Coaching

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

This past weekend I was watching a 16U game when I saw something that made me shake my head. With one out and runners on first a second, a routine ground ball was hit to the shortstop, who fielded it cleanly — and then proceeded to throw it to first for the out.

Never once did she consider throwing it to third to get the lead runner. Nor did she consider flipping it to second for a possible double play. In her mind, the play was to first, as though there were no runners on base.

In the meantime the runners on first and second became the runners on second and third. The next batter cracked a long single to left center and two runs scored. Final score? 2-1 in favor of the team that was at bat at the time.

I was shaking my head, of course, because the situation seemed pretty obvious to me. I couldn't understand how a 16U shortstop wouldn't just know instinctively where the play was. Apparently, however, no one had taught her game sense.

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to see the movie Moneyball starring Brad Pitt as Oakland As GM Billy Beane. If you're not familiar with the original book — which is a great read by the way — it chronicles the story of how Beane changed the game of baseball by focusing on a few key statistics rather than the conventional wisdom of the time, which was (and still is in some cases) whether a player "looks" like a ballplayer.

Of course, Beane didn't do it alone. He was assisted greatly by Paul DePodesta, a young Harvard graduate (here played by Jonah Hill and using the pseduonym Peter Brand) with a fondness for Bill James' Baseball Abstract, computers and a love of stats.

You can read about the values of the movie from countless professional movie reviewers. What I found interesting was Beane's reasons for taking such an interest in this radical approach, and the differences between his public and private faces while doing it. Those are things I think most of us can relate to.

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

Over the weekend I was working with Erin, one of my former players (who is still a student) on her baserunning skills. Actually, that's a misnomer.

We weren't really working on skills. We were working on the mental side instead — knowing what to do, and working on her opening up her game on the bases.

You see, she has legitimate speed. Not sure where she is now, but I know she was 3.0 home to first a year ago, and probably faster than that now.

Yet once she got on base, she tended to shrink into a shell. Most of the time she would think station to station instead of realizing just what her speed could do on the rest of the bases, so we went out on a field to try and change that thinking.

A big part of her "conservative" running was a fear of making an out. She'd take the easy base, but was reluctant to push the envelope even a little bit despite my encouraging everyone on the team to always "think two bases" when running.

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

Anyone who has been following fastpitch softball over the past few years knows we have entered an era of hitting. The philosophy used to be "put the ball in play and hope for something good to happen." Games used to end 1-0 or 2-1 after 12 innings.

Today, though, it's all changed. There's lots more offense in the game, thanks in part to better training for hitters and in part to superior bat technology that turns checked swings into extra base hits.

So it might tempting to think that having that great pitcher isn't nearly as important as it used to be. Yet the truth is the opposite; if anything, it's more important than ever to have good pitching.

Softball/baseball is the only sport where the defense starts with the ball. And who on the defense has it first? The pitcher.

To paraphrase a saying from my underground comic book reading days, "Good pitching will get you through times of no hitting better than good hitting will get you through times of no pitching." Think about it.

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

"There's No Having Fun Here"

The other day I heard a story that just made my skin crawl. The incident in question occurred during tryouts for a local team.

The newly installed coach gathered the high school age girls together and announced, "If any of you are here for fun, you're in the wrong place."

Forgive me, but at what point did playing softball cease to be about having fun? When did winning a softball game, tournament or even national championship become so all-fired important that fun is no longer a part of the equation?

Every study that's ever been done about youth sports shows that the #1 reason kids sign up for a sport is to have fun. Those same studies also show that the number #1 reason they quit playing is because the game is no longer fun for them.

There's nothing wrong with taking the game seriously and working hard to do your best. There's nothing wrong with drilling hard and practicing (or playing) all-out. Those are good things. But working hard and having don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

Yes, it's hard to believe we're already in the thick of tryout season. All the comfort of knowing what the days ahead will look like is gone, replaced by that feeling in the pit of your stomach over all the uncertainty that will be dominating your thoughts for the next week or two.

That feeling applies to both players and coaches, by the way. For the players it's obvious, especially if you're trying out for a new team.

Suddenly you're being judged and evaluated by a group of strangers who don't know your track record. You have to perform right here, right now if you want to be selected. It can be very nerve-wracking, which doesn't help your performance any.

Yet it can also be stressful for coaches. You can look at all the skills you want, but it doesn't answer how a player will perform in a game situation, what type of teammate she will be, how high maintenance her parents will be, what kind of game knowledge she has, etc.

What softball parent wouldn't love a professionally designed poster or photo print of their child? Frenzy Designs can take photos you have and turn them into great looking one-of-a-kind posters of your daughter or your team. Frenzy Designs can also incorporate your team logo and colors into the poster for a wonderful way to capture and preserve memories.

You probably already have what you need with a bunch a great action shots or team celebrations and have intentions to do something with them. Do NOT let those meaningful photos go unused and never be seen by family and friends. Now you can take the workload off of yourself and let Frenzy help you create something memorable that the whole team will love.

These individual and team posters are great gift ideas for everyone, the whole team, the coaches, sponsor plaques, for their birthday, for Christmas, a senior surprise, grandparents, and a great family keepsake. Nothing lights up the face of a child, or even a parent, like seeing their image on a stylish poster that has been framed and mounted nicely giving it that "larger than life" appeal on the wall. Parents love to show off their children in a nice frame on their desk at the office or at home in the family sports room.  Makes a wonderful thank you gift for coaches and sponsors.

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

My area recently got hit by an incredible microburst this week that did a lot of damage to trees and caused the power to go out all over. People have had to abandon their homes and live in hotels until power is restored. It's a mess.

What does that have to do with fastpitch softball? We've all experienced those "microburst innings" — the ones where everything seems to go wrong at once.

Your pitcher walks the first hitter. The next batter hits a sharp ground ball that should result in an out, but instead ends up with an error and runners on first and second. Then a good, solid hit brings in a run, and an overthrow brings another one. Before you know it everything is out of control and you're wishing you were somewhere else — anywhere else.

It can happen to anyone — even the best of teams. You see it in the WCWS.  You see it in professional baseball. But it's always hurts worse when it's happening to you.

I hope you're enjoying all the giveaways we're bringing you this summer.  While we've done one for Got Bustos gear, an Insider Bat, and Ringor Cleats, we haven't really done one for Softball Performance.

Well, today we're going to change that!

Get $100 worth of softball training resources you need to raise your game to the next level.

• Throw harder
• Hit farther
• Run faster
• Increase your pitching speed
• Get more hits
• Earn more playing time
• and help your team win more games!

From DVDs to Pitching Books to Coaching Resources to Hitting Audios and more, Softball Performance helps you become more dominant on the diamond.

If you win this $100 Softball Performance Giveaway, you'll get to buy products from the following list:

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

Without a doubt this is a busy part of the fastpitch softball summer season. Tournaments every weekend, for some teams league or scrimmage doubleheaders during the week, and maybe a practice squeezed in here or there.

What that means is very little time to work on individual skills. Some may be able to handle that, but they're in the minority. For most, all this play time means skills are actually deteriorating.

It makes sense. In a practice setting, a hitter might take 100 to 200 swings in a session. In a game, she's lucky if she gets 12. That's a pretty big delta.

Same with fielders. Whereas in a good practice session you may field 50-100 balls or more, you may go a game or two without any significant fielding chances — especially if your team has dominant pitching. Sure, you get some practice during warm-ups, but your focus is different then. It's on getting ready for this game coming up, not on necessarily improving your skills.

Guest Post by Jen Croneberger

The top 5 mental mistakes coaches make prior to game time…

1. Expectations. Perhaps the number one killer of confidence, expectations are deadly. If you have expectations, you set your athletes up to fail. With expectations, they are in a succeed or fail mindset. If they don’t meet your expectations, they automatically see themselves as failures. This does not bode well for the rest of the game if they make a big error or strike out with a runner on third. By no means am I telling you to lower your standards. I am simply saying, use process/mini goals, or “manageable objectives” instead.

2. Putting too much emphasis on the outcome. When we focus on outcome instead of process, it causes us to not play in the present. We have to remember that we play this game one pitch at a time, anything else gets overwhelming. As a coach, it is our job to make sure our players stay present. Every at bat is a new game. Every play in the field is a new game and has no bearing on what they did in the previous inning or out. When our team is laser focused on one pitch at a time, amazing things happen. Don’t talk too much about winning or what you want the outcome to look like. Let them focus on a process goal for that game instead. So instead of a player making a goal to go 3 for 4 when the game starts, have them focus on having good at bats today.

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

We are about halfway through the summer fastpitch softball season, which means teams are starting to find out exactly what they have. In some cases, perhaps there have been pleasant surprises — players playing above the level you thought.

In others, perhaps that worldbeater of a team you thought you had isn't quite as good as you expected. Which means it's time to do a little retooling to get ready for the second half.

One of the phenomena that goes along with under-performing is the ever-helpful observations and suggestions from the peanut gallery, i.e. the parents. I'm not sure exactly what they think we're doing in the dugout, or what sort of a veil they think is placed over the field-side opening. But it's apparent that they often mistake a player's inability for our ability to recognize them.

So for all those who have taken on the obligation to point out the obvious, here's a little info from inside the dugout.

Guest Post by Dalton Ruer

I was recently reading a very huge book and wanted to share an excerpt from this story with those of you who may not be familiar with it. It is very complicated stuff so I will interrupt the story with my own commentary so that you don’t get lost.

Once there was a mother pig who had three little pigs. She did not have enough to keep them, so she sent them out to seek their fortunes. The first little pig had not gone far when he met a man with a bundle of straw. The little pig said to him, "Please, man, give me that straw to build me a house." This the man did, and soon the little pig had built a house with it. Just after the house was built, along came a wolf. He knocked at the door of the little pig's house and called, "Little pig, little pig, let me come in!" But the little pig answered, "No, no! Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!" Then the wolf said, "I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in!" So he huffed and he puffed until he blew the house in, and ate up that little pig.

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

Over the weekend I heard about something that just made me shake my head. It came from the parent of a 12U player.

Apparently, after her daughter's team lost their game, the coaches decided that what was called for was a little punishment. They lined up all the girls and made the entire team run a sprint for every error and every called third strike in the last game.

Essentially they meted out punishment to the girls for losing the game. After the next loss they did it again.

Maybe I'm just soft but I don't understand what good that could possibly do. Research has shown that making mistakes is an essential part of the learning process. Child development experts concur — children must be allowed to make mistakes in order to discover how things work and who they are.

Yet in spite of all of that, our society is so winning-focused that an otherwise reasonable adult believes that corporal punishment for losing a softball game is a good idea and perfectly acceptable. The belief is that the sprints will act as some sort of aversion therapy, making sure the players don't make the same mistakes again.

There are many coaches out there doing their best to teach instead of just yell which is great. I believe you coach best when you get to know your players and have the heart of a teacher vs just using a dictator style of coaching. (You know the one where you just yell as loud and often as possible to "make" your players listen.)

I'm all for positive coaching, however don't forget that if you DO have players that do better when you put some pressure on them or are "hard" on them, it's perfectly fine to get on them!

I'm not saying this from one coach to another. I'm actually saying this as a parent.

I have one daughter who is one who needs more encouragement with firmness. My other one does much better when someone just gets on her back! If you try to be nice to her she doesn't do as well. When you push her and get on her and even yell a little, she does better.

Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

This past weekend was the first tournament for the 14U team I coach. We'd spent a lot of time drilling, preparing, running game-like simulations, studying our playbook and otherwise getting ready. I was absolutely convinced we were ready to come out gangbusters.

Then came the first game of pool play. I swear it seemed like my well-drilled team had been replaced by look-alike aliens who had never seen a fastpitch softball game in their lives. We couldn't hit (despite working on it all winter), we threw to the wrong base or at the wrong time, we missed easy fielding chances, it was just a disaster. Definitely not what I was expecting.

And that's what's so humbling about our game. I've had a pretty good run with players I instructed individually the last few months. I heard glowing reports about their performance, saw their names in the newspaper, was proud of them for their post-season awards. Then the day I go out to coach my own team I wind up feeling like the worst coach in the world.

As a coach, one of the most frustrating things on game day is missed signals. Missed signals, offensively or defensively, often mean missed opportunities!  Practicing your signals regularly can help reduce missed game signals, but now there is a great and simple to use softball tool that can help you even more.

The Signal Fan makes giving and reading signals easier than ever before. You can use it for:

• hitting signals
• calling pitches
• calling pick offs
• first and third plays
• defensive positioning
• and more!

Even players think it's much easier and less confusing than traditional hand signals. For defensive positioning it's certainly a lot easier than yelling from the dugout to the outfield!

Press the play button below to see what real softball players have to say about the Signal Fan.

Buy a Signal Fan for your team at SoftballTools.com.

Remember, you get a 10% discount on any Softball Tools purchase made between now and Monday (the 20th).  PLUS every purchase you make by the 20th gives you an entry to our Free Insider Bat giveaway!

Our first giveaway of the summer was fantastic.  Thanks so much for participating and making it great!  We had 251 entries for this giveaway and I have the name of the lucky winner here for you.

BUT before I announce the winner, I want to let you know, even if it's not you, please don't stop reading.  I have some good news for you too.

That said, with no further ado…

the winner of our very first giveaway of the summer is…

Jim J!

His winning entry came from liking us on Facebook.  Congratulations Jim!!!!! We hope you enjoy the DVD.

If you're not Jim, Please Read On…

Last week many people told me that even if they didn't win the giveaway, they still wanted the DVD, so I decided to do something special as a thank you for participating in this giveaway.

The Good News If You're Not Jim J…
For the next 48 hours, you can grab the Making Things Happen DVD for just $14.97. That's a cool 50% off the listed price (must "add to cart" to see the discount). So even if you didn't win, you still get a nice deal today.

Yes, you heard right! We are doing our first FREE DVD GIVEAWAY of the summer. From now through June 13th, you can enter free for your chance to win a Making Things Happen DVD.

This DVD shows you how to…

• Drive your opponents crazy with an unconventional, aggressive style of play they are unused to seeing
• Create chaos and confusion offensively and defensively to frustrate your opponents and take them out of their game
• Make things happen in your favor on the softball field!

Coach Sean Cotter is well-known for his crazy softball tactics that drive opponents up the wall. Join Coach Marc Dagenais as he makes Coach Cotter to spill the beans on how to develop an aggressive offense that puts a lot of pressure on the defense and puts a lot of points up on the board.

Learn all about Coach Cotter’s unconventional offensive philosophy and the offensive strategies he uses to create chaos defensively and force his opponents to make a ton of errors. Turn your team into one that is always up-tempo, fun, and exciting to watch.