Choosing a private instructor
Of course, one of the big factors in private instruction is the instructor him/herself. In many areas there is no lack of instructors around. The problem is some are good, and some are not. It’s often difficult to tell the difference, especially if your knowledge base about the particular skill is limited. In other words, if you don’t know much about pitching, it can be tough to pick a pitching coach. Same with hitting. If you don’t understand the mechanics of hitting, just about anything said with confidence sounds good.
So how do you determine whether a particular coach will be good or bad for you/your child? One thing you can do is use the Internet to read up on the skill you’re looking to learn. Not the forums so much, where anyone with an opinion and an Internet connection can post whatever they want, but Web sites of top-level coaches and players. Someone like Michele Smith, Bill Hillhouse, or Cindy Bristow is a great place to start. They’ve been there and done that, but just as important they’ve spent a fair amount of time teaching it to others. You may need to purchase a book or DVD or two, but when you consider the cost of lessons it’s well worth $19.95 or $29.95 to make sure the thousands you’re investing are being well-spent.
Once you at least have a general idea of what should be being taught, it’s time to get out and check out instructors. Listen to what they’re teaching someone else, and compare it to what you’ve learned. If it seems to line up you’re ready to take the next step. If not, you may want to go elsewhere. Or at least ask a few questions to determine why it’s not lining up.
Often times you’ll hear that you should look at how much success the instructor’s students have had. That’s true to an extent, but you have to be realistic. There are some players who are just flat out more gifted than others, and some who just have an extraordinary will and dedication to succeed. Then there are others who show up to lessons but make no effort to apply what they’re being taught. They never practice, and they never progress despite the instructor’s best efforts. If that sounds like you/your child, private lessons are really not a good investment. Although Woody Allen once said “90 percent of life is just showing up” when it comes to lessons showing up is more like 10 percent.
I really think you need to honestly look at yourself/your child and see where she fits on that scale. The scale itself is a steep bell curve, with the majority falling somewhere in the middle. Unless you know yourself/your child to be one of the extremes, you’re probably best off knocking off the results of the top students and the bottom students, and then evaluating the success of the rest. That will probably give you a better approximation as to what you can expect. I once commented to Ernie Parker that it must be nice to be him, where you only attract the top-level, dedicated students. His reply? “I wish that were true.” (Pardon me while I pick up that name off the floor.)
Another criterion people like to use is how successful the instructor was as a player. Again, that can be misleading. Some formerly great players become great instructors. Others do not. In fact, if you look at the general coaching world it seems like the best players rarely become the most successful instructors. The best guess I’ve seen on that is that great players are largely instinctive or gifted. Things come more easily to them than they do to the average player, so they don’t have to put the same kind of work in to learn the skills. This is not to say they don’t work hard — they probably work harder than anyone. But they work on certain subtleties that allow them to become elite players. Often they have trouble understanding why a player can’t “just do it.” If you can find a top-level player who has become an excellent instructor you’ve really hit the jackpot. But I wouldn’t make the instructor’s playing record the main decision point. Very few Hall of Fame coaches in any sport were also Hall of Fame players. Most were journeymen who worked hard just to stay on the team.
One last aspect to consider is personality. Everyone is different, and a coach who has a great rapport with other students may not have it with you/your player. In order for learning to take place the student has to feel comfortable with the instructor. If there’s no chemistry there, and lessons are dreaded like a trip to the dentist, that instructor is not a good fit no matter what his/her other qualifications may be.
When it comes to choosing an instructor the old rule of “caveat emptor” (buyer beware) definitely applies. A little due diligence up front can save you a lot of wasted time and money in the long run. It will also help make sure you achieve the results you want when gametime rolls around.
Teaching players to think
The topic turned to the way some coaches like to be the center of attention. Their primary goal seems to be making sure everyone thinks they’re brilliant. They like to control every aspect of the game, call every pitch, play and player movement, and generally treat the game as a big chess match between themselves and the other coach.
The trouble with that is the players never learn to think for themselves. They are simply the chess pieces waiting to be shuffled around the board (field). They don’t really know why they’re being told to move here or lay down this bunt or steal this base. They just know when the sign comes they do it. So now the team is only as smart as the head coach. There’s no additive effect of the players contributing thoughts, and if a situation comes up they haven’t been told about they may not be prepared.
I think that’s a poor way to go. I much prefer my players having their heads in the game, and so does Rich. Much of what goes on in the field A) occurs in split seconds and/or
requires a certain level of confidence to pull off. If it’s all about the head coach, you won’t be able to handle either.A good example of how it pays off is with our third baseman Hillary. I’ve been coaching her since she was 9 or 10 years old. About the time she was 11 we put in a play that calls for the third baseman to do a pump fake when she gets a ground ball with a runner on third to try to draw the runner off and get the out on the lead runner. It started as a called play from the bench.
About the time she was 14, Hillary started calling the play herself. By “calling the play” I don’t mean that she just did the pump fake. She would also tell our shortstop that she was running the play so she could cover the bag in case of a snap throw. This past season she ran it five or six times herself, and if I recall correctly got the runner at third every time. Not just because of the design of the play, but because she knows how to sell the pump fake and believes in her ability to make the play.
Don’t get me wrong. We still call certain defensive sets from the dugout, move fielders around and determine where a throw might go. We also call steals and bunts. But we do it less and less. If we’re in a tight game the infielders will often move themselves in to cut off a runner at the plate, before we have to call. Catchers throw the pickoff to first on their own when they see opportunity. The list goes on. What we’re seeing is the girls are understanding the subtleties of how the game is played and taking their rightful place of controlling their own destinies.
Believe me, I have as much ego about coaching as anybody. I certainly hope I’m thought of as a good coach. But part of the job of the coach of an older team is to make sure his/her players understand the game. It’s the only way they’ll ever discover just how good they can be.
I’ve always said the coaches’ time is during practice. The players’ time is during the game. Seeing our girls use the strategies we’ve taught them means we’ve done a good job teaching them.
A little perspective
Check out this link to a blog on Belicove.com. The entry is called The Pale Blue Dot. It’s a look at the Earth from space, with an essay by the late Carl Sagan. I found it both interesting and moving.
Now is the time to start preparing for 2008
But we’re not in-season now are we? At least not in much of the country. Sure, there’s fall ball, but that’s more like a restaurant serving up some meals before the grand opening, just to see how well the kitchen works.
This is an ideal time for players to start preparing themselves for the next campaign through weight training, plyometrics, conditioning, and yes, distance running. Building a solid aerobic base provides the conditioning and longevity that helps players last through the hot and humid days of the summer season, and perform at their best through all the games in a day in the cooler weather.
Building strength, especially the right kind of strength, is important. Pitchers who are looking for a few more miles an hour, hitters who want to get the ball to go over the fence instead of to it, catchers who want to cut time off their throws to second, baserunners who want to shave a little time off their first to second runs, and players at every other position can benefit through an intelligent, sport-specific conditioning program.
There are all kinds of places to obtain an intelligent workout program. Believe it or not, the local HS football or wrestling coach are a couple of good options. They’re used to developing weight training programs that combine endurance with explosive strength. Wrestlers in particular are less concerned with muscle bulk than they are with being solid and surprisingly strong, so the wrestling coach is a good option. Besides, after working with smelly, surly boys all the time he’d probably get a kick out of helping a female athlete for a change. Just watch out, because he’ll probably try to recruit you to keep stats for the wrestling team in return.
However you go about it, the important thing is to get off the couch and start working now to get ready. I know 2008 seems like a long ways away, but quality change in conditioning, just like all your other skills, doesn’t happen overnight. Get moving now and you might even amaze yourself.
My compliments to the umpires
Our Mundelein Thunder 16U fastpitch softball team played at the Northern Nationals in Owensboro, Kentucky. It was our first experience with Nationals of any sort for a number of reasons, and I have to say it was an enjoyable one.
During the coaches’ meeting the organizers talked about how their umpires had earned the right to be at this event, just as the teams had. Yada, yada, yada I figured. But when we got out to the games I changed my tune. This was an extraordinary group of individuals.
The most telling event occurred during our first game. We had runners on second and third with fewer than two outs. A ground ball was hit to the opposing shortstop, and as per our standing orders my runner on third broke for home. The shortstop got the ball and threw to the plate, a little too late from where I was standing. But the HP blue called my runner out. It looked to me like he’d blown the call, but it’s not the kind of thing you can argue very effectively. Since we had a lead I didn’t want to go “work him for the next call” either. That’s when an amazing thing happened.
The HP umpire with no prompting from anyone called time, and went out to confer with the field blue. After a brief conference the umpire actually reversed his call! He said the runner was safe. And she must’ve been because the opposing coach didn’t argue it either.
My assistant coach talked to the field umpire later and asked about the play. He thought maybe the HP umpire had been confused about whether there was a force on or something. But no, the field ump said the HP ump told him that he hadn’t seen the play and asked what the field ump saw. The field ump saw what I saw and that’s why the run counted.
It’s pretty amazing when you think about it. I’ve run into plenty of umps who won’t reverse a call when it’s clearly a rules issue. This one changed a judgement call.
That’s pretty much the caliber of officiating we saw all week. If all the blues were as conscientious and well-trained as this group us coaches would definitely be able to cut back on the Maalox. Kudos to them for learning their kraft so well.
No shortcuts on the road to success
During the tryouts I was observing a pitching tryout. The girl was someone new, a 12U. I was chatting with her mom and bit and she told me where she’d been taking lessons and from whom. As I sat there, the girl seemed to go through an elaborate (to me) warm-up, beginning with some wrist snaps and then staging her throwing arm through about four or five starting locations. At no time did her feet move during these. Finally, her last drill was from full distance; she did what is usually called the “stork” drill, where she stood on one leg and then launched herself and pitched. So one leg at least got involved.
I guess different people have different philosophies or ideas or whatever, but it didn’t make much sense to me. I subscribe to the Bill Hillhouse school on warm-ups and drills — the more you make it like the actual pitching motion and get the whole body involved, the better off you’ll be. It looked like the girl was practicing to be an arm pitcher. When she went to full motion that’s exactly what happened. No leg drive, no body drive, just an arm thrower. It was too bad, because she looked pretty athletic and it seemed like she could get a lot more out of her body than she was getting.
I mentioned all this to another of our coaches, and he said that maybe she was being taught that way because it would be easier to throw strikes if she wasn’t going fully into it. I suppose that’s true. If you’re only using one body part there’s less to go wrong. But that seems like a shortcut to a dead end. Sooner or later if she wants to compete she’ll have to learn to throw her body into it, at least if she wants to develop speed. At that point she’ll probably have some setbacks and will have to relearn how to pitch. By then she’ll be behind the other 14Us who started out learning a more dynamic way of pitching and who were willing to walk a few more batters early to become better later.
Of course, that’s only one assumption. For all I know her pitching coach may be telling her to use her legs and she just doesn’t like to do it. But again, based on the warm-up drills I saw, that doesn’t appear to be the case. It seems like the arm is the focus, and the weak muscles in the wrist, and nothing else matters much.
There are no shortcuts on the road to success. It takes a lot of the proper work to learn to do things right. Parents, before you go shelling out for lessons, see if what your daughter is being taught is what you see from the players in the NPF or the Women’s College World Series. If it doesn’t match up, you may want to find another coach.
What’s not to love
I called a girl named Kathleen who had played for me the year before, and who I had worked with on her hitting during the high school and travel season. (Kathleen had left due as much to a political issue with her high school as anything. Things happen, ya know?)
In any case, I knew her summer team wasn’t going anywhere for Nationals since I’d already snagged one girl back, so three days before it was time to leave I asked if she’d like to go with us. She jumped at the chance. She rearranged her work schedule, her parents got vacation time, and she joined us for the tournament.
That would be pretty cool by itself. What I just found out, though, is that not only did she do all of that, she played with a finger that was either badly bruised or broken. I never knew it, she never complained or said “I can’t do that.” She was just happy to have the chance to be there, and willing to do whatever it took.
That kind of thing doesn’t show up in a stat sheet. You can’t measure it with a stopwatch or a tape measure. But any coach should be thrilled to have someone with that kind of heart and dedication. In this self-centered day and age those qualities seem to be few and far between.
What it takes to be a D1 prospect
So, what does a D1 prospect look like? Is she easily identifiable amongst all the other players, or are there more intangibles at work?
For my part, I would assume you could pick her out of the bunch. She would generally be very athletic — faster or stronger than average, with quicker reactions. If the next best player on the team is hitting .333, she’s over .500. In the field she is very sure-handed — no fumbling around with balls when she gets them, she just picks them and fires them. Her arm is very strong, with good mechanics. When she throws the ball it pops!
Mentally, I’d assume she knows the game well. She is rarely confused about what to do with the ball when she gets it. She exhibits leadership qualities among her teammates, is generally very confident, and has an overwhelming desire to win.
Is that accurate? What did I miss?
Strong position for hitting
To get us started, I thought we’d go right into hitting. Here’s a photo of Stephanie, one of the girls I coach, as captured by Mike Zupec, with whose permission I am using this photo.
There are a number of things going right here. Looking from the ground up, the front leg is pretty firm and the back foot is heel up, toe down. Her back hip has some around to replace her front hip and her weight has shifted forward into her front leg. The shoulders have come around, the hands are palm up/palm down at contact, they are slightly above the bat head, and she is leaned into the plate. About the only problem I see from this picture is she is a bit late to the ball. I’d like to see the contact a little more out-front. This particular stroke, however, went for a double to the fence in left-center so that’s a quibble.
If you have one, compare a photo of your position at contact to this one. This is pretty much where you want to be.
Fastpitch softball IS America
At last weekend’s tournament I observed a scene that to me captures the heart and soul of what makes fastpitch softball such a great sport. It was a typical thing, really. A girl on our team was having a little trouble hitting, and her father was talking to her offering his best advice on how to break out of the slump.
Nothing remarkable there, except for one thing: the dad, who is from India, probably has never played baseball or softball in his life. Yet there he was trying to help his daughter with something that is vitally important to her.
I couldn’t hear what he was telling her so I don’t know whether the advice was good or bad. That’s not the point. The point is that it was a Norman Rockwell moment, only with faces Norman Rockwell never thought to use.
Fastpitch softball is as all-American as it gets. Most sports have certain requirements for body types or athleticism to be successful at all but the most basic levels. In basketball and volleyball it really helps to be tall. Football is best played by those with sturdier builds. Soccer requires a combination of endurance and speed above normal levels. The list goes on.
But in fastpitch softball there’s a place for both the small and speedy and the large and strong. You can overcome your athletic weaknesses by maximing your strengths. If you’re not too strong but you’re fast you can bunt or slap. If you’re small and slow you can work on your hitting technique to punch the ball through the infield to give you more time. If you’re big and really slow, you can shoot for the fences.
Yes, being athletic and in great shape is an asset, especially at the upper levels. But not being the greatest athlete, or a certain height, or a certain body type, is not as much of a limitation as it is in other sports.
Softball also drives a kind of camaraderie between kids and parents. When I asked for volunteers to pitch some batting practice with wiffle balls, the dad I described earlier was one of them. He was only too happy to help the girls prepare for their game, and he’d certainly watched enough games and warm-ups to know what to do despite never having played himself. The parents enjoyed participating, and the girls appreciated the help. We were able to warm up efficiently and come out with the bats roaring.
The girl I described at the beginning of this post was about 10 years old when she first started playing. In fact, we talked about that this weekend. Her mom worked with a guy who was involved in our organization, and she mentioned she was looking for something athletic for her daughter to do. He suggested bringing her to our tryouts and she did. The girl told me she had no idea what a softball was or how the game was played, but once she got started she got hooked. She started out playing a few innings here or there in right field, and gradually got the hang of it.
As she has continued she has worked on her game and is now an excellent first baseman. She is not only sure-handed but also has great awareness of where the runners are on the field. In fact, she has been involved in several double plays for us this season that ended with the last out at home off her throw.
America has always been a country that is more concerned with what you can contribute than where you came from or what natural gifts you have. Fastpitch softball matches up with that ideal very well.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 