Category Archives: General Thoughts
Deja vu all over again
Over the last two weeks I have had one of those really interesting experiences that reminds you that life keeps marching on.
I am doing some pitching clinics on Sunday afternoons. Each is a one-hour clinic with a few kids from their local rec leagues. The clinics repeat for several Sundays, so I do have the chance to do the kind of repetitive work that leads to improvement.
A new group started on March 8. As I was introducing myself to them I looked at one of the girls (Caitlyn) and she seemed vaguely familiar. I stopped in mid-sentence and said “I’ve worked with you before, haven’t I?” She smiled and said yes. Turns out she had done this same type of clinic with me two or three years ago.
The thing is, she was probably around 10 years old then. She is now 13, I think, and has changed considerably. Back when I worked with her before she was a small, slightly built girl who was just finding her way athletically. She is now a teen, around 5′ 6″ tall and athletic-looking.
I’m pretty sure that I accidentally pushed her down once when I was trying to demonstrate how to push off the rubber. At the time she wasn’t getting it, so I gave her a little push from behind, her foot came down early and down she went. I mentioned that to her and we both had a laugh. She wasn’t sure if it was her but thought it might’ve been.
Then this past week a new girl joined that group. Her name is Claire. I don’t remember her quite as well, but she told me she had done this clinic with me a couple of years ago as well. She did seem familiar, but again I am used to seeing her as a little kid, not a teen.
It really is something when you see someone like that after a couple of years — especially at those two ages. They really do change a lot in a couple of years.
One good thing I saw is that they both maintained a lot of the mechanics we had worked on. Each has some things to work on, but we didn’t have to start over from scratch. Caitlyn even remembered the changeup I’d taught her back then and threw it well this past Sunday. Nice to see the work we put in stuck. When they come in for clinics and then go away you just never know.
Adidas ad — whoops!
Just took a look at the Dick’s Sporting Goods GameOn catalog, which features products for baseball and softball. As I was paging through, I stopped at page 18, where there’s a full page ad for Adidas that features Monica Abbott in mid-pitch. Cool, I thought.
Then I looked at her feet. I first noticed her aggressive stride. Then I looked at the other foot. Her pivot foot is clearly an inch or two off the ground. Not a lot, just an inch or two. But it is off the ground. I guess the folks at Adidas don’t know the fastpitch pitching rules for women.
Nothing much to add to it. I was just sort of amused. You would think if you’re a shoe company that you would’ve looked at the shoes.
It must be Jerk Week
You know how The Discovery Channel has Shark Week? For the fastpitch softball world this must be Jerk Week. On Sunday I heard yet another story of someone who just doesn’t get it.
A former student of mine, a girl named Kaity, is helping coach the varsity team at a local high school in an economically disadvantaged area. It’s a small pocket of poverty in an otherwise middle class area. Of course, in an area like that, things like travel ball (or possibly even rec ball) are non-existent. None of the girls there can afford the private instruction, high-level play, or even decent equipment in a lot of cases that every other high school in the conference has. Some in abundance.
Kaity told me last week she went to the athletic director at the school and asked for some money to purchase a few Easton Incrediballs the girls could use for indoor practice. She especially wanted them for the girls who have volunteered to learn how to pitch in the next three weeks. Yes, that’s right. A few girls are going to spend three weeks trying to learn to chuck the ball toward the plate so the team can play at the varsity level.
In any case, she said the athletic director’s response was, “Win a game first. Then you can ask for equipment.” What an incredibly insensitive, shortsighted and unrealistic statement. In other words, the statement of a jerk. I’m sorry, but there’s no way this team is going to win a game, particularly in conference. They’d have trouble beating most 12U teams in my area, and that’s no exaggeration. Expecting them to beat even an average HS varsity team is beyond unrealistic. It’s moronic.
The AD should be happy that they are fielding a team at all. In this area, if they can get 12 girls on the team, that’s 12 girls who have something to do besides fall in with a bad crowd, take drugs, get pregnant, or suffer other consequences. I’ve seen them play, and while they’re awful from year to year, the girls who are there always seem to be glad to have the opportunity to play. For many, it’s their first team sport ever. Why would you not want to try to give them at least some chance of improving?
Fortunately, Fred Popp at Grand Slam USA in Spring Grove is a great guy. He heard the story and donated five balls for them to use. (The fact that Kaity used to take lessons from me there when she was in high school certainly helped, but Fred’s just that kind of guy.) He did what the AD should’ve done.
Kaity and the head coach will be doing their best, but it’s an uphill battle to say the least. You’d think your AD would offer support instead of put-downs. But apparently that’s too much to ask.
As I said, it seems like it’s Jerk Week.
The nicest compliment a coach can get
I was talking to the mom of one of my students tonight, a girl named Lauren, and she told me one of those stories that makes me glad to be a coach.
Lauren had her high school tryouts last week. When she came in for her Monday lesson she was kind of down. She didn’t feel like she had done well and was a little concerned about her chances. We had a pretty good lesson, I gave her a few words of encouragement, and she went home.
Tonight her mom told me it was just what she needed. She woke up Tuesday morning all pumped up, and went in and nailed her tryout.
As coaches we spend a lot of our time working on the mechanics and physical skills. We sometimes forget about the mental part. Boosting a player’s self-esteem can sometimes do more for them than a whole boat full of drills. It’s important to remember that that’s a big part of the job. And when you’re successful it’s a great feeling!
Thanks for your comments, and keep them coming
Just wanted to take a few moments to thank everyone for their comments lately. It’s important to get discussions going, as we all learn more.
I like seeing the activity. You don’t have to agree with what I say to comment either. I might argue with you, but only with the best of intentions. So keep ’em coming. Dialog beats monolog any day!
Embrace adversity
This is probably a direct result of Stacie at the Fastpitch Softball Blog. I saw her post yesterday “Feeling Quoty” and liked it. Then lo and behold, in my day planner this morning I ran across a quote I liked so much I thought I’d pass on. It reads:
“Kites rise highest against the wind — not with it.” The source of the quote is Winston Churchill, a man who knew a thing or two about getting through tough times.
So what does that mean? To me it says that facing difficulties in your life helps make you a better, more complete person. As long as you can stand up to the winds of adversity you will come out the other end at a higher level than when you started. And often it’s the adversity we face that makes us who we are. As another great leader said, “I don’t want to lose my pain. It’s what makes me who I am.” — Captain Kirk
Softball is a game built on failure, and failure is a form of adversity. When that happens — whether it’s striking out, walking too many hitters, booting a ground ball, dropping a fly ball, or not making a team you want to be on — you have two choices. You can feel sorry for yourself, get all down, go into a shell and make things worse. Or you can rise above it, learn from the experience, embrace the lesson and use it all to make you a better person as well as a better ballplayer.
What happens to you is often outside your control. What you do with what happens to you, and how you react to it, is entirely within your control. When the winds of adversity blow, be a kite.
What being a good teammate means
Not sure what got me thinking about this yesterday, but I think it’s a good story and worth telling. It’s about a young lady who really understood the concept of being a teammate, and no doubt still does.
This happened a couple of years ago. About halfway through her sophomore season, my daughter was moved from JV to varsity. She’s actually resisted moving up because she loves pitching. She was pitching nearly every game at JV, but knew there was no way she’d pitch on varsity because they already had a #1 pitcher, and she was a stud. The girl had been pitching varsity since her freshman year. She was now a senior and well-established in our area, which plays a pretty good caliber of high school softball.
I hadn’t seen much of her since she was younger, when she played for a team that was between the ages of my two daughters. She was very good even back then. So I have to admit, I was a bit suspicious of what she’d be like on the high school team. I have seen and heard stories about kids, especially pitchers, who gain that kind of recognition and turn into the typical “Princess in the Circle.” They tend to act like they’re God’s gift to softball, and tend to pout when they aren’t in the spotlight.
What I saw in action, though, was the polar opposite. This girl was the biggest booster of her teammates, always there with a kind word or a pat on the back for the others. She was also the consumate team player, which I saw one day in particular.
Our high school team was playing one of the weak sisters in the area, so she was not pitching that game. As I recall they had her DH for a while, but even that stopped when we built a big lead. Now, the typical Princess might have sulked in dugout at not getting the opportunity to pad her already-impressive stats. Even a non-Princess stud might’ve just hung out in the dugout, not doing much. Instead, this girl was being a good teammate, cheering actively for the others and shouting out encouragement.
More interesting to me, though, was that she was playing bat girl. After a hitter would get on base, she’d go onto the field, retrieve the bat, and bring it back into the dugout. Not because anyone told her to, but because it needed to be done. She’d also go to the outfield to warm up the outfielder closest to the dugout. Basically, she did the kind of jobs you would expect a non-starter to do, not a stud.
The girl’s name is Lauren Ott, and she went on to play at Butler University. To me, she epitomizes the team player — the kind who thinks no job is too small or unimportant for her to do.
You just never know
We live in a society that expects instant results. Often there is very little patience or willingness to hang in there while players find themselves.
I’ve certainly seen that with teaching pitching and hitting. Some kids (and/or their parents) will take a couple of lessons and expect that somehow, magically, the player will instantly become better. Well, it doesn’t work that way. Improvement comes in increments. Some learn faster than others, just like some learn math or a foreign language faster than others. But it’s not instant.
And sometimes it can take a long time. I have had pitching students who just couldn’t seem to get the feeling of attacking the pitch. They’d go through the motions, but without that intent to throw hard. Then one day, the lightbulb comes on and bang! They get a significant speed jump.
What is interesting to me in those cases is the parents who see it and DO have the patience to wait until their child comes out of the gate. It can’t be easy. You’re paying for lessons, and while there is some general improvement it’s not really the kind of results you’d hope for. But rather than giving up, they stick with it, and their patience is rewarded.
Now, if the kid really doesn’t want to be there it’s never going to happen. I’ve had a couple of those, but fortunately only a couple. In those cases I do try to tell the parents it’s not working. But if the player is enthused about the lessons, I’ll keep going as long as she wants to because I know what we’re doing will work when the time is right.
Quite frankly, as a coach I wish every kid could get things instantly. It would be easier on everyone. But that’s not the case. As the song (and the Bible verse on which it’s based) says, there is a time to every purpose under Heaven. Sometimes that time isn’t right away. But if what you’re doing is the right way to go about it, and you put in the effort, sooner or later it will take hold.
I am probably proudest of the students for whom it didn’t come easy — the ones who hung in there until the lightbulb came on. Because when it does, it’s a bigger deal than it was for the kids who were able to do it right away. I’m also confident that they have acquired a skill that will serve them well their entire lives — the skill of persistence.
It’s easy to think if it doesn’t happen right away that it never will. But you just never know. And remember — it doesn’t matter where you start the race. Only where you finish it.
Attitude may not be everything…
…but it sure is a lot. Last night I was teaching some pitching lessons at one of the local facilities. In the next couple of cages there were girls from an 18U travel team working on their hitting, with a couple of their coaches in attendance.
As my student was retrieving the ball her dad/catcher had thrown away on the return, I was distracted by something happening two cages over. A hitter was hitting off a machine that was being fed by the female coach. The coach noticed something in the girl’s swing — I didn’t get it all, but it sounded like she was over-coiling or doing something else that was causing her problems — and she pointed it out. The player’s response was “That’s how I swing.” And she said it with one of those “end of discussion” tones.
I have never understood that type of attitude. I don’t know what the player was doing or if the coach was right or wrong about it. But it sounded like the coach had some idea of what she was doing, and she was trying to help the player. But apparently the player (whom I do not remember being on the USA National Team or anything like that) wasn’t interested in any help. She was content right where she was.
What’s interesting is when you read stories about actual National Team players from any country, or MLB players, or most pro athletes in general, they’re some of the easiest players to work with. They’re always looking for an edge, and willing to try anything to get it. Many times they’re more open to new ideas, in fact, than youth players.
I know people who have worked with players at that level many times and they confirm that elite players tend to be very coachable. It’s probably what sets them apart from kids with equal talent but not equal accomplishment.
It’s a shame. I felt bad for the coach. She called over the other coach, a guy, to take a look and it sounded like there was more resistance. I didn’t really key in on it since 1) I had to focus on my lesson and 2) it wasn’t my business in any case. But that’s the kind of thing that can keep a player and a team from reaching its goals.
If you’re not willing to try new things or change what you’re doing, you’ll never be more than you are today. You don’t necessarily have to stick with it, but you should at least give it a try. You never know when some coach on a cold night January might be trying to hand you the keys to the kingdom.
Things that make me go hmmmm #2
Just got the new Softball Sales catalog in the mail yesterday. As usual, I paged through it even though it’s the same stuff I saw in the last 10 catalogs they sent me.
While I was in there, though, I was reminded about one of those things that makes me go hmmm. I always wonder why nearly every product that carries a player endorsement (such as a Jennie Finch or Jessica Mendoza bat) is a mid-level to low mid-level product?
If you were a top-level athlete, wouldn’t you want you name to be on the top of the line product? I know I would for a couple of reasons. One is I’d probably want to use a product that has my name on it, since by implication I’m saying I would. It would also be fun (and intimidating) to go to bat with a stick carrying my name. Another is what you’re associated with. I would hate to think that my name stood for “mid-level” performance when I’ve worked my whole life to become a top-level player. What’s the thinking — use the bat with Jennie Finch’s name on it unless you really want to do well, in which case you should buy this other bat?
The one company I’ve seen do it right, in my opinion, is Wilson. The Cat Osterman signature series is on the A2000, which is their top of the line glove. Sure, at $199 it’s out of the reach of most youth players. But on the other hand it gives them something to aspire to. I never owned an A2000 because by the time I could afford to buy one myself I’d quit playing. But if I had been serious, I would’ve wanted it — especially if one of the Williams brothers (Ted or Billy) had had his name on it too.
It just seems to me that if you’re a top-level athlete endorsing a product line, it should be a top-level product line. Let the mid-level stuff get endorsed by mid-level people.
I dunno. Maybe I just don’t understand marketing. No, wait — that’s my day job. I guess the real lesson here is be your own hero. If you want to be like Jennie, or Jessica, or Crystal, or any of the others, forget whose name is on the products and work your butt off instead.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 