Coaching

That was exactly 10 years ago. I was coaching a competitive 16U and it was probably one of the best offensive teams I've ever coached.

It was a well-balanced team with the unique characteristic of having the same number of lefties and righties.

At the beginning of the season, the team was composed of 9 girls that could hit (contributing offensively) and 3 girls who were  struggling to put the ball in play.

These 3 girls were very frustrated and didn't feel they were contributing to the success of the team. Their confidence and self-esteem were low.

One thing I learned very early as a coach is that confidence and "the feeling at the plate" are everything when it comes to softball hitting.

I made it my goal to have all 12 of my players being an offensive  threat by the end of the summer.

So, I went to work. I started to spend a lot of extra time with  these 3 girls doing individual practices.

In this podcast, Marc Dagenais  discusses how to effectively teach softball skills. He talks about how  coaching softball requires great teaching skills; he also discusses the 3 types of learning styles and a unique characteristic of today's youth before sharing his winning recipe for teching softball skills - a step-by-step  method to make you a much more effective teacher of the game.

 

 Coaching Softball - How to Be Great at Teaching Softball Skills [15:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (156)

This morning I received this great list from Cindy Bristow of Softball Excellence through her great newsletter Softball Excellence Insiders. I thought I would share it with you.  Cindy is an internationally recognized softball clinician.  You should definitely check her great resources.

Here's Cindy's top 10 things she learned watching the Women's College World Series:

1.     Outfielders Matter - There were quite a lot of key plays in the outfield that weren't necessarily hard, but that were vital to the outcome of many of the games.

2.     When Your Turn Comes, Be Ready - Megan Gibson, the pitcher from Texas A & M was living proof that when your turn comes you better be ready as she went from sharing pitching duties early in the year to pitching with a record of 41-4, and getting her team all the way to the National Championship game.

3.     Find Your Role and Fill It - Amanda Scarborough from Texas A & M went from being their marquee pitcher in January to being injured and out for the year. And instead of pouting about being injured and isolating herself from the team Amanda found a new role and a new way to help her team win by doing everything possible to help the remaining pitcher, Megan Gibson, be as successful as possible! That takes a very team-oriented and unselfish player!

In this video, I describe why staying loose at the plate is  important and how it can increase your hitting power. This is a complement to my previous post  How Staying Loose Can Increase Your Hitting Power .

Everybody wants to run faster. It's been said: "speed kills".

Speed doesn't know slumps. Speed intimidates. Speed scares others. Speed gives you confidence. Speed makes you more dominant.

How do you get faster?

1. Improve running mechanics (sprinting technique)
2. Improve your acceleration
3. Improve your linear speed
4. Improve your multi-directional quickness
5. Get stronger and more explosive

That's how. Number 2,4 and 5 are the most important in softball.

We run on very short distances and we need to change directions all the time very quickly.

Here's two mistakes that many softball coaches and strength and conditioning coaches (those who don't know the game of softball and come from track and field usually) make when trying to improve speed:

1) They focus too much on the sprinting technique and not enough on the "acceleration"

2) They run too many "linear" sprints instead of multi-directional speed and agility drills.

Softball is explosive, on short distances and multi-directional.

Old fashion, track-style speed training is not too relevant. Yes, it might help a bit, but if you want to get RESULTS, you must train softball-specific.

In this podcast, Marc Dagenais, interviews Robert Campbell, publisher of the nation's leading softball magazine - Softball Today. This interview is a follow-up to a previous post about the magazine's great fundraiser for softball teams. The post generated so much interest for the magazine and the fundraiser that Marc invited Robert to be a guest on his podcast. During their interview, Marc grills Robert on the the magazine, their unique bat reviews website and also their great fundraiser.

Here are the podcast's relevant links:

Softball Tips - A Great Fundraising Technique (my previous post about their great fundraiser)

Softball Today Magazine

Bat Reviews

You can listen or download the interview right below.

 

 Podcast #6 - An interview with Robert Campbell of Softball Today Magazine [17:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hitting is difficult emotionally because the rate of failure is so high.

No one likes to fail, and many children (and many adults as well) are not ready to deal with it rationally. Consequently, they become so conscious of failing it affects performance.

Different hitters are afraid to fail for different reasons. They may be afraid because they don't want to look bad in front of people. They may not want to let their teammates down or their parents/coaches down.

Worst of all, they may be afraid of being scolded by an over-zealous parent or coach. That's a sad situation, but it's also very real.

Fear of failure is real and it really slows people down. Because they are scared of failing, they don't take chances. They play too conservative because they don't want to fail.

What causes fear of failure?

- Lack of understanding of what it takes to be successful

- Being unable to tolerate the emotions associated with failure

- Fear of making mistakes (often rooted in lack of self-confidence)

How to deal with fear of failure?

- Take calculated risks

In this podcast, Marc Dagenais, softball peak performance coach,  talks about how big of an influence coaches have over their athletes and share strategies on how they can help their young athletes feel better about themselves, build their confidence and avoid fear.

 

 Coaching Youth Softball - Building Self-Confidence in Young Athletes [14:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

When coaching softball, many coaches wonder "what makes a championship team?". What are the elements that describes a very successful team. I think with the recent conclusion of the Women's College World Series. It was relevant to address that topic.

In 2008, Arizona State University has won it all. The Sun Devils are NCAA D1 champions. The ultimate goals of any college team. This is quite an accomplishment.

So, that leads to a question: what makes championship team?

Let's see what Jeff Jenssen, a well-team known expert in the area of team-building that done a lot of work with folks coaching softball, has to say about that.

He starts by saying that: "Teams do not win on talent alone". I think we all agree with that. Talent gives you a greater chance of winning but doesn't guarantee anything.

"Talent without teamwork = trouble". Again, I think it's a given. We could say softball is the most individual of team sports.

However, an analysis of winning teams clearly shows that teamwork plays a key role in their success.

"Success = talent + teamwork". As I coach, I couldn't agree more.

What are the common characteristics of championship teams?

In this  Podcast, Marc Dagenais, softball peak performance coach, decided to address softball hitting, more specifically how to get out of a slumps. In addition to explaining what a slump is and its main causes, Marc shares several strategies used by the best players to get out of it.

 

 Softball Hitting _ How to Get Out of Slumps [18:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (236)

Do you know the two mains reason why coaches quit coaching softball? Parents.

Most coaches love to coach. Coaching softball can actually be addicting.

However, coaching softball can also come with some painful experiences for many like dealing with parents. Sometimes it is the parents' fault, sometimes it is the coach's fault and often, it's a mix of both.

Here are a few strategies on how you can build relationships with the parents (and  athletes) to minimize the painful experiences and actually have fun coaching softball.

By this, I don't mean that you need to open your home to the parents and cook them a wonderful four-course dinner.

But, if that works, then why not try it?

Instead, take the time to get to know the parents better than  you do. Many coaches try to keep the parents at arm's length  in order to prevent anyone from feeling left out or that there's favoritism on the team because of more positive relationships with parents.

Two days ago, I ranted about how bad some practices can be in youth softball. You know, the typical 9-players-standing-on-the-field-not-learning-much-and-not-having-fun-while-1-hitter-tries-to-hit-the-ball type of practice. It certainly didn't leave people indifferent.

See my first post about that topic: Coaching Softball - How to Run a Bad Softball Practice

Following that post, I got that email from a young lady:

"First of all, I hope you know that a lot of the people receiving your e-mails ARE those coaches you think should be "fired," including my dad (this is his daughter, a competitive softball player, writing this). People subscribe to your e-mails because they want to become better coaches. I would suggest not putting down your subscribers if you want to keep them.

And just so you know, most of the coaches you're speaking of are VOLUNTEERS. They don't get paid, so they can't get fired. They are taking time out of their busy schedules to try and help girls (who may not otherwise have a
coach or a team) play the sport they love. I don't think it's these people who scare girls away from the sport. At least from my experience with coaches (and I've had a lot), I would rather have a nice coach who may not know a lot, but is trying to get better than a high and mighty coach like you who is looking to shove his "expertise" down the throats of anyone who will listen. I'm not sure who you think you are, but I certainly have never heard of you and I have been playing softball my entire life.

In this Podcast, Marc Dagenais, softball peak performance coach,  discusses what role genetics and other factors in the development of talent. He answers questions like:"Is genetics the reason why the likes of Cat Osterman, Jennie Finch, Crystl Bustos, Dot Richardson, Lisa Fernandez, Joan Joyce, and Michele Smith are the best in their sport?" and presents the latest research findings in the field of talent development and expertise which might totally surprise you.

 

 Softball Training - Are You Born With Talent? [12:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (99)

Over the last few days since I've re-introduced both my Super Coaching Bundle and Super Pitching Bundle and the response has been just great. People loves those bundles.

For more info about these bundles, click on the links below:

Softball Pitching Bundle

Softball Coaching Bundle

However, several of my subscribers emailed us to ask if I would accept Paypal payments which I didn't. They prefer Paypal for various reason.

Since I am always about listening to what my subscribers and customers want, I gadly added the Paypal as a payment option for these two super bundles. You see, I listen to what you want!

That led me to think that as coaches and teammates sometimes, we don't listen enough.

We all know communication is important. It's actually the foundation of human relationships.

In my years in coaching and training, I've witnessed many times coaches and athletes not listening to each other.

I even admit that I, at times, didn't listen as much as I should have.

I think everybody is guilty sometimes of not listening when they should.

However, I think it's important as coaches and athletes to listen more to others. It's mutually beneficial.

I've got to vent. Bear with me.

Have you ever driven by a park and saw a softball practice run by a well-intentioned but rookie, untrained coaches most often at the recreational level?

IT'S SOOOOOOO BAD! They are textbook examples of how NOT to run a practice. Their practices are…

- boring
- unproductive
- NOT fun
- don't teach much
- a waste of time

These awful practices are the perfect recipe to send kids to soccer instead of keeping them in softball.

It's no wonder that softball is losing ground to soccer!

I just can't stand it anymore.

I have been in softball almost 20 years and things are just not getting any better despite ALL of the resources being available!

That makes me mad.

Plus, I hate soccer.

But serioulsy, you have seen these awful practices where coaches place 9 kids on the field in each of the position and there is 1 kid taking batting while the other ones are "waiting forever" to field a ball?

They might as well take a nap - it would be more productive.

I am probably opening a can of worms but I'll take my chance!

Let's say I'm hired to identify the best potential pitchers out of a group of 11-12 years old with no real previous pitching experience. What would I be looking for?

Here is what I think based on my work on talent development in graduate school and my years of coaching in softball.

I want to acknowledge that I can be totally wrong and that I don`t have the absolute truth.

Talent identification is far from being an exact science  especially when so many variables comes into play.

What i would be looking for:

Physical attributes

1. Athleticism - most important thing. I would look for kids who play multiple sports and excel in them.

2. Fast-Twitch Muscle Fibers - I would look for a kid that is explosive and fast since pitching requires that. I would check their long-jump ability to measure leg power.

3. Naturally throws hard overhand and likely underhand.

4. Height - Bigger leverage when throwing the ball. I would be  real careful about NOT having a bias towards the taller kids at that age because many of the smaller ones have not yet reached their puberty. I would like at who has the tallest parents!

Have you ever noticed that we do the same things the same way most of time? We have routines and specific ways of doing things.

For example, I do pretty much the same thing every morning.

6:00 am - Alarm goes off / turn on TV or press snooze!
6:10 am - Get up and stretch
6:15 am - Drink 2 glasses of water
6:20 am - Preparation to go workout
6:30 am - Workout
7:25 am - Post-workout shake and shower
7:50 am - Breakfast
8:00 am - Turn on computer and start my day

I bet you do as well. I bet you can easily write down exactly what you do in which order every morning.

Why is that?

You see, humans are creatures of habits. They find comfort in establishing routines.

Elite softball palyers and coaches do it all the time. The use of routine is one of the most widespread practices among elite softball players and coaches.

Performing routines gives them confidence and helps them focus and get in the zone so that they can outperform their opponents on the field.

You know you can easily hit for .800 if you want?

How? Just hit off a pitching machine!

Seriously, we are using the pitching machine way too much. We love pitching machines.

Pitching machines are a great invention but doing too much of it especially during the season is counter productive.

The machines do not vary pitch locations and teach your players to swing at every pitch without making a decision.

It's great to work on hitting mechanics and get a lot of swings in the off-season but nothing beats live pitching, front toss or other variations of live pitching to learn how to judge a ball and adjust to different pitches.

After a bit of practice, it's very easy to hit well off one of those pitching machines but it really takes away the decision-making ability.

Too many coaches and teams rely too heavily on them. It's detrimental and counter productive.

So, once the season starts, ditch the pitching machine. Learn to run effective hitting practices with live pitching and front toss to simulate game conditions.

This will train visual tracking, timing, and decision-making which are crucial to hitting success.