Category Archives: General Thoughts
Unhappy with Your Situation? Try Subbing
At any given time, but especially during the heart of the season, there are players (and parents) who are unhappy with either the amount of playing time they’re getting or the amount of playing time they’re getting at their preferred position.
I get that. You don’t sign up for a team and spend thousands of dollars on player fees, uniforms, equipment, travel expenses, and maybe even private lessons and personal training sessions just to get a closer seat to the action. You don’t spend all that time and effort working on the skills for one position only to never get the chance to try those skills out under actual game conditions.
Now, if you’re on a middle school or high school team you have two options: accept it or move. You can also entertain the option of complaining to the administration or school board but to be honest I’ve never seen that work personally, and have rarely heard about it working.
Your better bet is to find a good real estate agent and start packing.
If you’re in college you do have the option of transferring the old-fashioned way or entering the transfer portal. But just be aware if you opt for the latter of those two you could find yourself without a place to play next year.
If, however, you are playing travel ball you do have another option – you can sub for another team without giving up your place on your current team.
Subbing is a great way to test out the waters to see if you actually have the goods to play more/play a particular position more with essentially no risk (providing your current team doesn’t outright prohibit it).
What you want to do is look for a team at or below your current team’s skill level that is in desperate need of a couple more players in order to play in a tournament, round robin, or other situation. You don’t want to just be there for insurance in case someone gets hurt; you want to know they will actually need you on the field and at the plate.
If you’re looking to sub at a particular position – especially pitcher, catcher, or shortstop – be sure to look for those opportunities specifically. If you’re a pitcher looking for an opportunity to show her stuff, the last place you need to be is on a team that will already have four pitchers available that weekend and just needs a player or two in the outfield.
Basically, you want to look for an opportunity where the team you’re subbing for is forced to put you where you want to be. At which point it’s then up to you to perform.
One of the great things about subbing is that it takes some of the pressure off of you when you’re given your opportunity. Even under the best of circumstances, where your current coaches are rooting for you, you know that if you don’t perform it will probably hurt your future chances.
That adds a lot of pressure to the opportunities you are being given. It’s tough to perform well with a gun to your head.
And, of course, if your current coaches already don’t think much of you, any failure to perform will just reinforce their already low opinions of you.
If you’re subbing under the right circumstances, though, worst case is you find out your current coaches are right that you’re not ready, you get through the round robin or tournament as best you can, and you get back to work. That happens.
Best case is you get the opportunity to prove to yourself (as well as others) that you are, in fact, ready to play regularly and contribute and you build more confidence. Then, if you’re given an opportunity on your own team you can approach it with a “watch this!” attitude.
And if you still don’t get the opportunities with your current team, you can start making plans for next year knowing that someone will want to take advantage of what you now have to offer.
Think of it like a software app. Many paid apps offer a 14-day or 30-day free trial before you’re actually required to pay for it. This trial period gives you a chance to see how the software works and if it does the job you want it to do.
Subbing is your free trial. If it works out great!
If it doesn’t work out you’ve learned something about yourself and can keep working to put yourself into the position you want to be in – literally as well as figuratively.
There are plenty of places to learn about subbing opportunities – friends, former teammates, co-workers, Facebook groups, etc. Keep your eyes and ears open and when your schedules align do your best to take advantage of them.
It just might be the situation that launches your playing career in a new direction. Not to mention being a lot of fun.
8 Valuable Lessons from the 2026 WCWS
The Division 1 Women’s College World Series (WCWS) has come and gone – a little sooner than some would have liked, and not the outcome everyone was looking for depending on which team (or player) was their favorite. But it was definitely entertaining throughout and a great showcase for our sport.
According to Yahoo! Sports, the first five days saw an average of 1.5 million TV viewers per game, an increase of 33 percent year-over-year before the final series. Some games got more than 2 million viewers, with the peak being 2.6 million. No word yet on the final series, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they topped 3 million.
For me, though, one of the best things to come out of it for rec league, travel ball, and high school players, parents, and coaches is to see the approach to the game used at such a high level. There are, as always, several lessons that can be learned and applied if people are willing to do so.
Here are a few of the big ones from my perspective
Lesson #1 – Even the Best Players Make Mistakes
And sometimes at critical moments. Coaches and parents of youth players tend to get very upset or even angry when their fielders make errors in the field, catchers don’t block properly and a ball gets away from them, pitchers throw a pitch straight down the pipe that gets blasted for a game-changing home run, etc. Yet if you watched the WCWS for any length of time you saw at least some if not all of those things happen – and often to some pretty big-name players.
I didn’t get to see all the games (although I have the ones I missed on the DVR for later viewing), but I did see two fielding errors made on ground balls in the 7th inning of an elimination game. You wouldn’t expect that since they were fairly simple plays but there you go.
What I didn’t see is the coach of that team charge angrily out of the dugout and scream at those players, or even worse yank them out of the game in the middle of the inning yelling about how they have “expectations” and all that. Instead, the team just moved on, played the game, and ended up winning anyway.
The same with critical home runs. There were some big-name pitchers who have won many accolades and accomplished much during their collegiate careers who unfortunately didn’t quite throw the pitch they were going for and watched as their WCWS run – and in some cases their careers – essentially ended.
I saw fielders attempting to place a tag before fully catching the ball and instead knocking it away from them, allowing another run to score instead of killing the play. I saw fielders throw balls away on relatively routine plays, and catchers let pitches in the dirt get by them because they tried to pick the ball instead of blocking with their bodies.
None of them set out to make those mistakes. They just happened. unfortunately with 1-2 million people watching. Keep that in mind the next time you’re mad that your daughter or your player(s) made a mistake.
It happens.
Lesson #2 – The Changeup Is An Important Pitch
Not really a lesson for me – I’m quite aware of it, honestly – but it was probably a good lesson for many.
It’s easy to get caught up in speed, speed, speed. We all love it when we have pitchers who can throw harder than the competition can handle.
But speed alone is not enough. If you watched for any length of time you saw the top pitchers using their changeups liberally.
It may be a cliche to say that hitting is about timing and pitching is about upsetting that timing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Keeping hitters off-balance by changing speeds is critical when the hitting is that good.
Two things to note about changeups too:
- The speed differential between their fastest pitches and the changeup was generally in the 10-15 mph range. No one was taking 4 or 5 mph off and calling it a changeup. You need to commit to a big enough difference to make a difference.
- No one was slowing their arms or their bodies down to get that speed differential. To be effective you need to be able to go as hard, move your arm as fast, and generally look like you’re going to throw the fastest pitch you’re going to throw all day while having it be slower due to the design of the pitch. If you have to slow down any part of your body to throw a changeup I’m sorry, you’re not throwing a changeup. Just a more hittable version of your fastball.
Lesson #3 – Pitchers Need Time to Warm Up
I’ve seen multiple people point this out, and I have talked about it before as well, so I won’t belabor it too much here. But at no time did you see a coach make a pitching substitution by pulling a player out of a field position and just have her go in and throw cold.
The best example here was Texas Tech. When Coach Glasco decided to pull NiJaree Canady in favor of Kaitlyn Terry, who was already in the game in a field position, he didn’t just call time and bring her in from the field. He took her off the field, sent her to the bullpen, and had her do a proper warm-up.
The lesson here is if one of the best and most experienced pitchers in the world can’t just walk in and be effective, there is no reason for you to expect your 12, 14, 16, even 18 year old pitcher to be able to do it. Give them time to warm up and you’ll like the results much better.
Lesson #4 – Coach Your Players the Way That Works for Them
Coaches often like to talk about their coaching style. Some are proud of being tough. Others hang their livelihoods on being empathetic.
But the reality is, if you’re going to be effective you can’t have just one coaching style. You have to be able to adjust what you’re doing to what is most effective for each player, i.e., you need about as many coaching styles as you have players.
Some players need to be coached hard. If you’re not doing that for them they feel like you don’t care about them.
Others would crumble under that style. They need to feel like you understand them and have their backs; they need support not screaming.
As a coach, it’s your job to figure out what your players need and deliver it to them in a way that helps them play their best.
What makes it even more complicated is that some players may require different coaching styles depending on the situation. If you come down hard when they need empathy, or tell them “that’s ok” when they need you to be firm so they get out of their own heads, you won’t get what you want.
If you take the time to get to know the person first and then the player, you’ll stand a much better chance of giving them what they need when they need it. And getting their very best performance out of them.
Lesson #5 – The Short Game Is Still Important
Sure, no doubt about it, ESPN loves the long ball. You get a couple of hitters going yard and it’s going to show up in the between-innings highlights, and maybe even later on SportsCenter.
Bunting and slapping may be less glamorous, but if you work at them they can be more reliable.
No matter what it seems like on TV, it’s still difficult to hit the ball out of the park. A lot of things have to go right in order for that to happen, and you generally need a certain set of skills and mindset to do it regularly.
Bunting in particular, however, is a skill that every player can and should have. Now, I’m definitely not a fan of the automatic sacrifice bunt of a runner on first to second, especially early in the game.
But there are times when a well-placed, well-timed bunt can be a game changer.
Slapping seems to be making more of a comeback as well. As former Arizona coach Mike Candrea always said, speed never has a slump.
Put it in play, make the defense rush, and you can make something good happen. Especially in the postseason.
Lesson #6 – Be Ready When Your Opportunity Comes
Everybody wants to be a starter. If you don’t at some level you’re not much of a competitor.
But there are only 9 positions on the field, and teams usually have more than 9 players. That means some of them will be sitting out.
I can remember two instances offhand, however, where a pinch hitter came in off the bench and turned a game around with one swing. That doesn’t happen if she hasn’t mentally prepared herself to be ready if and when her number is called.
If you’re a bench player you have a tough job. But remember you’re there to do more than just cheer for the others.
Prepare yourself mentally and physically to go into the game at a moment’s notice to ensure that when your number is called you get the job done. And perhaps set yourself up for a more regular role in the future.
Lesson #7 – There’s No One Right Way to Do Everything
As we watched the 8 teams in the WCWS, not to mention all the others in the lead-up to it, if there’s one thing all the players had in common it’s that they were all at least a little different from each other.
Yes, there certainly are some core principles for various skills such as throwing, pitching, fielding, hitting, etc. But you could hardly say everyone doing each skill looked exactly the same.
Jordy Frahm, Karlyn Pickens, NiJaree Canady, Kaitlyn Terry, Tegan Kavan, and Citlaly Guitierrez were all great pitchers, but you could definitely pick out one from another. They shared some similarities, sure, but not enough to say if you clone this you will be successful.
So as you’re working with players, keep that in mind. Realize your 5’10” 155 lb. hitter is not going to have the same swing as your 5’0″ 95 lb. hitter.
Even the things they do have in common will probably look a little different from one another due to different muscular structures, levels of balance, injury history, conditioning and a whole bunch of other factors. So don’t try to get them all to look like each other – or like someone you saw on TV.
Instead, work within their own frameworks in a way that gets the best out of each individual and you will be a lot more satisfied with the results.
Lesson #8 – Sportsmanship Still Matters
The WCWS has become more of a high-stakes event than ever, which means any problems that were present in past years, or are present now at the lower levels, are far more magnified. No one wants to lose with all the NIL money at stake and/or in front of millions of fans.
Still, we saw plenty of examples of good sportsmanship, whether it was a baserunner and a fielder having a quick laugh between pitches, losing teams setting aside their sadness long enough to shake hands, or opposing coaches crediting the other team for its good play.
We also saw some questionable examples but there’s no need to go into those here. Just remember that while things can get tough in the heat of the moment, the moment will pass but how you conduct yourself will be remembered forever. Be a good person and a good example and you will never go wrong.
Plenty More
These were not the only lessons, but I think they were some key ones from the biggest stage in the fastpitch softball world. At least in terms of audience reach.
Keep them in mind and you’re likely to be a whole lot happier when you watch your own kids/players play.
Now it’s your turn. What lessons did you take away from the 2026 WCWS? Leave your thoughts in the comments please so we can all learn from them.
Take One Last, Sweet Look Around
The weather has gone from wet and chilly to pleasant and sunny (or brutally hot, depending on where you live). Senior night festivities have come and gone.
Conference tournaments have started and in many cases finished. State tournaments are looming.
Yes, it’s that bittersweet time of the year, because it doesn’t just mean the end of the high school softball season. It means the end of high school softball for some players period, and for all too many the end of their softball careers.
You remember how it all started, maybe with a flyer from the school announcing rec league tee ball or coach pitch softball. Your daughter brought it home and said, “Can I?” and you said, “Sure, why not?” After all, it’s just a few weeks April through June, and not much of a time commitment even then.
Hah! Little did you know.
Then came the first travel team, with tournaments on a few weekends turning into tournaments practically every weekend. Trips within a 25-mile radius that were drive in and drive out turned into trips out of state, maybe even across the country, with hotel stays and the other accompanying expenses.
Soon it was consuming much of your time and disposable resources, but you didn’t mind. It was fun to watch your daughter do what she loves.
Yes, there were some bumps along the way. Maybe it was a batting slump. Or a stretch where it seemed like she made more errors than plays, or couldn’t find a radioactive plate with a Geiger counter if she was pitching.
It may have even been a coach who thought yelling and screaming = motivation. Or a group of girls with which your daughter just wasn’t a good fit.
But all of that was minor compared to all the great times you spent watching your daughter play the sport she loves – and all the car rides to and from the field where you not only talked about softball (hopefully in a positive, “wasn’t that fun?” way) but also got to know her better as a person because the two of you were trapped together for hours on end. She shared her hopes, dreams, frustrations, feelings and more in a way she probably wouldn’t have at home.
Now, however, those days are pretty much behind you. You will watch your daughter put on her uniform, lace up her cleats, grab her bat bag, and head out to the field like she has so many times before.
But instead of thinking ahead to where you have to be next weekend, this will be it – your last chance to watch her play in a competitive situation, where every pitch feels like life and death and every triumph is magnified 10-fold.
Sure, as you tried to balance the responsibilities of life with the pleasure of watching your daughter play it all seemed like it was just one mad rush from one event to the next. But soon there will be no need to rush, because you have nowhere special to be today. Next Saturday morning you can sleep in.
Then all that gear will be gathering dust in a closet the way your vehicle used to gather diamond dirt in every crevice. Maybe she’ll grab her glove and bat and play now and then with her friends in a slow pitch league.
But it won’t be the same.
So before it’s all over, remember to take in the aroma of that fresh-cut grass and the sensation of the warm sun on your skin as you wait for the game to begin. Appreciate the feeling of dust blowing onto arms and a face lightly coated with sweat, coating you with grime that never quite seems to wash off, and the sound of cleats crunching on the infield dirt or clattering on the concrete dugout floor.
Not to mention the challenge of washing deep ground dirt out of bright white pants because some idiot coach thought white pants look good. (Guilty!)
Savor every last bit of it. Because when it’s over it’s over.
And when the last out as been recorded, take a moment before you pack up the camp chairs and the snacks and the blankets and everything else you’ve carried from field to field these many years. Burn it into your mind.
Years from now you’ll remember these as some of the best years of your life. Because they were.
Good luck to all the graduates – and their families!
Top photo credit; Michelle Josko
IN Softball or INTO Softball: There’s a Difference
I’ve been listening to a lot of Dr. Rob Gilbert’s Success Hotline calls and the accompanying podcast lately. If you’re not familiar with Dr. Gilbert he’s a sports psychology professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
If you’re not listening to him you should be, because he has a lot of great insights on how athletes, or anyone for that matter, can train themselves to be more successful. Thank you to my friend Linda Lensch, the pitching coach at Montclair State, for turning me on to him.
One thing I heard Dr. Gilbert ask recently is a question that is really critical to an athlete’s or a coach’s or anyone’s approach to whatever they do. In our case, though, we will limit it to softball.
The question is, are you IN softball, or are you INTO softball?
What’s the difference you ask? It’s huge. .
Let’s take practice and ask the same question: are you IN practice or INTO practice? In other words, did you show up and are being compliant with whatever the coach says? Or are you really digging in and giving your best effort on every repetition, trying to maximize the value of the drill or the exercise or whatever it is you’re doing?
If you’re at a private lesson, are you going through the motions and/or putting in a little effort, or are you really engaged in whatever the activity is? Are you trying to get through the lesson or really trying to get better?
If you’re playing a game, are you just sort of there, doing what you’re comfortable with and playing it safe or are you pushing yourself to play as well as you can.
You get the idea. But there’s more to it than that, because there are two ways to approach being INTO practice, lessons, games, etc.
If you are INTO the event, are you INTO it some of the time or are you INTO it ALL of the time?
It’s easy to put it into cruise control while you’re doing warm-ups or repeating a drill you’ve done a thousand times before or especially until the game gets critical. The sameness breeds a certain level of mindlessness as you cover the same things over and over or have gaps between plays.
But if you really want to be great at something you can’t approach it like it’s a light switch, turning it on and off depending on whether you feel like giving an effort. You need to be present and mindful (to use what I think is still the current term) on every repetition or every play to take yourself to the next level.
I admit that it’s difficult to be INTO it all the time. While the action of plays may be fast, the game of fastpitch softball moves at a slow pace relative to sports such as basketball or soccer or hockey.
There’s a lot of downtime between plays, and it’s easy to fall into the distractions trap. It’s also easy to decide that what you’re being asked to do is too hard or too unfamiliar and you’d rather do it your way.
But remember if you do what you always do you get what you always get. What you don’t get is better.
For that you have to be willing, even eager, to do more. And a big part of that is being INTO whatever it is you’re doing, not just some of the time but all of the time.
The good news is you don’t need anyone else’s help to get yourself to be INTO what you’re doing all the time. It’s a choice you alone can make.
While I’ve been taking this idea from the athlete’s point of view, it applies to coaches too. (Let’s see how many continue to cheer “right on!” when I apply it to them.)
If you’re going to be IN practice you can keep doing the same general practice plan over and over. You can even buy generic practice plans on the Internet and follow them to the letter.
If you’re IN a game, you can keep the same lineup from the beginning of the season to the end and follow the same strategies over and over regardless of how they work. That’s the easy way to go.
But if you’re INTO practice you’ll take an objective look at what your team does well in games, as well as what it struggles with, and tailor the practice to what they need to do to get better. If you’re INTO games you’ll use data and look at how other coaches are structuring their lineups or the in-game strategies (including pitch-calling sequences) they’re using to decide if perhaps you need to change it up.
Here’s the thing: most people aren’t really INTO games or practices because it’s difficult. It’s much easier to just be IN the game or practice and give a little effort now and then – or maybe none at all – and check it off the list.
But if you really want to become the best version of yourself as a player or coach, don’t just be IN softball. Be INTO it.
And not just sometimes but all the time. You’ll like the results much better.
What Seems Bad Today May Look Like a Blessing Tomorrow
We often talk about how softball is a game of failure and disappointment. Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control – not making a preferred team, giving up a home run or striking out in a key situation, losing a game that knocks you out of the playoff, having a bad game when a college coach comes out to see you, and so forth.
At the time it seems devastating – like your (or your daughter’s) whole future just came crashing down around you. That’s when it’s good to remember the story of the Zen master and the little boy, which I fully admit I am stealing from the movie Charlie Wilson’s War because that’s how big of a nerd I am.
Anyway, the story goes like this:
There’s a little boy and on his 14th birthday he gets a horse… and everybody in the village says, “how wonderful. The boy got a horse” And the Zen master says, “we’ll see.” Two years later, the boy falls off the horse, breaks his leg, and everyone in the village says, “How terrible.” And the Zen master says, “We’ll see.” Then, a war breaks out and all the young men have to go off and fight… except the boy can’t cause his legs all messed up. and everybody in the village says, “How wonderful.” To which the Zen master says, “we’ll see.” And so it goes.
The point is, sometimes in softball, as in life, things seem really important in the moment, and if the moment goes wrong it’s easy to think it’s the end of the world. Yet anyone who has been around for a while like I have (quite a while in my case) can tell you, the universe tends to unfold as it should. (I got that one from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle since I’m on a movie kick, but it’s been around since well before that.)
Us old folks can also tell you that sometimes not having things work out the way you were hoping in the moment turns out to be the best thing that could have happened to you. Let’s take making that team that was so important to you for example.
We can actually look at it two ways. Did you ever hope to make a team, actually have it happen, then find out once you’re there the coaching or the players were actually pretty toxic?
If not, consider yourself lucky. For those who experienced it, it can be pretty devastating – much worse than the temporary pain of not making the team. If it’s really intolerable you may find you need to move to another team which doesn’t have the prestige or the connections of the current team.
Yet as the Zen master said, we’ll see. Having to move to a lesser team may put you in position to gain more opportunities than you would have otherwise, helping you improve your game, and ultimately being ready when a college coach happens to catch your game. None of that would have happened had everything worked out on the first team.
On the other hand, by not making that first team you will be forced to find another, where you may meet a coach who changes your life. That wouldn’t have happened if you had gotten what you wanted in the moment.
Not making the team? How terrible. We’ll see.
What about striking out or giving up a home run in a big game? Certainly that can’t be good, can it?
Not in the moment. But what if there was a college coach there trying to decide between you and another player who has slightly better stats before offering a scholarship?
The coach saw the other player throw a helmet and sulk after striking out, or lose her cool and sulk after getting pulled from a game following having a home run hit off of her.
But when you did one of those things, you picked yourself up and were on the fence cheering for your teammates (or in the case of the pitcher your replacement). The college coach learned something about you that tipped the scales in your favor after a seemingly bad thing happened.
If you had instead gotten the hit or the out your offer might have gone to the other player based on the numbers. But because you had the opportunity to display character and took advantage of it the offer came your way instead.
(Incidentally, don’t think that wouldn’t happen in real life. On the From the Coach’s Mouth podcast Jay Bolden and I have talked to college coaches who made offers in exactly those circumstances.)
It’s kind of like the timeline in time travel movies (there I go again). One little event happens, whether positive and negative, and it sends the timeline in a slightly different direction.
And that slight difference sets you on a path that ultimately ends up being better for you in the long run.
One more non-softball example. Most people experience a bad breakup with someone they love at one time or another. At the time, it can feel like the end of the world; how will you ever live without that person in your life?
Eventually, though, you meet someone who is just flat-out better for you. They want the same things, they share the same values, they just feel “right.”
You may never have met the love of your life had you still been with the person who broke your heart. Again, while sad and painful in the moment, losing that other person set you on a path toward greater happiness than you ever thought you’d have.
So whatever disappointments or heartaches or frustrations you may be facing right now, remember the words of my great friend Tim Boivin. Whenever we faced a tough situation at work, he would always remind us that this too shall pass.
And so it is with softball. It’s very possible that the event or circumstance that is causing you so much heartache today could be the catalyst toward a future that is everything you hoped it would be.
Just be sure to remember the wise words of the Zen master as you’re celebrating your good fortune: We’ll see.
BONUS: For two lesser-known but really good movies which explore these themes, check out Mr. Destiny starring Jim Belushi (believe it or not) and Linda Hamilton, which explores how his life would have changed had he not struck out in the game for the state title, and The Adjustment Bureau starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, which takes a much more serious look at “angels” trying to keep a predetermined timeline on track against the free wills of the protagonists.
Main photo by Bryce Carithers on Pexels.com
To Get Power, Blow Out the Candle
Fastpitch softball players sometimes struggle with how to get that extra burst of power at the moment it matters the most. Whether it’s whipping the arm into release for pitchers, or accelerating the bat before contact for hitters, or some other skill requiring a ballistic final movement, instead of looking powerful they look anemic.
One of the biggest reasons for this, of course, is the fear of failure. Pitchers focused only on throwing strikes or not walking anyone will slow down when they should be speeding up.
Hitters focused on not striking out or just making contact will do the same. Catchers focused on throwing to the base rather than doing all they can to get the runner out will do it, and so on.
You can try telling them they need to be more energetic in their movements, but while they will nod their heads they will often not really understand what you mean. So here’s a quick way to explain what you’re going for.
Ask them “how do you blow out a candle?” If they give you a blank stare offer them two options: do you do it with a gentle letting out of air, like you’re trying to cool a spoonful of hot soup, or in one quick burst.
Since they’ve probably been blowing out birthday candles since the age of two or three they will tell you in one quick burst. Then ask them why they do it that way. (You can even have them demonstrate both to you, which will force them to demonstrate the principle to themselves.)
They will tell you because without the burst nothing much happens. The flame may dance a little with a reverse sip of air, but it won’t go out.
You can then explain that’s what power does. That one quick burst concentrates the air so it has an effect on the candle.
It’s the same with that final, critical movement in softball. Without that one quick, focused final burst of energy you can’t throw hard or hit hard.
While it may seem obvious to you, you’d be surprised at what isn’t so obvious to your players. Even experienced ones sometimes.
The focus on not failing, usually based on someone else’s description of what failure is, rather than succeeding or excelling, As long as they’re in that mindset it will cause them to hold back from becoming the best versions of themselves on the field.
Use the candle analogy to help them understand the importance of getting that final, powerful concentration of energy and you just may help them unleash the larger beast within them.
Birthday party photo by Alexander Mass on Pexels.com
You Can Never Break the (Kinetic) Chain
A term that has grown in popularity lately in the fastpitch softball world is the “kinetic chain.” If you’ve seen any of the many “how-to” posts or videos on Facebook groups, Instagram, Tik Tok, or other social media outlets you’ve no doubt come across the term.
You may have even nodded along as the creators talked about the importance of maintaining the kinetic chain even though you weren’t actually sure what it is. If you’re nodding along with this one you’re in luck because we’re going to define it before we get into the meat of today’s topic. You’re welcome.
Basically, the kinetic chain is an instance where the body’s muscles, joints, and nerves all work together as interconnected links to produce a complex movement. Each link works with the others to transfer energy through the body, creating a multiplying effect that improves the result of the final, intended action, such as swinging a bat or throwing a ball.
The key here is that each link in the chain has to work with the others in the context of the overall movement, and it has to do its job at the right time, i.e., in the proper sequence. If any link in the chain acts independently, or at the wrong time, it reduces instead of enhances the overall outcome.
Ok, I know that was a little complex and abstract, but I think it’s important to establish the science first so this isn’t just one of the many millions of random opinions out there masquerading as fact. Now let’s get to the fun stuff – how it applies practically to fastpitch softball.
The kinetic chain and hitting
The basic kinetic chain for quality hitting involves moving the hips first (using the big muscles in the core, the abdominals, etc.), followed by the shoulders, and finishing with the arms to deliver the bat to the ball.
Yet what you see many young and even some older hitters doing is initiating the swing with their arms and then yanking on the bat for all they’re worth to try to hit the ball hard. That works off the tee, and can even work in games at times if the hitter is reasonably strong.
But when you do that, you’re basically putting the cart before the horse. The arms are supplying the bulk (if not all) of the energy that is going into the ball, essentially choking off any energy the big muscles in the legs and torso are trying to produce.
Rather than moving a lot of energy up through the chain, that arms-based swing is limiting how much of that energy can be used – by a lot. It also reduces the body’s ability to adjust to the pitch as it’s coming in because the arms are creating an early path that gathers momentum as the bat moves forward.
It’s like firing an arrow and then trying to aim the bow. It just doesn’t work.
By keeping the kinetic chain intact the hitter has time to see the ball while she’s generating larger energy than she can with her arms alone, gathering information about where the ball is headed, and is then in a better position to direct that energy when the ball gets to her.
The same limiting factor comes into play when hitters spin their back leg in place (the old “squish the bug” cue) rather than engaging the hips. While it may appear to the naked eye that some high-level hitters do that, if you look at high-speed video you’ll see that they actually turn the hips into the ball then fall back into the “turned” position after contact.
Honestly, I’ve been fooled by that before myself, thinking that a hitter didn’t use her hips enough. But a quick video shows she actually did what she was supposed to – it just happened so quickly it was difficult to see in real time.
The kinetic chain in pitching
There are a lot of similarities between hitting and pitching as far as the kinetic chain goes. You are still doing a ground-up movement, with a firing order that moves from the hips to the shoulders to the arms.
The difference here, though, is that you’re focused on one arm, and that arm has two pieces that need to fire in order to maximize the transfer of energy (and thus ball speed). So the full sequence is hips-shoulders-upper arm-forearm.
Notice I didn’t say anything about the wrist. It does contribute to the overall pitch, but not forcefully as some people still believe.
The wrist is more of a “let it happen” than a “make it happen” contributor on most pitches. The exception, in my opinion, is the curve ball, where it does have to do a little bit of work to put the hand under the ball properly to achieve the correct spin.
After that, though, it’s still more of a “let it happen.”
What trips up many pitchers trying to achieve speed is muscling up at the shoulder, or forearm, or trying to do a hard snap upward with the wrist. Those actions may feel powerful, but not only do they not add anything to the energy transfer to the ball, they actually take away from it.
When you muscle up on any of the downstream segments it chokes off at least a part of the flow of energy. Less energy into the ball = reduced speed.
What you want instead is to allow the joints to move freely in a quick acceleration/deceleration sequence that moves the energy from one segment to another until it reaches the ball. Muscling up slows the individual piece that’s being used down, which means it has less energy to pass along to the next one.
This relaxed flow of energy is especially true for what happens with the arm. Once the hips and shoulders have stabilized (stopped turning forward), the upper arm uses the energy from the body to begin accelerating toward release.
This movement will happen much faster if it’s allowed to happen rather than the pitcher trying to force it to happen by consciously muscling the arm downward. Just accept the energy and direct it downward until the upper arm comes into contact with the ribcage.
If that happens, the sudden stop of the upper arm transfers the energy down into the lower arm, causing the forearm to accelerate suddenly until it reaches brush contact/brush trigger – the light contact of the forearm (not the elbow!) against the hip. This action causes the forearm to decelerate suddenly, delivering all that energy that was created throughout every phase of the pitch and transferring it into the ball through the fingers.
Again, any attempt to force these movements by muscling up will have the opposite effect to what is desired – it will break the kinetic chain and reduce the speed.
You see this reduction a lot with pitchers who are trying to force strikes. They slow their arms down to get the ball over the plate and then can’t figure out why they’re not throwing faster.
Then, of course, they try to muscle up the finish and not only are they throwing slower, they’re now less accurate as well. It’s a vicious circle.
By the way, all of these principles apply to overhead throwing as well, although in a slightly different manner. The concept is the same though – if you want to throw hard, you have to let the chain happen instead of trying to force movements.
Better by design
The human body is an entire system designed for one primary purpose: to keep us safe. Each movement has a particular purpose that was developed to work in concert with other movements to create the optimal whole.
So you can see why breaking the kinetic chain by imposing unnatural movements on it isn’t a great idea. Let the body work the way it’s designed to work and you’ll achieve much better results – with less wasted effort to boot!
Losing Doesn’t Build Character – It Reveals It
Today’s post was actually suggested to me by my partner in podcasting Jay Bolden of BeBold Fastpitch. Not sure why he didn’t keep it for himself since he writes some great posts on his own Facebook page, but I will definitely take it. Thanks, buddy!
I think we’d all agree that it’s easy to look like a good coach, and a good person, when your team is winning., because it’s true that winning covers up a lot of other problems. You may be the most clueless coach in the world, but if your team is winning a lot more than it’s losing no one is likely to have any complaints.
That’s understandable. As Nuke LaLoosh says, winning is a lot more fun than losing.
Where you truly see the measure of a coach, however, is when things aren’t going so well. When the team is having a rough season, or maybe just going through a rough patch, how the coach reacts reveals a lot about who he or she really is.
First, let’s talk about how a good coach will or should handle losing, just to do a little level-setting.
No one likes losing. I know I sure don’t, and especially didn’t when I was coaching teams. I was one of those “I hate losing more than I like winning” types.
So with that in mind, you have to look at WHY you’re losing. The first place a good coach will look is in the mirror, asking questions such as:
- Have I been training my team well enough?
- Have I been making good decisions about who is on the field?
- Have I been putting together the most potent batting order, based on facts, not feelings?
- Have my in-game decisions been good ones?
- Are we playing the right level of competition?
- Are our strategies appropriate for the personnel we have?
- Have I built an atmosphere where players are playing with confidence or with fear?
That’s a great starting point. But the truth is you could be doing all the right things and the team is still losing. The softball gods are funny that way, and when you make them angry for some reason you may have to sacrifice a chicken to get back on track.
If you noticed, all of the above had the coach looking inward, at him or herself first, to ensure that the problem isn’t staring him or her in the mirror.
Now let’s talk about what bad coaches do: they blame. They will:
- First and foremost blame their players for not playing well enough or trying hard enough.
- Blame their facilities or their budgets for not giving them enough money to be better.
- Blame the administration for not supporting them.
- Blame the parents (yes, even in college) for expecting too much, or questioning the coach, or I suppose for not having better DNA.
- Blame the umpires for not calling a fair game.
- Blame whoever happens to be out of earshot at the time.
- Blame whoever happens to be in front of him or her.
I’ve heard stories where a coach’s idea of coaching is to essentially yell at her players to “play better.” That’s the sum and total of her advice.
No advice on HOW to play better after a problem, such as stay down on a ground ball, or go for the lead runner first, or you have to look up to see where the ball is before trying for another base, or anything else helpful like that, So it’s no surprise when the same problems keep coming up. Thanks, coach.
We’ve also all seen the coaches who scream at their players, telling them how bad they are after they make a mistake. No attempt to build a positive atmosphere, or encourage them instead of letting them get down on themselves. Just constant berating.
And do things get better? Maybe by luck sometimes. But for the most part, that type of approach is counter-productive for one simple reason: it’s addressing the wrong problem.
Look, no one likes to lose. Some take it harder than others (like me) but no one actually likes it.
So screaming about it or blaming others doesn’t address the core issue. It’s an attempt to cover it up with bluster instead.
So what types of things does losing reveal about a coach’s character? One is their maturity level.
Good coaches will attempt to work the problem and maybe change the atmosphere or the mindset if needed to try to change the outcomes. They will look to support their players, and look for solutions to the problems the team is facing.
Bad coaches will deflect the problems and substitute anger and noise for a thoughtful approach. They don’t know what to do to change things so they throw tantrums in the moment in an attempt, I suppose, to hide their lack of a viable solution.
Losing also reveals their ability to see the larger picture. Good coaches know they will get through the current series of loses, and develop a plan to help expedite that process.
Bad coaches let their emotions take over and focus on the immediate.
Then there’s the worry about what others think of them. Both good and bad coaches will often have that concern. I mean, after all, we all want to be thought of as being good at what we do.
But good coaches understand they have to set those temporary perceptions aside; after all, if all else was the same except for the won-loss record, those people calling for their heads would instead be scheduling a parade.
Good coaches realize they have to separate themselves from the current unfortunate circumstances and think about times when their teams were winning so they can clear their heads and address whatever the causes are. If they truly believe in what they’re doing, and stay true to it, they know the wins will come again.
Bad coaches, on the other hand, will try to cover up their insecurities by directing their anger and blame at others, never stopping to think about the fact that they may need to change what they’re doing or how they’re approaching the team in order to flip the script and back on track. And the more they let those negative thoughts creep in, the worse things are going to get for them.
As we often say, softball is a game filled with failure and adversity. There’s absolutely no reason to think those things will affect you as a coach at some point, or more likely many points, in your coaching career.
How you handle losing when it comes, though, will say a lot about who you are and what you truly believe in. It is entirely a test of character, graded on a pass-fail scale.
Be sure you’re ready to pass that test. Not just for the sake of your players, or your program, but for yourself.
Walk the Path That’s Set Before You
We’ve all been there at some point in our lives (even the youngest among us). We have a plan, a preferred path we’ve chosen to walk, only to find that for some reason that path is not open to us at this particular point.
At that point we have two options: turn around and go home, or walk an alternative path until we can (maybe) get to the one we want to follow. This is true in life in general, and it’s true in fastpitch softball specifically.
Since this isn’t a life coaching blog, we’re going to look at the softball example. You can apply the advice, however, as you choose.
Let’s take the example of a tryout since high school softball is just getting going in much of the U.S. Perhaps the path you’ve chosen (or desire) is to play on the varsity team, or to play a particular “glamour” position such as pitcher or catcher or shortstop.
But when the tryout results came out you were placed on JV instead. Or maybe you’re on varsity but the coach has already told you that the position you love is already taken by someone he/she thinks is better than you.
(Yes it may also be taken by someone who isn’t better than you but that the coach likes more for some reason, but we’ll set that discussion aside for another day.)
Essentially your path forward is blocked for now. You can get angry about it and walk away. Or you can say to yourself “if that path isn’t open what other options do I have?”
Let’s start with making JV instead of varsity. This may be a blessing in disguise.
Sure your ego takes a hit, especially if some of your travel or rec teammates made varsity. But ask yourself if you would rather sit the bench on varsity, maybe getting 10 innings of playing time total for the season, or you would rather be an every day starter on JV?
(Incidentally, Jay Bolden and I discuss this topic in more detail on next week’s From the Coach’s Mouth podcast. Be sure to check it out.)
While there are some things you can learn by watching games and participating in the varsity practices, you need to be playing regularly in games to keep your skills sharp.. You will probably be better off playing than sitting, even if the team you’re playing on isn’t that great.
And being on that team may also give you a better opportunity to develop other skills such as leadership which will serve you well not only in softball but throughout your life. So take the path that’s been set before you and walk the heck out of it; your time will come, and you’ll be even more ready to seize it.
What about the path to your favorite position being closed right now? In that case, I’d say go where the team needs you to be now, prove yourself, and you’ll be that much more ready for when your preferred path opens again.
Here’s an example. I worked with a terrific catcher a few years ago. She helped take her team to second in State among large schools, and was recruited to a strong D2 school to be their catcher.
When she got there, though, a senior transfer had come in and was given that spot without even the chance to compete for it. So what did she do?
She took advantage of whatever other opportunities were made available to her to get on the field.
It started with being the DH. She did well there, so the coach, recognizing this girl’s athletic ability, decided to try her out in left field to see if she could shore up the defense as well as the offense.
My catcher hadn’t played a lot of outfield, but she had played some, and in this situation she played the heck out of it, diving for balls and using her catcher arm to throw out runners at home. She used the opportunity to prove what type of player she was, and once the senior graduated she was back behind the plate where she wanted to be.
You can do the same. Whether your coach puts you in the outfield, or at second base, or at first base, or simply asks you to DH, give it all you have and do your best to learn that position as quickly as you can.
You never know what might come out of it, and if nothing else at least you’re on the field showing what you can do. Because it’s tough to show what you can do from a seat in the dugout.
Life is full of twists and turns, and you’re not always going to like them. They might even seem scary at times.
But rather than fighting them, if you keep putting one foot in front of the other and make the best of the current situation, good things will happen for you.
Path photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
What It Takes to Really Learn Something (or Unlearn Something)
When I was but a lad heading into high school, my heart’s greatest desire was to learn how to play the guitar. Partially because I loved music, but also because I thought doing so would help me meet girls.
(Don’t judge, Eddie van Halen started on guitar for the same reason, although he did a little better than me on learning it.)
Anyway, for my 14th birthday (just as the summer started) my parents bought me the cheapest piece of junk available that will still work, a $20 Decca guitar from Kmart. But I didn’t care – I had a guitar, along with a little songbook with songs like Born Free and Red River Valley that had the little finger placement charts above every chord.
I pretty much spent the entire summer locked in my room for 4-6 hours a day every day, playing the same old songs over and over until they began to sound like actual songs. In a month I felt comfortable enough to play that guitar in front of my parents and a couple of their friends.
Within a couple of months of starting I bought my first “real” guitar for $100 out of my 8th grade graduation money – a Suzuki 12 string that I still own to this day. It’s not very playable anymore but I still keep it around for sentimental reasons.
I tell you this story to point out a valuable lesson: if you really want to get good at something, you can’t just dabble at it or put in time against a clock. You have to work at it deliberately, with a goal and a sense of purpose.
In other words, you have to know your “why” or you’re just going to spin your wheels.
So if you’re a pitcher who is trying to increase her speed or learn a new pitch, you can’t just go through the motions doing what you always did. You can’t just set a timer and stop when the timer goes off.
You have to dig in there and keep working at it until you make the changes you need to make to reach your goal.
If you’re trying to convert from hello elbow to internal rotation, you can’t just throw pitches from full distance and hope it’s going to happen. You have to get in close, maybe slow yourself down for a bit, and work on things like upper arm compression and especially forearm pronation until you can do them without being aware of them.
It might take a few hours or it might take a month of focused, deliberate practice. But you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get there.
The same goes for hitters. If you’re dropping your hands as you swing or using your arms instead of your body to initiate the swing you’re not going to change that overnight by wishing for it.
You have to get in there and work at it, and keep working at it until you can execute that part of hitting correctly. No excuses, no compromises; if you want to hit like a champion you have to work like a champion.
There will sometimes be barriers that seem insurmountable, and no doubt you’ll get frustrated. But there is some little thing holding you back and you attack it with ferocity, with a mindset you won’t let it defeat you, sooner or later you will get it and be able to move on to the next piece.
When I first learned how to play an “F” chord it was really difficult. It requires you to use your fingers in ways other chords don’t, especially when you’re a beginner.
But I needed to master that “F” chord cleanly so I could play certain songs, so as physically painful as it was (especially on that cheap little Decca guitar) I kept at it for hours on end until it was just another chord among many in the song.
The same will happen for you if you work at it. The thing you can’t do today will become easy and natural, and that will put you in a better position to achieve your larger goals.
Yes, it takes a lot to make a change, especially if it’s from something you’ve been doing for a long time. Old habits die hard as they say.
But if you approach it with passion and purpose you’ll get there – and you’ll be better-positioned for your next challenge. .
BONUS CHALLENGE: Yes, one of those young fellows up there in the top photo is me. See if you can guess which one and put your choice in the comments below. (HINT: It may not be the one you think.)
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 