Category Archives: General Thoughts
Softball skills are analog, not digital
All of the players, and probably most of the parents by now, are too young to remember when radio dials were analog. Getting your favorite station tuned in was an art. You’d move the dial quickly to get it close, then move it very slowly until it sounded just right. Better radios also had a “fine tuning” knob that let you make smaller adjustments.
Where it really compares to softball is that once you had the station tuned in perfectly, there was no guarantee it would stay tuned in. The analog signal could “drift” a bit, at which point you’d have to re-tune it in. As compared to today’s digital radios where you set the correct numbers and they radio does all the work to lock it in and keep it locked in.
That’s why I say softball skills are analog. It would be nice if they were digital – you tune them in and they stay with you automatically. But the reality is your technique can slip just a bit, especially during the long season when there may not be time to practice and hone things as much as you’d like. You get off a bit, you start to worry and guess at corrections, and before you know it you’re further off than before. Soon it’s nothing but static.
That’s where a little in-season correction can help. Whether you do it yourself or go to see your coach for that particular skill, taking a little time to re-tune the skills can make a huge difference.
The value of using a private coach is he/she can take a look from the outside and compare what you’re doing to what you ought to be doing. It’s a little faster and easier than trying to diagnose it yourself. But the key is that comparison.
If you’re trying to do it on your own, don’t think about what you’re doing. Think about what you should be doing, and try to get back to that. Find the sweet spot on the “dial” and tune your skills to that. Before you know it you’ll be back on track.
Again, it would be nice if softball skills were digital. But they’re not. Everyone needs a little fine tuning now and then. Understand that they’re analog and make adjustments accordingly. You’ll have a much happier season.
Softball poem by one of my students
Thought I would share this with everyone here. It’s a poem written by one of my students, who is currently a 14U player who will enter high school in the fall. It does a great job of explaining the “striving” aspect of our sport from a player’s point of view.
Take one extra moment
This is always a bittersweet time in the softball world. On the one hand, you have the excitement of post-school season tournaments, the culmination of a year’s worth of hard work in college and many high schools.
At the same time, you also have the ends of careers. High school seniors who play in the spring and who don’t plan to play in college (or the summer) are looking at their last high school games. College players who aren’t going pro, or playing in a women’s fastpitch league, are also getting ready to hang up their spikes – or more accurately leave them at home plate.
For both groups, it’s been a lot of years of going to practices, playing games, working on skills, rinse and repeat. Those who played travel ball also had endless summer weekends where they spent all day at the ballfield, then went back and crashed at a budget-rate hotel only to get up early and do it again. It all sort of runs together after a while.
But now, it’s coming to an end. That’s probably difficult to fathom – the end. Most probably haven’t processed yet what it really means. Sure, they know no more practices, putting up with angry coaches or the drama that often seems to accompany team sports. But it also means that they will no longer be doing something that once came as naturally as breathing.
Sure, they can join a local summer league and play slow pitch. But it’s not quite the same. The speed and competitiveness that comes with school or travel ball just won’t be there. It’s the difference between looking at a photo of the Mona Lisa and actually standing in front of it.
So to all those who are about to play their final games I have this bit of advice. When the last out is recorded and your fastpitch career is done, don’t just pack up your gear and rush to your cars. Take a moment to drink it all in.
Savor the sights, the sounds, and many of the smells of the field. Look at your well-worn glove, or the nicks and scuffs on your batting helmet. Take a good look at your teammates, and think of all those you played with in the past – especially when you were little and just trying to figure out what to do and where to go.
If there isn’t another game starting right away, walk out on the field once last time as a fastpitch player and look around. Think about all the good times you had, and all that you accomplished throughout your career. Because once you leave the field, you’ll never quite be the same.
And that’s true even if you plan to coach. A coach’s perspective is very different than a player’s. You’re a part of the team, but you’re still separate from it.
As they say in the movie Moneyball, we’re all told someday we can no longer play this game. We just don’t always realize what that means.
Be proud of what you did, and know that it was part of something special. Someday you’ll be glad you took those few extra minutes to realize how special it was.
3 Strikes scripted softball comedy series premiering 3/26
A while back I wrote about a new online scripted comedy series called 3 Strikes that was being developed by a former player named Sarah McLean. I received a notice the other day that it is premiering March 26, 2014. You can watch the first episode here: 3 Strikes
http://www.3strikestheseries.com/episodes/4578067429
And here’s a quick, one-line description from the press release:
They go on to say it’s a little bit A League of Their Own and a little bit Bad News Bears. It also sounds like it has a bit of the first Mighty Ducks to it too.
In any case, it’s great to see someone putting this much effort and love into something connected with softball. Be sure to check it out. I know I plan to! And after you do, be sure to leave a comment to let us know what you think.
New softball tournament resource
A few days ago I received an email with some information I thought I’d pass along. It’s about a new website called mySoftballTournament that allows tournament directors to post information about their tournaments and coaches to search the site for tournaments that match. 
It looks pretty simple. Everything is pretty much run on dropdown menus. You pick your State or Province, fastpitch or slow pitch, gender, age group, etc. and then hit the Search button. The site then returns any tournaments they have that fit your search. (I’m presuming this site is out of Canada, by the way, because the listing asks for Province rather than State.)
It doesn’t look like there is a whole lot out there yet. I searched for tournaments in my home state and received no tournament listings, but hopefully that will change.
I hope this site gets filled with tournaments quickly. Finding the right tournaments for a team is always a challenge, so having a good resource that has decent information is something that’s needed. I know that eTeamz (or whatever they’re called now) has this service, but it’s been a bit spotty the last couple of years. Hopefully an organization with some enthusiasm can make this work and become a great resource for coaches.
If you have a tournament to post give it a try and let us all know how it goes. If you have a team and are looking for tournaments, give it a look as well. Maybe you’ll find something that fits your needs.
Updated 3/9/14 to align with changes to the site.
Solid softball mechanics a key to confidence
We talk a lot about the importance of confidence in softball – particularly for hitters, but in every aspect of the sport. There’s no doubt that it makes a difference.
But when it comes to ensuring our players have confidence, many are at a loss. There are plenty of tricks and techniques you can use to up the mental game. But there’s one that often gets ignored.
It’s good mechanics. The root cause of a lack of confidence is often uncertainty about one’s technique. If you’re not sure of what you’re doing, you’re very likely to become nervous and filled with self-doubt. On the other hand, if you’ve put in the work and believe you have good technique, you’re far more likely to be confident.
This is where quality instruction and quality practice come in. You want to learn good mechanics – the kind you see successful players use – from someone who knows how to teach it. But that’s only half the battle.
The other half is to work at it until you internalize it – in other words until you can do it without thinking about it. Those good mechanics should be as natural as breathing.
If you’ve put in the work, you’re far more likely to be confident. And if you’re confident you’ll perform. And if you perform you’ll be more confident. May the circle remain unbroken!
It doesn’t necessarily work immediately with everyone. But sooner or later it will. For those who have put in the work but are still uncertain (this especially happens with younger players), remind them that they HAVE put in the work and tell them to take that out onto the field with them.
It’s like they say in Remember the Titans – it’s like Novocain. Give it time, it always works.
Overuse injuries in youth softball growing
Saw an article today that my local paper picked up from the San Francisco Chronicle , talking about how injuries have exploded in youth sports in the past few years. The big culprit? Overuse, driving largely by kids specializing in one sport year-round rather than playing different sports.
That’s certainly an issue in the fastpitch softball world. I hear these stories all the time about the schedules even 10U players are playing. The goal seems to be to get in at least 100 games in a season. In the Northern climes, they’ll play 5-6 tournaments in the fall – basically from the start of September through the end of October. Then there are some indoor games, followed by a tournament every weekend from the first weekend in April through the end of Jly.
Down South, where the weather stays warm year-round, they basically take off December for the holidays and that’s about it.
I don’t know about where you live, but where I am the high school season can be even tougher. Games every day, Monday – Friday, and often a double-header on Saturday. If you only have one pitcher, she’s going to see a lot of action. For those whose high school seasons are in the spring, that heavy schedule is then followed by playing pretty much every weekend in June and July.
That’s a lot of repetitive motion, which is generally how overuse injuries occur. According to the article, what makes it tougher for softball, baseball and golf is that these are very arm and shoulder-oriented sports, so they put a lot of stress on the joints.
According to the article, this didn’t happen so much when kids were playing different sports throughout the year. The motions for, say, basketball are different than those of softball, so the body had a chance to rest and recuperate from the softball-specific stress.
And no, this isn’t a “girl thing.” It’s actually more pronounced in baseball because of the overhand throwing motion pitchers use. But since this is a softball blog (at least most of the time) we’re sticking with that.
In today’s culture, it’s getting tougher and tougher for kids NOT to specialize. There’s the pressure to be on the “right” (read: most competitive) team so they can get some of that college money. If you’re not willing to devote 24×7 to that high-level softball team, they don’t want you, and by implication you’ll never get that D1 scholarship.
But what toll is it taking? An organization called Stop Sports Injuries is trying to provide some answers. They’re going to medical professionals, especially those who specialize in youth sports injuries, to find out about the trends and get their recommendations. You can see their softball-specific data sheet here.
One thing they recommend, which is going to cause all sorts of anguish among coaches who believe winning is everything, is some pretty strict pitch count limitations for pitchers. That old myth about the softball pitching motion being “safe,” which means you can ride one pitcher game after game for an entire tournament, is just that – a myth. At 10U-12U they recommend a limit of 65 pitches per game, and no more than 95 pitches a day over two days. No pitching at all on the third day. At 15U and above, the numbers “only” go up to 100 pitches per game, 140 total per day in the first two days, and 100 for the third day. That’s way less than a lot of pitchers actually pitch during the season.
Again, this isn’t only for pitchers. Catchers and other position players are running the same risks, just with different body parts. Our bodies weren’t designed for the type of repetitive motions being demanded of youth players these days. The kind of cross-training created by participating in multiple sports rather than spending all your time on one encourages better overall development, and protects players from wearing down – mentally as well as physically.
Whether you agree with the exact numbers, this is important information for both parents and coaches to understand. There needs to be a mindset/cultural change if we’re really going to help our kids become all they can be – and keep them healthy. I recommend that all parents and coaches follow the links in this post and become better-informed about the risks. It might just be the best thing you do for your daughter/players this year.
New softball-based comedy web series
You just never know what you’re going to find when you open up the ol’ mailbag.
The other day I received an email from a former player and coach named Sarah McLean telling me about a new web comedy series called 3 Strikes that she has developed. It’s about a professional softball player who is suspended from her team due to anger issues and has to attend anger management classes. She ends up coaching at a high school, where her intensity meets up with the current generation of players.
Sounds like it could be fun. It’s the first and only program dedicated 100 percent to softball.
If you’d like to learn more, check out this link: www.indiegogo.com/projects/3-strikes-web-series/x/511293 It’s a quick video that shows a few clips. It’s also her site with an appeal for funding.
If you like what you see, how about throwing a little support Sarah’s way?
Understanding the value of outs
I’ve talked before about the value of outs in fastpitch softball. It’s a concept that’s really laid out well in the book and movie Moneyball.
Yet it still can be a bit difficult to grasp in practical terms, especially for players. So I thought of a more concrete way to explain how precious outs are, and why you want to conserve them carefully.
Think about it this way. You want to buy a new iPod. You’ve been working hard to earn the money, doing chores and such, knowing exactly how much you need to make your purchase (including tax).
Finally the big day arrives. You head to the mall to make your purchase, but before you get to the electronics store you stop in to a shoe store and buy a pair of shoes first. Of course when you get to the electronics store you no longer have enough money for the iPod. You lose.
It’s the same with outs on offense. If you waste them on bad strategies or stupid decisions, you may not have enough at the end of the game to go for the win.
Outs are precious. In a seven-inning game, each team only gets a maximum of 21. (In a time limit game, it may only be 18, or even 15). As a player, wasting them by getting doubled off a base on a line drive or pop-up, trying to stretch a single into a double when the ball is clearly going to beat you there, leaving a base without tagging up on a fly ball, popping up a bunt attempt, swinging at strike three that is over your head or in the dirt, etc. can really come back to haunt you.
As a coach, wasting them by automatically sacrifice bunting when you get a runner on first, attempting steals against a catcher with a gun for an arm and a quick release, attempting a steal in the last inning of a tight game with the top of your order coming up, sending a runner for an extra base against a team with a strong defense, etc. can do the same.
Make sure you use yours wisely.
What’s up with trophies these days?
Ok, I know size isn’t everything, but it sure seems like there has been a major shift in trophies these days. Back in the day even minor tournaments handed out large, gaudy monstrosities that you had to lay down on their sides to transport home. These days not so much.
I noticed this again yesterday when I was watching the PGF 16U championship on TV. I knew one of the girls playing for the Beverly Bandits (although I fully admit I had nothing to do with the way she plays or what she has accomplished – she just lives in my town), so I decided to give it a look.
As you no doubt know, the Bandits won the tournament. After a brief on-field celebration they received their trophy, the representation of everything they’d worked for all season long.
I was expecting something about three feet tall with lots of bling on it. Instead, they held up a small piece of Lucite that looked like it could have been awarded for the Tire Salesman of the Year.
It’s no big deal to me since I’m in no danger of ever winning that tournament. Or even attending it most likely. Still, it was a surprise.
I guess it makes sense, though. Those big hunks of plastic and fake wood look great at the field, but they’re kind of a pain to store. My wife recently asked if she could toss out some of my old trophies from coaching, and I couldn’t bear to part with them. But it was tough to find a place to store or display them too. (Not that there are that many, but we have a lot of stuff in our house.)
I do have to admit I like the plaques better than the trophies. Not so much on the day of the game, but afterwards they’re much easier to display. Hang them up on the wall and they’re out of the way.
So what have you found? Are they still handing out big trophies where you are? Or has everyone downsized? And do you think it’a a practical matter, or are the tournament directors just being cheap?
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 