when you’re calling pitches is to never throw more strikes than you have to. What does that mean?
When you get two strikes on a hitter it’s tempting to try to just put her away right then and there by overpowering her, especially at the younger ages. But unless the other team’s hitters are completely over-matched by your pitcher, that’s a bad idea.
They’ve already had an up-close and personal look at two pitches. If the hitter is any good at all she is starting to figure out your pitcher a little more.
Instead, throw a ball that looks like a strike. It could be a drop or curve or rise that starts in the zone but gets out of it by the time it reaches the plate.
It could be a fastball that’s a ball’s width too high or too wide to be hit effectively. It could be a dying quail of a changeup that starts out thigh-high and then hits the plate or the dirt in front of it.
Just don’t give them anything too good to hit. Work the edges, throw off the hitter’s rhythm, or do something else to make sure she can’t take her best swing at the ball and you’re likely to achieve much better results.
While there is science to pitch calling, at the end of the day it’s still more of an art. And like any art, some people have a knack for it and others don’t.
If you find you’re a don’t-have, find someone else on the team who does have it – an assistant coach, a catcher, even another pitcher – and let them do it. If there are no other options talk to people you know who are good at it to learn their thought processes as to why they call the pitches they do.
That way when you call a spot you’ll not only expect your pitcher to hit it. You’ll be confident it’s a spot worth hitting.
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.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 