Strikeouts happen
I was having a discussion with one of my students last week about hitting and her approach to the plate when she admitted, “If I strikeout, it really bums me out. It’s tough to go up and hit again.” (I doubt she really said bums me out, but that’s the way my 54 year old brain remembers it.)
I understand that. No one likes to go to the plate and strikeout. It’s the ultimate failure — you had three (or more) shots at hitting the ball and missed on all of them. But really, strikeouts are a part of the game. Since all of fastpitch softball is essentially built on failure and your ability to overcome it, hitters have to learn to get past the immediate feeling and go on with the rest of the game. Otherwise they’re not going to have too much fun. Unless it’s becoming a habit, in which case they probably need to work on seeing the ball better.
So to help her gain a little perspective, I gave her a Babe Ruth quote: Every strikeout brings me one at bat closer to my next home run.
That got me to thinking. I know the Bambino hit 714 homes runs in his career, a record that stood for many years and was considered unbreakable until Hank Aaron broke it. But how many times did The Sultan of Swat strikeout? The answer, according to the Baseball Almanac , is 1,330. Or almost twice as many times as he hit home runs.
That’s a lot, isn’t it? Must put him pretty close to the top of the list, right? Not even close. The Babe actually sits at #95, just behind Dean Palmer and just ahead of Deron Johnson. Which of course begs the question who are your all-time leaders? Surely they must be some pretty bad players.
Well, first of all in order to make the list you had to have a lot of at bats, which really bad players don’t get. That narrows it down some. In truth, the top 10 all-time includes some names you might recognize. In order, they are: Mr. October Reggie Jackson (with a whopping 2,597); Jim Thome; Sammy Sosa; Andrews Galarraga; Jose Canseco; Willie Stargell; Mike Schmidt; Fred McGriff; Tony Perez and Mike Cameron. Lots of Hall of Famers on that list. Thome and Cameron are still active too, so they have a chance to move up.
Right behind these guys is a player whose swing is often used as the model youth baseball and softball players should follow: good ol’ A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez. That’s probably not news to you Yankees fans. Other prominent names in the top 50 include Lou Brock, Mickey Mantle, Adam Dunn, Derek Jeter, Barry Bonds (the current career home run record holder) and Willie Mays. Even Pete Rose, who holds the all-time record for hits in a career with 4,256 struck out 1,143 times.
If you’d like to see the full list, you can find it here. It definitely puts things into perspective as you check out your favorite superstars and see how often they struck out too.
The point, though, is they didn’t let it get them down. They just put it behind them and went on to the next at bat. That’s what fastpitch hitters have to do too. You can say you’re taking your cue from the Hall of Famers, and the greatest to ever play the game.
How to know you’re getting through
In my last article for Softball Magazine, I used one of my favorite little teaching devices to talk about the importance of commitment to what you’re doing. The article focused on what is the difference between bacon and eggs. The answer, of course, is that the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. I finished, as I do in lessons or team practices, by telling readers they should be the pig. 
I do know that message got through to at least one of my students. I usually get a box of extra Softball Magazines when they come out, so I will distribute them to my students. This one was no exception. Each of my students received a copy of the magazine, including a girl named Erin who is new with me this year.
Well, lo and behold, right before Christmas she comes to her lesson toting a good-sized red shopping bag, and inside the bag is the piggy bank shown in the picture. She had customized it with the saying “Be A Pig.”
Obviously the article made an impression on her and her family. Hopefully she’s living it too! But this was so cute I just had to share. I love it when a plan comes together!
So, what did Softball Santa put under your tree?
Now that we’re a few days past Christmas/Channukah/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice, I’m wondering what Softball Santa brought you. Would love to get a little dialog going on this topic. I’ll start.
I received a dozen Jugs Lite Flite balls and a dozen TCB balls . The Lite Flites are actually for vision training, not hitting. I will be marking them with the numbers 1-4 in black and red Sharpie and adding them to the ones I already have. That way the girls won’t be able to cheat by remembering which balls have already gone by and guessing by process of elimination.
The way we’ll use them is to shoot them through a Jugs pitching machine and have the girls try to identify the color and the number on the ball as it whizzes by. Sounds impossible, but actually it’s not.With a bit of practice and effort you can actually see the number as well as the color. It’s a nice, cheap imitation of the expensive Vision Trak training that uses tennis balls and a specially designed machine.
The TCB balls are for hitting, obviously. I’ve heard a lot of good things about them. If you hit them square they fly well. If you’re off a bit, they deform momentarily and you know you need to improve your bat path. I’m anxious to try them out at the next practice.
The other thing I received is a copy of the book The Talent Code . It’s about how top performers are made, not born with innate ability — and how you can create them too. Watch this space for a more detailed review.
So that’s me. What did you get? And what are you still looking to get?
Difference between coaching boys and girls – part two
We’ll skip the intro here. If you want that explanation, see this post . Let’s get right to it.
Yesterday I was using a blackboard to create a list of factors that can affect a play. I didn’t have chalk at first so I’d written the list on a piece of paper as the team called out different answers. Then when the chalk got there (thank you Pat Foley for finding it) I tried to quickly transfer the answers to the board.
As you might expect, most of the handwriting was pretty sloppy and hasty. But then, I continued to write, one of the girls said, “Look at that. It’s a perfect U.” I looked up and sure enough it was. Several of them commented on the high quality of the U, a brief discussion ensued, and all I could do was smile and shake my head.
Only girls would notice something like that.
Incidentally, they also could not get over how much my hastily scribbled “g”s looked like “s”s. Oh well. At least they liked the U.
Difference between coaching girls and boys
As pretty much any experienced fastpitch softball coach will tell you, there is a definite difference between coaching girls and boys. In fact, I’d bet anyone who has done both will agree with that.
Last night I saw another amusing example of one of those differences. I was in the middle of a lesson with a pitcher when I looked up and saw one of my hitting students (Kaylee) getting ready for her lesson, which would start in about 10 minutes.
She put up her hair, which is to be expected. But then she pulled out a small mirror to check it before putting on her helmet. That is definitely a girl thing.
I couldn’t help but smile to myself. I mentioned it to her when the lesson started. She just smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
With boys you’re lucky if they’ve showered in the last couple of days. But girls have a whole different mindset.
So what’s your favorite “coaching girls” story?
Fun drill for softball hitting vision training
Got this softball hitting vision training drill when I was the NFCA Coaches College in Minneapolis back in November. We tried it today and it was a lot of fun, both for the girls and the parents who participated.
The only equipment you need is a bucket of wiffle balls. You need at least two colors, although the balls should be predominently one color. It’s really easy to do this in batting cage because you can go from side to side. Here’s how it works.
Have a player stand with her back to one side of the cage. Set the wiffle balls on the ground on the other side of the cage, with one or two people kneeling. I used two parents today, which allowed them to be involved while freeing me to work with other players.
The tossers begin tossing a barrage of balls at the player. She knocks away all but one color of ball. Those she catches, and tosses back into the mix. The faster the barrage of balls goes, the more difficult (and fun it is). Having two tossers makes the barrage come faster, and from more directions, adding to the challenge.
For ours today, I had white, blue, purple and yellow balls. The girls had to catch the four yellow balls out of the two dozen coming at them.
It really forces hitters to ignore distractions and focus on the ball — exactly what you want to have happen at the plate. It also helps them work on their hand-eye coordination, as catching the ball under those conditions isn’t easy.
It’s definitely a way to energize your practices too. Give it a try!
Good service project/team building activity
Just got back from a very cool service project that doubled as a team building event. It was with an organization called Feed My Starving Children. Essentially, you pack dried food into bags, seal them, then pack the bags into a box that could be shipped to hungry children pretty much anywhere in the world.
I was looking for a service project for our players, a way for them to give back to the community (or in this case the world). One of our parents suggested it, as she has participated before. This one was extra meaningful because it was to benefit kids like them. It’s amazing that one of those packets, which is a little larger than a packet of brown sugar, can feed six children or four adults for a day. 
The other nice thing about this project is its team building effects, both for the players and any parents who participate. It’s essentially a mini production line, so everyone has to work together to keep things flowing. Once you get into a rhythm it’s amazing how quickly you can get things going. Our girls were having a good time, talking and working together. So were the parents, friends and sibilings who also participated.
The shift we participated in packed 257 boxes, which accounted for 55,512 daily meals — enough to feed 152 children for an entire year. That’s a pretty good feeling.
If you’re looking for something non-softball for your team to do in order to understand how fortunate they are, and to help them grow into good citizens as well as good softball players, I highly recommend this one. Several of our parents walked out at the end of our two-hour shift saying they plan to do it with their neighborhood, church or some other group. Looks like it will be an annual event for us! 
Helping slappers learn to stay in on the plate
Converting a right-handed hitter into a lefty slapper has any number of challenges — not the least of which is it’s awkward as all get-out. To get some small measure of just how tough it is to make that move, take one day and do everything with your opposite hand — eat, write, deal cards, whatever.
Now picture that in addition to those things you’re doing them while moving, and while whatever it is you’re trying to do is moving too. Hey, hitting is tough enough. But doing it opposite-handed while running toward the pitcher? That’s just nuts.
Yet it can be worth all the effort, because a girl who can put the ball in play and get up the line fast enough to put pressure on the defense is highly valuable. After all, as Coach Candrea says, speed never has a slump.
So yes, there are lots of good reasons to do it. But it takes a lot more than just moving the hitter across the plate and saying “watch how Natasha Watley does it.”
One of the toughest parts is learning to keep the shoulders closed toward the plate so the hitter can drive the ball toward the left side of the infield. That’s important, of course, to make the throw take longer and give the hitter the best chance of getting on base. But after taking the crossover step, especially for a righty that is being converted over, it’s very natural to turn the shoulders along with the hips as shown in the first video. When that happens, the hitter is far more likely to pull the ball to the right or hit it back at the pitcher than to drive it to the left.
You can tell her to keep her shoulders in, but that’s easier said than done. So here’s a more specific instruction. Tell her that as her left foot crosses over her right, she should pull her left shoulder back. When that occurs (as seen in the second video clip) the shoulders stay closed and she’s in a good position to slap.
It’s simple, but it works!
Least favorite softball hitting drills – Part one
There are a lot of great drills out there to help fastpitch softball hitters learn to hit more effectively. Then there are some that seem to have no purpose at all. They might appear to be a good idea, but in truth they work counter to what you’re probably trying to accomplish. Today I’m going to talk about one of them. Don’t bother looking for part two right away — it’ll happen when it happens.
Anyway, the drill is one I used to use. There are plenty of names for it, but I’m going to refer to it as rapid fire. Essentially, a coach gets down into soft toss position, and then starts tossing balls at the hitter in rapid succession. As soon as one ball is hit the next ball is tossed. Keep doing that for 10 or 15 tosses.
Theoretically, the drill is used to teach hitter to have a quick bat. Yet it’s completely useless for that, because the swing you end up taking has nothing to do with your game swing. All you really wind up doing is swatting madly at the ball in order to keep up. In fact, in my opinion this drill probably does more harm than good because it works against the principles of good hitting.
What is one of the keys to good hitting? It’s timing — recognizing the pitch speed and creating a controlled explosion into the ball. When you’re doing rapid fire soft toss you have no opportunity for timing whatsoever. There’s no load, no stride/weight shift, no connection, no rotation into the ball, no extentions after contact, nothing. You just use your hands and arms. Is it any wonder that players who are forced to do this drill repeatedly end up with wimpy arm swings? If your goal is to get your players to pop up and ground out, this is the drill for you!
Another thing it does is destroy any semblance of a good bat path to the ball. The hands go wherever they have to in order to make contact. Most of the time that’s somewhere other than where the hands should be when swinging. And the worse the coach is at tossing, the worse the bat path will be.
But what about batspeed? Doesn’t it at least help with that? Not really. Batspeed is the culmination of a number of things in the swing. Personally, I think the hands and wrists are one of the least important contributors. So a drill that isolates them isn’t going to do much. Except maybe encourage an early wrist roll.
Bottom line is any drill that sacrifices good hitting mechanics, and the core principles of hitting, for some isolated (and perceived) gain is a bad drill. If you’re using it, drop it from your practice plan. Now. Before you do the kind of damage hitting coaches have to spend weeks to undo.
If you want to develop batspeed, have your hitters learn to use their bodies more effectively. Make sure you understand the kinetic chain of hitting so each body part is firing in order, at the right time. Speed up the pitching machine or have your hitters stand closer while you front toss. Anything but fire ball after ball at them.
As I said, I used to use this drill too. Then I learned better. You can do the same.
Product review: Jennie Finch Softball Powerline Pitching Mat
When you live North of the Mason-Dixon line, you tend to spend a good part of your fastpitch softball off-season training time indoors. While that certainly beats freezing your butt off in sub-zero temperatures, it also presents some interesting challenges — especially for pitchers.
For several years I have used a couple of different pitching mats rather than having students pitch off the floor. The mats have built-in pitching rubbers, which is good, and the one from Club K also had the powerline built into it. (The other one, a turf-type, did not, but I solved that with some line marking paint.) The trouble, though, was that they tended to slide on the turf surfaces used in batting cage facilities due to their rubber backing. I constantly had to adjust the mats to keep them lined up with the plate. I’m sure they work fine on a wood gym floor, but how many of us have access to those?
It’s not a problem anymore, though. I recently purchase two of the Jennie Finch Softball Powerline Pitching Mats with foam backs, and I have to say they’ve been acting as-advertised. The web listing claimed that the foam back would stick like Velcro to a turf surface, and by golly that’s exactly what has happened. After a week’s worth of using them in two different locations I can safely say that they have not moved an inch, even when used by some strong pitchers.
That alone made them worth the price ($215 plus $30 for shipping). But they are also good mats in other ways.
The turf surface itself is high-quality, and appears as though it will be very durable even under regular use. The bright green turf is split by a bright white powerline that makes it easy for students to see and keep themselves going straight. The mat is also thick, providing a little cushioning when landing versus the usual thin turf over concrete floors. My students have definitely appreciated that.
The transaction with On Deck Sports was smooth, and the mats were delivered within a few days. Incidentally, they come with a vinyl carrier that makes them easy to cart to and from a facility. The carrier was tucked into the center of the rolled-up mat, so you’ll want to grab it before you bring it somewhere.
Time will tell as far as durability goes. But if you’ve been struggling with keeping a pitching mat in place, I can definitely recommend this one. Just be sure you specify the foam backing.
One final word. If you watch the video demo, you’ll see Jennie Finch is illegal on every pitch she throws from it. That’s unfortunate, and I wish someone would notice and correct that. But don’t let that discourage you. It’s still a good product.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 