One thing you can say about being a fastpitch softball coach is life is never dull.

Take today. There I was with my wife at the grocery store when the call came in. One of my pitching students was mid-tournament, and suddenly she was having control trouble. Her pitches were going high and wide, and she needed a quick correction before her next game.

I know my students pretty well, at least the long-term ones, so I thought for a minute and made a couple of suggestions as to what the cause could be. I was fairly certain she was pulling her front shoulder out early instead of leaving it in place and driving around it. So I gave her some advice and she said thanks.

Later that day she did pitch in the next game. She did what I said and control problems were solved. That’s the report I received, anyway.

It’s not ideal. But it is nice to know I can make the long-distance correction when needed!

This is one of those mysteries of fastpitch softball coaching that just stumps me. Every year when the HS softball season starts I hear tales of coaches trying to “rebuild” the swings of players in the two or so weeks they have before they start playing every day.

It’s pretty unrealistic to think you can make significant improvements in a swing in such a short amount of time. What really gets me, though, is that these coaches rarely focus where it might do them some good, i.e. the kids who can’t hit a lick, and for whom any instruction might yield some benefits.

No, instead they decide to focus on the team’s top hitters. That’s just wrong on so many levels. The most significant of which is there is a reason those players are your top hitters.

There’s an old coaching saying that says if a player can hit .400 standing on her head, the coach’s job is to get her a pillow. In other words, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Now, I’m not in 100% agreement with that way of thinking; truth is it’s always broke to some extent. But if the player is a good hitter the odds are she’s had some training and all she might need is a little tweaking here or there. Yet Mr. or Ms. “Helper Coach” ignores that fact and instead tries to completely change what these players are doing.

When you have limited time and a wide range of ability, it’s not the top of your order you need to mess with. Let’s face it. On most HS teams if you’re lucky you have five good, solid, reliable hitters. That means nearly half your lineup still needs help. A smart coach will work with those hitters and try to get them up to the level of the top five to give them a better chance of avoiding the dreaded bottom of the lineup black hole — that place where hopes of victory go to die.

Yes, it’s tempting to want to put your own stamp on good players. Everyone wants to claim they helped those players get to where they are. But that’s not where your efforts will pay off.

Instead, work with the players who really could use the help — the ones without a clue — and not only will you raise their games, you’ll avoid screwing up the players who are your best hope of gaining more wins. Just sayin’.

What has your experience been? Do you know coaches who mess up their top players (and teams) by trying to change what’s working? Or do you disagree and think the coaches should work with the top ones instead of the bottom-level players?

This is the third part in my series about working with various ages of fastpitch softball players. Today we’re looking at high school age and up — generally speaking 16U-18U and college players.

As a private instructor, working with older players is a lot of fun — assuming they are there voluntarily and not being forced to come to me by their parents. Usually these players have experienced some form of failure, so they’re highly motivated to listen, learn and get better. They work hard on their own, and tend to make quick progress. They often have a broad enough experience base to understand certain concepts quickly, and want to know the “why” behind what we’re doing instead of just executing it because I say so.

At a team level it can be a little more challenging. If you have the right players they will also learn quickly. But you may find you have some who aren’t interested in learning anything new. They want to do what they’ve always done — especially if they’ve had some level of success. For them, the best thing you can do is expose them to players with better skills so they can see they’re not quite as all that as they thought.

What does make it fun with the right team is you can get into more complex concepts and plays. The game is faster, so execution becomes more important.

There’s nothing like the satisfaction of seeing your players recognize a situation and make an adjustment without you having to tell them what to do. It could be a defensive change — moving into slap defense against an obvious slapper — or something as simple as recognizing a changeup when it’s thrown and stealing a base.

Of course, at that age they can definitely have attitudes — some more than others. But if you take the time to get to know them as people you can often overcome that. In fact, you can build relationships that will last long after the last pitch is thrown. Just tonight I had a Facebook exchange with a girl who last played for me about 10 years ago.

Most importantly, with players this age you can really make a difference in their lives. Giving them confidence, helping them to overcome adversity or fear and teaching them to give everything they have to whatever they do. You can also help them build softball memories that will last them a lifetime.

With younger players coaches tend to need to exert a lot of control. With the older group, if you’ve trained them properly, you get to sit back more and watch all the hard work pay off. Which is a lot like parenting when you think about it.

This is probably a pretty timely message for most fastpitch softball players. Especially those involved with other sports and activities.

With the holidays upon us we’re all pressed for time. Between our regular day-to-day activities and responsibilities, holiday shopping, trying to finish things up before the new year, etc. it can feel like there’s no way to squeeze out a little time for practicing.

Yet that’s not true — if you approach practicing the right way. There’s no law that says practice has to be at least a half hour long and conducted in a gym, on a field, or in some other athletic facility. Any space with enough room to stand in and swing your arms around a bit will do. And even putting in five or 10 minutes of working on something specific is better than doing nothing.

For example, pitchers who are having trouble getting their arm circle to stay on line (or loose) can stand with their feet planted and slowly work on it while watching themselves in a mirror. Do that for 10 minutes while you’re taking a break from studying and you’ll be amazed at how much better your arm circle is at your next full practice session.

The same goes for fielders. If you are having trouble working your crossover step, clear a little space on the floor of your bedroom and try it there. Hitters can work on getting the feel of driving their hips first, or taking a better path, or getting a proper weight shift. You get the idea.

The key is to take the little piece of a skill you’re having trouble with and work on that exclusively for a few minutes. This is the type of deep practice most players don’t like to do in a full session because they’re more focused on the full skill. But when time and space are limited, working on these little nuances can pay big dividends.

I listed a few suggestions. How ’bout you? What quick, specific things do you recommend players work on?

This is one of those fastpitch softball topics that I’ve written about before, but it bears repeating. One of the biggest challenges players today face is developing the patience to succeed.

What I mean by that is we live in an instant world. Hot chocolate and popcorn isn’t cooked on the stove for 10 or 20 minutes. You pop it in the microwave and it’s ready in three. You want to watch a particular movie? You don’t have to wait until it comes on anymore — you just dial it up on-demand.

Becoming a high-level, or even a decent, hitter, pitcher, fielder, etc. doesn’t happen instantly. It takes a long time — 10,000 hours to achieve mastery according to the experts, several hundred or thousand hours to get reasonably good.

That can be tough to take for kids who are used to instant pudding or five minute oatmeal. They take a couple of lessons and right away expect to be awesome.

Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. Think of it like this: the goal of excellence is five miles away. You can see it, but it’s well off in the distance. You don’t have a bike or car, so how will you get there? You can’t leap there in one shot. You’ll have to walk, putting one foot in front of the other, over and over again.

It will take some time. You may get bored, you may get tired, you may get frustrated now and then. But if you keep walking, step after step, you will eventually reach your goal.