Getting the bunt down
Once again I was up at Grand Slam USA for the afternoon. I was there for pitching lessons, but in between I was wandering around aimlessly as I am wont to do.
In one of the cages was a girl working on bunting. She assume a good position, and looked ready to lay it down. But each time as the pitch came in, she dropped the barrel of her bat below the handle and stabbed at the ball. Almost without exception the pitch went foul, or at least as foul as a bunt can go in a batting cage. Often they also went up, creating a little pop-up.
Keeping the barrel of the bat above the hands is essential to getting the bunt to go toward the ground. It definitely makes it easier to hit the top of the ball, which is what you need to do to get the bunt down. Dropping the barrel tends to make you hit the bottom of the ball.
Here again I make the case for bunting with the hands together. The girl was using split hands, which as I’ve said before tends to make it easier for hitters to drop the barrel. I’ve observed that phenomenon time and time again.
Ironically, she did use hands together for one technique. She would show bunt, then pull back to swing away, hands still up the handle. This makes no sense to me either. If you’re going to show bunt you need to show it the same way you actually bunt. Otherwise you’re not fooling anyone. It was odd — show the bunt, then full pull back with the hands up the bat, then swing away. Seems to me like all you’re going to do from there is ground out and not very well. People sure teach some strange things.
The myth of the wrist
Emphasis on the wrist snap has been part of the process of coaching fastpitch pitchers since Eddie Feigner soiled his first diaper. Generally it is interpreted to mean that you have to have a strong, powerful wrist snap driven by the muscles in the wrist in order to throw hard.
But how true is that, really? Let’s try an experiment. Have someone grab your forearm with both hands so you can use the wrist muscles — and only the wrist muscles — to throw the ball. Now snap the wrist as hard as you can. No matter how strong your wrist is, and how many fireman rolls you do, the ball is not going to come out that hard, or go that far. It’s because the wrist muscles are relatively weak compared to the rest of the body. Because of this, on their own they don’t really add anything to the pitch, no matter what all those expensive pitching videos might tell you.
It’s not the strength of the wrist, but its flexibility, that is the key to its contribution. Have you ever snapped somebody with a towel? First of all, shame on you. But if you have, you know that if you get the end of the towel to flick fast enough, you can make your teammate, spouse, dog, etc. jump. There is no muscle in the end of the towel. It’s the speed at which it accelerates, and the fact that the previous section stopped moving in the same direction, that creates the snap.
Your wrist is like the end of the towel. As long as it moves quickly it will impart the speed. And the faster it moves over a short distance, the faster the ball will come out. It’s also the most flexible joint in your body, capable of moving 180 degrees back to front, and in a variety of directions. Try that with your knee! Wait, maybe you shouldn’t.
Still not convinced? Try another experiment. Stand with your elbow at your side and your forearm pointing straight up. Now snap your wrist down as fast as you can using the wrist muscles. Doesn’t work too well, does it? Now relax the wrist so the hand is just sort of hanging there, and then abruptly move your arm back and forth slightly. If I’ve described how to do it correctly you’ll see the wrist move much faster. (If I haven’t no telling what you’ll see!) A loose, flexible wrist can move much faster than a tight wrist can be muscled.
So does that mean the wrist can be weak and you’ll throw hard? No. It still has to have enough strength to accept all the power and stress being driven into it by the other, larger muscles in the body. A weak wrist won’t be able to transfer the power. But just as a car needs both a powerful engine and a strong transmission to go fast, so do your pitches. You should strengthen the wrist so it can do its job effectively.
The point, though, is that you don’t need to practice endless strong wrist snaps or concern yourself with muscling the wrist at the end of the pitch. Instead, make sure you’re getting good whip of the forearm (the forearm going quickly from behind the elbow to in front of it at the bottom of the circle) and keep that wrist loose. Done correctly your wrist will snap all on its own, and at the right time, to help you achieve your goals.
Another voice on playing the game right
So as it turns out I’m not the only one who’s been thinking about the whole issue of playing by the rules. Dave over at Girls Fastpitch Softball recently posted about one of the aspects I addressed earlier — batter interference. He reports the rule has been changed to try to eliminate the need for umpires to determine whether it was intentional or accidental. He has some great thoughts. Of course I think so because he thinks the same as me. Check it out!
Bunting hands together
I tried to get this topic going before but so far no one has posted. Seriously, if you have an opinion on anything by all means leave a comment! I may not agree but that’s ok. We’re all in this together, and we all get smarter when we’re forced to think through our positions on various topics. All I ask is that you be civil.
Anyway, I was up at Grand Slam the other day watching a couple of kids bunt in the batting cages and was reminded of one of the big reasons I prefer hands-together over hands-apart bunting. (The two are actually girls who play for me, but who have fallen under the evil influence of their HS coaches on this topic. 
)
When you bunt split hands, there seems to be a strong tendency to drop the head of the bat, especially when going after a low pitch. It’s sort of like holding the proverbial 10-foot pole. If you try to do the same thing with a hands-together grip you have to work much harder to drop the bat head because of the way it feels around the wrists. I’m not saying it can’t be done because I’ve seen it. But when your hands are farther apart it’s much easier to let that bat head drop down.
Update on the light bulb
Just wanted to give everyone an update on the “light bulb” post. Sometimes as a coach you can effect a change one day, but then the next time you see the player they’ve fallen back on old habits.
I am happy to report that last night that was not the case. The girl I mentioned had a nice, relaxed throwing shoulder and looked very comfortable and smooth. Her dad said she worked on it hard during the week, and it showed.
Definitely good to see.
Seeing the light bulb go on
Last night I got another reminder of the real reason I enjoy coaching so much. It’s the challenge of finding the right way to teach a skill and thrill of seeing it take hold.
I’ve been struggling with finding a way to get one of my pitching students to relax her throwing shoulder so she can use her whole body instead of just her arm to throw. She is a bigger kid for her age, so she’s always been able to throw hard just muscling up on the ball. She would get into an open position ok, but then she’d tilt her head forward, tighten her shoulder, and just fling the ball forward. Not the smooth, relaxed, powerful movement we’re looking for. I’ve tried a half dozen cues or more over the last few months but nothing seemed to really stick.
Then last night I had her hang her arms down like an ape, and said the magic words: get your shoulders out over your toes. This is a cue I’ve used before with various pitchers (and hitters) to explain how to get into the athletic position, and may have even said it to this girl. But last night the light bulb came on. It suddenly seemed to make sense to her.
She started out throwing rather slowly, just to get the feel. She was worried about the loss of speed but I told her not to be concerned — we’ll recapture the speed (and more) later. As the lesson went on she started getting more comfortable with it, and adding speed to it. There were some wild pitches due to a lack of comfort/confidence in the movement, but overall she started to show some consistency. I was elated.
We’ll see for sure how well it took next week. But I have a good feeling about this one. If I’m right, a whole new world of fastpitch pitching just opened up for this very nice young lady. Oh what a feeling!
Buzz donuts
Once again this is not fastpitch related but I simply can’t resist. On the way home from work today I heard about a new invention. A scientist somewhere has found a way to inject caffeine into a donut. He is now approaching all the major donut purveyors — Dunkin’ Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks — to see if they’re interested in purchasing his invention.
All of which makes me wonder: what in the world makes a man of science, presumably well-educated man at that, spend his life taking something that’s already bad for you and making it worse for you. We live in a strange world, no doubt about it!
More thoughts on fair play
Sorry to get on the ol’ high horse again but this week I learned of an incident that really illustrates the importance of teaching the right values to our teams (and our children). In this case it wasn’t the coach who failed but the player, which put the coach in the position of having to make a tough decision.
It wasn’t softball either, but wrestling at the high school level. The team’s best wrestler decided he didn’t want to go to practice one day, so he said he had a doctor’s appointment, likely left school early, and went to the Shedd Aquarium in downtown Chicago. As usually happens, the coach found out about it and brought the young man into his office to ask about it. Unfortunately, the kid decided to stick to the lie and the coach bounced him from the team — the week of the conference meet, and the week before Regionals. It could not have been an easy decision. Losing this boy will cost the team points for sure. They’re forfeiting his weight this week. Yet lying to the coach, even when you’re given an opportunity to make things right, is against the team rules.
So what does this have to do with softball? Here’s the point. You teach your players it’s ok to leave the base early because the umpires probably won’t catch you. You teach them to stand in the basepath to force baserunners to go around because you might get them out and the umpires probably won’t catch them. You teach them to intentionally interfere with the catcher making a throw because the umpire probably won’t catch them. Then one day you find out a player lied about her whereabouts for practice or a tournament because she wanted to go to a concert, or on a date with her boyfriend, and you get all mad that she was dishonest with you. But what message have you been giving her all season? That it’s ok to break the rules to gain an advantage — because you probably won’t get caught.
In the case of the wrestling coach he has taught his guys to play by the rules, which is likely what angered him at being lied to. But if you’re a softball coach who subscribes to the “if you ain’t cheatin’ you ain’t tryin'” school, don’t be surprised if one day it comes back around to bite you.
How to know if you’re addicted to fastpitch softball
Dave over at Girls Fastpitch Softball just put up a great post with a list of 10 ways to know you’re addicted to fastpitch softball. He is definitely right on! A lot of the ways come back to watching games where you have no particular vested interest — no kids playing, don’t even know anyone on the team.
I had that experience last Spring. I had gone down to the St. Louis area (Illinois side) to watch my son’s soccer team play in a tournament down there. It was close to SIU-Edwardsville, a D2 college, and was excited to learn that 1) they would be playing at home, 2) one day the soccer game was within walking distance of the softball field and 3) a couple of the games would be at a different time than my son’s games so I could stop by to watch. I got to see all of one game and part of another on Saturday, plus part of a third game on Sunday. I didn’t know a soul there, but it was fun to watch nonetheless. I even e-mailed the SIU-E coach afterwards with a tip on their opponent’s pitcher giving away her curve ball (which she couldn’t throw for a strike, at least that day).
He is definitely right. There is no known cure. All you can do is feed the addiction and hope your spouse doesn’t catch on!
Doing what’s right
Here’s a quiz on some issues young people might face in their lives. See what advice you would give.
1. Your daughter is having a tough time with a class in school. Her grade is borderline failing. If she doesn’t pass the next test she will fail the class. She is sure she can pass if she writes some key hints on crib sheets. The teacher doesn’t watch the class very closely while they take tests. Should you tell her to make up the crib sheets?
2.. Your daughter is working in her first job out of school. It doesn’t pay very well and she is having trouble making ends meet. The petty cash drawer is locked in a drawer but she knows where the key is. She believes she can help herself a little to some without getting caught. Should you tell her it’s ok to do it?
3. Your son is the CEO of a company. The CFO shows him a way to artificially inflate the stock price by moving money around and reporting income that isn’t really there. If he does it he and others in on the scheme can get rich. They believe they can do this without being caught. Should they?
Odds are you would answer “no” to each of these questions. (I’ll bet Mrs. Skilling wishes someone would’ve asked her.) Yet all over the fastpitch softball world, coaches are knowingly teaching their players just the opposite lesson.
This came up tonight when someone I know, like, and respect was proudly telling me how his daughter’s new team has a very “aggressive” philosophy. He said they teach their fielders to stand in the basepath when a ball is hit, forcing base runners to go around them. Although it is aginst the rules, the rationale is umpires won’t call it. Same with what they’re teaching hitters. With runners on base they tell hitters to switch to the left side, fake a bunt, and then pull the bat back to interfere with the catcher trying to make the play. Apparently wherever they play the umpires don’t call that either. (That is some poor umpiring in my opinion.) Another technique is to fake a bunt and then step across the plate in the way of a throw. The rules state that a batter is not allowed to interfere with a catcher making a play, but they rationalize that it’s ok as long as they don’t get caught.
Sports are supposed to teach lessons such as playing by the rules, showing good sportsmanship, and winning through putting forth your best effort — not through cheating. I can only hope that someday, one of these players who is learning that the rules don’t matter if you can get away with it wind up in charge of these coach’s retirement fund. Maybe then they’ll regret the lesson they taught on the softball field.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 