Category Archives: General Thoughts
Thank You and Farewell to Retiring Coaches
As the travel ball season winds down (that went fast!) some of you out there are coaching your final games. Whether your daughter is done with her fastpitch softball career, is going to a team with so-called “professional” coaches, your organization is making a change in how it selects coaches, you’ve just decided coaching is something you no longer want to do, or there is some other reason, the next couple of weeks (or so) will no doubt be bittersweet.
Well, I for one, want to thank you for taking on what is often a thankless job and doing your best to help the players you served as either a head or assistant coach.
As your last team plays its last few games, be sure you take a little time to reflect on the journey that brought you here. Because coaching youth sports is both one of the most difficult and most rewarding ways an adult can spend his/her time (if you are truly in it for the right reasons).
You’ve weathered countless storms of parents angry about their daughter’s playing time, the position she’s played, where she is in the batting order, decisions you made on the field, the caliber of teams you’ve played (either too hard or too soft), when and where you set up practice, some random comment you made that someone took personally, your selection of white pants, and how you enforced the team rules that were CLEARLY spelled out at the parent meeting you held right after tryouts were held and offers were accepted.
You’ve endured countless sleepless nights the night before the start of a tournament, going over batting orders, field lineups, contingency plans, and other things no one else had to worry about. You got to the hotel before everyone else so you could drive from the hotel to the tournament site to make sure the time Google maps says it will take your team to get to the field is the time it will actually take.
You’ve made sure someone is arranging meals and snacks. You’ve checked and re-checked the med kit to make sure you have everything you may need in case of injury.
You’ve carried around a 20 lb. bag of miscellaneous objects such as glove lace (and glove lacing tools), duct tape, spare sunglasses, a measuring tape, drying towels, cooling towels, and more to ensure you’re ready for every contingency. You’ve say through countless pre-tournament meetings while everyone else was off having a meal and/or an adult beverage or swimming in the pool.
And now that part is all over, and you may feel a little sense of relief. But you’re feeling something else too.
You know you’re going to miss working with your team, running drills and walking through situations to help your team learn this very complex and often heartbreaking game. You’re going to miss the challenge of facing an opponent that on paper looks to be better than you but that somehow your team manages to overcome.
You’re really going to miss the thrill of seeing a player who came to you barely able to put her glove on the correct hand suddenly blossom into regular contributor to your team’s success. And you’re going to miss the camaraderie that comes with spending so many hours with a group of people you really like as you work toward a common goal.
Come this fall if you don’t have a daughter playing anymore it’s going to feel strange to wake up at 8:00 am on a Saturday morning with nowhere to be and nothing to do.
If you do have one playing for someone else, it will still be odd to be sitting on the sidelines in your camp chair drinking coffee instead of tossing batting practice, fungoing ground and fly balls, or sitting in the dugout agonizing over a lineup.
So thanks for the hundreds of hours you’ve spent working with your players, attending live clinics and online classes to learn how to coach your players better, and missing out on events with family and friends because your team had a game to play. Thanks for always looking out for your players’ best interests, even when it felt like they may have conflicted with your own.
And most of all, thanks for caring about your players as people rather than just chess pieces to be pushed around a board. You may not realize it now, but the impact you made on at least some of their lives is probably immeasurable.
So as things wind down, take a moment to savor all that was great about being a coach. Linger a little longer after practice, and especially after your last game, and think about the good times you’ve had and the lives you have touched by saying “yes” when many others would have said and did say “no.”
Thank you Coach and farewell! You have made a difference in a lot of lives.
Main photo by Kindel Media on Pexels.com
What’s the Deal with the Colored Tape on Catchers’ Chest Protectors?
If you were watching the Women’s College World Series in 2023 and/or 2024 you no doubt noticed that Oklahoma’s catchers had a piece of blue or red tape affixed to their chest protectors. I have heard some interesting explanations as to what it might be.
One is that it’s some sort of enlarged target for pitchers to throw to. If they’re having trouble seeing the glove, or if the catcher is trying to hide the pitch location, the pitcher can sight in on the tape and throw it there.
Another is that the tape is the pitcher’s favorite color, and it’s being used to help her feel more comfortable and confident. That’s more on the right track, but still not quite there.
Actually what it is has to do with something called motor preferences. You can learn more about it here, but I will provide a quick background of what it is and how it relates to the colored tape.
The concept of motor preferences began about 20 years ago with a French company called Volodalen. They were doing extensive research in how to help athletes in many different sports (but primarily in track and field and cycling, I believe) perform better.
Through this research they discovered that all of us have certain preferences baked into our DNA. For example, when some people run they tend to bounce or rebound lightly off the ground.
They classified these athletes as “aerial.” Others tend to be more earthbound, pulling and passing as they run, so they call them “terrestrials.”
There are other tendencies as well, which I’m not going to get into right now because while I have completed an online course I want to wait until I’ve attended the in-person training to go into it in more detail. So I don’t quite feel qualified yet to offer a deeper explanation.
Motor preferences have been used in Europe for about 20 years to determine an athlete’s natural preferences so he/she is being trained properly, both to enhance performance and prevent injury. It was brought to North America by Motor Preferences Experts, whose link I provided above.
Which brings us back to the tape on the chest protectors. The color and the orientation both have significance in how they affect the pitcher.
The color is determined by whether the athlete holds his/her breath in while performing an athletic movement or lets it out. In this case, an athlete who holds his/her breath in will have a preference for royal blue. (As I understand it not just any blue will do, it has to be royal blue.)
An athlete who empties his/her lungs during the act will have a preference for red. I’m told any general red will work. All of this has to do with the rods and cones in the eyes.
There is a test to determine whether an athlete is breath in/breath out You don’t want to just ask them. That test is proprietary so I can’t share how to perform it here but I will say it’s fairly subtle so you need to be trained in it anyway.
Once you know the color, you then test to see if the athlete’s brain organizes information horizontally or vertically. That will tell you whether to run the tape horizontally or vertically on the chest protector.
Getting back to our pitchers, if the pitcher tests breath in vertical, you would want to place a royal blue piece of tape on the chest protector in a vertical orientation. If she is breath out vertical you would place a red piece of tape vertically, and so on.
The purpose, at least as I understand it, is to help the pitcher feel more relaxed and confident before she goes into her pitch. Perhaps more focused as well, all of which will hopefully help her pitch better.
The colors and orientation isn’t just for pitchers, by the way. Hitters can put a piece of the correct tape on their bats before they get into position to help them prepare to hit. Teams can put stripes up in the dugout to help their fielders before they take the field, or fielders can put a piece of tape on their gloves.
The good news for those of us who are still learning how to test is that if you mess it up and get the color or orientation incorrect there is no negative consequence, at least as I understand it. You’re just not helping the athlete the way you were hoping to.
I hope that clears up some of the mystery around the tape. While the whole motor preferences concept has only been in the U.S. for a couple of years I think awareness is starting to grow and more organizations are starting to look into it.
Consider the colored tape the “gateway drug” into the deeper world of motor preferences and how they can help your athletes perform better and avoid significant injuries. More to come on this topic after I go through the training.
Funny Lines for Your Back Pocket
We’ve all experienced this phenomenon at one time or another. You get into an argument or a tense situation and instead of defusing the situation with a witty one-liner you just choke out some nonsense.
Then later on you think of the perfect comeback or bon mot, but by that time it’s far too late to say it because the moment is over.
Well, my softball friends, I have a solution for you. Instead of trying to think up something clever to say on the spot, it’s better to have a set of great one-liner in your back pocket that you can pull out when the occasion warrants it.
But you’re not a funny person who can come up with one-liners even when you’re not under pressure? Or the ones you do come up with tend to thud?
Not to worry, because we’re going to put some of Hollywood’s and the entertainment industry’s best writers on the job for you. Spend a little time committing these lines from movies and TV shows to memory, along with my suggestions on when use them, and you’ll quickly be revered as that person who always knows what to say when the need arises.
I know all the lines aren’t exactly from the movie or TV show, but they have been adapted to match the situation or reference softball or keep it appropriate for all ages. Attributions are in parentheses afterward.
- Your pitcher gives up a home run and you have to make a circle visit #1 – Wow. Anything that travels that far in the air should have a flight attendant on it. (Bull Durham)
- Your pitcher gives up a home run and you have to make a circle visit #2 – Don’t worry, that wouldn’t have been out of a lot of parks. Like Yellowstone, Yosemite, etc. (Major League)
- Your pitcher gives up a home run and you have to make a circle visit #3 – Looks like she launched that one toward South America (Major League)
- You take a risky suggestion from an assistant coach or even a player, then send the team off to do it; you then look at the person who made the suggestion and say – This had better work. (Moneyball and The Imitation Game)
- Pre-game speech before an important game – A win right now takes us to the championship (or whatever) so it’s very important we don’t stink today. (That Thing You Do)
- Answer to the above statement from a player – I make no guarantees. (Also from that Thing You Do)
- Response to a parent who has “a few thoughts” on how you should run the team – I have your phone number. When what you think becomes important to me I’ll give you a call. (NYPD Blue, although that one may not quite defuse the situation. It’s still funny though.)
- When a pitcher throws a wild pitch into the backstop – JUST a bit outside (or wherever it happened to land. (Major League)
- When someone tells a hitter her brain is getting in the way of her hitting – Well, can’t say that’s happened very often. (Tin Cup)
- When the whole team is getting down on themselves or getting nervous – Remember that softball is a game, and games are supposed to be fun. (Mr. Baseball)
- When the team has a particularly bad inning or makes a particularly bad series of goofs on one play – Well, that was a defining moment, and the definition was *poop* – (Tin Cup)
I think that’s plenty to get you started. Just think of the situations you think you’re most likely to find yourself in and focus on those first. Then you’ll be ready for whatever comes your way.
Laughing photo by Hannah Nelson on Pexels.com
Fastpitch Pitching Advice from Taylor Swift
This week’s topic goes hand-in-hand with last week’s blog post about the art of pitch calling. If you haven’t read that one yet I suggest you do; it’s brilliant.
All too often these days it seems like fastpitch pitchers are treated like a vending machine. Someone puts a pitch call in and pitchers are expected to spit it out with zero thought involved.
To me, and I think to most pitching coaches (PCs chime in here in the comments) that is absolutely the wrong approach. Instead, pitchers need to be playing along in their heads, thinking about what that hitter looks like, what’s worked on her in the past (if she’s faced her before), what pitches are working today (and how well), and what she thinks ought to be the next pitch she throws.
Then, if the pitch call lines up with what she’s thinking (more or less), she throws it. If it doesn’t, she takes the advice of the ubiquitous Ms. Swift to:
I know it can be difficult. Sometimes nigh on impossible if the pitcher has a coach who believes in his/her own omniscience when it comes to pitch calling, whether that opinion is justified of not.
But if the opportunity is there the pitcher really ought to be the final deciding factor on which pitch gets thrown next. Just like a pilot is the ultimate decision-maker when the plane is in the air.
After all, it’s the pitcher who is going to have to live with the consequences of her pitch.
Of course, in order to do that effectively someone has to train the pitcher on how to set up a hitter and keep her off balance. In other words, how to make decisions on which pitches work best in which situations.
I like to do this during lessons. Team coaches can do it during bullpens. Here’s how.
Select a type of hitter and a situation. For example, no one on, no one out, left slapper leading off.
Then ask the pitcher which pitch she wants to throw. If she’s not sure where to start, guide her with some parameters such as whether the slapper is experienced or a newly converted righty, whether she runs toward the pitcher or toward first base as she comes out, if she stands tall or squats down, how good the defense is behind her, etc.
You can also give some general hints, such as slapping is about timing and slapper are usually trying to put the ball on the ground between shortstop and third. All of that will factor into which pitch to throw.
The pitcher then makes the call. If it’s a good one, she throws it and the outcome (ball or strike) leads into the next pitch call. If the pitch decision isn’t so good, the coach talks it through with the pitcher a little more to help guide her.
With some regular training the pitcher can become smarter, and thus an active participant in the pitch calling decision rather than just a robot programmed to follow directions.
I understand that it’s difficult for a player to feel confident enough in her own decisions to try to overrule a coach by shaking off a pitch. Doubly if the coach is a parent or teacher or just someone who has a more authoritarian approach to their coaching.
But it’s a skill worth learning. And not just for softball.
There’s a pretty good chance that at some point in her life, that pitcher will face a non-softball decision that involves some risk, or perhaps even a moral dilemma. The easy thing to do will be to just follow along with whatever the person in charge says.
But the easy thing isn’t always the right thing. Gaining experience in being part of the decision process, and standing up for herself when she feels strongly another way, will help her avoid much more serious issues later in life than whether a particular hitter got on base in that at bat.
Again, I know it isn’t easy. But it’s worth learning.
Knowing when to shake off a pitch call, and having the confidence to actually do it, is an important of growing as a player, and growing up.
Don’t just be a pitching vending machine. When pitchers become an active part of the pitch calling decision they’ll find they have more success – and more fun.
Vending machine photo by Jenna Hamra on Pexels.com
The Best Make Time. The Rest Make Excuses.
As I’m sure you already know, we are at a very busy time of the year.
The school year is almost over, so teachers are diligently working to cram everything they were require to teach but haven’t so far into these last few weeks before the final bell rings for the summer. School, park district, and private organizations are preparing to put on their spring plays/musical recitals or concerts, dance recitals, science fairs, art fairs, and other events.
On top of which rec leagues are launching, travel teams are gearing up for the long summer, and many high schools and colleges are getting ready for their playoffs.
With so much going on it’s understandable that fastpitch softball players might say, “I just don’t have the time” when it comes to the extra work required to help them level up their play. And in many respects they’re right.
But here’s the reality: if leveling up is important to you, somehow you will make the time. If it’s really not, you’ll make excuses.
Take the photo of Madi shown here for example. She has one of the best built-in excuses for not practicing you could have: her left foot is in a boot due to a broken toe.
But instead of saying, “Oh well, if I can’t pitch full-out I can’t pitch” she kept every lesson and worked on what she WAS able to do to help herself get better.
Or how about this Maddy? She could barely walk in the door under her own power due to nerve damage in her leg from taking a couple of hard line drives to the same spot in her shin.
Did she let that stop her? No! We pulled up a stool and she worked on what she could so that when she was able to walk normally again she’d be better than she was before the injuries.
Those are a couple of extreme examples for sure. And their issue was injury, not time-based, so maybe you don’t think it’s quite the same.
The mindset is the same, however, i.e., I’m not going to let anything stop me from getting better.
If your issue is not enough time, then perhaps it’s time to put on your thinking cap and get creative.
One way to do that is to look for short opportunities instead of thinking practice has to be a half hour or an hour. For example, if you have a lot of homework, research shows that taking breaks of 5 to 60 minutes helps keep your mind fresh so you learn better.
Instead of hopping on social media (which doesn’t give your mind the proper break anyway) why not take some practice swings or throw a rolled up pair of socks into a mirror for 10 minutes? The physical activity will help rejuvenate your brain while also helping you improve your softball skills. Three breaks like that and you’ve put in 30 minutes without even thinking about it (pun intended).
Or let’s say your high school team’s practice doesn’t allot enough (or any) time for you to practice a specific skill. When practice is over, hang out a little longer while you’re still warmed up and in softball mode to do a few reps of whatever you need to work on.
What if you’re in the school play? I did those when I was young and I know how much standing around time there is during rehearsals, especially if you’re not the lead.
Go find a corner somewhere and go through whatever mechanics you need to work on, or your band work or other exercises. In most cases you don’t need much more than about a 10′ x 10′ area, or a convenient hallway.
You can even get a little practice time in when you’re standing in line for the school cafeteria or the grocery store with your parents. If you’re a pitcher, work on getting faster, looser pronation at the finish. If you’re a hitter, work on using your hips more effectively.
There are lots of fairly subtle things you can do to make use of the fact that you’re not doing anything else. Sure, people might stare at your funny. But those stares will turn into looks of admiration when you’re out-performing your opponents on the softball field.
The key is to think about practice not in the traditional large block of time way but in smaller bites that you can execute whenever you have a few minutes, or need a few minutes to yourself. Know specifically what you need to work on most, and then make the time to work on it.
All those little on-the-fly practice sessions will quickly add up to the types of big improvements that will help you achieve your goals.
Don’t talk yourself out of greatness. Remember that the best make time and the rest make excuses. Choose which group you want to be a part of.
Beware What You Believe on Social Media
Don’t worry, I haven’t suddenly gone political here on Life in the Fastpitch Lane. But there definitely is a need to be careful about what you find on social media when you’re looking for information on how your daughter or players can become better hitters, pitchers, fielders, catchers, etc.
Here’s the primary issue, which I think many parents and team coaches don’t seem to realize: anyone can call themselves a coach and post videos on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter X, or whatever your favorite platform is.
That’s right, anyone. There are no qualifications or tests required to say you are a pitching expert, or a hitting expert, or a fielding expert, or anything else.
Sure, there are certification and training programs; I’ve completed several rigorous programs as a matter of fact. But it’s not like there’s a Board somewhere that checks up on what coaches post on social media and calls them out or pulls their certifications if it’s demonstrably incorrect.
Which means anyone can post anything, whether it’s good, bad, nonsense, or even downright harmful without any overall authority evaluating the validity of that information.
And this can be true of famous names in fastpitch softball as well as someone you’ve never heard of before. It’s amazing how many great players past and present have no idea how they actually do the things they do (or did).
Here’s the second issue that comes into play: social media is a hungry beast. You constantly have to feed it with new posts in order to maintain a healthy social media presence.
That can be harder than you think. So for those who are dependent on social media likes, clicks, and shares to drive their businesses, they must develop and post new content on a regular basis, often multiple times per week, to sustain their presence.
You can see where this is headed. Once they’ve exhausted all their good, proven drills and other material, the need to post is still there.
So they end up posting a lot of crazy stuff that looks cools and draws eyeballs but has little to do with hitting, pitching, throwing, or catching a softball. If it also helps promote their latest product gimmick so much the better.
It’s definitely a case where the buyer must beware, because if you follow some of this garbage down the rabbit hole and your daughter’s/players’ performance suddenly falls off, or she/they get hurt, it’s your daughter/players who will pay the price. In the meantime, the “coach” who posted the bad content moves on to the next crazy drill.
So what are you supposed to do? If you’re a well-meaning parent or coach, how do you separate the good from the bad?
One way to do that is to look for the “why” behind the “what.” Did the poster explain why the drill or other instruction exists, what problem it is trying to solve, how it will solve it, etc.? Or did he/she merely post the demo and say “have at it?”
A coach who is looking out for his/her players/students will want you to understand the purpose behind the drill or technique or product if there is one, as well as exactly how it solves the issue.
It’s then up to you to apply some common sense to determine whether what’s being presented seems like it will actually solve the intended issue or make it worse. Or even create a new, bigger issue in the process (see: the law of unintended consequences).
You might also want to do a little more research on the issue itself to see if what’s being presented in the social media content is aligned with what others are saying, and what you see the best players in the world doing, or if it’s more of an outlier.
Now, if it’s different it doesn’t necessarily mean the new content is wrong. Breakthroughs and new discoveries happen all the time.
But if it goes against the science in particular, you might want to let others try it first to see how it works out for them before jumping into that new technique yourself.
Remember that the great thing about the Internet is that there’s a lot of information out there. And the bad thing about the Internet is that there’s a lot of information out there.
It can be hard to tell the good from the bad.
But if you take a little time to think things through and dig below the surface or the excitement of finding a shiny new object, you can save yourself a lot of wasted time and money in the long run.
Lead photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Character Matters for Coaches Too
We often hear about how fastpitch softball players need to be good teammates and people of good character. Coaches will talk about what they look for during tryouts and recruiting beyond skills, and how they need to be able to hold their players to high standards.
But what about the coaches themselves? Shouldn’t being a person of good character matter for them as well?
What brings up this topic is an article my friend Jay Bolden of BeBold Fastpitch, who is a tremendous pitching coach by the way, passed along the other day. It’s one of several great things Jay has shared lately, so if you’re not following him on Facebook you really should.
The article was about a head coach at a D1 college who was recently arrested for shoplifting and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. What’s really sad is the shoplifting amounted to less than $70, and she only had a couple of the pills in her possession.
Not the amount matters that much for our purposes – right is right and wrong is wrong no matter the scope – but if you’re going to get caught committing an alleged crime that could cost you your job you would think it would be for an amount that would have people say, “I get it.”
Regardless, though, the real issue here is one of character and leadership.
There is more to coaching than than teaching skills, making up lineups, and running plays. Especially when we are talking about youth and amateur sports, which includes college.
The measure of a great coach isn’t just wins and losses, although that aspect is definitely important, particularly in the college ranks. It’s also whether the coach is making a positive impact on those players, helping them become better people who are prepared to live their best lives.
That’s hard to do when you yourself are not exhibiting good character. There’s an old proverb that says a fish rots from the head down.
I have definitely seen that to be true, not just in softball or sports but in the business world as well. Poor leadership and questionable ethics will lead others in the organization to follow their own worst instincts, or at least make decisions that may not be in anyone’s best interests.
Another example of poor leadership is shifting blame to players for poor performance to cover the fact that the coach really doesn’t know what he or she is doing.
I recently heard about a coach complaining that her team wasn’t hitting the ball well enough and wasn’t scoring enough runs. Rather than try to help them solve the root issue(s), however, the coach merely said, “You guys need to hit better. Figure it out.”
How is that helpful? It’s not. It’s just a coach worried that her players’ lack of performance will make HER look bad.
That’s a sign of poor character. Even if the coach doesn’t know what to do technically, she should either bring in someone who does or at least try to bolster her players’ confidence at the plate so they’re not making things worse by tightening up and making poor swing decisions in the hopes that something good will happen (it usually doesn’t).
I think most teams have a code of conduct of some sort that they expect their players to abide by. Coaches should be held to at least that standard, if not a higher one.
Some simple things coaches can do to demonstrate strong character:
- Not smoking, drinking alcohol, or using other substances in the dugout or parking lot, or really anywhere their players are in uniform
- Not playing favorites with certain players; everyone earns their playing time based on merit, even if the coach doesn’t especially like certain players
- Not talking about some players to other players on the team, or to their parents, whether in-person, through direct communication, or on social media
- Not establishing “overly personal” relationships with anyone on the team;
- Enforcing team rules fairly and equally, don’t treat the rules as rules for non-starters and merely suggestions for starters
I remember hearing a great example of this last point being demonstrated several years ago by Mike Candrea, the former head coach at Arizona.
One of his star players broke a team rule a few days before the team was scheduled to play I believe in Regionals. She was seen as critical to the team’s success, and obviously the game they were about to play wasn’t a throw-away game.
Coach Candrea told the player she would not be joining the team on the trip, which may have come as a shock to the player and probably a whole lot of other people. When asked about it he said the rules are the rules, and they apply to everyone.
That had to be hard, especially because if I recall correctly Arizona did end up losing. But Coach Candrea demonstrated to every player on that team that fairness and integrity are (or at least should be) higher priorities than winning, even if the game is “important.”
It takes a lot of character to make that decision. When asked later if he had any regrets about it Coach Candrea emphatically answered, “No.”
That decision set a standard to which we should all aspire. What a tremendous life lesson for his players, and really everyone who has heard that story.
We are all products of our decisions, good and bad. But when you’re a coach you’re not the only one affected by them.
Hopefully whatever drove the coach in the opening story to do what she allegedly did can be overcome with some help and she can make better decisions in the future. But it does create a learning opportunity.
Just as we demand excellence from our players, so must we coaches also set higher expectations for ourselves as well. While it might be tempting to take a shortcut, or cheat a little here or there, or fudge the facts, or pass the blame onto others it’s important to take responsibility and demonstrate the qualities we want our players to exhibit on and off the playing field.
Character matters.
Photo by Anastasiya Gepp on Pexels.com
Little Things That Make a Big Difference
It seems like softball coaches, players, and especially parents are always in search of the “silver bullet” – that one technique or piece of knowledge or magic adjustment that will take an average (or below-average) player and turn her into a superstar.
That desire is actually what keeps a lot of what I would call charlatans – people who claim to have a “secret sauce” when really what they have is a knack for hyping otherwise very ordinary solutions – in business. It’s also what drives some of the incredibly crazy drills or controversial posts you see on social media.
Well, that and a need to constantly feed things into the social media machine so they can keep getting those clicks.
In my experience there is no single silver bullet or secret sauce drill that can turn an average player into a superstar overnight. There is no “next big thing” either.
But there are a lot of little things that can make a huge difference in your game if you learn to execute them properly. Here’s a little collection of some of them.
Pitching a rise ball
The rise ball is often the toughest pitch to learn. That’s because getting true backspin on a 12 inch softball (versus the typical bullet spin) requires the pitcher to do some things that work against the body’s natural tendencies.
One of the biggest has to do with what the hand and forearm do at release.
The natural movement for the hand and forearm as they pass the back leg is to pronate, i.e., turn inward. If you hold your arm up and let it just drop behind you, you’ll see that inward turn when you get to the bottom of the circle.
Try it for yourself, right now. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
When you’re throwing a rise ball, however, you have to keep the hand and forearm in supination, i.e., pointed outward, as you go into release if you want to be able to cut under the ball and achieve backspin. Otherwise you’re throwing a drop ball.
What often happens, however, is that in trying to keep the forearm and hand pointed out, the pitcher will cup her hand under the ball so the palm is pointed toward the sky or ceiling. That may work to impart backspin when doing drills from a short distance away, but it will also create a “big dot” spin instead of a more efficient and active “small dot” spin when thrown full-out.
So, to throw a true backspin rise the pitcher needs to learn to keep the palm of her hand pointed mostly out to the side, with just a slight cupping of the fingers. In other words, throw with more of a fastball-type orientation (fingers down) going into release, then angle the hand back up slightly so the fingertips are under the ball instead of to the side.
Do that and you have a much better chance of getting 6 to 12 backspin. (For those unfamiliar with that term, think of an analog clock, with the spin direction moving from the bottom at 6:00 to the top at 12:00.)
Another key is to freeze the fingers at release rather than trying to twist the ball out like a doorknob.
Again, twisting or “twizzling” the ball (as Rick Pauly calls it) will work when you’re self-spinning or throwing at a short distance. But once you try to put any energy into the ball, your hand’s natural tendency to pronate or turn in (remember that from a few minutes ago?) will cause you to turn the palm forward and create bullet spin.
Now, if you can throw the ball 70 mph or more, I suppose it doesn’t matter how your rise ball is spinning so you can get away with that. But if you’re not, forget the twizzling and make sure your hand simply cuts under the ball like a 9 iron hitting a golf ball onto the green and you’ll have a lot more success with it.
Bend in slightly to the curve ball
The curve ball tends to have the opposite problem. Here, you want your hand to be palm-up (if you’re throwing a cut-under curve) so the spin axis is on top of the ball.
The problem is many pitchers will tend to extend their spines a little as they go to throw the curve, which will naturally make the hand tend to sag down, turning the palm more out and away rather than up.
To avoid that issue, try bending in slightly over your bellybutton (on the sagittal plan for those who love the technical terms). That slight bowing in makes it easier to maintain a palm-up orientation, placing the spin axis on the top of the ball and creating a better chance for the fast, tight spin that enables a late break.
Get hitting power from your hips, not your arms
Look, I get it. You hold your bat in your hands, which are at the ends of your arms. So logically you would think to hit the ball harder you should use your arms more if you want to swing the bat harder.
And yes, that will work if you’re on a tee, where the ball isn’t moving. But if you’re not 7 years old, it won’t work so well when the ball is moving.
The reason is when you use the arms to create power, you give up control of the bat. You’re just yanking it wildly and hoping something good would happen.
The better approach is to use your hips (and core) to generate energy through body rotation. More energy, in fact, than you can create with your arms.
Then use the arms to easily direct that energy toward the ball. Approaching it this way will give you the adjustability you need to take the bat to where the ball is going instead of where it was when you first started the swing.
Generating power from the hips first also gives you more time to see the ball before you have to commit the bat, further allowing you to fine-tune the path of the bat to where the ball will be when it gets close to the plate.
Remember, the difference between a great contact and a weak one, or no contact for that matter, can be measured in centimeters (fractions of an inch for those who don’t remember the metric system from school). The ability to make fine adjustments during the swing is often the difference between a great hit and a poor one. Or none at all.
Shoulder tilt creates bat angle
While we’re talking hitting, another small adjustment has to do with the angle of the shoulders at contact.
We’ve all heard the instruction to “swing level” at some point or another. Many of you may have even said it, or say it now.
But if by swing level you mean having the bat parallel to the ground you’re just asking for a season filled with pop-ups and ground balls.
If you look at great hitters at the point of contact, you’ll see that 99 times out of 100 they have an angle on the bat that slopes down from the handle to the barrel. If you look a little further, you’ll see that the angle of the bat usually matches the angle of the shoulders.
So…if you want to get a great bat angle to hit rising line drives and other powerful hits, you don’t really need to manipulate the bat. You just need to let the back shoulder tilt downwards toward the ball. This preferably happens about halfway through the turn rather than dropping the shoulder first and then turning.
Think of the back shoulder as an aiming device. Once you see where the ball is headed, take the back shoulder in that direction and swing on a plane that matches the shoulder angle.
Before you can say “Bob’s your uncle” (always wanted to use that one) you’re crushing the ball deep – without having to do any crazy manipulations.
A better way to put on your glove or mitt
Given the power of the Internet to spread information I’m surprised that this little trick isn’t more well-known.
When most people put on a softball glove or mitt, they tend to put it on as they do a regular glove, i.e., one finger in each slot. I mean, it makes sense, right?
But that’s now how the pros do it. The problem with the one finger, one slot approach is that you ring and little fingers are your two weakest fingers. Far weaker than the index and middle fingers.
So when you go to catch the ball, your weakest (little) finger is trying to close at least half, if not more, of the glove by itself while the strongest part of your hand is closing the other half. You don’t have to be an anatomy expert to figure out why that can contribute to a lot more dropped or mis-handled balls.
Here’s a trick that can solve that issue: Take your ring and little finger, hold them together, and then slide them into the loop in the last finger stall. Then move each of the other fingers over one toward that end, leaving the area for the first finger open.
Now your two weakest fingers have combined to create one stronger finger, better balancing the closing power between the thumb and other side of your hand. You middle finger also gives somewhat of an assist to the other two.
And bonus, you no longer have to leave your index finger out of the glove to keep it from hurting when the ball hits the palm of the glove because it’s not in that spot anymore!
It’s going to feel awkward at first, especially because your hand won’t go into the glove quite as deeply. But try it for a month. You’ll never go back to the old way.
Little things mean a lot
None of these little tips are earth-shaking or revolutionary. But each of them can make a significant difference in your performance.
If you’re struggling with any of these issues, give these tips a try. It’s amazing the difference a slight adjustment can make.
5 Simple Rules for Surviving High School Softball
So, the good news is your daughter made the high school fastpitch softball team. Congratulations! That’s a relief, especially in those increasingly rare instances where high school softball programs are still actually cutting players.
Now the “bad” news: if you’ve never been through the experience you could be in for a rude awakening. Because unless your high school coach is also your travel or rec league team coach, high school softball is often very different from travel or rec ball.
Understand that doesn’t mean I’m about to bash high school coaches. There are many excellent, caring, knowledgeable high school coaches out there.
I know some of them myself, and have heard great stories about many more. Also, many of the things that are said to criticize high school coaches could just as easily be applied to travel or rec coaches.
But it is a different experience, so if you’re a parent or guardian of a newly minted high school player you need to be aware of a few things before you get yourself all tied up in knots before the first pitch is thrown. Here are a few simple rules on how to survive high school softball.
Understand the Power Structure
This is Rule #1. In 99.999% of high school softball situations you have no power. None. Nada. Zilch.
It is basically an authoritarian system where all decisions rest with the head coach and where trying to buck that reality or get around it could end up hurting your daughter rather than helping her. Think Vladimir Putin with a clipboard instead of a nuclear arsenal.
But wait, you’re friends with the athletic director or a school board member? Surely that must give you some leverage, right?
Nope. The reality is softball is not a revenue sport so no one at that level cares about the drama or the day-to-day operations of the softball program.
It is nearly impossible to get a high school softball coach replaced or even reprimanded, especially because you think your daughter should be playing varsity or playing shortstop or doing something else high-profile and the head coach does not. The head coach basically has to do something illegal, and seriously so, to even have anyone look into him/her.
Even then, it’s likely that the head coach and whoever is doing the investigating are friends or at least colleagues, so the chances of a change being made are pretty slim. And if the head coach survives, your daughter probably has a target on her back.
Unless there is actual physical abuse, it’s probably best to remember the old saying “If come at the King (or Queen), you’d best not miss.”
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s look at what you can do.
Remember It’s Hard to Change Teams
Parents who are used to jumping teams in travel ball may be surprised to learn this, but if you don’t like your high school’s coach you only have two basic options.
The most obvious is to move to another school district. I’m pretty sure that the way public school works everywhere is you are basically assigned to a high school based on where you live.
If that’s not true in your area please share that info in the comments, by the way. I love to learn.
But assuming what I said is true, you can’t just request for your daughter to go to another public high school because you don’t like the softball coach, or you don’t like anything else for that matter.
There is another option, however. You can always send your daughter to a private school if you can afford to pay the freight, which can amount to the down payment on a small house or a really nice boat each semester.
If you’re going there for the education that’s one thing. More power to you.
But if you’re doing it so you can brag to your friends and family that your daughter is the starting shortstop it may not be your best investment. Although it’s your money so if it’s that important to you I guess have at it.
The good news is, if your daughter goes on to play in college the new portal rules open everything up again, making it easier to move teams if you’re not happy with the situation. So there’s that.
Learn to Enjoy the Game from the Outfield
In rec and travel ball, parents often like to sit as close to the action as they can – whether it’s to see the game better, offer hitting advice to their daughters when they come up to bat, or help the home plate umpire call the game.
If you’re in category #1 you can still do that. If you’re in category #2 or #3, though, my suggestion is to forget all that and learn to enjoy the game from the outfield.
When you’re sitting either down the line or even better behind the home run fence it’s a lot less likely that the coach who makes playing time decisions will be able to hear your running commentary. You’ll also be sitting among your people, the others who are unhappy with the head coach and are trying to figure out a way to get him/her removed.
You’ll also be safe from rabbit-eared umpires who are looking for a fan to toss to make sure the rest of the crazy softball parents stay in line and don’t plan to form a lynch mob because he/she blew a safe/out call at home in the second inning, thereby hurting their daughter’s team’s chances of overcoming that eight-run deficit they currently have.
The good news there is at least one of the outfield regulars probably has a little something stashed in his/her thermos jug in violation of the school’s strict drug and alcohol policy. Get friendly with that person and the game will become more tolerable, at least by the fourth inning.
Don’t Over-Think It
Maybe you’re a student of the game who loves to argue the nuances of how to put together a productive offensive lineup or how to use data to position each fielder to increase the chances of getting an out. Maybe you are considered by yourself or even others to be an expert at calling pitches or using the short game strategically.
Whatever you believe makes your decisions better than those of the head coach, learn to set it all aside. Because all you’re going to do is make yourself aggravated or angry, and who needs that?
Instead, learn to just chill in your chair and enjoy watching the game for the sheer pleasure of seeing your daughter play. Trust me on this one.
If you just sit back and let the game happen however it happens you’ll be a lot happier. And so will your daughter.
Remember the Cosmic Snowball Theory
This is something I first came across in the book Ball Four, the first sports tell-all book by Jim Bouton. It’s seen me through many a tough time. It goes:
“A billion years from now, the Earth will just be a big cosmic snowball floating through space, and nothing that happens here today will matter.”
When you’re getting all angry about this decision or that boneheaded move, keep the Cosmic Snowball Theory in mind. It’ll save you a lot of grief and heartache – and maybe a trip to jail.
Surviving “One More” Syndrome
Friends, today we are gathered to address one of the most dreaded issues in all of fastpitch softball practice. Of course, I am talking about “One More” Syndrome.
It’s an issue that affects nearly every player at all levels at one time or another. You may not know it by name, but you know its effect.
There you are, working on hitting, pitching, fielding, or some other skill. You’ve had a very successful session when the coach (or a parent) announces “one more,” as in one more pitch to a hitter, one more ground ball to a fielder, one more rep of a particular pitch.
Suddenly it is as if you’ve never seen a softball before in your life, much less have hit, caught, or thrown one. Whatever skill you were executing with tremendous ability has completely abandoned you, leaving you flapping around the field like a drunken penguin.
This is a topic that came up during a lesson last night with a pitcher named Brooklyn. She was cruising along pretty well working on her changeup when I said, “Ok let’s throw one more” – at which point she totally tanked the pitch.
Brooklyn looked at me, smiled, shrugged, and asked, “What is it about saying one more that makes things go bad?” I had to admit I didn’t know, but it does seem to happen a lot. That’s when we came up with the idea of One More Syndrome.
So what can you do about it? One thing is not to put too much worry into it.
For whatever reason, this seems to be a very common affliction. If it was odd that would be one thing. But it pretty much happens to everyone sooner or later.
If you really want to put a stop to it, though, your best bet is probably just not to think about the fact that it’s the last whatever. Just treat it like one more rep and you’ll most likely be fine.
Worst case, just ask the coach or parent not to announce it’s the last one – at least all the time. That way you can work up to the mental toughness not to be affected so you can keep things moving along quickly.
“One More” syndrome is real. But it doesn’t have to be a terrible issue.
Just laugh about it and get on with your practice. Eventually you’ll get to the point where hearing “let’s do one more” will be just another ordinary phrase.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 