Throw It Like You Know It
So, you’re a fastpitch pitcher and you’ve added a new pitch to your arsenal. You’ve worked weeks, or months, to learn the nuances and perfect it to the point where you throw it pretty reliably in practice.
But then, when you go to trot it out in a game, it turns into a hot mess.
If it’s a drop ball it rolls in like you’re playing bocce ball. Changeups go sailing high and wide, riseballs go over the backstop, and curveballs end up forcing your catcher to lay out after them like a wide receiver catching a pass from the third-string quarterback.
So what happened?
There’s a pretty good chance the problem isn’t from the neck-down; it’s from the neck-up. Because instead of just relaxing and throwing the pitch you practiced, you got nervous that it wasn’t going to work and started tying yourself in knots trying to make sure it did.
How did that work out for you?
That’s why, when you go to introduce a new pitch to your gametime routine, you need to clear your mind of thoughts about it being your first time, you hope it works, it was really bad last time, etc. and just throw it like you know it.
There’s a pretty good chance if you’ve been pitching for a while you don’t think much about throwing your fastball – or whatever your base pitch is. You’ve done it thousands of times by now, and you already know you can do it.
Doesn’t mean it will be perfect every time – no one’s is, not even the high-level pitchers you admire. But you’re not worried because you know if this one doesn’t work quite right the next one will.
Well, it’s the same with a new pitch. Let’s take a changeup.
You told your coach you’ve been working on it and want to throw it this game. You’ve gotten the speed and location to be right in practice but have little to no experience with in games.
When the call comes in, however, your muscles tense, your mouth gets dry, and you start to breathe a little harder and more rapidly.
There’s really no reason for that reaction, however. First of all, hopefully your coach is smart enough to call it in a situation where the outcome doesn’t matter, such as no one on base and you’re ahead in the count 0-2 or 1-2.
At that point, what’s the worst that can happen? You throw a ball and it’s now 1-2 or 2-2. You’ve thrown balls before with the fastball, so why should this particular one be treated any differently?
Oh, but you’re worried you’re going to embarrass yourself by rolling it in or sailing it over your catcher’s head. So what’s the difference here?
The count is still 1-2 or 2-2, just as it would be if you had barely missed the strike zone. No runners advanced, no one walked, a shadow didn’t fall upon the earth, seas didn’t begin to boil, the ground didn’t rupture. no one died. It’s just a ball.
Only now you’ve thrown one in a game, you know a little more what it feels like, and you’ve just taken another step forward in your pitching career. Someday, when throwing a changeup is as natural to you as breathing, you’ll probably laugh about it.
So given all that, why worry about it at all?
The better approach is to pretend like you’ve been throwing this new pitch for years and just chuck it in there – i.e., throw it like you know it. With a more positive approach like that you’re far more likely to have success, and avoid all the negative outcomes you were worried about originally.
By the way, this concept isn’t just for pitchers. Hitters should apply their new hitting mechanics rather than relying on their old ways.
Slappers, particularly converted righties, should go after their slaps as if they’ve been doing it for years. Fielders should try that new sidearm tilted toss as though it’s been part of their routine all along. And so on.
If you take the “throw it like you know it” approach you’ll find you build your confidence quickly and your game will improve exponentially. You’ll also find you’re having a lot more fun in the process.
Champions Never Take a Day Off
At first glance, today’s headline probably sounds like BS. I’m sure there are those among you who are saying “I see lots of high level coaches and healthcare experts who talk about the importance of rest and recuperation as part of an overall training strategy,” or something to that effect.
That is very true, and I am definitely an advocate of not only building some unscheduled time into the season but also taking time off post-season to recover both physically and mentally. But that’s not what I’m talking about here.
Today’s subject is more about the approach players need to take whenever they are practicing.
We tend to think about practice time in terms of quantity. A question coaches are often asked is “How often/how long should my daughter practice?”
The implication is if you fully fill out the practice time card you will magically get better. All you need to know then is what the numbers are.
But that’s not how it works. The real question is how focused are you in the time you do practice?
Think about two players. The first one is more oriented to the time-based approach.
She goes out for a half hour every other day to practice on her own in addition to attending two or three team practices a week.
Sounds like she ought to be seeing huge gains, doesn’t it? Yet her improvement is slow, and she gets frustrated because she’s investing all this time for very little reward.
Yet the answer lies in HOW she is practicing. When she’s on her own, she basically goes through the motions, doing what she has always done.
Maybe she’s a pitcher who needs to work on her leg drive. But that takes a lot of effort and concentration, which is hard, so instead she just continues to pitch the way she’s comfortable.
Yes, she is out there putting in time. But as far as effort goes she’s pretty much taking the day off.
Then she wonders why her speed isn’t going up the way she should.
Player B, on the other hand, is driven to get better all the time. When she goes out to practice, whether it’s on her own or with her team, she is legitimately trying to improve some aspect of her game all the time.
If she’s a pitcher who needs to improve her leg drive, she’s out there doing her assigned drills and pushing her body to the max with every repetition to try to see improvement. And she doesn’t try to throw a full-distance, full-motion pitch until she feels herself generating a higher level of energy.
If she’s a hitter who has a problem with dropping her hands to swing, she takes dry swing after dry swing with her hands in the proper position before she even thinks about hitting a ball. She starts slowly so she can get it right, and gradually builds the speed up, always being careful to ensure she continues to keep her hands up.
If they start dropping, she backs off a little on the speed, recovers the proper form, then starts increasing speed again.
The same is true with her approach to fielding, throwing, running bases, and every other softball skill. She tries to make every repetition count because she knows that the more she does things correctly, with intensity and a purpose, the better she will play when it’s game time.
And the better chance she will have of becoming a champion.
The reality is we are whatever we do repeatedly. If we are sloppy and lackadaisical in our approach to practice because we don’t feel like it today or it’s just easier, that sloppiness or lack of effort will show itself on game day.
But if we are focused and have a goal in mind for every minute of practice time every day, when game time comes around performing at a high level becomes much easier.
It’s easy to say you want to be a champion, win trophies, play for a particular high-level team, etc. The question is, are you willing to pay the price to get there?
True champions don’t take days off when they are practicing – or playing. They work on their weaknesses and give their all with every repetition, even when it’s frustrating.
The next time you go out to practice, give this approach a try. Dedicate yourself to accomplishing a goal, and be single-minded in your effort to achieve it.
And if you find you can’t give your all that day just stop, because you’re probably wasting your time at best and possibly even making yourself worse. Then come back when you’re ready to go 100% on every repetition again.
I think you’re going to like the results a whole lot better.
Be Willing to Go Backward to Move Forward
It sure would be nice if getting better at fastpitch softball was a linear progression upward. You start at one point, put in some time, and your performance (measurable and intangible) just keeps on getting better.
Unfortunately it doesn’t always work that way. In fact, often times it can go the other way for a while.
This is especially true if you’re trying to make fundamental changes to your skills after doing reasonably well doing what you’ve been doing.
For those who haven’t been doing particularly well it’s not much of an issue. If you’re a hitter who has been striking out for most of your at bats, and popping up or grounding out weakly when you don’t swing and miss, you don’t have much to lose by making a change.
Worst case you don’t get any better. Anything beyond that will be an improvement.
But if you’ve been getting on base now and then there’s a little more risk involved. It’s possible you may struggle a bit more at the plate for a little while before you start seeing the work you’re putting in pay off.
In fact, your batting average, slugging percentage, etc. may go down first before it goes up.
Why is that? Simple: whatever you’ve been doing, even it isn’t great, you’re comfortable with it and can execute it without thinking about it. Those mechanics may not be great but they’re serviceable enough to let you get by.
Now you’ve decided you no longer want to get by but want to be a top hitter. So you start making changes and find yourself kind of between worlds for a little while.
You’re not comfortable with your swing, or your timing, or some other aspect and as a result you’re not able to execute it with full energy. You might even start over-thinking it and throwing yourself off completely. Next thing you know your performance begins to fall and you feel like you’re moving backward.
That’s ok. If you’re making the right changes your performance will improve as you become more comfortable in your new “skin.”
As old bad habits are replaced by new better ones you’ll discover how to get the bat to the ball more efficiently and the ball will start finding its way to (or over) the fence more often.
This process doesn’t just apply to hitters by the way. Pitchers may lose a little speed and/or accuracy as they replace old habits with new ones, such as moving from “hello elbow” to internal rotation mechanics or changing the way a particular pitch is thrown to improve the spin.
If the new techniques are being taught properly, however, any setbacks will be temporary and the gains will be well worth the pain of getting there.
The same goes for fielding or throwing or really any other fastpitch softball skill. There will probably be a period where you wonder whether you would have been better off staying with what you were doing rather than learning something new and supposedly better.
If you’re focused only on the short term it may seem like you would have been better off sticking with what you know. If you’re focused on your long-term career, though, making these changes will help keep you from bumping up against artificial ceilings so you can become the player you’re meant to be.
Of course, the caveat here is you have to be careful about the timing of these changes. With fastpitch softball now being a 12-month (or almost 12-month) sport it seems like there is always a game coming up that causes you to feel like it’s a bad time for a major change.
But there are holes in the schedule, such as the period between tryouts and fall ball, or certain points over the winter, where there is reduced risk in starting changes. And if your performance isn’t where you want it, or where you need it to be to reach your goals, then the sooner you get going the sooner you can start moving forward again.
Making big changes isn’t easy, and sometimes they can result in temporary setbacks. Don’t let that discourage you.
If you’re making those changes for the right reasons the reward will be worth the risk.
Navigating the Maze of Fastpitch Skills Development
People often talk about the “path to greatness” when it comes to fastpitch softball skills development. But when you think about it, it’s not really a path – it’s more of a maze.
Everyone starts out in the same place – at the entrance. Everyone knows the end goal is excellence.
But it’s really not a straight-line journey, i.e., you hire a coach, join a team, or try to try to train your daughter yourself. Instead, the journey can be full of twists, turns, blind alleys, and dead ends.
Go the wrong way and you’re going to spend a lot of your time backtracking or trying to get your bearings again. Get in deep enough and you may never find your way back to a lane that will take you to your goal.
Take pitching for example. There are those who believe it doesn’t really matter what you teach to budding pitchers; they say eventually those pitchers will find their way to the mechanics that will lead to success.
I can tell you wholeheartedly that that is not true. Yes, some can overcome learning “hello elbow” (HE) when they start out, replacing them with more body-friendly internal rotation (IR) mechanics as they mature. They are usually exceptional athletes.
But that is not the case with everyone. I’ve acquired many pitching students who were taught turn the ball back toward second and push it down the back side of the circle who struggled to unlearn that early, sub-optimal teaching.
It can take them months just to learn how to keep the ball facing forward at the top of the circle (and just past it) so they can set themselves up to whip the ball through release. It’s not that they’re bad pitchers or poor athletes.
It’s just that the habit has been so ingrained into them that it’s difficult to break. They essentially got deep into the maze and then have to find their way back to nearly the beginning to get on the right track.
Hitters can have this too. They’re taught to “squish the bug” or “throw their hands/knob of the bat” at the ball or over-use their arms, or some other outdated concept.
Or maybe they’re just allowed to swing the bat however they want because they are big enough and strong enough at the younger ages that the techniques they use really aren’t important.
However they get there, they follow that path thinking they’re on their way, only to discover after their habits become ingrained that it’s been a series of blind alleys once again leading to a dead end. The other players have matched (or surpassed) them in size and strength, and suddenly what made them look like studs when they were young has them seeing more bench time today.
Just like in an actual maze, it’s important to start out in the right direction early. So how do you know which way to go when you’re just starting out so you ensure you don’t waste a whole lot of time and money that you will never recover?
Fortunately, unlike an actual maze there are plenty of signs and guideposts that will help you find the most expedient path to your goal. Some of those include:
- Watch high speed video of what actual high-level players do, then match that up to what potential coaches are teaching. If they’re not closely aligned you probably don’t want to go that way.
- Research the topics that interest you on the Internet. Yes, the Internet has as much bad information (or more) than good, but if you’re really interested in doing what’s right it shouldn’t take you too long to separate the gold from the garbage.
- Ask other parents, especially those whose daughters stand out, about their journey and what their daughter is being taught now They can help you avoid the pitfalls they themselves fell into.
- Try what’s being taught yourself to see if it makes sense. Many people actually seem to miss out on this simple test. See what it feels like to move your body the way it’s being described. Be aware of what you feel and whether it feels natural or forced. The goal is for it to feel natural and easy, because it means you’re working with your body instead of against it.
- Once you’ve gathered the data, think through it carefully to see what makes sense. Don’t just accept what Famous Player A says, because Famous Player A may not have a clue as to what she does on the field. She was probably one of those who found her way to good mechanics DESPITE what she was taught. Yet when it comes to teaching herself, she just goes back to what she was told when she was young because that’s all she consciously knows.
Starting down the wrong path in the beginning, or taking a bad detour along the way isn’t unrecoverable. But it definitely makes achieving one’s playing goals a lot more difficult because there’s going to be a lot of backtracking (and angst) before you can move forward again.
Take the time to determine which path will lead you through the maze of softball skills development more efficiently and you’ll find the entire journey to be a lot more enjoyable.
Maze photo by Tom Fisk on Pexels.com
Where Have All the Pitchers Gone?
Yes, I know, it sounds like a folk song but it’s a legitimate question. Especially now that we are hot and heavy into the softball tryout season.
If you’re following softball-oriented Facebook groups or forums such as Discuss Fastpitch you’re probably seeing this plea a lot, particularly in the older age groups: Impossibly great team looking for one more bracket pitcher to complete our outstanding roster.
With all the 8-10 year olds jumping into the pitching pool you would think there would be a cornucopia of pitching at every level. It’s not unusual to see box scores on GameChanger that show four or five pitchers each getting an inning of work on a regular basis. And it’s been that way for long before GameChanger existed.
So what happened to all those pitchers?
Well, somewhere along the way they stopped pitching. Or maybe even playing the game entirely.
Sure, some probably found that they just didn’t care for the pressure of being in the circle. And some probably found that they didn’t like all the extra work that goes with being a pitcher. All legit, and to each her own.
But I can’t help but think that the rapid shrinking of the pitching pool might in many cases also be driven by team coaches and parents who are more focused on winning 10U or 12U games or trophies than they are on ensuring their players develop properly.
Take the coach who has 5 pitchers on his/her roster but gives 90% of the innings to the #1 pitcher. Yes, it’s nice to win games and tournaments, but if you’re only really giving one pitcher an opportunity to pitch regularly the others won’t develop.
Then they won’t develop, they’ll fall farther behind, get discouraged by their lack of progress as well as their lack of opportunity, and eventually stop pitching. So now four more are out of the pitcher pool for the future.
Oh, and in the meantime the #1 develops an overuse injury and may end up not pitching either.
Then there are the coaches who set impossible standards for their young, developing pitchers. They tell them in order to pitch they need to “hit their spots” 80% of the time.
Not because it’s necessary – really the only “spots” that are important at the 10U level are ball and strike – but because they heard on TV or read an article that said that’s what college pitchers do. Or because they want to use the vague “hit your spots” as an excuse not to pitch a girl who isn’t going to walk in and dominate every game.
So again, she doesn’t get circle time, falls behind, and eventually gives it up because what’s the point of taking lessons and practicing if you never get to pitch, even in “friendlies” or pool play?
Pitching coaches who say they’re teaching 10 or 12 year olds to throw seven pitches aren’t much help either.
Most 10U and 12U pitchers have enough to do mastering a fastball and and a changeup. Having them work on five other pitches – especially with some of the crazy mechanics I’ve seen them try to use – is a recipe for disaster.
Those pitchers never master their fundamentals. So when the hitters get better all those so-called different pitches turn out to be bullet spin fastballs to different locations that are fairly easy to hit. And then they’re out of the pitching pool because they’re getting hammered all the time.
And the list goes on. If we really want to have more pitchers available at 16U and 18U, parents and coaches have to do more to encourage greater success for more pitchers at the younger levels.
Keep them pitching, keep them developing, and give them opportunities to learn their craft – even when they’re bad at it. Then maybe there won’t be so many teams begging for pitchers or fighting over the same ones at the older levels.
Thoughts for Those at the End of Your Travel Ball Career
We are now at the point of softball travel ball where the season is winding down and teams are playing their final tournaments. It looked like such a long summer ahead back in May, yet here you are with just a few games left to play.
For many players, their thoughts have already turned to tryouts for next year. In fact, many of you have either already gone through the process or are in the midst of it.
But there’s one special group of players who aren’t thinking about next season: those who are playing their final season of travel ball. Those are the ones I want to address today.
It’s sure been a long journey for most of you. Maybe you started when you were 8 years old without a clue as to which field was right and which was left.
Maybe you started when you were 10. You played a couple of seasons of rec ball and then someone said, “Hey, you should try playing at a higher level,” or your friends were doing it so you thought you would too.
Or maybe you were kind of late to the travel ball party, starting around high school age. You had a lot of catching up to do but the effort was worth it
Whatever road you took to get here, you all ended up in the same place – the final games of your travel career.
If you’re not playing in college next year this is most likely the last time you’re going to play fastpitch softball at a truly competitive level. Sure you might join a club team if you go to college, or a slowpitch team that plays on a weeknight.
But it won’t be the same. The intensity of practice and the level of commitment required will be far less, and the overall atmosphere will be more laidback.
And even if you are continuing to play in college it will be a whole different world. No more spending 12+ hours at the ballpark with your team as you play five games in a day.
College teams play one game per day for the most part. About the only time they play more is if there was a rainout or a rainout is expected the next day. Then they will play two.
Unless you’re in the Women’s College World Series playoffs there won’t be dozens of other teams around either, sitting on the sidelines under canopies listening to music on earbuds or trying to catch a little nap. Just you and your opponent who come to the ballpark, play, and then leave.
It really is the end of an era for you, which is why it’s important to take a few moments as your travel ball career winds down to appreciate this very special time in your life and appreciate the journey.
As you go through these last few games, don’t just treat them like another day in a long series of days. Take a little time to appreciate the whole experience:
- When you’re warming up for your first game of the day, stop and sniff the air. Our sense of smell has the strongest connection to our memory. Even a faint hint of a familiar scent can trigger powerful emotions. So take a deep sniff and notice the fragrance of freshly mowed grass, a sweet breeze on a hot summer afternoon, maybe the hint of rain in the air, the charcoal coming from the grill at the concession stand, or even the leather in your glove. Someday, when you’re much older and making your way through the world, these sweet fragrances will take you back instantly to a time when your biggest care in the world was hitting your spots or not getting suckered in by a changeup.
- Take a moment to appreciate a freshly dragged and lined field. See the beauty of the chalk as it outlines the field of play, the world you’re about to inhabit for the next couple of hours. Enjoy the contrast it makes with the playing surface. (This also applies to turf, just in a different way.) You’ve been here a million times, sure, but have you ever really noticed it? The (hopefully) smooth surface and straight lines give promise to endless possibilities, It’s the perfect metaphor for what your life is about to become. See it and think of all the fields in all the places you’ve played, because soon the field won’t be yours to play on anymore.
- Enjoy the camaraderie of your teammates and being part of something larger than yourself one last time. When you first started you were probably among friends you already knew. Now, perhaps, you’re among friends you’ve made along the way, essentially by necessity as you all came together for a common goal. You will probably not remain close with most of them, but at some level you will always have a bond that time and circumstance cannot break. Years from now if you run into them you will talk about all the good times you had, and you may even be transported back in time for a few moments to when you were young and playing softball well seemed like the most important thing in the world to you.
Life rarely gives us a heads up as to when this will be your last time to do something you love. Parents never realize it’s the last time they will pick up their child. School friends rarely know it will be the last time they all meet at the playground.
This one, however, does have an expiration date. Take a little time to appreciate the entire travel ball experience one more time.
And when the final out of your final game comes and the cheers die down, win or lose, take a little extra time to soak it all in for as long as you can. Such days as these will rarely come again.
Keep Hitting Toned and Tight Instead of Flabby
A few weeks back I had a hitting student who was having a little trouble getting her bat to the ball most effectively despite her best efforts. She wasn’t hitting badly, but I knew she had more in her.
So, I told her she needed to keep her swing toned and tight instead of letting it go flabby. While that may sound like a rather vague instruction she knew instantly what I meant, made the adjustment, and started hitting bombs.
I have since used it with several other students and it always produces the desired results. It’s a language the kids can understand. But what does it really mean?
Basically, it refers to being efficient. A flabby swing is one where there is a lot of extraneous movement either at certain points or throughout the swing.
One example of flabbiness in a swing is over-loading the body overall or even just the hands. Pushing back over the back leg, or lifting the hands way up and/or back before bringing them forward is inefficient.
Casting the hands out away from the body as you start to turn is another example. That movement will make the swing take too long to execute, and disconnecting the hands from the shoulders prematurely will cause a lot of the potential energy to leak out before it can be turned into kinetic energy at impact.
In a toned and tight swing, the body load will go into the back leg instead of over it. I refer to that as “bouncing off” the back leg.
That will be a quick, easy movement designed to break inertia instead of trying to make it a power generator. The power generation comes with the turn.
If the hands pull too far back up and/or back, you’ve created a longer path to the ball that will make it harder to be on-time. You’ve also made it more likely that you will try to generate too much of the power from the shoulders instead of letting the lower body drive the swing.
In a toned and tight swing, the hands will stay close to the back shoulder (I call it “in the bubble”) until the lower body has turned about 45 degrees. By that point you will have a better idea of where the ball will be when it enters the hitting zone AND you will have a shorter path to get there.
A toned and tight swing will also let the lower body/core provide the bulk of the power while the upper body rides that wave for most of the swing. That’s important, because when you try to generate too much power from the upper body you end up giving up control of the bat.
A lower body/core-driven swing makes it far easier to direct the bat where you want it to go. Why? Because you haven’t generated early momentum with the bat that is going to carry it to a particular area before you’re sure of what area you need to take the bat to.
Instead, you can use the largest muscles in the body, which incidentally can do little to nothing to influence where the bat goes, to create power, while letting the parts that are closest to the bat guide its path more fluidly – and directly.
The result is a more effortless swing that efficiently delivers power more precisely to where it needs to go, creating more and better hits that will help the hitter raise her batting average (BA), on-base percentage (OBP), slugging percentage (SLG), and on base plus slugging percentage(OPS).
Can you say all that without the toned and tight v flabby descriptor? Sure. I certainly have.
But all the technical talk may not resonate as well. If, however, you tell her what you want and then add the idea of making the swing toned and tight it seems to get through better. At least in my experience.
So if you have a hitter who is struggling a little to get her swing more efficient, give this one a try. It just might work for you too.
Photo by Scott Webb on Pexels.com
Remember: Those Players You’re Criticizing Are Real People
This year’s (2023 for future readers) Women’s College World Series (WCWS) was another huge score for the sport. The TV coverage overall drew an average of 1.1 million viewers per game, up 6% over last year according to Sports Business Journal, while the championship game peaked with 2.3 million viewers.
What tremendous visibility for our sport! Yet as it grows in popularity there is an unfortunate, unintended consequence that comes with it: an marked in increase in harsh and just downright mean comments about the 18 to 22 year old women who play the game.
You see, with the size of the spectacle comes an increased dissociation of the player we see from the human being she is. When you don’t think of the player as a real person, it’s easy to criticize her based on the observer’s impossibly high expectations of perfection.
In other words, the standards that are often applied to highly paid professional athletes with years of experience are now being used to measure the performance and value of young women who are just beginning to come of age. That doesn’t feel right to me.
Yet it’s not just these high-level college players who are feeling the sting of these harsh and sometimes even troll-level comments, often delivered by people who never picked up a ball and competed themselves. They’re also being directed at lower-level college, high school and even younger players in social media and softball-related forums and websites.
Now consider that according to the National Institute of Mental Health, the human brain doesn’t finish developing until a person is in their mid-to-late 20s. (And for the people I’m talking about in this post it may never fully develop.)
What that means is you have unthinking people lobbing terrible comments at adolescents and young adults whose brains may not be equipped to handle them. It may not feel personal to the stranger making the comment – after all, these are just images on a screen or random players on a field to them – but it can feel VERY personal to those on the receiving end.
Consider the college player who makes an error at a critical time that contributes to a loss that knocks her team out of the WCWS. (It doesn’t cause the loss because in the course of the game there were plenty of opportunities to make that error meaningless, but happening when it does puts it in the spotlight).
She feels bad enough about it already. But then someone she doesn’t know has to go and call her out in a way that is rude and classless to make him/herself look smart or superior.
What the commentor doesn’t know is this young woman may already be suffering from significant self-doubt or even full-on Imposter Syndrome. That comment might be enough to put her over the edge to where it affects more than her ability to play softball.
Because underneath the uniform is a real human being with a real story and real feelings of her own. She didn’t mean to make the error, she worked really hard on her game so she wouldn’t make that error, but sometimes it still occurs.
Some of these rude commentators like to get even more personal about it because it makes them feel big. They’ll go into a public forum and paraphrase a line from the Mighty Ducks 2, saying a player with a larger body size would have caught that pop-up if it was a cheeseburger.
They may think they’re being funny, but to an athlete already dealing with body or other self-image issues, these types of hurtful comments can be devastating.
It’s not that they’re snowflakes, because in the course of their day they are likely dealing with a lot of pressure from all sides and handling it well. But we all have chinks in our armor, and that’s one that can end up ripping a pretty big hole if the player already has a negative self-image.
Look, everyone has a story, and even if you see a profile on ESPN you’re not getting the whole story. Just the part of it everyone wants to highlight. Like a duck on the water it may look calm on top, but underneath there’s a lot of churning going on.
Before you choose to criticize or comment on a player in a harsh way, stop and think. Is this the way I’d want someone talking about me, or my wife, daughter, sister, etc.?
Remember that all those players you’re watching aren’t just images in a video game. They’re real, live human beings with real, live feelings and all their own personal stuff they’re going through.
If you feel the need, criticize the play but not the player. It’s simply the right thing to do.
Internet troll graphic: Simplicius (talk · contribs); derivative work by odder, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Downside of Being a Multi-Sport Athlete
There are many benefits to being a multi-sport athlete, as has been detailed here as well as in numerous articles and athlete-driven promos across the Internet. The cross-training, the different styles of coaching, the different atmospheres, etc. all contribute to making a well-rounded athlete who can compete more effectively.
The old-school types in particular love to talk about all the great things that come with participating in multiple sports, and how they did it and it made them better all the way around.
But there’s a very definite downside in today’s world, especially if you want to compete at a high level. The downside is the time commitment required and its effect on the athlete’s physical and mental state.
You see, back in the “good old days” of multi-sport athletes each sport had a season. You played volleyball or ran cross country or did whatever in the fall. When that season was over it closed out and the athlete moved on to basketball or swimming or whatever in the winter. Then came softball or track or another sport, which was separated from everything else.
Today, however, every sport seems to be 24 x 7 x 365. A typical day will see an athlete attend a game for a school sport in one season as well as a practice for another sport that is out of season. Throw in lessons, speed and agility sessions, weightlifting classes – not to mention school/homework and possibly work for the older players – and it’s amazing these players can stand upright much less participate in so many activities.
In the summer they don’t have school to contend with, but often they have two or even three full-blown teams in different sports running at once along with the other activities. No rest for the wicked, eh?
What it often means is athletes who are never 100% healthy or energized. Instead, they are doing the best they can each day, but not necessarily the best they’re capable of.
What’s the solution? The ideal situation would be setting up a system where the governing bodies of various sports get together to set priorities.
Each sport would have a full-on season where they take the bulk of the time, while the others step back to a very limited level. For example, in the summer softball would have priority, and sports like basketball and volleyball would hold no tournaments on the weekends and perhaps be limited to a single practice each week. In fall a different sport would have priority and summer sports would be limited in the same way.
Of course, that’s never going to happen. The sports culture here in America is too tied to winning for any sport to take a back seat to others, even if it’s for the benefit of the athletes themselves.
The next best alternative is for parents to keep an eye on their athletes and set the priorities for them. Even if it makes them unhappy.
They and their athletes should figure out which sport is their priority and make that the focus of their efforts. They should then, in my opinion, treat any other sports as fill-ins.
Rather than playing club/travel for every sport, play it for one and then do the others for school or at a rec level.
Club/travel coaches can also help out by voluntarily limiting practices to once a week when out of season, with liberal policies if their players have to miss due to a conflict with the main sport.
This plan may not solve everything, but it’s a start.
The level of commitment required these days is just insane in my opinion. It’s time to change the culture.
We need to make it possible for athletes to receive the benefits of being multi-sport athletes without the detrimental effects. It will be better for them, better for their parents, and ultimately better for their teams too.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com
What to Expect When You Become a Pitcher’s Parent
Sooooo…your daughter has decided that she wants to become a pitcher.
Congratulations to her! That’s a big step, especially given the importance of the position in fastpitch softball.
The value of a quality pitcher in softball is roughly the same as the value of a quality quarterback in football. While those roles differ, both can have a huge impact on whether the team wins or loses.
Because of all of that you are excited. You can’t wait to watch your wonderful, softball-loving daughter shine in the circle and feel the glow of admiration from coaches, teammates, and fans alike.
I know. I’ve been there – twice – and have seen those feelings in the eyes and body language of countless students.
But it’s not all sunshine and unicorns, even if your daughter is a tremendous athlete and a start in other aspects of the sport. So now that that decision has been made, let me clue you newbies in on what you’re in for going forward.
Parents of pitchers, current and past, be sure to chime in down in the comments about any aspects I’ve missed. It’s been a while for me.
The Time
You know that thing they call free time? Forget about it for the next 10-15 years, depending on how old your daughter is.
Because it’s a thing of the past.
Becoming even a decent pitcher takes a lot of work, i.e., many hours spent honing the craft. So while other parents gets to unwind at the end of a long, tough work day by collapsing on the couch, perhaps with an adult beverage or two, there is no such paradise waiting for you.
Instead, you will come home, change, maybe grab a quick bite, and then head out to a field, facility, and/or lesson so your daughter can get better. You see, pitching mechanics require a tremendous degree of precision and coordination to execute, and even the slightest variance can mean more walks than strikeouts, or too many hit-by-pitches, or too many balls left too fat in the zone resulting in big hits.
Not to mention there’s always another mile per hour or two to chase. So your “free time” will be spent sitting on a bucket and/or driving somewhere so your daughter has her best chance of succeeding.
The Nerves
Ever see a crowd sitting calmly watching a softball game? Everyone there is relaxed, chatting about the game or their lives, checking their phones for messages, maybe enjoying a snack or two on a lovely evening.
What you won’t see there is the current pitcher’s parent(s). That because the parent(s) are frantically pacing up and down the sidelines, or more likely somewhere behind the outfield fence, living and dying on every pitch.
Remember how I said in the beginning it’s a huge responsibility? As a pitcher’s parent you’re going to feel all the weight of that responsibility, probably much more than your daughter does, and you’re not going to be able to do a danged thing about it.
Except pace. And mumble to yourself. And question every pitch call from your coach as well as the umpire. Then pace some more.
You are basically trapped in a hell of your own making while you try to will your daughter to hit her spots, make the ball spin, or throw as hard in a game as she does in practice.
Eventually she will get there. But then you’ll just stalk up and down the sidelines or outfield fence and fret about the outcome of every pitch anyway. Because that’s what pitcher’s parents do.
The Fighting with Your Daughter
Learning to pitch is a long, arduous process with many ups and downs. As a good parent you want to see your daughter succeed.
Unfortunately, she may not realize how much work it takes, and thus will want to live the same type of life as other girls her age. As if!
So the two of you will fight about whether she can go here or there, or whether she needs to practice first.
You will also fight about mechanics. Because you heard one thing at her last lesson and she heard another. Or you’ve been checking the Internet for advice again and want her to try whatever tip or trick you just learned.
You will fight about what happened during the game. Did she try hard enough? Did she give up too many walks? Why did she throw a changeup to a hitter who clearly couldn’t hit her faster pitches? Why didn’t she throw home to force the runner there instead of throwing to first base and letting the run score?
And so on, and so on.
Fathers and daughters in particular will fight, because that’s just natural in human dynamics. The good new is, as tough as it can be, better to be fighting about pitching than who she was with or what she was doing last night.
Oh, and if you are also her team coach as well as practice catcher, get ready for many storm clouds ahead. It’s gonna be a rough ride.
The Money
So, you thought softball was expensive before your daughter declared she wanted to be a pitcher? Those will quickly become the good old days.
It starts with lessons of course. They aren’t cheap, and they have to be done frequently to get anywhere. Like once a week or once every other week (for a longer period of time) if you want her to gain competence quickly.
You will also need the ubiquitous bucket to carry balls and a glove in, as well as to sit on during lessons (hence the term “bucket dad” or “bucket mom”). It’s not required, but unless you’re a former catcher or someone who does a lot of squats normally you’re probably going to appreciate it quickly.
Then, as your little pitcher gets better, you’re going to start needing to purchase special equipment. It starts with a catcher’s mitt because your hand can’t take it when she starts popping the glove.
Then, as she learns to throw changeups and drops, you’ll probably want a pair of shin guards, and maybe a paid of shoes with steel toes. As speed picks up and movement gets sharper, you’ll probably need a catcher’s helmet too, so at that point you may as well get a chest protector as well.
As she gets better she will be sought after by better teams that play more often and travel farther to do it. Now you’re looking at thousands more dollars for the summer alone.
Eventually what started out as a nice little diversion ends up costing as much as a decent boat. But that’s ok, because you won’t have time to enjoy a boat even if you bought one.
The Heartbreak
It’s hard to watch your child struggle at anything, much less fail. But softball is a game built on failure, and nowhere is it more painful than when your daughter is having a tough time pitching.
Sure, it’s hard to watch your daughter strike out too. But that probably only happens maybe two or three times a game. But if she’s throwing balls and hitting batters when she should be throwing strikes, or serving up meatballs like she’s working at Olive Garden, it can be devastating to her – and to you.
Basically, a pitcher’s parent tends to live and die on every pitch. Especially during a tight game or one against a major rival.
So you may find yourself dying dozens of times during a game, and even a hundred or more on the weekend. And that’s just you.
Seeing the pain on her face during or after the game is tough to take. Yet you’re probably going to have to live with that pain for a while until she gets more experienced. If you’re not ready it can come as quite a shock.
Worth It?
So yes, the struggle is real. Which begs the question, “Is it worth it?”
That’s a decision you’ll ultimately have to make. Maybe your daughter will try it, realize how hard it is (and/or how much work it really takes) and opt out.
That’s ok. The team needs a center fielder too.
But if it’s something she really wants to pursue, in my opinion the answer is yes. Because she will learn how to overcome obstacles galore and the two of you will spend plenty of quality time together (when you’re not arguing). Probably much more than you would have otherwise.
Not to mention there’s nothing like the joy in your daughter’s face when she strikes out her first batter, retires the side in a close game, pitches her to team to a championship, and earns an MVP medal or game ball for her outstanding performance.
So if one day your daughter announces that she would like to be a pitcher, it’s ok to celebrate. But be aware of what you’re getting into and strap yourself in.
Because it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 