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Fastpitch Players: Adopt the Confidence of a Cat
Anyone who has a cat, or who hangs out at the home of someone who has a cat, knows this scenario: The cat is walking along a precarious path, such as the back of a couch or a very thing shelf. Suddenly, the cat loses its footing and lands on the next surface below.
No matter how ridiculous the cat looked when it was falling, or how awkwardly it landed, it will always have the same reaction: it will get up (if it didn’t land on its feet as they usually do), straighten itself out, and look around the room with an expression that says, “I meant to do that.”
Fastpitch softball players can learn a lot from that reaction. All too often, when a player makes a mistake (such as a pitcher sailing a pitch into the backstop or a hitter swinging at a pitch that, um, went sailing into the backstop), the player will react as though she just accidentally published her most private thoughts on her Instagram account.
Once she’s had that reaction it gets into her head. Sometimes it affects the next few pitches or plays; sometimes it affects the rest of the game, the day, or the weekend.
This doesn’t just happen at the youth levels either. College players can suffer from this debilitating reaction as well.
Once it starts it’s hard to stop. And it can also have a ripple effect, especially if it’s a pitcher who does it. The rest of the team usually takes its cue from the pitcher, so if the pitcher is freaking out you can bet that at some level the rest of the team is freaking out as well.
So what to do about it? You have to train it, like anything else.
Because while cats react with a superior air instinctively; athletes generally do not.
Coaches and parents can help their athletes overcome those tendencies by not overreacting themselves. Remember that no one sails a pitch or bobbles a grounder or drops a popup or swings at a bad pitch on purpose.
It just happens. Staying positive in the moment, or at least not going nuclear, can help players move past a mistake faster so one issue doesn’t turn into multiple issues.
Ultimately, though, it’s up to the players themselves to take on this attitude. While it may come naturally to some, most will probably worry too much about letting down their team, their coaches, their parents, as well as looking bad generally.
They have to learn that errors or other miscues happen to everyone, and have to have the confidence to keep going even when they want to shrink or crawl into a hole.
In my opinion this attitude is particularly important for pitchers, because the rest of the team often takes its emotional cues from the girl in the circle. If she gets frustrated, or upset, or off her game in any way, it’s very likely she’ll take most if not all of the team down with her.
Which means the team behind her will under-perform just when she needs them to be better to pick her up.
Anyone in a captain’s or other leadership role also must take on that cat-like attitude. Remember that the characteristic that makes you a leader is that people will follow you. So you have to decide where you want to lead your followers – into a deeper hole or beyond any problems.
Taking on an “I meant to do that” attitude, even when everyone knows they didn’t, will give everyone else the confidence that everything is fine so they can play without fear of failure. Isn’t that the definition of what leaders do?
For those who don’t have access to a cat themselves, the Internet is filled with cat videos that demonstrate this behavior. Check some out and see how they react to the biggest miscues.
Then have your favorite players adopt that attitude for themselves. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.
A different and fun approach to team building
Any time you have a group of people from different backgrounds, skill levels, experience levels, etc. trying to achieve a single goal, one of the staples has been team building. Whether you’re a corporation, charitable organization or girls fastpitch softball team, a little team building can go a long way.
Some of you may remember how the USA National softball team approached it during their run-up to the 2004 Olympics. They worked with the Navy SEALs to get some strength-building as well as military-style lessons in teamwork and bonding. 
Sounds cool doesn’t it? Maybe you’re thinking you’d like to do something like that with your team – put them through military-style training to help them learn how to work together, overcome obstacles and learn to function as a tighter unit. But of course the SEALs have more important things to do than work with every youth fastpitch softball team that wants to give it a try.
Luckily, at least if you’re in the Chicago area, there’s now an alternative: Hot Ground Gym. Currently located in Northbrook (with a second location set to open in the next few months in Buffalo Grove), it offers that kind of military-style training to kids and teams. They also have a mobile option that will come to you if you have an organization that would like to do it. (FULL DISCLOSURE: My son Adam is one of the trainers, which is how I learned about what they do. This is not a paid advertisement, just an FYI for coaches looking for something different to do with their teams.)
Hot Ground Gym was started by two military veterans, one a former U.S. Marine and the other Israeli Special Forces, to help kids build confidence, discipline, problem-solving and leadership skills in a fun, supervised environment. A lot of what they do is regular classes where kids come almost every day. But they also have birthday party and team-building options where they will do a 1.5 hour or 2 hour program for a specific group.
The core of the Hot Ground Gym program is obstacles. They have all sorts of them, most of which they built themselves, to challenge kids and teach them how to work together. If the trainers see the kids aren’t challenged, they rearrange or alter the course to get them out of their comfort zones and working hard to improvise, adapt and overcome.
The nice thing about this is it’s both mental and physical. Your team parents will likely love it if you do it because their kids will probably pretty sleep pretty well afterwards. The kids are kept moving constantly, running through, around and over obstacles, climbing, crawling, swinging from ropes and so forth.
At the end of the session you can either just go home, or you can have a little celebration (bring your own food and drinks) to talk about what the team learned and enjoy their successes. And maybe have a few laughs about their failures.
The video on the website home page provides a pretty good idea of what they do, although it’s constantly changing. And don’t be discouraged by the fact it’s mostly boys in the video. Adam says they have a lot of girls do their programs, and those are some of their best performers.
If you’re looking for a way for a fairly new team to get to know each other, or for a cliquish team to break down some barriers, or just a way for your team to learn a little more about how to push past their personal boundaries to do more than they thought they could, it’s worth checking out.
You might even ask that Adam be one of the trainers. He’s an Illinois Army National Guard veteran who did a tour of combat duty in Afghanistan so he knows the whole military aspect. And he earned a couple of medals during training for his leadership skills so he knows how to get groups of people working together for a common goal. He also has a wicked sense of humor, so your players will be entertained as well as challenged.
How NOT to act when you’re the pitcher
I was out watching a high school softball game today (as I often like to do) on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. It was a well-played game overall, with a few good hits and some excellent defensive gems as well. 
There was one thing I saw, however, that kind of bothered me. First let me set the scene.
The home team was in the field, and was trailing by a few runs. The visitors had a couple of runners on base. Bases may have even been loaded – I usually don’t pay that much attention to the specifics.
The pitcher threw a pitch and the hitter turned on it, driving a sharp two-hopper between the shortstop and third baseman and into left field. The left fielder came charging up to field the ball gloveside. That’s when disaster struck.
The ball took a nasty hop right over her glove and to the fence. Two runs scored, extending the visitors’ lead, and there were still runners on. That’s when I heard it.
The pitcher lost her cool and yelled “Outfielders, you have to get in front of the ball.”
She was correct, especially in that particular situation. The left fielder was going to have no play by charging the ball hard, so should’ve made sure it stayed in front of her. But…
It’s not the pitcher’s place to chastise her fielders. She needs their support. Pitchers should either say something positive and encouraging to their fielders or keep their mouths shut, in my opinion. Chastising the fielders is the coach’s or the catcher’s job. Giving the fielders a hard time will do the pitcher no good, but it could do some harm.
Personally, if I were that left fielder and got called out like that, I would not have been happy. When the pitcher rolled the first pitch to the next batter into the plate (as she did) I might’ve been tempted to yell “Pitchers, you can’t roll the ball in to the plate.” See how she likes it.
Pitchers have to understand that just as they don’t usually walk batters or hit them on purpose, fielders aren’t trying to make errors. They just happen. Also keep in mind that runners on base don’t just materialize from nowhere. If there weren’t other errors already, they got on by a hit, walk or HBP, so the pitcher has some culpability for those baserunners that scored.
Again, unless they can strike out every opposing batter every time, pitchers need everyone pulling in the same direction behind them. Getting mouthy to their fielders isn’t the way to accomplish that.
They’ll be better served by staying cool and demonstrating leadership. It’s the better choice not only for the immediate game but for the season.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 