Tonight, while driving back from practice, I was listening to my voice messages on my cool new iPhone.  One of the messages was from one of the elite members of my Softball Performance Achievers Club.

Since I had about 30 minutes of driving to do. I decided to call him back right away. Personal phone access to me is one of the privileges you get as a member of the Softball Performance Achievers Club.

On our last conversation about 1 month ago, he wanted some training tips to help his 16U daugther get in great shape for an upcoming tryout with a very competitive travel team.

The team had recently lost a key player and the coach decided to hold a new tryouts early november to fill this vacancy.

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I've coached at pretty much all levels of the game going from rec 8U to college and international softball in the ast 20 years.

I've coached and watched a lot of softball games in my life.

A couple of years ago, I even spent an entire summer  scouting (charting pitches, identifying pitching patterns,  measuring speed, etc.) and filming the best pitchers in the world (Finch, Roche, Ueno, Fernandez, etc.) for the Canadian Women's National Team.

One thing that seems to be consistent accross all levels is the difficulty that the majority of batters have hitting  the low inside and outside pitches.

The best hitters in the world (those with great batting averages) have extremely good bat control.

They may not have the most power but they basically can do what they want with a bat.

This is a common characteristics of elite hitters - they control their bat.

Working on bat control is certainly not as "fun" or "cool" as working on power but it will definitely help you become a much better hitter.

Working on bat control is about learning to control what you do with your body. The body controls the bat. If you  control your body, you will control your bat.

You have to increase your body awareness (what you do with it) and your overall hand-eye coordination.

Today was an interesting experience. I took my entire 16U team  to a sports training  facility in downtown Montreal to be assessed  and screened by certified athletic trainers.

It was not your traditional fitness testing.

It was what we call a "functional assessment".

They are basically testing and screening the body to see if the body functions properly from an athletic perspective.

They tested for muscular imbalances, postural and alignment problems,  stability and flexibility issues, faulty recruitment patterns, etc.

Each athlete spent a total of 80 minutes individually with a therapist who completed a thorough functional assessment on each of them.

What is the idea behind a functional assessment?

Coming back to coach at the 16U level is  an interesting experience.

I realize more than ever than kids today want results now.

If it doesn't work right away, it's no good!

Why is that?

They are used to getting everything right away.

They live in a world with…

- Instant chat

- Instant texting

- Instant 24/7 news

- Instant download

- Instant pain relief

- Etc.

Even most of the advertising today for various  products promises quick, if not almost instant results.

Bottom line - young athletes are conditioned to  instant results.

Today's society is losing track that success takes work, effort and time.

There is a quote that says:

I'm a firm believer is shifting the odds in your favor.

Softball is somewhat of a complex game.

Yet, to be successful, it comes back to accomplishing a few very simple things.

Doing those simple things will "shift the odds in your favor."

What are these simple things?

Here's my top 10 list of rules to shift the odds in your favor.

1) Pitching - keep the ball low most of the time and on the corners.

How many hitters do you know that can hit an inside or outside low pitches very hard?

2) Pitching - Throw strikes early. Get ahead in the count. Then mix.

3) Avoid walks at almost all cost except in a few situations.

 Earlier this year, in the spring, I was working with  a young hitter who also happened to be a very good pitcher.

Let me rephrase that.

I was working with a terrific young pitcher who was wasting her time swinging the bat - in her mind.

You see, she was coming from a baseball family where pitchers (her dad and brothers are all pitchers) don't hit.

Furthermore, that perception was reinforced by her own coaches who didn't want her to get her hurt to protect their precious jewel the year before.

Mind you - she was 12 years old.

Basically, in her mind, she was no hitter.

However, today, I am not writing about whether pitchers should hit or not - that's not the purpose of this article.

For those of you who don't know, in addition to coaching softball, being a softball peak performance coach, I've also been teaching at the community college level for the past 10 years or so.

I currently teach nutrition, sports conditioning, and weight training classes.

I've also taught sports psychology and a few other  fitness-related PE classes in the past.

Last week, in one of my nutrition classes, we were doing  our traditional food log analysis.

I asked my students to keep a detailed food and exercise log for a whole week. After that, we input all the data into a popular online tracking software and look at the results.

One of the things I am doing with my new 16U team this fall is put all of my athletes through a functional assessment.

I hear you:

"What the heck is a functional assessment?"

Let me give you an analogy.

When you intend to buy a used car, before you pay for it, you take it to an independent expert mechanic for a full inspection to make sure everything is alright.

A full inspection also helps identify what will need to be replaced or fixed in the near future to to keep the car in good condition and running well.

A functional assessment is like a full car inspection but for the body.

It's the off-season.

It's time to:

1) Rest and recover from last season.

2) Heal injuries.

3) Do conditioning to get faster, stronger, more powerful, and
prevent injuries.

4) Work on fundamentals.

In other words, it's time to get better for next season!

Often, people wonder - what should I do more of?

In an ideal world - everything!

In reality, there is just not enough time.

Fundamentals is the most important as softball is a highly technical sport that requires you to master a variety of complex skills.

Within fundamentals, should you more defense (throwing, fielding) or offense(hitting, bunting, etc.)?

My answer is: offense.