Category Archives: General Thoughts
The Importance of Intention in Achieving Fastpitch Success
As a private instructor, one of the questions I often get from parents of new students is, “How much should my daughter practice?” While well-intended (see what I did there?) the question is usually a tipoff that said new student generally doesn’t practice very much and the parent is looking for someone who isn’t them to make their daughter practice more.
My answer typically is, “As much as it takes.” I say that because practicing is not a time-based phenomenon. It’s goal-based.
Yes, it would be nice if you could quantify practice into increments of time, such as practice three times per week for a half hour and you will be great.
The reality, however, is it doesn’t quite work that way. Because basing practice on the amount of time ignores an essential ingredient to success in fastpitch softball, or any other endeavor for that matter: intention.
When you perform whatever skill it is you’re working on in practice or a game, you have to have an intention to do it at the highest, most focused, most energetic level you’re capable of on that particular day. The measurable outcomes will vary from day to day depending on factors such as whether you’re tired, hungry, stressed, injured, happy, inspired, “in the zone,” etc.
But the intention to do your best with whatever you have that day should always stay the same. Anything less and you’re basically cheating yourself.
Think of it this way: your ability to execute in a game is greatly affected by how you execute when you’re working on those skills.
If you base your practice on time alone it’s easy to walk through the motions without putting any major effort in. Ask any kid who was forced to take piano lessons from 150 year old nun who seemed to go out of her way to find the most uninteresting music every written for her students to play. Sorry, just had a traumatic flashback.
Back to our topic, let’s take a pitcher who is supposedly trying to increase her speed. Sure, she’s going to a pitching lane three days a week with her mom or dad and throwing for an hour.
But how is she throwing? Is she just throwing pitches from full distance in a way that is easy for her? Or does she have the intention of throwing harder and thus is doing things that might be less fun and less comfortable for her, such as working on her arm whip from a close distance into a net or trying to improve her leg drive by exploding out as quickly as she can without the ball?
Is a hitter just swinging the bat and knocking 100 balls off the tee because she heard somewhere that to improve you should take 100 swings a day? Or is she focused on trying to get her sequence correct and feeling the energy flow up through her body and out her bat with the intention of seeing the ball fly off and hearing a resounding crack?
One might drive minor improvement through sheer volume. The other will take an average or even good hitter and help her become a great hitter in a shorter amount of time.
That’s what having intention is all about. It’s not just about putting in time to check the box.
It’s about putting in real work to ensure that when the game is on the line you’re prepared to perform at the highest level of which you’re capable.
That doesn’t mean everyone has to practice like a maniac. If you’re playing softball for fun in your local rec league and not really too concerned about how you perform overall you don’t need to bring a whole lot of intensity to your practice routines.
As long as you’re doing something a couple of times a week you’ll probably improve enough by osmosis or sheer repetition to perform at an adequate level.
But if you’re a youth player and your goal is to play in college, or win a high school state championship, or dominate in travel ball (even if you don’t plan to play in college), or win one of the big tournaments, you need practice with intention.
If you’re already a college player and your goal is to get off the bench, or win a conference championship, or play in the Women’s College World Series, you’d better be bringing a whole boatload of intention not just to every practice but to every rep you take during that practice. Because if you don’t, someone else will, and they’ll be getting all the glory while you’re stuck watching from the sidelines.
The good news is intention is something you have complete control over. All you have to do is decide you want something bad enough and then put in the effort to get there. It doesn’t cost a cent and it’s readily available whenever you want it.
If you really, truly want to get better and become whatever qualifies in your mind as a top player, don’t just go through the motions and put in the “required” time. Starting cranking up your intention to perform at the highest level you can manage every single day and you’ll find improvement comes faster and more easily.
Giving a Little Love to the First Basemen
Have you ever stopped to think about which defensive position in fastpitch softball is the least valued? I think you can make a pretty argument for first base.
I mean, sure, there are plenty of parents who think that playing the outfield (doesn’t matter which specific position) is an insult to their highly talented daughters. Especially in the 10U-14U age groups.
But eventually they come to see that playing the outfield has some pretty unique challenges, as well as that having great outfielders can make or break a team’s success. Game-saving catch or throw, anyone?
There is, however, one position that doesn’t seem to get much love from coaches, parents, or fans in general: first base.
I’ve heard plenty of long-time coaches say that first base is where you put a good hitter who can’t field or throw. Or it’s where you put a left-handed thrower whose parents are complaining about her being in the outfield.
Those who think that way, however, are missing an important point, which is that a great first baseman can make up for some serious deficiencies at other positions.
The most obvious, of course, is when you have a team that struggles to throw the ball accurately. A quality first baseman will snag all those errant throws while still finding a way to either keep her foot on the bag somehow or sweep a quick tag as the runner is approaching first.
I’ve even seen first basemen do the splits trying to pick up a throw going in the dirt. Not consciously, necessarily, but they’re so focused on getting the ball and getting the out they just end up there. It’s quite a sight to see.
A heads-up first baseman can also save you some runs when another infielder forgets there is a runner on third with less than two outs. A quick snag and throw to home can catch a baserunner who thought she could take advantage of a fielder who either didn’t know or should have known better.
On a dropped third strike first basemen have to know where to position themselves based on where the ball ended up, then have to stand there while that batter/runner charges full steam ahead toward them. That may not seem like too complicated of a play but how many times have you seen it played incorrectly – and had a hitter who struck out reach base instead?
First basemen have to know when to charge a bunt and when to go back to the base. They’re often involved in rundowns between first and second as well as home and third.
They have to know when to go for that ground ball to their right and when to let off of it to cover the base. And they’re often the cut on throws to the outfield, which means they have to understand how to get in position depending on where the ball is hit and then pick out the catcher’s voice from the cacophony of voices on the field, in the dugout, and in the stands telling them what to do.
In other words, it’s more than just standing there playing a simple game of catch on an easy ground ball to short.
Basically, first base is what you might call a “lunch bucket” position because most of the time, if you’re playing it well, no one notices or they take it for granted. Even on some of the crazy stretches or the jump and tags.
But don’t come up with a ball in the dirt and you’re going to hear about how you have to “scoop it.” Come off the bag a little late on a wild throw and you’re going to hear about how you have to come off sooner. Even if the real solution would be a better throw to begin with.
It can be a frustrating for sure. Which is why I thought it might be nice for those first basemen out there to get a little love and recognition for everything they do to basically fix the mistakes everyone else makes.
So here’s to all of you who play first base – a position so under-valued it doesn’t even have a cool nickname. I see you.
Keep doing what you’re doing and saving your teammates’ bacon time after time. You may not get a lot of recognition, but they’ll surely miss you when you’re not out there.
6 Softball Things I’m Grateful for: 2024 Edition
With Thanksgiving coming next week it seemed like a good time to offer up a potpourri of things in the softball world for which I am thankful.
Now, this isn’t going to be one of those sentimental posts where I talk about how thankful I am for my understanding wife who lets me spend so much time working with other people’s kids, or my supportive family, or the opportunities I have to work with my students and their families, or all the people over the years who have and still continue to help me expand my knowledge of the sport and how to teach it, or you, my readers. That would be lame, right?
Instead, I thought I would talk about more tangible things that we can all appreciate. In other words, stuff.
After all, what good does it do you if my wife is awesome? But the items on this list are things that you can easily benefit from as well if you’re willing to put the time and/or money to take advantage of them.
So without further preamble, here are some of the softball things I am grateful for in 2024. If you have anything you’d like to add, please throw them into the comments below.
New GameChanger Home Page
This probably won’t mean much to a lot of you, but for me it was a literal game changer. If you follow multiple teams and haven’t seen it yet I’m sure you’ll love it too.
Most users probably only follow one or maybe 2-3 teams per season, so it was easy for them to keep track of when game were happening. I, however, typically am following dozens of teams where I have students playing.
When a team I am following is playing I typically receive a notification on my phone. On a typical summer or fall weekend my phone might get pinged 10-20 times an hour.
Prior to this fall, if I clicked on one of those notification I could see what was happening in the game. But if I forgot which team it was later I couldn’t check back on it until I received the notification the game was over.
This fall, GameChanger changed the home screen to list every game for teams I’m following that is currently happening at the top, upcoming games in the middle, and then final results for the day (I presume) at the bottom. So all I have to do to see what’s happening is open the app and click on whatever game I want to check out and the game tracker opens.
When I’m done and click the X to close the game, it goes right back to the game listings rather than that team’s home page. I can now check out a dozen games quickly. Brilliant!
If you’re a coach like me who wants to keep track of his/her students, a program director who wants to keep an eye on all of your organization’s teams, or even a grandparent whose children took the phrase “Be fruitful and multiply” to its logical conclusion, you’re going to love this great new way they’ve organized the info.
OnForm Video Analysis Tool
I’ve talked in the past about what a great tool OnForm is. OnForm makes it easy to capture, analyze, organize, and share videos and analysis to help coaches communicate with players so the players can get better.
I use it on a daily basis with my own students. But every now and then I receive a video from a parent looking for a little help or a coach looking for a second set of eyes on a player.
Often those videos are shot with the phone’s native video app. But OnForm makes it easy to import those videos into the app so I can provide slow motion or even stop motion analysis, complete with all the drawing and other tools it offers.
I can even do side-by-side comparisons to show what the player looks like compared to a more high-level player.
It’s just a great all-around tool whether you’re working with one player or 100 (although once you get past one it does get considerably more expensive).
Now, if they will just add the ability to superimpose a clock face over the video and give you the ability measure degrees of an arc from wherever you start to wherever you want to stop so you can check the angle (such as from the ground to where a pitcher’s humerus is at the time the front foot lands) I’d be a totally happy camper.
A Softball Bag with Wheels
This may seem like an odd thing to care about but in my opinion a bag with wheels that can store and transport up to four dozen softballs is one of the greatest inventions ever. Anyone who does outdoor practices in particular, like I do in the summer, should feel the same.
Consider you’re working with a hitter who did a good job of hitting the ball where it was pitched, which means the balls are sprayed all over the outfield.
If you have to carry the ball bag out to pick them all up, and you’re working for 2, 3, 4, or more hours, it gets awfully heavy and tiresome. But if your bag has wheels you can just roll it around with you like luggage to pick them up.
Or even wheel the bag toward second base, toss all the balls in near it, and then pick them up and put them in. Much more efficient.
Then there are the team coaches who need to (or need their players to if they’re smart) lug a ball bag from the furthest reaches of the parking lot to the part of the complex the parking lot is farthest from. Sure, you can toss a regular ball bag in a wagon, but if you don’t need a wagon full of stuff a bucket with wheels is a whole lot easier to manage.
The only problem with those buckets is they can be really tough to find. I’ve bought essentially the same bucket multiple times under five or six different brand names.
It’s like a company thinks, “What a great idea,” slaps their name on a standing design, sells a bunch, then decides to get out of the business. At which point you the consumer has to wait until another company thinks it’s a brilliant idea so you can buy a replacement when you ultimately forget to put the handle down only to see one of your power hitters smash a line drive into it and dent the handle so it won’t slide up and down again.
Once they’re off-market you have to keep searching for them until they finally pop up again. At least the last time that happened to me, when I finally found the latest company to offer this apparent loser of an inventory item I bought two.
So I’m covered for at least a while.
If you can find them, buy one. You won’t regret it.
I Still Own A Working Diamond Kinetics Ball
Right now, if you want to check out the spin direction, spin rate, spin efficiency, and other parameters on a pitch you pretty much have two options: You can either spend multiple thousands of dollars to purchase a Rapsodo set-up or find somewhere or someone that has one and is willing to rent it out for a couple of hours.
But there used to be another alternative. Diamond Kinetics (DK) used to sell a DK softball for $99 that would do everything Rapsodo did, right on your phone or tablet. It took seconds to set up (basically you’d open the app, spin the ball, and if the ball was charged you were ready to go) and didn’t require any special lighting or WiFi conditions.
Sounds like a dream, right? DK stopped selling those balls a couple of years ago.
I’m not sure why, although I’ve heard a few rumors. But I sure wish they’d come out with a new version and start selling them again.
In the meantime, I’m glad my old one still works – even though the ball itself is getting a bit slick from all the times it’s been thrown. Still, it beats dropping a down payment on a car on a system that doesn’t work any better than a $99 ball.
The Ability to Shop on the Internet
Say what you will about the Internet and all its issues, especially relative to social media. When it’s time to purchase special items (like some of those above) or even everyday items such as bats, balls, gloves, workout equipment and more, there’s nothing like the ability to open your computer, tablet, or phone, do a quick search, and make the purchase without ever having to leave your home.
I come from the era where we actually had to get off the couch, drive somewhere, and then be stuck with whatever inventory the store you went to decided to stock. In most cases it was fairly cheap, mass appeal items rather than quality gear.
Today, though, I can not only search for the good stuff – high-quality gear that will perform well and will last – but I can also search for where I can buy it for the cheapest price. After all, price does still matter.
For you digital natives who never had to rely solely on brick-and-mortar stores, be grateful you live in the times you do. It beats traveling all the way to a sporting goods store only to find they don’t have what you want – or if they do have it it’s so bad you’re afraid it will break on the way to the cash register in the front of the store.
Quality Educational Materials on the Internet
Sure, there’s a lot of crap on the Internet regarding how to develop softball skills. Especially on social media where the goal seems to be more focused on getting clicks than teaching something worthwhile.
But there’s a lot of good out there as well. Hopefully you consider this blog one of them. But there are others as well.
For training pitchers, you can’t beat Rick Pauly’s High Performance Pitching certification program. Rick is an extremely knowledgeable pitching coach and a great presenter who makes it easy to understand what high-level pitchers do and how to teach it.
Sure, you can try to piece the same information together from multiple sources or YouTube/TikTok/Instagram videos. But Rick has put it all together in one place with proven techniques and strategies that will get you or your daughter or your players where you want to go faster.
The DiscussFastpitch Forum is another great resource where you’ll get ideas and opinions from all around the sport. It’s an open forum so you have to be a little careful about who and what you listen to, but if you invest some time on there you’ll figure out pretty quickly who knows their stuff and who doesn’t.
As a starter, I would recommend checking out the “sticky” threads that are pinned to the top of the pages you’re interested in. Their information has been vetted and proven itself over time.
There are plenty of other examples out there for all aspects of the game too. As long as you take a little time to learn what you should be looking for first you’ll find the info you need to become a better coach for your team or your own daughter.
Many Thanks
So there you have it, my list for 2024. If you’re in a country that doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, that’s a bummer.
It’s the ultimate holiday, because all you do is eat and watch sports. Unless, of course, you’re hosting, in which case all you do is spend the week before cleaning the home top to bottom and preparing food so all your guest can sit around eating themselves into a food coma and watching sports.
Luckily I’m in the former category this year.
But even if Thanksgiving isn’t a thing nationally, you can still be grateful you live in such an awesome time for the great sport of softball.
Happy Turkey Day everyone!
Cornucopia photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Captain Picard’s Lesson on Winning, Losing, and Errors
Sorry to nerd out on this one, but there is a great Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called Peak Performance that puts some perspective into the challenges of competing in fastpitch softball. Even if you’re not a fan you might one to check this one out.
The part that’s interesting here is a side story involving Commander Data, the highly advanced android crew member. An outsider named Kolrami who is a grandmaster at a game called Strategema (sort of a holographic version of Space Invaders) comes on board and quickly irritates the crew with his arrogance.
A couple of crew members encourage Data to use his computer brain to take Kolrami down a peg by challenging him to a game of Strategema. At first reluctant, Data finally does it to defend the crew’s honor – and promptly gets his butt kicked by his flesh-and-blood opponent in about a minute.
Shocked, Data immediately surmises there must be something wrong with his programming and tries to take himself off duty until he figures out where the “problem” is. Captain Picard, who is captain of the ship, rather harshly tells him no he can’t do that, he needs Data, and that Data should quit sulking even though Data has no emotions and so presumably no capacity to sulk.
Then Picard tells Data something that every fastpitch softball coach, players, and parent needs to hear: It is possible to make no errors and still lose.
In our case I’m not talking only about the physical errors that get recorded in the scorebook. Playing error-free ball and losing happens all the time.
I’m talking more about the strategic decisions and approaches to the game that seem like they’re sound but still don’t produce the desired results (a win). Here’s an example.
There are runners and second and third with one out in the last inning of a one-run game. The defensive team opts to intentionally walk the next hitter to load the bases in order to create a force at home and potentially a game-ending double play at first if there’s time. They also pull their infield in to give them a better shot at that lead runner.
The next batter after that hits a duck snort single behind first base that takes a tough hop and rolls to the fence after landing fair and two runs end up scoring.
No errors were made, and the strategy was sound. But the result is still a loss.
Here’s another one from my own experience. Down one run with no outs in a game where they have been unable to hit the opponent’s pitcher, the offensive team finally gets a runner on first.
She’s a fast, smart, and aggressive baserunner, so putting the ball in play somehow could go a long way toward tying the game. The obvious solution would be a bunt to advance the runner to second, giving the offense two shots to bring her home from scoring position.
But the defense knows that and is playing for the bunt. So the offense opts for a slug bunt (show bunt, pull back, and hit the ball hard on the ground) combined with a steal of second. If the hitter can punch it through the infield the runner on first, who already has a head start, will likely end up on third and might even score, depending on how quickly the defense gets to the ball. Best case the batter will end up on second, as the potential winning run, worse case with good execution she’s on first.
Unfortunately, the batter does the one thing she can’t do in that situation – hit a weak popup to the second baseman. The batter is out and the runner who was on first gets doubled off.
Now, you can argue that the failed slug bunt was an error, but was it really? It was a failure of execution but not necessarily a mistake in the classic sense. It was just one of those cases where the hitter lost the battle to the pitcher.
The point is that sometimes, despite our best efforts and doing all we can to play the game correctly, things don’t work out the way we’d like. There are things that happen beyond our control that can influence the outcome of a play, an inning, or a game.
We can’t beat ourselves up over it or spend endless time second-guessing ourselves. We learn what we can from the experience and move on.
Sometimes we make different decisions the next time – and sometimes we don’t – and hope for a different outcome.
In case you’re wondering about Data, at the end of the episode he requests a rematch. This time he keeps the game going until Kolrami finally gives up in frustration.
When asked about it, Data explains that Kolrami entered the second game assuming both he and Data were trying to win and played accordingly. But Data’s strategy was to play not to lose, basically playing defense the whole time, until his opponent essentially forfeited the game, giving Data the victory.
Anyone who has played an international tie breaker can relate.
Not every decision you make on the field is going to work out the way you hoped, even if you’re making it for the right reasons. All you can do is learn from the experience and hope it works out better the next time.
Captain Picard photo by Stefan Kühn, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
How “Garbage Time” Can Become Your Treasure
There is an old saying that states “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” (Actually it says “one man’s” but I have updated it for the modern era. You’re welcome.)
This concept definitely applies to softball, especially if you are one of those players who is struggling to get playing time at a particular position so you can prove what you can do. It all revolves around what football fans call “garbage time.”
The term “garbage time” typically refers to a point in the fourth quarter where one time is so far ahead the other team has no chance to catch up, but there are still several minutes left to play. That’s usually where you will see the second string quarterback (as well as other bench players) take the field to run out the clock while keeping the starters from suffering a stupid injury.
The softball equivalent would be a game where one team is clearly over-matched, down by several runs, and there is a time limit. It’s clear the team that’s down isn’t going to be able to overcome the deficit in time but they have to keep playing anyway.
Here’s how you can turn this unfortunate situation into an opportunity.
Let’s say you’re the third or fourth pitcher on your team. You started the fall season kind of rough but have been working hard over the offseason and have improved your pitching considerably over the last few months.
Now that it’s summer you’re eager to prove what you can do, but your coach still thinks of you as you were back in the fall and is reluctant to put you in to pitch.
So suggest to your coach that you will take all the “garbage time” innings you can get. (Although you may not want to refer to them as “garbage time.”)
Frame in the context of helping the team: The team still has to play, but why waste one of the “good” pitchers on meaningless innings? Wouldn’t it be better to save them for a game where you have a better chance of winning?
That logic should make sense to most coaches – at least the ones who are honest with themselves. Worst case you go out there and give up a bunch of runs and the game ends early due to the run-ahead rule.
Embarrassing, sure, but does it really matter if you lose by 7 runs or 10 runs? And if you do get run ruled your team gets a little extra time to rest, relax, and reset before having to play their next game.
But you’re not actually planning to give up any runs. In fact, your plan is to show the coach that you’re ready to pitch by holding your own against a team that was beating up on your #1 or #2 pitcher.
Do that a couple of times and your coach may start to look at you differently. Perhaps he/she will let you start or relieve in a pool play or “friendly” game where the outcome isn’t already decided.
Do well there and he/she may start giving you more opportunities, and eventually turn to you as a regular member of the staff instead of the pitcher of last resort.
All because you volunteered to eat up the innings no one else really wanted.
While this strategy probably works best for pitchers, it can be applied to other positions as well. After all, field players need a break from time to time too, especially if they’re already nursing injuries or you’ve been playing a lot of games either in one day or on back-to-back days.
And who knows? Maybe your eagerness and positive attitude can spur the team to keep fighting and do better even when it feels like all hope is lost.
In the right conditions it just takes one spark to light a major fire. You could be that spark.
It’s said that luck doesn’t just happen; we make our own luck. Volunteering for “garbage time” is a way to make your own luck – and turn what looks like trash into your own personal treasure.
Gold bars photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Why You Shouldn’t Let Today’s Setbacks Define You
Not sure who needs to hear this story today but I have no doubt there are some who do – and others who may in the future. So I thought I’d share it, courtesy of my friend Tim Boivin who first shared it with me.
Hopefully the link works and you can read the full story. But just in case I will summarize it here.
Today we all know Mike Trout as an 11-time Major League Baseball All-Star and a standout hitter and outfielder ow playing for the Los Angeles Angels. Even those who don’t follow baseball closely have probably heard the name.
He’s definitely one of the top current players in the game and will likely make the Hall of Fame in either his first or one of his first years of eligibility. His career stats include a batting average of .299, on base percentage of .410, slugging percentage of .510 and on base + slugging (OPS) at a hefty .991.
Back in 2008, however, Trout was invited along with 99 other players to try out for the USA Baseball National team. You would think someone with his skill and athletic ability, demonstrated over years at the highest level of the game, would be a lock for something like that.
But he wasn’t. He was kind of an unknown going in and didn’t have the hype some of the other players did.
So when the powers that be assembled the final 18-player roster, Mike Trout’s name wasn’t on it.
I’m sure it hurt, to come that close and not make it. But he didn’t let it deter him.
Instead, Mike Trout continued to work on his game and play his heart out, and he eventually rose to outshine all those players who were selected instead of him.
You see, that’s the thing. It really doesn’t matter where you start the race, only where you finish it.
I mean, the world is full of stories like this – Michael Jordan not making his high school varsity basketball team as a sophomore, The Beatles being turned down by every major record label in Britain, and so forth.
So maybe you tried out for a team and didn’t make it. Or maybe you’re on a team but not getting many opportunities to show what you can do.
It’s easy to get discouraged and give up in that type of situation. But instead of hanging your head and letting others define you, keep working at it.
You may only have so much natural ability or athleticism but you can have a boundless supply of desire, determination, and positive attitude if you want it. Use those qualities to lift yourself up and someone will recognize it.
At some point, you will get an opportunity to show what you can do somewhere. When that happens, make sure you’re prepared to take advantage of that opportunity.
Give it all you’ve got and good things will happen.
And always remember sometimes the things we desire most may not be the things that are best for us in the long run. But as they say in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, the universe tends to work out the way it should.
So if you’re facing disappointment today, shed a few tears or overturn a few tables or deal with it however you deal with it. Then get back to work.
And someday you may find someone writing an inspirational story about you.
There’s More to Calling Pitches than Calling Pitches
One of my favorite jokes is about a guy who goes to prison for the first time. As he’s being walked to his cell by a guard he hears a prisoner yell “43!”, which is followed by howls of laughter from the rest of the population.
About 20 seconds later someone else yells out “17!” and again there is laughter. After a couple more numbers are called out the new guy asks his escort what that’s all about.
“A lot of our population has been here a long time and has heard the same jokes over and over,” the guard explains. “To save time, each joke has now been assigned a number. Someone yells the number and the rest react to the joke.”
“Hmmm,” the new guy says to himself, “seems like a good way to try to fit it on day one.” So he takes a deep breath and calls out “26!”, which is followed by silence.
“What happened?” he asks the guard. “Why didn’t anyone laugh?”
To which the guard replies sadly, “I guess some people just don’t know how to tell a joke.”
The same can be said for pitch calling in fastpitch softball. While it might seem straightforward, especially with all the data and charts and documentation available (including this one from me), it’s actually not quite that simple.
The fact is pitch calling is as much art and feel as it is science and data, and like the newbie prisoner trying to fit in, some people have a natural knack for it and some don’t.
That can be a problem because nothing can take down a good or even great pitcher faster than a poor pitch caller.
Here’s an example. There are coaches all over the fastpitch world who apparently believe that pitch speed is everything. As a result, they don’t like to (and in some cases refuse to) call changeups because they believe the only way to get hitters out is to blow the ball by them.
But the reality is even a changeup that’s only fair, or doesn’t get thrown reliably enough for a strike, can still be effective – as long as it’s setting up the next pitch. And if that changeup is a strong one, it can do more to get hitters out than a steady diet of speed. Just ask NiJaree Canady, who can throw 73 mph+ through an entire game but instead leaned heavily on her changeup during the 2024 Women’s College World Series.
The reality is the ability to change speeds, even if it’s going from slow to slower, will be a lot more effective in most cases than having the pitcher throw every pitch at the same speed no matter how fast she is. Sooner or later good hitters will latch onto that speed and the hits will start coming.
There’s also the problem of coaches falling into pitch calling patterns. Remember that great change we were just talking about?
If you’re calling that pitch on every hitter and hitters are having trouble hitting your pitcher’s speed, the hitters can just sit on the changeup and not worry about the rest. It gets even worse if you’re calling a particular pitch on the same count all the time.
A truly great pitch caller is one who can look at a hitter and just feel her weaknesses. That great pitch caller can also see what the last pitch did to the hitter and call the next pitch to throw that hitter off even more.
I’ve watched it happen. When my younger daughter Kim was playing high school ball she had an assistant coach who was a great pitch caller.
She was never overpowering, but she could spot and spin the ball. The coach calling pitches knew her capabilities, and when they went up against a local powerhouse team that had been killing her high school the last few years he used those capabilities to best advantage.
The team lost 2-1, due to errors I might add, but that was a lot better than the 12-1 drubbings they were used to. The coach called pitches to keep the opposing hitters guessing and off-balance all game, Kim executed them beautifully, and they almost pulled off the upset.
The coach didn’t have a big book of tendencies, by the way. He just knew how to take whatever his pitchers had and use it most effectively.
And I guess that’s the last point I want to make. All too often pitch callers think pitchers need to have all these different pitches to be effective.
While that can help, a great pitch caller works with whatever he/she has. If the pitcher only has a fastball and a change, the pitch caller will move the ball around the zone and change speeds seemingly at random.
The hitter can never get comfortable because it’s difficult to cover the entire strike zone effectively.
Add in a drop ball that looks like a fastball coming in and you have a lot to work with. In fact, for some pitch callers that’s about all they can really handle; throw in more pitches and they’re likely not going to understand how to combine them effectively to get hitters out.
Some people have the ability to call pitches natively. They just understand it at the molecular level.
For the rest, it’s a skill that can be learned but you have to put in the time and effort to get good at it, just like the pitchers do to learn the pitches.
Watch games and see how top teams are calling pitches. Track what they’re throwing when – and why.
Look at the hitters, they way they swing the bat, the way they warm up in the on-deck circle, the way they walk, the way they stand, the way they more. All of those parameters will give you clues as to which pitches will work on them.
Then, make sure you understand how they work together for each pitcher. For example, maybe pitcher A doesn’t have a great changeup she can throw for a low strike, but the change of speed or elevation may be just enough to make a high fastball harder to hit on the next pitch.
Your pitchers aren’t robots, they are flesh and blood people. So are the hitters. If you understand what you want to throw and why in each situation you’ll be on your way to becoming a legend as a pitch caller – and a coach your pitchers trust to help them through good times and bad.
Remember to Celebrate Progress and Successes
The other day I went to visit a healthcare professional (HP). Nothing serious, just basically checking a box for the insurance company.
Anyway, we were talking about some lifestyle changes I’ve made to try to stay healthier longer. Yet it seemed like every time I told the HP about some improvement I’d made she countered with I should be doing this or that too.
It was kind of frustrating, because rather than feeling encouraged to continue doing better I was made to feel like no matter what I did it would never be good enough. The focus would always be on what more I could do or should be doing.
That experience got me to thinking about how we coach our fastpitch softball players. (Take that Google algorithms.)
Often times we coaches are so focused on trying to get our players ready for “the next level” (whatever that is) or trying to make them look just like the players we see on TV that we fail to acknowledge all the great work they’ve done to get themselves to this point. And that can be just as discouraging as my experience with the HP.
That’s why it’s important every now and then along the journey to stop and take a look backward even as you’re trying to look ahead to the next goal. Showing a player how far she has come can give her a real boost to continue putting in the work to keep moving forward.
Let’s take a hitter who has been working on her swing. Honestly, I get a fair amount of students whose only goal (or their parents’ only goal for them) is to not strike out every time they come to bat.
Mom and/or Dad aren’t looking for little Amelia to hit home runs or have the highest batting average on the team. They’re simply hoping she doesn’t get totally discouraged from playing because she wouldn’t hit water if she fell out of a boat.
They don’t want to have to cringe every time she comes to the plate, but that’s another story.
So Amelia gets help from a coach or instructor, fixes whatever was causing her to just randomly swing the bat and hope she hit something, and now she’s making contact with greater regularity and getting on base now and then. At which point the goal becomes to start hitting the ball to or over the fence.
That’s great that everyone wants Amelia to keep growing and improving. But maybe in the midst of all that take a step back to appreciate the fact that the original goal has been met and let Amelia feel good about what she has accomplished so far – at least for a few minutes.
Video is great for that, by the way. Even if Amelia isn’t quite getting on base often enough, showing her a video of how she used to swing the bat versus how she is swinging it now will probably help her build confidence and continue to focus on the process instead of the outcomes.
Then let the law of averages take care of the rest.
It’s the same for pitching. Maybe you have a goal of having a pitcher throw faster, or throw more strikes. Or both.
Regardless of the goal, the path to achieving it starts with improving her mechanics.
So perhaps when she started out she looked less like she was trying to pitch and more like she was trying to fold a fitted sheet.
Showing her a video of how she used to look versus how she looks now might give her some encouragement that she’s on the right track, even if the radar isn’t reflecting it or she’s still throwing a few too many in the dirt. That doesn’t mean you still don’t want to hold her to a higher standard.
But you can acknowledge the fact that she is improving so she has something to feel good about while she works toward the bigger payoff.
All of this doesn’t mean you should provide false praise just to spare the player’s feelings. If she’s not putting in the work and showing improvement that needs to be called out. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Often, however, we are in such a hurry to get to the ultimate goal (being names an MVP, making a particular team, winning a scholarship, etc.) that we don’t take the time to appreciate the progress that’s already been made.
So think about that today. If you’re a coach, what can you do to recognize how much better your players are today than they were a month ago, or three months ago, or a year ago, etc.?
If you’re a parent, what can you point to that lets your daughter know you are proud of how far she has come so far? Even if she still has a ways to go.
That little bit of encouragement may be just the thing your player needs to keep grinding – and build a level of confidence that will carry through not just her softball career but her whole life.
12 Ways Fastpitch Softball Has Changed Over the Last 25 Years
It is always tempting to think that the way things are today is the way they have always been. After all, it can be difficult to imagine things being significantly different if you’ve never known anything else.
Well, I’m here to tell you that the game HAS changed significantly over the last (roughly) 25 years since I became involved with it. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, and sometimes somewhere in between, depending on your point of view.
So for those of you who enjoy a little history, or who wonder if things were better in the “good old days,” or would just like a little perspective on how we got to where we are today, here are X ways the game has changed over the last 25 or so years.
#1 – The Increase in Offense
If you look back at scorebooks, especially at the higher levels of play such as D1 college games, you would find a lot of games ended with a score of 1-0 or 2-1. You would probably also find that many of those games went into 8, 10, 12 or more innings to arrive at that finaly score.
There were a lot of reasons for that phenomenon, some of which we’re going to get into below. But regardless of the reasons, there typically wasn’t a whole lot of offense being produced back then.
Hits were a rarity – never mind the powerhouse slugfests we typically see today. Many of the “old school” types who played or coached in that era believe that’s when the game was at its best.
But the reality is unless you were a pitcher or a pitcher’s parents those games were kind of boring to watch, especially for the casual fan. So much so that on those rare occasions when ESPN would televise a game they would typically tape it, run it later, and edit out two or three innings where there were no hits or runs scored because they figured nothing happened so viewers weren’t missing anything.
That’s why many of the changes that follow were made – to make the game more accessible and interesting to the casual viewer so they could hike up ratings and capture those big TV dollars. Turns out that strategy was the right one because the 2024 Womens College World Series final games averaged 2 million viewers per game, and softball at all levels is more visible than ever on TV.
#2 – The Ball
This was one of the big changes made to try to increase offense.
The original ball for fastpitch softball was white with white seams. As a result, hitters would tend to see a screaming blur of white coming at them from a close distance, making it difficult to pick up on how the ball was spinning (which might give them a clue as to what it was going to do).
Today, of course, it is optic yellow with red seams. That makes it at least a little easier for hitters to pick up and follow to the plate overall, and gives them at least a shot at identifying the type of pitch being thrown so they can react accordingly.
That said, with all the bullet spin pitches being thrown these days picking up the seam direction is probably less important. Still, when facing pitchers who do have true spin on their balls it can help.
#3 – Pitching Distance
This was probably one of the biggest changes that helped the offense. Believe it or not, when I first became involved with the sport, the pitching distances were 35 feet up through 12U, and then 40 feet from 14U up.
That’s right – the college and international pitching distance was 40 feet!
Today, of course, only 11 and 12 year olds pitch from 40 feet. The extra three feet has helped older hitters gain a little more time to see the ball and execute their swings, resulting in more offense.
With so many more pitchers throwing at or near 70 mph, however, don’t be surprised if you start seeing a movement to push the pitching rubber back a little more in the near future.
#4 – More Offseason Training for Hitters
Today it’s almost a given that fastpitch softball players will go for hitting lessons pretty much year-round. That wasn’t always the case, though.
In fact, many players rarely picked up a bat when they weren’t in-season, or at least in the pre-season. Contrast that with pitchers training constantly in the offseason and you can see another reason why there was such an imbalance.
Today it’s pretty common to see players from 10 years old up either taking lessons or showing up to work on their swings in batting cages two or three times per week. They may not always have the greatest swings, but sheer repetition has helped them out-perform many of the players in the past.
#5 – The Proliferation of Facilities
The increase in the number of players who want to work out in the offseason has led to the growth of batting/pitching cage facilities throughout the U.S.
Back when my oldest daughter started playing you had to travel pretty far to find a space where you could pitch or hit in the offseason. And I live in a pretty high popular suburban area.
Today you can hardly swing a dead cat without hitting a high-quality facility that offers not only cage space but also a weight training area, speed and agility classes, and a host of other options to help youth players develop their games. Sure beats trying to sneak into the local high school so you can get a few reps in.
#6 – More Instruction
When my oldest daughter announced she wanted to start pitching I had no idea of what to do to help her. I felt lucky to come across a coach from another team who gave pitching lessons, and would drive an hour to take her to those lessons either at a field in the summer or in a middle school gym in the winter.
This was pre-Internet, by the way, so it’s not like I could have done a Google search to find someone. It was all pretty much word of mouth.
It’s not too hard to find an instructor today. They are in every local facility, and most can be found through social media or a quick search on “fastpitch pitching instruction near me.”
Now, that’s good and bad. Good because you can find them, but bad because it allows a lot of unqualified people to hang out a shingle and take your money while leading you down a rabbit hole.
Still, with a little due diligence you can find someone who can help your daughter develop faster than she would through the trial-and-error method on her own. Which is a good thing.
#7 – The Uniforms
Now we get to some of the fun stuff.
When my oldest daughter started playing, college teams and international teams wore shorts. So naturally all of the youth players wore or wanted to wear shorts too.
In fact, the travel program my daughter was in had pants and I had to fight on their behalf to get the standard changed to shorts.
Then college teams started going to pants, largely driven by Arizona who was a powerhouse at that time. And then everyone else went back to pants.
There is that saying that what goes around comes around, so I can’t help but wonder if one day shorts will make a comeback. I’m sure all the manufacturers who sold those calf-length sliding pads are hoping that’s the case.
The other significant change in uniforms is how many today’s players often have. Back in the day it was normal to have two, which meant if you had a three- or four-day tournament someone was going to be doing laundry at home or in the hotel.
Today, of course, teams can have four or five uniforms, plus maybe a specialty one for a cause, plus practice uniforms. The players of the past are likely pretty jealous of all the options today’s players have.
#8 – Time Limits
This may be hard for today’s players and parents to believe, but once upon a time EVERY game went a minimum of seven innings. Longer if there was a tie at the end of seven, because in fastpitch softball games could not end in a tie.
Nowadays it’s common in travel ball tournaments for there to be an 1:15 time limit. Sometimes that means no new inning, other times it’s that the game stops at 1:15 and if the inning isn’t over you revert back to the previous inning.
The addition of a time limit definitely makes it a different game. It’s critical for your team to start fast on offense and not make too many errors on defense early on, because you may not have the time to make up for any issues later.
It’s also a challenge for coaches who want to give all of their players ample playing time. One rough inning and those kids who started on the bench may not see the field. Or else the coach will have to put in subs in the middle of an inning, which usually doesn’t make anyone happy.
Time limits have also had a lot of other effects on the game. You can read more about my thoughts on this big topic here and here.
#9 – Offseason Training
For much of my early coaching career it was rare for teams in areas where there was a lot of cold and snow to do any practicing during the offseason. Dedicated facilities were rare, and local schools often didn’t like to rent out there gyms to outside programs so they’d charge an arm and a leg and then make it difficult to schedule times.
The program I was with was a rare exception. We worked out a deal with the local Park District to offer “open clinics” on Saturday mornings, which would give us an hour a week to work with our teams, plus any other players in the area who wanted to sign up. We’d actually draw a pretty good cross-section of dedicated players from various teams, essentially training our competitors.
Today it’s not uncommon for teams to practice two or three times a week in dedicated baseball/softball facilities, either their own or facilities they rent. It shows up in the way they play, which quite honestly is far better overall than many of the teams of yesteryear.
#10 – Winter Games
Readers in California, Florida, Arizona, and other southern states will have no idea what I’m talking about, but for those of us in cold weather states the addition of games and tournaments during the winter has been a huge change.
There are more domes and other large turf facilities than ever, which opens up the ability for teams to play two or three times a month if they choose. While I still believe there is more value to practice than games in terms of learning the sport, I will also admit that practicing all the time without any games to measure your progress can be boring.
Having the ability to mix games in with offseason practice has been a huge plus for today’s players.
#11 – The Technology
This has been a huge advance for today’s players over those in the past. Let’s start with bats.
Back in the day if you had a Louisville Burgundy bat (old timers, you know the one) you were highly privileged. Today most players wouldn’t use that for a practice bat.
Bat technology has advanced so much that now even a checked swing can result in a double if you hit a gap. One more reason scores now are more like 7-5 instead of 1-0.
But there is also technology like 4D Motion, Rapsodo, Blast, Pocket Radar and others than can deliver hard data instead of just having coaches eyeball a pitch or a swing and guess what’s going on. Not to mention high-speed video such as OnForm that lets you slow down the skill, mark it up, and really analyzed it to the Nth degree.
Finally, there is game scoring technology such as GameChanger that not only lets family and friends who can’t attend the game follow along (or see how their favorite players did afterwards) but also provide coaches with a lot of statistical data about how their teams are doing without all the hassle of transferring the information from a paper scorebook to a spreadsheet.
Of course, the data is only as good as the person who is keeping the book, but that was also true for a paper scorebook. The nice thing is it’s easier to pull it up when you want to get a feel for how your players are doing.
#12 – The Cost
Most of the changes we have talked about have been positive. This one might be more of a negative.
Back in the day, a typical team fee for a travel ball team was $400 – $800 dollars, either with or without uniform. Those fees would cover not only tournament and practice field fees but also team equipment such as bats, helmets, and catcher’s gear.
(Yes Virginia, in the old days teams would actually supply a few bats and helmets for shared team use. We’ve come along way since then.)
These days travel ball fees can run into the thousands of dollars. It’s not unusual for families whose daughters are playing on high-level teams to pay $10,000 a year or more, not counting travel fees which are additional.
Sure, we can talk about inflation and the numbers not quite being the same. But I guarantee even if you account for those differences the cost has gone up significantly.
The price of progress, I suppose. But it does mean young ladies who once might have been interested in playing fastpitch softball have now been priced out of the market, unfortunately.
Ok, those are some of the changes I have seen. What have I missed? What have you seen change within your time in the sport, whether that’s two years or 20 years? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
5 Positives to Not Being Invited Back
Right now the tryout season for next year is winding down in many part of the country – and beyond. That’s hard for an “old school” coach like me to conceive since I know of many teams that are still playing in various “National” tournaments with this year’s players,
But such is the reality of today’s fastpitch softball world.
For many next year will look pretty much like this year, i.e., same players (more or less) and same coaches. But for some, this is a time of heartache and tears because they’ve been informed that, despite having a tournament or two left to play right now, they are not being invited back to the team next year.
It’s difficult in any situation in life to hear you’re not wanted anymore by the people you’ve given your heart and soul to. If you’re a young, competitive athlete it can be particularly difficult.
So for those in that situation right now let me share a little secret: this may not be as bad of a thing as it seems right now.
Yes, it hurts not to be wanted. But this involuntary change of scenery might actually offer you one huge advantage – a clean slate with which to start over with no history or expectations.
Allow me to share a few of the positives this opportunity presents.
Positive #1: You’re not stuck in someone’s impression of you
It’s an unfortunate fact of life that once a coach decides who you are and what you can do that view never changes. Never mind that you worked hard over the offseason to improve your skills or increase your speed or build your strength.
For too many, the impression they got when you first joined the team is the impression you’re stuck with going forward.
On a new team you get a do-over. Even if that coach has the exact same issue – his/her first impression is the one you’re stuck with – you have that rare opportunity in life to create an all-new first impression.
In other words, wherever you are now is how that coach will see you rather than where you were a year ago. If you really put in the work you may find you’re rewarded better on the new team than you would have been on the old one.
Positive #2: Extra motivation
There is something to be said for revenge or an “I’ll show you” attitude to keep a player motivated on improvement throughout the long, boring offseason. There’s a pretty good chance you’re going to see your old team on the field, this time as an opponent.
What better way to get the better of the situation than to perform well, contribute to your new team’s victory, and show the old coaching staff what they missed in letting you go?
Now, I’m not saying you need to be mean or nasty about it. You don’t want to go into negative territory.
But there’s a pretty good chance that more has been accomplished in all fields in life by people who were once told they weren’t good enough to stay where they were than those who were safe and comfortable. If you’re a competitor at all, not being asked back should be all the fuel you need to kick your dedication and training level up or a notch or two.
And even if you never get a chance for that revenge game, the improvements you make in preparing for it will carry over to every other game in which you compete. Which is pretty cool by itself.
Positive #3: New opportunities
Sometimes moving to a new team can create opportunities you might never have gotten with the old team.
Perhaps the coach of the old team has a batting order he/she likes and never changes. Moving to a new team and proving yourself could give you the opportunity to hit higher in the lineup and get more at-bats. Especially if the coach bases his/her decisions on the stats instead of gut feel.
Or maybe you’ve always fancied yourself a shortstop but that position was already taken by one of the best to ever play the game. You’re not going to displace her no matter how good you are or how hard you work, whereas a new team will welcome your skill level at that position.
Having opportunities is particularly important for pitchers. So if you weren’t pitching much on the old team because you didn’t hit your spots or couldn’t match the others for speed, a new team with greater need at that position just might give you the opportunity you need to develop under game conditions – simply because they don’t have much choice.
All you can ask for is the opportunity to do whatever it is you want to do. The rest is up to you. But at least with the new team there could be more of a chance of getting that opportunity.
Positive #4: An overall better fit
Maybe you joined your old team because they had a great reputation for being the best in the area. But then you found out one of the reasons they’re the best is they are better at convincing already-developed players at coming to them than they are at developing players themselves.
Or maybe you enjoy being a multi-sport athlete while the rest of the team (and the coaches) are more about all softball all the time. As a result, you missed some games for your other sport(s) which caused you to have to sit the bench as punishment for choosing that sport over softball, even if the other sport was in-season and softball was not.
Or maybe the culture of the team was win at all costs, even if it means cheating or hurting your opponents on purpose while you’re more oriented toward playing a clean game.
Whatever the issue might be, you know in your heart of hearts that the old team wasn’t a good fit for you as a person, even if it was a good fit as an athlete. In that case, they probably did you a favor.
You can now find a team whose culture and attitude is a better fit for who you are and who you want to be. With a little distance you may even find that they did you a huge favor by not asking you back; sometimes it’s tough to see the negative behaviors when you’re in the middle of them.
Positive #5: Meeting new people and making new connections
It’s easy to get caught in a sort of closed-loop system, especially in today’s fastpitch softball world where you play so many games and have so many practices that your experience of the world outside your current team is limited.
By moving to a new team you may discover things or people you never knew existed. For example, you may find a skills coach (pitching coach, hitting coach, etc.) or a trainer who can elevate your game tremendously because one or more of your teammates goes to him/her.
You would have never known about that person had you stayed where you were. But this type of serendipity could end up leading you to skills and abilities you never knew existed within yourself.
The same goes for the other players. You may discover a friend for life you would have never known about had you stayed where you were.
Or you may find the way the players on this team approach the game is more in keeping with how you think of it, leading you to have a better overall experience. With a net result that you keep playing long after the attitudes on the old team would have driven you out.
Darkest before the dawn
Not being asked back to the team who already knows you can be tough on the ego and the psyche. It can make you feel like something is wrong with you, or cause you to think that you are somehow “less than” those who were asked back.
Don’t let that kind of thinking creep into your head. Just accept that there are many paths forward, and that what seems like a trauma right now could end up being the best thing that ever happened to you.
Keep a positive attitude, find that new team, and remind yourself that a year from now whatever sadness or hurt you’re feeling today will be little more than a bump in a much longer, better road for you as a player.
Now get out there and kick butt!
Heading photo by Karolina Kaboompics on Pexels.com
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 