An unfortunate “experience”
One of the things that’s always been great about fastpitch softball has been how fan-friendly it’s been at the highest levels. I’ve watched as members of the Chicago Bandits stood in the rain to sign autographs and talk to fans for as long as those fans wanted to be there. I’ve seen examples of well-known players (at least in the softball world) make themselves very accessible no matter where they are or what else they happen to be doing.
So it was disappointing to hear the stories of two of my students who attended a recent clinic in Wisconsin. It was billed as an “Experience” and featured a famous player who also happened to be someone both of them admired greatly. Yet it seems like her fame has gone to her head, as her behavior seemed more like a Major League Baseball star rather than a softball player.
My students (and their mothers) told me the famous player spent the entire time talking or texting on her mobile phone. She had no time for the girls, didn’t interact with them, and essentially acted the diva. When one of the moms stopped her between calls to thank her for sending some autographed materials to her daughter a couple of years previously, after her daughter had survived a vicious attack by a dog, she said “Oh, my mom did that. I don’t get into that stuff” or something to that effect.
Unbelievable. Even if that’s true, you smile gracefully and say you were glad to do it. Instead, she treated the encounter more like an inconvenience.
The word from the parents is several people left the clinic before it was over, complaining about the attitude of the star player and asking for their money back. They were completely dissatisfied, and doubtless will tell their friends and teammates to avoid it in the future. That’s a shame, too, because I understand there were two other national team players there plus a young lady from the NPF, and all were terrific. But…
The fact is people came because of the star’s fame, and her refusal to be a part of her own clinic tainted the experience for many.
Hopefully, that was just an aberration. I’d hate to think our sport is going the way of so many others, where players feel they’re too good to mix with the fans who ultimately pay for all they have. If that is the case, imagine what it will be like if and when the players ever start being paid real money instead of the token salaries they get now. We may wish for the good old days of salaries that are less than your typical fast food worker makes.
As for the star, hopefully she was just having a bad day. But I get the feeling that wasn’t it. I just hope she realizes the error of her ways before she disappoints any more youngsters who look up to her.
Success requires patience
I’ve talked before how we live in an “instant results” type of world. If we want popcorn we toss a bag in the microwave and three minutes later there it is. If we want to see our favorite TV show or movie we just hit the On Demand button and there it is. And so forth.
Yet it never fails to surprise me when a player or student lacks the patience to learn something new. Last night I was working with a pitcher, second lesson for her with me. Her mom brought her to me because she felt she was stalled where she was. After we worked basic mechanics and locations, I asked what other pitches she threw. She told me a changeup, so I said let’s see it.
After watching a couple I asked what type of change she was throwing. (I always ask in case what I see isn’t what they’re supposed to be doing.) She told me a handshake change. Not my favorite, personally, because to make it work I find most pitchers slow down as they go to release. So I asked if she was willing to try something different. (Normally I don’t ask, but with HS tryouts around the corner I figured I should check.) She said sure — what else was she going to say — so I showed her the backhand change.
After trying it two or three times, and having it work better each time (although not great) she said she was getting frustrated. I was shocked. I mean, how good do you think it will be throwing it three times ever? But apparently she just figured it was like instant cocoa — add a little water and you’re all set.
We continued to work at it and she got better. But I wonder how much she’s going to continue to work on it. Work being the operative word.
Learning to do anything well — pitch, hit, play an instrument, ride a bike, perform brain surgery — takes time. If you’re not willing to put in the time, you’re going to have a tough time competing. Accept getting a little better each day, as Bobby Simpson likes to say, and you’ll find yourself happier and better in the long run.
Hitting and confidence
This may be one of those chicken/egg things, but there’s no doubt in my mind that hitting and confidence go hand in hand. Tough to say whether confidence drives good hits or good hits drive confidence, but it does seem to work both ways. Often it the two come from making adjustments that may seem small but deliver a quick payout.
Here’s a case in point. One of the girls on the team I coach has struggled with her hitting for a couple of years. She’s a big, strong kid (also one of the hardest workers and most enthusiastic players you could ever hope to coach) so she ought to hit the ball hard. This is my first year coaching her, but I’ve worked with her in the past.
Thing is, she wasn’t. Her dad would tell me every now and then she’d get one, but mostly she was hitting weak grounders and pop-ups. Mechanically she actually had a good swing, although it had a couple of issues. But she couldn’t quite seem to get the timing down. When we played indoors in January, she went 0-4 with four strikeouts, all swinging, and barely touched the ball. She was frustrated, and reportedly ready to quit the game she’d loved for so long.
So, it was time to really to get to work on her and figure out how we could turn it around. She’d gotten all sorts of advice over the past couple of years (including from me), so I was aware that there may be some resistance coming out of frustration and confusion.
I had videoed her in the batting cage (along with the rest of the team), so it was time to do some deep analysis. One thing I noticed was a sort of “reaching” with her front foot. There was a little weight shift from the lower body, but the upper body stayed in place. Not good. Generally you see hitters moving to toe touch with the front shoulder over the front hip, more or less. Also, her early timing moves were quick and staccato instead of fluid, the way you’ll see good hitters doing it. (I will accept blame for that since I tended to teach a quicker load and positive move a couple of years ago than I do now.) It was no wonder she was struggling!
I pointed it out to her on video, and showed videos of a couple of top-level hitters (softball and ML
, and it seemed to make sense to her. I sent her off to the tee and she worked on taking her whole body forward.
The following week, my friend and former coaching partner Coach Rich started Jonesing to teach hitting so he came out to practice and worked with her on it too. Rich and I have a sort of ESP when it comes to hitting, so the girls were all amused when either he would tell them something I just said or vice versa. As she continued to work on it, it just seemed to click. But the real test would be her next game action.
That was last weekend. She didn’t strike out once, and the only weak contact she had was when she tried to pull an outside pitch instead of letting it get deep. Given her previous results, that was a trifle! She had a couple of solid hits, plus a couple of solid outs across three one-hour games. The best ball she hit all night was her last one — a hard liner to center that unfortunately went straight to the CF. Probably 10 feet either way, or 10 feet deeper, and it’s a double.
The kicker came this past Monday. She was taking batting practice at her high school’s open gym, and the varsity coach called everyone at all levels over to watch her hit, saying “This is how you should do it.” She is a freshman, by the way, so that’s pretty high praise.
Needless to say, there’s no talk of quitting anymore. In fact, her confidence at this point is sky high, and she’s now looking forward to stepping into the batter’s box.
So was it the first good hit that drove her confidence? Or was it the change in mechanics (which no doubt felt better and more powerful) that drove her confidence? Probably some combination — the change made it easier to hit, which enabled the confidence building. Ultimately, though, it doesn’t matter. What matters is a good kid is in a happy place. Can’t wait to see what she does this spring and summer.
Getting players to move from static to dynamic stretching
By now it’s been pretty well established that dynamic stretching — stretches that have the body in motion — are far better for preparing teams for athletic competition than the old static stretches where you assume a position and hold it.
The big revelation is that static stretching does nothing for injury prevention (beyond adding a little flexibility), and actually turns the nervous system off, making players slower and less able to respond. Dynamic stretching turns the nervous system on, which is particularly important in a speed game such as fastpitch softball. Here’s a link to an article that explains it much more detail. (Full disclosure: I am affiliated with Softball Performance as administrator of the Discuss Fastpitch Forum community, but have nothing to do with the DVDs shown.)
Even if you buy into it as a coach, though, you may find it’s only half the battle. The tough part sometimes is getting your players to buy into it and change their old habits.
Seems hard to believe, doesn’t it? You wouldn’t think that 12 or 14 or even 18 year olds are so set in their ways that it would be difficult. But I’ve been there and know the kind of resistance you can face.
One thing you’ll often hear when you’re showing them the new, improved stretching routine is “I feel stupid.” Not sure why being in motion would make them feel any stupider than standing there holding a stretch but it often does. Perhaps it’s that your team is the only one flailing around like that, while the others do what they’ve always done. In truth that’s good news for you, because it’s giving you a competitive advantage. But only if your team is doing it.
Make the transition requires some effort on your part. First, you don’t ask the team if they want to do it. You just tell them this is what we’re doing. You’re the coach, make it mandatory, just like every other rule you have. I doubt you give players the option of whether they get low on a ground ball. Tell them this is the way it is and have done with it.
That’s how you get them to compliance. To really get the benefit, though, you have to make sure they’re really putting the effort in. Static stretching is really easy to do; it takes little effort, and your players won’t break a sweat. Dynamic stretching, however, requires a great deal more work, which is another reason they may resist. So you have to stay on them.
If I see players just going through the motions, I will stop them and demonstrate what I want done. I can still do a straight-legged kick in front and get my toes up even with my shoulders. Not sure how I can do that but I can. So I show them what I can do and tell them if they can’t beat a fat, out-of-shape old man then they’re pretty pathetic. That usually gets their attention, and they start pushing themselves more. Which is what you want.
The last thing you might hear is “It makes us too tired.” If that’s the case, tell them it sounds like they need to work on their conditioning, so you’ll be doing ladders and poles for the first part of every practice from now on so they’re not too tired to stretch properly. That usually ends that discussion. If it doesn’t, be prepared to follow through.
There are a great many benefits to dynamic stretching — too many to ignore. Make it an absolute, and pretty soon it just becomes accepted as the way your team does things. You not only get to win the battle; your team gets to improve its performance and prevent injury. It’s a victory for everyone.
To the guy who called about his coaches newsletter
Hopefully you will be checking back. Your email to me got caught in my spam filter, and I didn’t look closely enough at the messages before I emptied it. I recognized what it was just in time to not be able to stop it.
So please, if you’re reading this, send it again. I promise I’ll look more carefully this time. Thanks.
Tips for a successful tryout
High school tryouts are coming up in a few short weeks, and with them often come a lot of nerves. (Also a lot of sore muscles as many schools seem to be obsessed with trying to run the not so serious players out of the program before they contaminate the rest of the players).
Sure, you want to show well in a tryout. Who wouldn’t? If you’re an incredibly talented player with monster skills, odds are you’re going to show well no matter what. For the rest, however, you need to put a little extra effort into standing out above the crowd. That’s what this post is about — some ways to make your tryout a little more successful. There are no guarantees, of course, but at least you’ll know you took your best shot.
- Hustle everywhere, all the time. Think of how most players are. They drag themselves from station to station, doing what’s required — and no more. If you hustle everywhere, you’ll look more like a player, the type the coaches can work with and who will find a way to make a contribution.
- Show 10X enthusiam. Ok, I admit I stole that one from Dale Carnegie, via my friend (and Carnegie trainer) Mary Eggert. That doesn’t mean you have to jump up and down and act like a fool. But it does mean paying attention when the coach talks, giving your all with each repetition, encouraging other players, and generally looking like you’re happy to be there and love the game. If it comes down to a choice between a player with 10X enthusiasm and one who’s moping around, which one do YOU think the coach will take?
- Show all your skills. Let’s say you’re hitting, and the coach says to start with a few bunts. Lay down three or four, and then ask if he/she would like to see your slug bunt, or drag bunt, or push bunt, or whatever other bunt you can do. If you’re swinging away, demonstrate your bat control by saying you’re going to hit to the opposite field now, and then do it. Pitchers should always show the pitches they can throw, starting with the changeup. Sure, at a lot of high schools they just line everyone up and pick the fastest one. But you never know — you may leave an impression that helps for the future. Having skills but keeping them in your pocket does you know good. Demonstrate your versatility, and perhaps the coach will see the possibilities adding you to the roster brings.
- Say hello to the coaches. Most players, especially high school age ones, tend to be very tight-lipped around the coaches. So a simple “Hi Coach!” can help you stand out without looking like a big brown noser. Despite what people think, coaches are people too. They might keep you around just so they have someone to talk to on the bus.
- Do something memorable. That doesn’t mean drop your pants or anything like that. But if you’re in a scrimmage situation, look for an opportunity to make something happen. Laying down a surprise bunt, or better yet pulling off a slug bunt, is a good one. If you’re on base and can do it, steal a base. On defense diving for a ball always looks good. Just make sure you’re diving to give extra effort, and not because you were late going after the ball.
Those are my ideas. How about you? Do you have any tips to add for players? I have just one more piece of advice.
Think of tryouts as an opportunity to succeed rather than to fail and you’ll do just fine. Especially if you get some practice time in before the actual tryout date. Good luck!
Curve ball drill: The student becomes the teacher
Last night I was doing lessons as usual, and it came time for my first student (Megan) to start working on the curve ball. She threw a couple, then told me she wanted to ask me about a drill she’d learned at a college pitching clinic the previous week.
For the drill, the pitcher stands with her back to the catcher, starts her arm circle (which will be going out toward third and then first base for a right handed pitcher), then twists her upper body and delivers the ball to the plate. She was told she should hug herself when she was done.
I looked at her doing the drill, imitated the movements, and gave her the thumbs up. In fact, I thanked her for showing it to me because I plan to use it with other students. See? I’m not completely set in my ways!
I was happy with this whole encounter for a couple of reasons. First, Megan asked me what I thought of the drill before really incorporating it into her routine. She’s a HS pitcher and we’ve only been working together for a short time, so it was good to see that the rapport is there and she trusts my judgement. That’s always important in the coach-player relationship. She wanted to be sure, I think, that it didn’t teach something that I didn’t want her doing. Since her pitching has been improving she’s generally bought in to the idea that I know what I’m doing. 
The other is this is the first time I’ve seen anyone teaching the same mechanics I do for the curve ball. The normal curve I’ve seen has the pitcher start the wrist snap behind the back hip and then come around it. (That’s a poor description but you get the general idea.) I’ve always found the movement to be fairly minimal with that method, so I teach pitcher to actually cut the circle off at the top, drive the elbow down toward the bellybutton, and when the elbow is “pinned” snap around it. You get more dynamic movement that way, and once pitchers learn to cut the circle off instead of bringing it all the way back it eliminates a lot of the problems of the pitch going wildly inside.
The drill Megan showed me encourages the same arm path and pivot point I teach, and makes it pretty easy to feel. The only thing that’s really different is I like the front shoulder to stay in, angled toward the back of the batter’s box on the throwing side (RH batter’s box for a RHP), so you end up throwing around it. I call it throwing around the corner. But that’s a trifle, and I am not worried about that part of it crossing over into the actual pitch.
It’s not necessarily a drill I would do every time, but then again I don’t really do particular drills every time anyway. I prefer to keep drills for specific teaching moments or to correct specific problems. For the pitcher who’s having trouble getting the feeling, though, I think this one is a keeper. I will definitely add it to my arsenal, and can thank Megan for bringing it to me. I love it when the student becomes the teacher!
16U team in southern Wisconsin looking for players
Received a note the other day from a 16U coach who is suddenly finding himself in need of a couple more players for the 2011 season, so I told him I would pass the word along. The team is the Wisconsin Lightning, who are based out of Salem, WI on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin.
He says they have a combined 14U/16U team that plans to play at the B level in 15U or 16U. It could be a great opportunity for either a 14U or 16U player looking to have fun while playing at a competitive level.
Here are a few more details from the coach:
“We are presently @ 9 players. We practice 2-3 times a week and have our own indoor hitting/Pitching facility. I’m not looking for “Studs” ( wouldn’t turn them down though) just girls with potential and a good work ethic”.
If that sounds like a fit for you, or someone you know, contact Pat Saltzberry at psaltzbe@gmail.com for a tryout.
It’s not about getting knocked down; it’s about getting up again
Saw the “mini-essay” below in the Liberty Mutual “Candrea on Coaching” email from ASA and Liberty Mutual and thought it was worth passing along. According to the email the author is anonymous. But it really speaks to the attitude you need to bring both to fastpitch softball and to life in general. In fact, the two are so closely tied that it’s one of the beauties of our sport.
Like softball, life can knock you down, and when it does you’re likely to feel bad. But what separates the winners from the losers isn’t that the winners don’t get knocked down. It’s that they get up again. Here’s the essay. I also liked the kite quote at the end.
Get Up
It has been said that your success is insured when you’re willing to get up at least one more time than you get knocked down. Hey, we all get knocked around. Like it or not, it’s just a part
of everyday life. No one, not the most or least talented among us, are exempt from the trials and tribulations of day to day living. But it’s how we respond to these temporary setbacks that will
in large measure determine how far we go and how high we fly in life.
When life deals you a crushing blow, you must condition yourself to quickly pick yourself up off the canvas and get back into the game. Winners always do. They realize that it’s OK to get
knocked down and that it’s perfectly normal to feel saddened hurt or disappointed about being knocked down. Lets face it, nobody likes to lose or encounter difficulty. But the winners also
recognize that the getting up part is ninety percent of overcoming any adversity placed in their paths.
Don’t worry about getting knocked down. Since it’s going to happen regardless of whether we like it or not, especially when we’re passionately and enthusiastically chasing your dreams, we should vow to keep getting up each and every time. Laying there, moping and feeling sorry for themselves, isn’t going to get them to the winners circle.
Never lose sight of the fact that you were placed here for a reason. There is a song in you that desperately needs to be sung. There are just too many good times, good things and great people out there to enjoy to ever allow a temporary setback to hold you down or hold you back. When you vow to get up every time you get knocked down, you’re well on your way to living the life others only dream about.
“Do not fear the winds of adversity. Remember: A kite rises against the wind rather than with it.”
Book review: The Talent Code
Here we go, as-promised, my review of the book The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. Its premise is that talent isn’t something you’re born with — it’s something you acquire over time. High performers are the result of practicing a particular way (deep practice) for 10,000 hours, or roughly 10 years.
I had heard about the book a couple of years ago, and then again recently. Howard Carrier (aka Hitter) recommended it to me too, so I figured it was time to take the plunge and added it to my Christmas list.
The book examines three parts of being a high performer. The first is the deep practicing I just mentioned. High performers tend to practice differently than most. They break down a skill into pieces, and work through the individual pieces. When they practice, the part of their body that is most fatigued at the end is their brains because of the effort they go through to understand what they’re doing. They make mistakes as part of the learning process, and each mistake takes them closer to their ultimate goal of performance.
The second part is ignition — getting the performer to perform. Getting him/her excited in a way that leads to the desire for that performance level. The final part is master coaching — someone pointing the way and helping them along.
It really is a fascinating study of the way people learn, and the way performance is brought out in some and not in others. Coyle spent a lot of time visiting talent hotspots — Brazillian soccer training, musicians on the east coast, baseball players in the Caribbean — in an attempt to look for the commonalities and see if there are particular things that make it happen.
He also looks at research that has been done on how people learn as additional datapoints. Some of it is the same as I read in Talent is Overrated, which covers some of the same ground. But each book presents a facet of the jewel, helping the reader gain a better understanding of the factors behind great performers.
The book is an easy read. Coyle’s style is to illustrate by telling stories rather than lecture, and he makes it easy to move from one topic to the next. He also adds some personal insights from his own life and family that show he not only took the intellectual pursuit, but also applied the principles himself.
If you are interested in what drives high performers to achievement, or you want to improve your own coaching to help your players, I highly recommend this book. It will give you a whole new perspective on practicing.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 