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Fear of the Ball? They’re Not Wrong!
Every coach knows that being afraid of the ball, whether said ball is being hit, pitched, or thrown at a player, is one of the greatest performance-killers. It’s kind of like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: players need to feel safe before they put all their energy into whatever activity it is they’re trying to do.
Those who have coached the littles know exactly what I’m talking about. You can see it when they step sideways to catch a thrown or fly ball, or automatically back out of the batter’s box when they’re hitting, or do the “matador” as they try to field a ground ball.
This isn’t just a problem with the littles, however. Many older players also harbor some level of fear of the ball; they’re just better at hiding it.
The typical coach reaction when these things happen is to yell at the player to “stay in there” or “stay in front of it.” But given a choice between being yelled at and actually feeling physical pain, it’s pretty obvious what their subconscious is going to opt for.
I think the thing coaches with players who are afraid of the ball have to acknowledge is that in many or even most cases those kids aren’t wrong. If the ball hits them instead of their bat or glove, it’s going to hurt. That’s just science.
So if you want to get your daughter or your players past moving away from the ball preemptively it’s going to take more than telling them “don’t do that.” Here are some tidbits that may help you with that task.
The Fear Is Often Worse Than the Reality
A lot of the kids who are afraid of the ball haven’t necessarily experienced the pain before. Their brains are simply making assumptions based on other past experiences.
Take a hitter who backs out of the box when the ball is pitched. She’s never been hit by a pitch before. But…
She has been hit by other flying objects before. Maybe a sibling threw a toy at her with sufficient force that it caused bruising or bleeding.
She also knows from picking it up that the ball is hard. So even though she has never actually been hit with a ball while hitting she is afraid of similar pain.
Once she has been hit by the ball, however, she’ll then have a frame of reference for it and it won’t seem so bad after that.
Does that mean you should throw balls with the intention of hitting your players? Of course not. But you can toss them lightly into their arms to help them start overcoming their fear.
You can also give them some incentives. When I pitch to girls who like to automatically step back I tell them if they do it again I will start throwing behind them, and may even toss one back there (lightly) to give them more reason to stay in.
If you’re going to do that, however, be careful. I have hit one or two unintentionally because I didn’t get it far enough behind them. It worked to solve the problem, but it’s not exactly the way to build the player-coach relationship.
Take the Reason for Fear Out
Most of the time a fear of the ball is driven by a lack of confidence that the player can avoid being hit. She feels like she doesn’t have the skills to catch the ball, for example, so she sidesteps to avoid any mishaps that may result from that lack of skill.
The solution here is to give them something less threatening to work with. For example, have players who are afraid play catch with foam balls like a Jugs Lite Flite ball.
The light weight and softer texture will make the entire process less threatening to them. And unless they’re hit right on the nose by a hard-thrown ball at close distance – something you should control in practice – being hit by the ball won’t produce any pain.
When they realize that they will be less inclined to bail out right away, enabling them to build proper skills so they are more confident when a real ball is introduced again.
SIDE BENEFIT: The lighter weight will also encourage them to adopt better throwing mechanics because you don’t need as much strength to throw them.
Be Smart With Practice Reps
One of the temptations coaches have when hitting ground balls is to hit them as hard as they can so the girls “are ready” for hard-hit balls in games.
The problem is, an adult coach (male or female) can hit a ground ball a lot harder than a 99% of 10 year olds will at that age. So rather than teaching their players to get in front of the ball and move into it, they’re teaching their players to sit back and try to avoid getting nailed with the ball.
This approach not only instills fear, it also teaches them to wait on the ball rather than charging it if it’s not hit hard. I don’t know how it is where you live, but the majority of ground balls in a 10U game in my area require being charged.
A better approach in my opinion is to start easy and let them build the confidence in their glove skills – especially if you’re playing on a dirt field that hasn’t been laser-leveled and groomed. Then gradually build the speed until it’s realistic for what they’re going to face.
You might even want to start by rolling balls to them rather than hitting them so they can put their entire focus on learning how to field and make the throw properly. THEN get into hitting them.
This isn’t just for the littles by the way. College and even national team-level teams do this all the time to refine their skills.
Obviously they’re not dealing with fear of the ball at that level (at least hopefully not). But this approach works for both.
Acknowledge the Fear
As an adult it’s really easy to think players should just ignore their fear of the ball. You have 2X, 3X, maybe even 4X as much experience dealing with the issue.
But try to think of it from your players’ experience. As mentioned above, maybe they’re never been hit and so have built the outcome up in their minds more than the reality will be.
Maybe they have been hit and it’s the worst pain they’ve experienced so far in their young lives. You know may know that getting by the ball is nothing compared to a kidney stone or an automobile accident injury, but they don’t. It’s all a matter of scale.
Whatever the reason, it’s not a monster under the bed you can tell them to ignore. It’s very real.
Be understanding and help them work through it little by little. If they feel safe with you they’ll overcome the fear quickly – and could turn out to be your best players in the long run.
Throw It Like You Know It
So, you’re a fastpitch pitcher and you’ve added a new pitch to your arsenal. You’ve worked weeks, or months, to learn the nuances and perfect it to the point where you throw it pretty reliably in practice.
But then, when you go to trot it out in a game, it turns into a hot mess.
If it’s a drop ball it rolls in like you’re playing bocce ball. Changeups go sailing high and wide, riseballs go over the backstop, and curveballs end up forcing your catcher to lay out after them like a wide receiver catching a pass from the third-string quarterback.
So what happened?
There’s a pretty good chance the problem isn’t from the neck-down; it’s from the neck-up. Because instead of just relaxing and throwing the pitch you practiced, you got nervous that it wasn’t going to work and started tying yourself in knots trying to make sure it did.
How did that work out for you?
That’s why, when you go to introduce a new pitch to your gametime routine, you need to clear your mind of thoughts about it being your first time, you hope it works, it was really bad last time, etc. and just throw it like you know it.
There’s a pretty good chance if you’ve been pitching for a while you don’t think much about throwing your fastball – or whatever your base pitch is. You’ve done it thousands of times by now, and you already know you can do it.
Doesn’t mean it will be perfect every time – no one’s is, not even the high-level pitchers you admire. But you’re not worried because you know if this one doesn’t work quite right the next one will.
Well, it’s the same with a new pitch. Let’s take a changeup.
You told your coach you’ve been working on it and want to throw it this game. You’ve gotten the speed and location to be right in practice but have little to no experience with in games.
When the call comes in, however, your muscles tense, your mouth gets dry, and you start to breathe a little harder and more rapidly.
There’s really no reason for that reaction, however. First of all, hopefully your coach is smart enough to call it in a situation where the outcome doesn’t matter, such as no one on base and you’re ahead in the count 0-2 or 1-2.
At that point, what’s the worst that can happen? You throw a ball and it’s now 1-2 or 2-2. You’ve thrown balls before with the fastball, so why should this particular one be treated any differently?
Oh, but you’re worried you’re going to embarrass yourself by rolling it in or sailing it over your catcher’s head. So what’s the difference here?
The count is still 1-2 or 2-2, just as it would be if you had barely missed the strike zone. No runners advanced, no one walked, a shadow didn’t fall upon the earth, seas didn’t begin to boil, the ground didn’t rupture. no one died. It’s just a ball.
Only now you’ve thrown one in a game, you know a little more what it feels like, and you’ve just taken another step forward in your pitching career. Someday, when throwing a changeup is as natural to you as breathing, you’ll probably laugh about it.
So given all that, why worry about it at all?
The better approach is to pretend like you’ve been throwing this new pitch for years and just chuck it in there – i.e., throw it like you know it. With a more positive approach like that you’re far more likely to have success, and avoid all the negative outcomes you were worried about originally.
By the way, this concept isn’t just for pitchers. Hitters should apply their new hitting mechanics rather than relying on their old ways.
Slappers, particularly converted righties, should go after their slaps as if they’ve been doing it for years. Fielders should try that new sidearm tilted toss as though it’s been part of their routine all along. And so on.
If you take the “throw it like you know it” approach you’ll find you build your confidence quickly and your game will improve exponentially. You’ll also find you’re having a lot more fun in the process.
Tricks and Tips for Developing Higher-Performing Catchers
Ask most people (especially their parents) and they will agree that catchers are the backbone of a quality fastpitch softball team. While pitchers get all the glory and the accolades, without a great catcher your team is likely to under-perform and lose more games than it should.
Great catchers don’t just grow on trees, however. Even the best often need to be built. In fact, I’m often amused when I hear someone talk about what a “natural” a particular catcher is, because I know what they were like originally and how much work went into making them look like a “natural.”
So for those of you with a daughter who wants to strap on the ol’ tools of ignorance and spend her career squatting in the heat, or for you coaches who understand the value of a quality catcher and need to develop one or two, here are some ways I’ve found to make it happen.
Desire
All the joking around aside, catcher is a tough position to play. Probably the toughest on the field, all things considered. You can put gear on a player and stick her behind the plate, but that doesn’t make her a catcher (except in the scorebook).
To be any good at all as a catcher, you have to have a desire to play the position. If that desire isn’t there, the rest of it isn’t going to work no matter how hard you push.
I’ll take a kid who isn’t as athletic but wants to be back there over a great athlete who looks like someone shot her puppy every time she goes behind the plate any day of the week. And all day Championship Sunday. (That’s an expression only. No catcher should have to catch five or six games in a row unless there is simply no other option.)
Find the kid who wants to do it and the rest of it will go much faster.
Learning to block
One of the challenges with learning to block balls in the dirt is the basic fear of getting hit with the ball. There is a natural, human tendency to want to turn your head when a ball bounces at you, especially if you’re only used to fielding ground balls.
But that makes no sense for a catcher, because all of her protection is in the front. Turning her head (or body) actually exposes her to more potential pain and injury.
One way I’ve found to get past that fear is to walk up to the catcher, speaking in a friendly voice, and start tossing the ball at her face mask. Ask her “How’s that?” or “Does that hurt?” The answer you’ll usually get is “no” surrounded by giggles.
What your catcher fears is anticipated pain, not a memory of pain. Give her the experience of taking a ball to the face mask, or chest protector, or shin guards and she’ll be able to overcome that fear.
The one caveat, however, is to check to make sure her equipment actually will protector. I recently had a 10U catcher named Erin who finally told her parents and me that it hurt when she blocked a ball with her chest protector. One new, stiffer chest protector later and it was no problem. So be sure when you say it won’t hurt that you know whereof you speaketh.
Making throw-downs
The other area where catchers really “make their bones” (besides blocking) is throwing runners out. There is plenty of great information out there about the mechanics of throwing runners out. But here are a couple of things you don’t normally find in those discussions.
One, surprisingly, is to make sure your catcher has good basic throwing mechanics. Not sure why that aspect is overlooked, but it often is. And all the fancy footwork and ball transfer drills won’t do you much good if the core motion is too weak or too slow.
If your catcher doesn’t have a good throwing motion to start, work with her on it. Insist on it. Drill it into her until she can’t use poor mechanics. That alone will make everything you do more effective.
Another key point is to stop your catcher from running up to make the throw. She should just pop up and throw without appreciably moving forward. Doing it that way will not only save time (because while she’s running up the base runner is running to the base) but it will also protect her from late swings (accidental or intentional to cover the runner) and slipping on a slick plate.
But she’s young and can’t get it to second on a fly without running up? Who cares? A decently thrown ball will roll a lot faster than a runner can run, and if it’s on-line it will be right where the tag needs to be made when it reaches whoever is covering the bag.
Get that ball on its way quickly and you’ll throw out more runners. And remember – most coaches like to test the water first with their fastest runner. Throw her out, or even make it close, and the opposing coach will think twice about trying to steal the other girls.
Get vocal
There are two aspects to this. One is pure volume. Your catcher can be the shyest, most soft-spoken player on the team when she’s not on the field. But behind the plate, she needs to be loud, proud and confident.
Catchers should be directing the rest of the team while plays are going on, and insisting everyone else simply repeats what she says when calling out which base to throw to or where a player should go. Otherwise, you’ll have chaos on the field.
The catcher is the only player on the field who can see everything that’s going on, so it’s natural for her to be calling out what to do. That means A) she needs to know what to do in every situation and B) she has to call it out loudly enough for at least her infielders to hear on a noisy field.
Getting to point A is going to take a fair amount of practice and study. But point B can be accomplished with a little training. Have her work on yelling things – anything. It could be base calls, it could just be numbers, it could be her name. Anything to teach her to be heard.
If possible, take her somewhere where there is a wall a good distance away and have her practice creating a loud echo off the wall.
The other key is to get her comfortable telling her teammates what to do. This is not the time to be shy, and catchers shouldn’t worry about winning popularity contests. They need to take command on the field, hold their teammates accountable for doing the right things, and pick up the entire team when it gets down.
That’s a tall order, especially for a young catcher. But give them the leeway, authority and encouragement to become that player and you might just see a little magic happen.
Final thoughts
Catching isn’t just about skills. A lot of it is about attitude.
Catchers have to think in a way that differs from the rest of the team. They have to know the game at a deeper level than their peers (since they are basically the coach on the field), and they have to have a little swagger to them.
Help develop those qualities in your catcher(s) and you’ll find yourself on the winning side of a lot more ballgames.
And oh, for you parents who would like to see your daughter play softball in college: college coaches at all levels are always on the lookout for great catchers. They’d prefer to find them rather than try to build them.
The closer you can get your daughter to that ideal, the better chance she has of playing in college and getting some or all of her schooling costs covered. Just remember what I said in point #1!
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 