Once again, the dreaded tunnel
It’s been a while since I’ve written about this, and quite frankly I thought it was gone for good. But a couple of weekends ago I was out at a game, watching, not participating in any way, and at the end something horrible reared its ugly head for the first time in a long time (at least that I know of). It was the dreaded “tunnel.”
For those not familiar with it, it’s something the winning team does after the game. The players divide themselves into two lines facing each other, and raise their arms above their heads. They then start banging hands with the person across from them, all the while chanting “We are proud of you, we are proud of you.”
That in and of itself doesn’t sound so bad. But it’s where they do it. They stand at the entrance of their opponent’s dugout, and force the losing team to walk through this tunnel of arms and bodies to get back to their stuff.
Coaches who do it like to claim it’s a tribute to their opponents. But everyone (including them) knows it’s really not. In fact, it’s a way of celebrating your own victory while rubbing it in the noses of the team that just lost. They may be chanting “We are proud of you” but what they’re really saying is “We just kicked your butts, we just kicked your butts.”
I have no problem with a team celebrating its victory. But you don’t do it on your opponent’s side of the field. You do it on your own side, and leave your opponents completely out of it. To hold your celebration on the other side is a direct insult. If you don’t believe that, imagine if the University of Washington had run to Arizona’s dugout a couple of weeks ago, made a tunnel, and started chanting how proud they were of their defeated opponents. Likely you would’ve seen a full-on fistfight break out.
If I am the losing coach (and again I had nothing to do with this particular game), I don’t really care if you are proud of me. Your opinion means nothing to me. My team and I want to clean up the dugout, leave the area, and go do whatever it is we do after a game. To have to walk through your outstreteched arms is not on my list of things to do.
When my son Eric was in soccer, there was a tunnel there too. But in that case it was created by his team’s parents, and our own players would run under it. It was created in front of his team’s bench. I have no problem with that, and had no problem with it when other teams did the same thing. That was a self-contained celebration instead of an “in-your-face” show of superiority. Again, the boys probably knew better than to try doing that on someone else’s side.
Getting back to softball, I’ve always hated the tunnel. We didn’t do it, and quite frankly when it was more popular I told my girls to walk around it rather than go through it. Some of the parents on our team thought it was poor sportsmanship on my part at first until I explained about celebrating on your own side of the field. They got it, and supported the decision going forward.
One year at a meeting of the weekday travel league we played in I made it clear to the other coaches I didn’t want to see it and wouldn’t let my players go through it, so don’t bother. They all agreed it really wasn’t a good thing, and I thought it had finally disappeared. Until last weekend.
You can try to justify it all you want. But it’s just not sportsmanlike to rub your opponent’s face in a loss — which is what you’re really doing. If you’re doing it, stop. If you’re faced with it, you can make your own decision. But I recommend walking around/ignoring it. It’s the only way to make it stop for good.
Theory on why it’s so hard to move from the cage to the field
Every fastpitch player and coach knows this experience. You’ve been working hard in the batting cage all season. You’ve hit thousands of balls off the tee, and thousands more off a machine, front toss or even full-out pitching. You’ve been ripping the ball every time. Then you get into a game and it’s nothing but pop-ups, weak dribblers to the pitcher, and whiffs.
Yes, it’s certainly frustrating, especially because you were expecting to do so well. But somehow the swing you had in the cage didn’t quite translate to the field.
There can be a lot of contributing factors, many of which have been discussed before. Certainly there’s an element of nervousness in a game situation that you don’t have in practice. You have lots of chances to hit in practice situations, and if you mess one up you just take another. But in a game if you mess up, that’s it. Your time at bat is over.
There’s also worrying about consequences instead of focusing on the process. There’s the pressure of parents, friends, coaches, teammates. In fact, there are all kinds of things that might be the cause.
Yet it even happens to otherwise mentally tough players for reasons no one has ever been able to explain. But I have a theory.
Think about the environment in a batting cage. It’s very closed and very tight. You can see the top/ceiling, sides, and usually even a back wall. If the cage is 70 feet long and eight feet wide, it’s still a pretty narrow space, as shown in the first photo.
Now think about what you see when you stand at home plate. The world is a lot bigger on the field. Instead of a 12 foot ceiling you have infinite space above — the sky. Instead of a back wall you have 180 feet or more to the end — way too far to be of concern. There is a ton of space, plus a ton of distractions. The second photo shows an empty field, but in a real game you’ll have eight players from the other team in front of you, plus a couple of coaches. And baserunners if you’re lucky. You have an opponent and an umpire behind you. And the always “helpful” fans in the stands.
With all that going on, the ball looks pretty small — certainly a lot smaller than it does in a closed cage. It’s the same phenomenon that makes the moon look bigger when it’s low in the sky. When you see the moon near trees or buildings your mind gets the idea of proportion. When it’s overhead, there is no reference point to measure it against so it gets lost against the background of the night sky. In the case of a softball, your reference points to the ball in a cage are a lot closer so it seems bigger, or more important in the space. On the field, the ball takes up a very tiny portion of your field of vision and thus is much tougher to pick out.
Think about how you hit in a cage too. Because it’s a long tunnel, hitters tend to try to hit the ball up the middle. After all, if you hit a screaming line drive down the first or third base line in a cage, it goes about 10 feet, hits a side net and dies. That isn’t much fun. But if you drive it to center, the ball goes the length of the cage. That feels good, so you focus on driving it down the center. On a field, though, there’s a lot of space ot hit the ball, so it tends to go all over.
Anyway, that’s my theory about the problem. So what’s the cure? You have to visualize the cage on the field, as shown in the third photo. Essentially you have to create a small space in your mind where the ball is bigger relative to the backg
round so you can see it better, and you can stay focused on driving it into a gap.
If you can “see” the cage in your mind, it should help you look where you ought to be looking, and see better than if you’re taking in the entire field plus sidelines.
Give it a try, and give me your feedback on how it worked. If you’re a coach, feel free to copy the photos and show them to your team. I’ll be interested in hearing if this theory proves itself to be true.
The 43 ft. HS distance appears to be having the desired effect
Back when the National Federation announced it was moving the high school pitching distance to 43 ft., the main reason cited by most pundits was they wanted to get more offense in the game. At 40 ft. the pitchers were dominating, and it was believed that moving the pitching rubber back three feet might change that. While the change doesn’t go into effect officially until the 2011 season, many states adopted it immediately, including Illinois, where I live.
Now that we’re a couple of weeks into the season it looks like the move is having the desired effect. Where normally pitchers are ahead of the hitters in the early part of the season, I’ve been seeing a lot of double-digit scores in games in the Chicago suburbs. Certainly a lot more than in the past.
What’s really been interesting is it seems to have had the most profound effect on the “power” pitchers — the girls who relied primarily on their speed to get them by. It doesn’t seem to have affected the ones who can top 60 mph regularly, but they are few and far between. For those in the mid-to-upper 50s, however, it’s made a big difference.
I can think of one in particular. She has been a stud on varsity since she was a freshman. She was highly touted in the newspapers, and always racked up great numbers for strikeouts and ERA. I never quite understood how, since I saw little movement on her ball and while she threw hard she didn’t throw that hard. Apparently, though, she threw hard enough to dominate at 40 ft.
Now, maybe she has something else going on too and this is just a coincidence. But as I look in the box scores and summaries in the local paper, her numbers have inflated considerably. She is giving up 10-12 runs per game, and maybe striking out one or two hitters most of the time. It’s not all errors either. I see double-digit hits and maybe a couple of errors in the box score. She just doesn’t seem to be as effective now that she’s a senior.
That seems odd to me. If anything, you’d think she’d be better now than her freshman year. Again, maybe there’s an injury or something going on. But my guess is it’s the distance. She just can’t blow it by the hitters as easily as she used to.
What’s really unfortunate for the team is they have one of those coaches who never bothered to develop anyone else. If her team played 250 innings, she pitched 250 innings. Now, when she could use a little help, there’s no one there to help her. If the other team catches on to her, she has to stand there and take the beating. You would figure a change of pace of any sort ought to at least slow things down for a bit. But they don’t have that option, so there have been a lot of lopsided scores.
This seems pretty consistent throughout our area. Scores are rising, ERAs are rising, and strikeout numbers are falling. The fans are definitely seeing more offense (except from the really poor hitting teams), and more players are involved throughout the game. Time will tell if this is a good thing. In the meantime, pitchers start working more on your movement. You’re going to need it.
Kodak Playsport an excellent teaching tool for fastpitch players
I’ve talked before about the value of video as a teaching tool for fastpitch players. Diffe
rent people learn differently — some are best at reading information, some are best at hearing instructions, and some are visual learners. Actually, in my experience most can comprehend what they’re doing (versus what they think they’re doing) best when they see it.
The problem is video can be difficult to work with. Setting up a camera to a computer to provide analysis takes a while, and often limits you as far as what you can show. I know personally it’s a pain to have to drag a table with a computer and a camera on a tripod around to various angles. True, you can use the camera’s display screen without a computer, but it doesn’t lend itself very well to stepping back and forth through the video or showing specific points in the movement.
That’s why I’ve been waiting so excitedly for the Kodak Playsport personal video camera to come out. And after using it this weekend that excitement was definitely justified. But before I get into specifics, here’s a little background.
I first came across news about the Playsport when I was on the Discuss Fastpitch Forum site. One poster had talked about using the Kodak Zi8 personal video camera. What attracted me was the idea of shooting 60 frames per second (fps) video. That was a capability I’ve always wanted but never had. So I was getting ready to buy it when I saw someone else post something about the Playsport, which would do what the Zi8 did, but came in a more rugged package and would cost $30 – $50 less. I dialed down my impatience and elected to wait for that camera. I’m glad I did.
The Kodak Playsport is ideal for doing spot checks during lessons or grabbing a quick video of a game swing. Usually during lessons I use my cell phone’s ability to shoot video, but it is really tough to get the video to stop at a certain point. The Playsport, which is actually the size of a smallish cell phone, solves that. You can set it up to shoot 720p HD video at 60fps, which gives you plenty of stopping points along the way to show exactly what you want — such as a pitcher releasing a changeup a little too early or a hitter dropping her hands before swinging.
What really makes it a great teaching tool, though, is you can get to that point by stepping through the frames one at a time. You can go back and forth so you can get to the exact point you want, and rapidly step through to simulate slow motion. The LCD screen is a little small — only 2 inches square — but it’s good enough to see what you need to see. I used it Friday night to show a pitcher that her release on the changeup was a little early, and she was able to see the blur of the ball. More importantly, it helped her make an immediate correction.
The basic operation is simple. Turn it on — it comes up immediately — point it at the subject, hit the large center button to start and stop the recording. A 4X digital zoom lets you move in somewhat closer if needed, although if you’re used to the 20X zoom of regular video cameras it won’t seem like all that much.
When you want to watch the playback, you hit one of four buttons arrayed around the edge of the center wheel and it switches to playback mode. You can then play the current video or scroll through to find the one you want using the four-way wheel on the outside of the center button. If you want to step through a video, hit the play button, then hit it again to pause, then use the left and right arrows to step through frame by frame, forward or backward.
If you want to watch the video in a larger format, you can hook it up to your computer through the supplied USB connector, or to an HD TV using the supplied HDMI cable. I did download the video to my computer, though, and it looks great. The only caveat is that it records in QuickTime’s .mov format, so if you use video analysis software that requires .avi format you won’t be able to use it with that. But the free QuickTime player will be find to step back and forth through the video. You just can’t draw on it or use other analysis tools. The included software also makes it easy to upload your video to Facebook, YouTube and MySpace.
One of the other things that attracted me to the Playsport, as I mentioned, was the ruggedness. It is designed to be used during activities. One of the big selling points is that it is waterproof down to 10 feet. Now, I don’t anticipate taking it under water. But if I have it in my bag and it starts to rain, it’s nice to know I don’t have to worry about whether it will get damaged. I’ve also read in other reviews that people have tried dropping it and it still worked fine. I don’t plan on trying that since I purchased mine out of my own money and would hate to find out it didn’t work, but it sounds like it ought to hold up to the softball environment. Just to be safe, though, I also purchased the two-year product replacement plan at Best Buy.
Again, as a teaching tool the Playsport seems ideal. You can easily slip it in your pocket, and pull it out as needed. If you’re outdoors on a sunny day, you can change the display to use a glare shield. I used it for both hitting and pitching this weekend, and it was effective in helping those players see what they were doing and make quick corrections. And now here’s the really good news: all of this capability comes for just $149.
If you’re looking for a great little pocket video camera that can help you make a difference with your players, check out the Kodak Playsport. It packs a lot of capability for the money.
In bunt situations, pitch high
I have ranted and raved on more than one occassion about the slavish devotion so many coaches seem to have to automatically sacrifice bunting anytime they get a runner on first. Besides making them very predictable, it’s also not really a high percentage play.
One thing pitchers can do to help make it an even worse idea is throw high to try and get the hitter to pop up. It works a couple of ways.
If you know the opposition’s coach is slavishly devoted to bunting the runner over, you should automatically make the first pitch either a riseball (if you have one) or an “upwardly mobile” fastball. Most hitters tend to set up too low to bunt to begin with, maybe due to practicing on low pitches off front toss or a machine. They also tend to try to bunt no matter where the pitch is, so instead of pulling back they will try to follow the pitch up. Either way, the result is often a pop-up to the catcher. If it’s a short pop-up, the catcher may be able to get the out there and fire to first to double off that runner. Easy if there is a bunt and steal on, still possible if the runner breaks but then tries to get back.
The other way it can work is for the pitcher to be aware the team may bunt, and adjust her pitch as she goes into it. In this case the pitcher starts to throw her pitch, and if she sees the batter square around she changes it to a high pitch.
My daughter Kimmie was very good at this. She could recognize even a late bunt, and would release a little late to get the ball to go high. I was watching a couple of pitchers last night in a game, one of whom is a student of mine, and they were doing the same. The other pitcher actually got one girl to pop up twice in two consecutive at bats. They didn’t get the DP, but it was close. Which meant all the coach got for her efforts was the runner still on first, and one out instead of none.
So pitchers, learn to think through the game. And if you see that bunt, or know it’s coming, go high. It just may pay off big time for you.
What a way to wake up
Yesterday I was standing outside in a light jacket, watching a scrimmage between the JV and varsity at my local high school. This morning I woke up to the below. Tell me again why I live in Illinois?
To gain control, you must first give up control
Ok, I know it sounds like something out of the movie Mystery Men. That’s no accident. But it really is true.
All too often, pitchers (especially beginners) will try gain control over their pitches by consciously trying to guide the ball to its intended location. The problem when they do that is they end up tensing up, and essentially guessing how to position their bodies, when to release the ball, where their hand should be pointing, etc. At that point instead of improving their control, their bodies are actually working against them and control gets worse.
To learn control, pitchers need to let their bodies relax, work on their mechanics, and let the ball go where it may for a while. In other words, instead of trying to guide the ball to a specific spot they should work on acquiring the proper mechanics to throw a ball to that location — whether they actually get it there or not. For example, when working on throwing to the glove side or throwing hand side, the focus should be on stepping slightly left or right (if that’s the method you use) and following the body with the arm circle rather than trying to “aim” the ball at the end.
Remember that control is not a goal. It is the result of doing things right. So if you really want to gain control, first give up the desire to consciously control the ball. Let go your conscious mind and let it happen organically. You’ll get where you want to go a lot faster.
A very different experience
Last night I was out teaching as usual. Only four lessons thanks to the start of the HS season, starting with an eight year old and finishing with a high schooler. During that last one Ashlee was working on her movement pitches, and broke off a particularly nasty curve ball. The curve is probably her most reliable movement pitch, and she can do wonders with it.
After throwing the pitch, a guy came walking up and asked “Wow! Was that a curve ball?” He then told me he and some of his buddies play men’s fastpitch in Wisconsin, and none of them would’ve wanted to go up against that. He also mentioned that two of the guys with him were their pitchers. Then he went back to hitting, and we finished the lesson.
After I packed up, I went by just to say goodbye to the guy (Matt) since I hadn’t had much chance to talk during the lesson. He and the two pitchers stopped what they were doing and asked what grip Ashlee was using for the curve. I showed them, at which point Matt got out his digital camera and asked if he could take pictures of that and the grips for a couple of other pitches.
One thing led to another, and before I knew it I was giving an impromptu (and free) lesson to the pitchers on how to throw a backhand changeup. We didn’t take a long time, but I did explain some of the principles and things to follow, demonstrated it (poorly I might add — I really need to do warm-ups before I start doing demos) then each of them tried it. It was rough, but they picked up the basics pretty quickly. With some work they should have a nice, new pitch come this spring.
That’s the first time I’ve ever worked with men’s fastpitch pitchers. It was definitely different. For one thing, they were both taller than me. I got the impression they were both self-taught too, mostly playing for fun.
In any case, I had a good time working with them. Maybe they’ll wander up to Grand Slam again some Wednesday night and we can talk more softball. You just never know where life — or fastpitch softball — will take you.
Girls throw like their fathers
This is more of an observation than anything else. But teaching as many pitching lessons as I do, I’ve had occasion to watch a lot of girls play catch with their fathers. And it’s amazing how closely the throwing mechanics of the daughter reflect those of her father.
If Dad stands face-forward and pushes the ball, so does his daughter. If Dad wraps his arm around his head when he throws, so does his daughter.
I don’t seem to recall that so much with boys. Not sure why — maybe boys receive more training at an early age, or perhaps they just spend more time throwing on their own. It’s my firm belief that to a boy, duck+rock=throwing practice. A girl would never draw the same conclusion.
In any case, whatever the reason, step back and watch sometime. You’ll see I’m right.
For those of you who are fathers, definitely keep that in mind. However you throw is how your daughter is likely to throw. So if you want your daughter to succeed, work on your own throw first. It could help shortcut her path to being the player she wants and needs to be.
What’s the deal with conditioning and HS tryouts?
This is the week for high school tryouts. And with it come the interesting stories.
I’ve heard from several of my students who told me that much of their tryouts were spent not showing their skills, but running, running running.
Not to go all Seinfeld on you, but what’s the deal with that? I know tryouts for the most part are perfunctory. Most teams, especially varsity teams, are chosen well in advance. Still, wouldn’t you think that coaches would want to take as long a look at the skills of their players as they can, to make sure no stone is left unturned?
All I can figure is they’re trying to weed out the girls who are just dabbling, or trying softball for the first time. That’s a shame. A school sport should be more inclusive, at least at the lower levels. Why make it miserable right off the bat?
Some schools have trouble even fielding teams at all levels. Running the girls to death is no way to get them out. It’s not that I’m anti-conditioning. It’s an important part of sports performance. But why not ease them into it? Or build up to it? After all, it’s not soccer or basketball. It doesn’t take all the much endurance to play our sport. Conditioning is not the game-changer it is in continuous motion sports.
Start with a reasonable amount and work your way up. Better yet, work conditioning into skills training to maximize your efficiency. With a little effort and imagination it can be done. And that way, you’re not turning off kids who might otherwise be able to make a real contribution to the team.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 