An exercise in communications
One of the challenges many teams face is getting players to communicate on the field. I saw it happen in a high school game yesterday. A throw came from right field to the second baseman, and she had no clue where to go with the ball. She turned toward third to make a throw, saw it wasn’t there, and then tried to throw to second from an off-balance position. Needless to say it didn’t work out too well, and a run scored and the runner on second advanced.
That’s not unusual. I’ve seen it happen on teams I’ve coached too. So today at practice we did a little experiment that I got from John Tschida at the University of St. Thomas. We sent the girls out into positions with one instruction: absolutely no talking. We then had a couple of coaches act as baserunner while I hit balls into the field.
The girls didn’t like it at all. It was very difficult to know where to make the play and there was a lot of confusion. After about 10 minutes we called them together and talked about it, then sent them back on the field while removing the “no talking” restriction.
It really made the point. We had a lot more talk — not all of it correct, but most of it — and they started making more plays successfully.
If a lack of communication is an issue you face, give this one a try. It probably won’t be a problem for long.
Congratulations to Stephanie Youngman, all conference
Got some more good news today. One of my former players, Stephanie Youngman, was named to the all conference team for her play at College of Lake County, our local junior college.
The cool thing about this is Steph is one of those players whose high school coach never seemed to think much of her. She was overlooked her first couple of years, then made varsity as a junior. But she always seemed to struggle to perform, and to get playing time. That lasted throughout her varsity career. In her final game as a senior, at Regionals, the coach suddenly decided to sit her out in favor of a freshman. Not exactly the time to be experimenting.
For us, Steph always played well. After starting slow her first couple of years she found her rhythm hitting, and ultimately became one of our leading hitters. She was also an excellent fielder, particularly in the outfield. She could play extra shallow to cut off the Texas Leaguers because she was so good at going back on a ball.
I share her story for two reasons. One, obviously, is that I am happy for her that she finally has received the recognition she so richly deserves. The other is an inspiration to other players. This is the time of year when many players seem to be feeling a lack of love from their high school coaches. (Their feelings about their travel coaches come later.)
So I want to show that no matter what, it’s only one person’s opinion. Keep playing and perhaps someday you too will be all conference in college.
Superstars v team players
We’ve all been on (or coached) teams that have had one or two players who were just flat-out better than everyone else. They were more athletic, better-skilled, more driven, more whatever than everyone.
It would seem like those teams would have a natural advantage over those that don’t have any superstars or standouts. They should be the X Factor that drives the team to success. Yet more often than not those teams never quite seem to reach their potential and everyone is left scratching their heads wondering why. Except, of course, the dad or mom of the superstar(s) who just figure the problem is that everyone else isn’t good enough to play with their daughter.
Yet to really understand what causes it, think about competitive rowers. Let’s say you have eight people rowing in the boat, and one of them is clearly better than all the others. If they all row in synch, that star rower will provide an advantage to the team.
But what if he isn’t rowing in synch with the others, because he’s capable of maintaining a faster pace than they can and he wants to row to the best of his own abilities, with no concern for everyone else? At that point the superstar is working against the efforts of everyone else, and the boat will actually go slower as a result.
Now imagine two superstars in that boat. They’re both rowing together with each other, but against everyone else. The boat goes slower still.
In order to maximize a team’s performance, everyone has to be working together for a common goal. It doesn’t matter if you/your daughter is a better player than the others. The minute she starts to think so, and sets herself apart from the team or works against the team’s efforts, the team will never perform up to its capabilities.
The truth is a true superstar makes everyone around her better. If she isn’t doing that she’s not a superstar, just a skilled player. And part of making everyone around her better is picking up others when they’re down, offering encouragement and standing up for their teammates if anyone gets on them. At that point, the sky’s the limit for the team.
Last thing to keep in mind is Michael Jordan was in the NBA for several years before he won his first title. He was a standout player for sure, and everyone marvelled at how great he was. He was a difference-maker on the court. But he didn’t become a champion until he became a true part of a team, willing to give up the big shot to someone else in order to move the team’s goals forward. Today, he has six rings to prove the wisdom of that concept.
Face masks at the college level
Now that I have a more comprehensive sports package I have to admit I’ve been watching a lot more softball on TV. One thing I’ve noticed is the lack of face masks at the college level.
I’m surprised, really. Face masks have become very popular at the lower levels over the last few years. In fact, it’s more odd to see a player, especially a pitcher, without a face mask than with one these days. Even middle infielders and outfielders who probably don’t really need them are wearing them.
But in college, where the ball has the fastest exit speed and the players spend the most time in the weight room, you’re hard pressed to find a mask on the field. In fact, I can’t think of a single one.
Maybe this will be like the masks on batting helmets. A few years ago you never saw one. Now they’re more common.
Still, you have to wonder why you’re not seeing any. Is it that the culture is still too “macho” to allow it, i.e. peer pressure? Do the coaches discourage it?
The other thing I wonder is if when the current 12U and 14U players who have used masks their whole careers reach college, will they wear them, or will they stop?
What do you think? Why aren’t the current college players wearing them, and will the next generation do it?
First base a one-handed position
In the past I’ve written about catching as being a one-handed position. That idea also extends to playing first base.
The reason is the same. There’s a lot of reaching at first base. And it’s easier to reach farther when you’re only using one hand.
Sure, if the ball is coming right to your chest a two-handed catch is fine. But for nearly anything else — especially balls in the dirt — going with one hand makes far more sense. That’s the reason for the design of first basemans’ mitts. The ball is supposed to nestle itself in the pocket without the benefit of a second hand helping out.
If you’re a first baseman, or working with a first baseman, have her practice catching with one hand. And if you’re a coach of a team, for goodness’ sakes quit yelling at your first baseman to use two hands. She’ll snag a lot more balls with one, and you’ll win a lot more games.
Congratulations Chrissy Chamberlain, UD all-time RBI leader
Wanted to give a shout-out today to Chrissy Chamberlain, who last night became the career RBI leader at the University of Dubuque. Unfortunately, no one seems to know the exact number, but somehow they know she took the lead last night with a single versus #7-ranked Coe College.
Chrissy, the only senior on the squad, has had a long and distinguished career at UD. In addition to her hitting (the article says she is one of the top two hitters in the IIAC for batting average and slugging percentage), she has also been a standout pitcher there. She came into last night’s game in relief and pitched five innings after starting the game at first base.
The nice thing about all of this is Chrissy is also a class act and a great person. It’s nice to see one of the good ones get ahead these days.
UD has games against #5-ranked Central on Saturday, so she still has an opportunity to pad that lead. Good luck, Chrissy, and congratulations. It’s nice to leave your mark on the school that way!
Tips for better bunting
Despite all the money that’s been invested in bat technology in the last few years, and the increase in extra base hits as a result, the short game still remains an important part of fastpitch softball. Some days a pitcher just has your number. Some days the weather, the umpire’s strike zone or other factors beyond your control conspire against the long ball. Whatever the reason, when you’re playing for one run you need to be able to go to your short game.
As regular readers know I’m not a fan of the sacrifice bunt. Statistically, automatically bunting a runner from first to second with a sacrifice doesn’t do you a whole lot of good. Your chances of scoring from first with no outs are 43%; your chances of scoring from second with one out are 45%. Is it really worth giving up a precious out to gain a 2% advantage? In most cases no, in my opinion. I’d much rather see the hitter improve her skills and try bunting for a hit instead. If you can pull it off, you’ll have two runners on, no one out, and a lot of pressure on the defense to perform.
Of course, it all starts with being able to get the bunt down when you need it. With that in mind, here are a few tips.
- Bunt with the end of the bat. All too often I see bunters sticking the sweet spot out over the plate and letting the ball make contact there. On a $300 bat, about $275 of the cost is in the sweet spot. It’s designed to make the ball go farther, even with a crappy swing. So why would you want a bunt to be hit there? Use the end of the bat, one of the dead zones, to make contact and you’ll be able to leave the bunt short instead of hitting it right to a fielder. A good way to practice is to take some bright colored duct tape (or do you say duck tape) and wrap it around the end of an old bat. Then focus on taking the taped part to the ball.
- Cover half the plate to start. To help you make #1 happen, don’t stick the bat out so the whole plate is covered from the start. Instead, cover the inside half. That puts the end of the bat around the middle, making it easier to pull in a little for an inside pitch or reach out a little for an outside pitch. Keep in mind once you have the bat lined up with the ball you’re unlikely to move it, so if the sweet spot is in the middle it’ll probably stay there. Using this technique also protects your hands a little more. They’ll be in front of your body instead of exposed to the side; if your hands are going to get hit with the ball so will your body, so you’re more likely to move.
- Pivot on the heel of the front foot. If you have your feet lined up correctly to hit and then pivot on the balls of both feet, you’ll wind up “walking a tightrope.” Instead of focusing on getting the bat to the ball you’ll be focused on regaining your balance. If you pivot on the heel of your front foot and ball of your back foot you’ll have a little side-to-side separation that will give you more stability.
- Receive the ball, don’t punch it. Not sure why this happens, but for some reason many young hitters like to punch at the ball as it comes to contact. That will have the opposite effect of what you want. Instead, receive it or “catch” it with the bat. A good way to practice that is to tape an old glove to the end of a bat and actually try to catch balls that are tossed to you. (To give credit where it’s due, I learned that one from Bob Kowalke years ago.)
- Start in a normal position in the batter’s box. You’ve probably been to clinics or read books or seen video where you’re told that hitters should move to the front of the batter’s box for a bunt. If you’re doing the dreaded sacrifice bunt then sure, why not? But if you’re bunting for a hit, or as a surprise, moving to the front is a dead giveaway. You might as well call out to the other coach “We’re bunting now!” Staying in a normal position in the box helps you disguise the strategy much better. Sure, it’s a little tougher because the ball doesn’t start in fair territory. But if you’re practicing bunting regularly it shouldn’t be that big of an issue.
- Exception to #5 – bunts up the line. If your goal is to bunt up the line, especially the first base line for a right-handed hitter, try moving back in the box. It gives you a better angle, letting the ball roll from foul territory to fair, with less chance of it rolling back foul.
- Practice, practice, practice. These days, teams seem to tell their players to bunt five pitches, then work on swinging away. That’s not enough to get good at it — and good is what you need to be if circumstances dictate that a bunt is must. Put real emphasis on it. Have a bunting day, where you do nothing but bunt. If your hitters will get multiple sessions in a practice have them use one for nothing but bunts. Make a game of it too. Place a bucket in front of the plate at a location you want the hitters to bunt to and offer a prize for anyone who can get it in the bucket. Draw point values in the dirt and have hitters bunt to see who can get the most points, again for a prize. Split your team in two and have a do or die contest — get the bunt down or you’re out, with the team rewarded for their player being the last one standing. Players love competition, so if you make bunting a competition they’ll take a lot more interest in it.
Those are just a few ideas on how to improve your team’s ability to bunt. What have you done? And how important do you think the short game is today?
Enforcing the rules v. impacting the game
So there I was, watching the Purdue v Michigan fastpitch softball game last weekend on the DVR. Early in the first inning, the Purdue pitcher gets called for an illegal pitch. Her stride foot landed outside the markings for the pitching lane. N
Once that happened I started taking more interest in that particular call. It seemed like she was outside the lane a lot. I know the angles can be deceiving on TV, but it seemed pretty clear that this was not a random occurence.
Later in that inning, Michigan had a runner on third and I clearly saw the Purdue pitcher land outside the lane again. No call, though. She did it several times, in fact, and didn’t get called for it.
So it makes me wonder. Have the umpires been told not to call it if it means scoring a run? Was it this particular umpire perhaps being unwilling to make a call that would affect the game?
What do you think? Should an umpire call an illegal pitch even if it means advancing a run home? Or is that going over the line? What if the pitcher is gaining a big advantage by making the ball run in too much on the hitter? And if you don’t call it does it penalize the other pitcher for pitching within the rules?
Let me know your thoughts on this. I don’t have an answer myself so I’m interested in yours. Except you spammers. You guys can take your garbage somewhere else.
Use an air horn to add a little pressure
One of the continuing challenges in a fastpitch softball practice is simulating game pressure. You can tell your players about the need to execute quickly, and yell at them to speed up. You can even try using some of your players as baserunners to put it into context. But unless they have blazing speed, they may not create the type of gamelike pressure you need to make the point.
We often have players execute against a stopwatch, telling them the goal is to execute in three seconds or less from the time the ball hits the bat until the time it hits the fielder’s glove and calling out their actual times. Today we decided to up the ante.
We added an air horn to the mix. The stopwatch starts when the bat hits the ball. When you get to three seconds (or whatever target you’re going for) you sound the air horn. Players get immediate audible feedback that’s pretty annoying, pressuring them to field the ball and make the throw before the horn sounds.
We used a small horn today. One of the advantages is that it sets a limit on the drill. When you run out of juice to power the horn, the drill is done.
It’s pretty effective, and fun — especially for the person with the horn. Give it a try!
The kind of news you like to hear
This morning I was thinking about one of my hitting students, a high school freshman named Amy Abel. Amy goes to Carmel Catholic High School and is playing second base on varsity. (Normally I don’t get that specific, but in this case I might as well as you will see.)
I haven’t seen much of Amy since her high school season started, and was thinking about emailing her parents tonight to see how things were going. But I didn’t have to, Instead, I got an email from them suggesting I read this article.
My first reaction was wow! If you didn’t follow the link, the highlights are that after four games she is leading the team in batting with a .600 batting average, and has hit five doubles in the first couple of weeks. Again, this is as a freshman. That’s pretty darned cool.
Attention college coaches: this is a girl you’ll probably want to keep an eye on. Think of where she’ll be in three more years!
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 