Coaching

They say that…

..the day you stop learning you die.

..coaches who stop going to clinics and courses and always seeking better ways of doing things should retire.

…all the most successful people in society are lifelong learners and never stop learning.

Well, since I am not anywhere close to dying or retiring and that I want to be successful, I decided to spend the weekend learning more about softball hitting and pitching with some of the greatest minds of our sport.

I am currently attending the NFCA Coaches College 402 Course on advanced hitting and pitching in Portland, Oregon.

The instructors are Kirk Walker, Head Coach at Oregon State, Margie Wright, Head Coach at Fresno State, and Don Slaught, former MLB catcher, world-renowned hitting instructor, and owner of RighViewPro, the innovative hitting and pitching analysis software used extensively at the college level.

Today, they talked about numerous principles, concepts and techniques.

However, what struck me most was that both Kirk Walker and Don Slaught have a teaching philosophy similar to mine.

I am not talking about their hitting or pitching philosophy but rather how they like to instruct it.

Not long ago, I wrote about how cell phones (texting, talking, email, etc.) can be negatively impact a player's focus, social interaction within a group environment, and even lead to rudeness and direspect sometimes.

Are Cell Phones Negatively Affecting You and your Team?

Kids aren't only addicted to cell phones, they are also addicted to iPods and other MP3 players. They live with their music almost 24/7.

Just about every player owns either an iPod or an MP3 player.

That's the reality of this generation - portable, 24/7 music.

My take on the the use of iPods and other MP3 players is a little different from my take on cell phones.

Let's start with the obvious.

I don't want my kids to be listening to their device (a) while I am talking, (b) during games, (c) during team activities designed to enhance social interaction and team-building, and (d) at practices during group exercises or drills that require a lot communication between athletes/coaches.

However, I am totally in favor of it in some other circumstances.

Let me tell you why.

The other day, I was reading a article in a coaching magazine that was sort of a debriefing about the summer Olympics.

I found one of the elements discussed by the author very interesting and definitely something I can relate to - how the presence of cell  phones might negatively affect an athlete's performance and the team environment.

We now live in a society that is addicted to instant communication devices like cell phones, iPhones, Blackberries, etc.

We are addicted to being connected and talk, chat, email, and text anywhere anytime.

I've had a cell phone for over 10 years. And just a few months ago, I  got myself an iPhone so I am definitely guilty of that too.

I am not a text addict but I like to be able to check my email anywhere  anytime now!

Ok, so what kind of effect can this have on an athlete's performance and the team?

The author was saying that at the Olympics, many athletes were so focus on "capturing" and "sharing" their Olympic experience using their cell  phones by taking and sharing photos, filming bits of it with it, emailing, talking, and texting with friends that it could have affected some of  them by taking some of their focus away.

Today, I was talking to the coach of a 14U team who is struggling at the plate.

They haven't been hitting well this year at all.

After asking him several questions, it became pretty clear what the problem might be.

You see - according to him, they work a lot on hitting.

I told him that they work a lot on softball hitting fundamentals but no so much on hitting.

He was puzzled and confused.

You see, hitting is a lot more than a sweet swing.

Hitting is…

1) Reading cues and tracking the ball well
2) Making decisions (pitch selection)
3) Ajusting to various locations and moving pitches
4) Hitting according to the situation
5) The approach to the plate and the mental part of hitting

You see, if you only work on the swing, you are missing a bit part of the equation.

You have to integrate all of those other elements into  your training in order to develop high-level hitting.

Having a "sweet swing" is a good start but you also have to see the ball, recognize what pitch it is and where it is going, decide if you will swing or not, make adjustments, and more.

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:

"The only place where success comes before work, it's in the dictionary!"

And that's true.

More specifically… LEARNING TAKES TIME!

Learning a new skill or changing a bad habit doesn't happen over night. IT TAKES TIME!

And you need to work at it too.

Here's in a a nutshell how learning works:

At first, when you learn a new way of doing something, your performance doesn't improve, it goes down!

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.

I'm allergic to walks. Most of the time, almost 60-70% come to  score - especially when given early in the inning.

4) Don't give easy bases to any runner, especially to the  trail runner.

5) Always get at least one "sure" out. Lead runner if you can.

The team that gets to 21 out the fastest usually wins.

 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.

It was just to set the table.

So, why was I working with her on her hitting then?

Because, a SMART coach saw how athletic she was and asked me to spend time with her on her hitting believing she could be a great hitting asset to the team.

I saw the same thing. She could be a good hitter.

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.

Especially if you are in an indoor environment for part of the year because of the winter.

Why?

Because hitting is like golf, it takes A LOT of time to learn, refine, and master. It's even harder than golf because you're hitting a moving object.

Because it's like pitching - you need to work on it for hours to improve a little at a time. To get your mechanics and your timing right.

Steve Ellis, a well-known consultant to pitchers in baseball sent yesterday a link to an article published in the New York Times about dynamic  stretching.

A very interesting article. It re-emphasize  what I've said before that old-school, traditional  warm-ups with static stretching aren't effective to  prevent injuries and even hurt your performance on  the field.

The article cites recent studies that provides further of these statements. You should definitely read it.

Here the link to the NY Times article -  Stretching: The Truth

Bottom line, you MUST ditch old-school, run-around-the-field, sit-down-in-a-circle-and stretch warm-ups.

They don't work.

They hurt your performance.

Enough said, for even more information about it or get a softball-specific dynamic warm-up, go to:

Dynamic Warm-Ups for Softball

Old habits are hard to change but they must change when it is shown that these habits aren't the best for you.

Way back, they used to say smoking was good for you…

Train hard. Play hard.

Marc
"Your Softball Peak Performance Coach"

Yesterday, i was doing a hitting session with my team.

I was teaching the "inside-out" concept. It's a bit technical without being that complicated.

After the "theory" and "dry swing" part of practice, we  got into a circuit with stations.

One of the stations was a tee station.

And as I do usually, I walk around and help players who struggle with certain stations or need more individual attention.

One of my athletes was practicing at that tee station and was obviously not getting it.

The problem was that she was swinging at full speed trying to get it right.

That can't work!

when you are trying to learn something new or change your mechanics - you've got to slow down to get it right!

The body CAN'T learn something new at full speed. It needs time to learn the new movement and figure out how to do it.

If you are old enough to drive, think about the first time you learn how to drive a car. Did you go at 80 mph right away?

Obviously not. You were going very slowly to get the hang of it.

I've been coaching a long time.

It's my 20th season in softball this year.

I've coached at literally all levels.

Recreational. Travel ball. College. International.

10U. 12U. 14U. 16U. 18U. 23U. Senior.

Why am I saying this?

Because I've been there and done that at just about every level. I can relate to a coach at pretty much any level.

And there is one common characteristic at all levels: Coaches do have favorites.

It's a common belief that having favorites is a bad thing.  I don't agree.

It depends of who you favour.

If you favor your daugther because you want to get her more play time to the detriment of other as or even more deserving kids - that's bad.

If you favor kids to the detriment of others just because of race or because you don't like their parents - that's bad too.

However, you cannot like every body equally and as human beings, we do tend to favour people to the detriment of others - that's human mature.

As I coach - I do have favorites and I do favor people.

A few years ago, as a younger and less experienced coach,  like most new coaches in softball, I wanted to win, win often,  and win it all.

That was at the recreational level and also in travel ball at the younger levels (12U, 14U, 16U).

So my thinking was the following - practice super hard in the off-season, be a mile ahead of everybody else out  of the gate in April, May, and June to win as a many games  as possible against opponents who aren't yet at their peak.

Of course, I also wanted to win in July and August when it counts the most.

Two things kept happenening:

1) We would win a lot early but burn out later in the summer  because of the early pressure (that happened more at the rec level).

Or

2) We would struggle early because we had work hard on so many things that the girls needed time to assimilate and integrate all of those things in their game and I would get frustrated because I wouldn't understand why we would struggle because we outwork all the other teams by a mile in the off- season (that happened more at the travel ball level).

Not long ago, I was observing a coach teach hitting.

It was obvious he knew something or two about softball hitting.

But he was really bad at teaching it. His players had a hard time applying what he was teaching.

Here's what he was doing.

He kept telling his players about what they shouldn't do rather that they should do.

Don't hold the bat in your palms.

Don't step too far.

Don't lean over too much.

Don't over-rotate.

Don't extend your arms too early.

You get the picture.

Most people (even his own players) would probably not realize how bad this approach his but it really is.

You see, you brain is like a computer. Whatever you tell him - it's gonna execute like a command.

Let me give you an example.

Don't think of the color red. I mean it - Don't think about RED!

What are you thinking about? The color blue? No - you're  thinking of the color red.

The "red" is a cue (or like a commmand to your brain), as  soon as you read this word, you imagine that color. We are visual people and put words into images in our head.

I started working with my team officially this weekend with our first practice yesterday.

We have a good hitting team. And yesterday, I was  introducing a few simple softball hitting concepts mostly about stance, rythm and loading/trigger/negative movements.

I have one player who said "I can't do it".

What?

"I can't do it. My body won't do it."

Are you kidding me?

Wow - we got also as much, if not more coaching on the  thinking and mental side than we do on the technical side.

But you know what? It is certainly not usual.

In this case, this young lady was actually arguing with me to convince me that she couldn't do it.

I'm only talking about a slight trigger here. What else can't she do? I'm looking forward to see.

This is actually very typical.

And this is a big block to getter better.

Kids are used to instant success, instant fixes, to getting what they want NOW!

They aren't used anymore to working hard and facing obstacles to get what they want.

This kind of thinking is really a big road block to getting  better.

It happens all the time - errors and mistakes.

Softball is full of it. In fact, it's a sport of errors.

The team that makes the least usually wins.

At the younger levels, teams don't get beat, they beat themselves.

Coaches and parents are in most cases very well-intented. They want to help their kid or their players get better by providing feedback or  "shake them up" a little.

They usually do that in the team post-game talk or in the car on the way back home.

Is that a good idea?

Some will argue yes. Some will argue no. Some will say it depends.

Let me put this from the player's perspective.

You make a mistake. The whole park (most likely) saw you make it. You feel bad. Your feel you've let your team, your coaches, your parents and most importantly yourself down.

You feel embarassed. You're angry at yourself. You KNOW you made a mistake.

What's the point of "agitating" this fact once more in your face in front of everybody in a meeting after the game or on the way when you are still mad or all emotional about it?

Today, I was in NY State with my good friend Sean Cotter. Sean is the Head Softball Coach at Plattsburgh State University,  one of the best NCAA Division III softball program in the country.

Sean is very well-known for driving his opponents crazy with a very aggressive style of play. And I mean really aggressive.

He uses just about every ways he can find to "manufacture runs" and "make things happen".

I know. I used to play him in exhibition games a few years ago with my 23U team and he would drive my players crazy.

Of course, they do the basic. They steal. They slap. They drag. They squeeze. They hit and run or run and hit.

But, they can be quite unconventional. They often take two bases on a sacrifice bunt, they're running to home from 3rd on anything that is hit on the ground ("angle down" ball), they always suicide squeeze (very rarely use the safety), they leave slightly early,  they slap from the right side, and the list goes on.

Some people would call that crazy or too aggressive but guess what? They are very successful. And they do drive their opponents crazy and they get in their head big time.

There is a disease that often goes undiagnosed.

Pitching (and other skills too) is very technical.

It takes a lot of hours to learn, master, and refine the various technical elements of pitching if you include all of the pitches.

It's very easy to confuse pitchers.

All you have to do is to give them too much info.

And you know what, coaches, parents, and instructors do it all the time.

However, well-intentioned dad do it much more often.

In their desire to help learn faster, they provide feedback to their daughter on each and every pitch during pitching practice!

What a mistake. For three reasons.

1) The kid becomes dependant on that feedback. They aren't learning to think on their own and analyze themselves what happens. They aren't learning to be their own coach. They  rely on their dad (or pitching coach) to do it fothem.

Bad! Bad! Bad!

2) You see, the brain can process only so much info at the same time. Too much of it and they are confused.

Overloading the brain with info is the same thing has rush hours on busy highways.

A few weeks ago, I took over a 16U team.  That's the first time in 10 years that I will be back working at that level.

That should be an interesting and fun challenge.

Since I knew very little about the team and its athletes, I registered the team into a fall tournament to get to know the atheltes better, evaluate them.

It also gave me a chance to teach about my philosophy, my offensive and defensive mindset, my expectations, etc.

We ended up winning the tournament.

That led me to think further about what it takes to build a successful team.

Here's my recipe for success

• Committed and "coachable" athletes
• High-quality instruction and development program
• Athletes who have a character and a love for the game
• Picking athletes with good athleticism
• Developing a strong work ethic and discipline
• Teaching decision-making skills
• Integrating mental training for increased confidence, focus, and mental toughness
• Strong, consistent and powerful softball hitting
• Dominant and consistent pitching
• Solid and consistent defense
• Finely-tuned short game skills
• Aggressive baserunning
• Strong leadership from the coaching staff

Do you know what the definitation of insanity is?

It's to keep doing the same things the same way and expect different results.

That's dumb! Yet, I guess it's human nature.

Think of people trying to lose weight, they probably tried the combo intense exercises and drastic calorie cutting several times before giving up only a few days or a few weeks later.

Yet, they keep trying to lose weight the same way again and again and again.

And they fail everytime. If something is not working for you, you've got to change how you do things.

Softball is no different. If a certain way of training, a certain way of coaching, a certain strategy or a  certain technique doesn't work after you sincerely tried it - Change.

Try something else.

I see so many coaches and athletes that keep doing  things a certain way and still don't get results.

Now you can either continue to do what you’ve always  done – and keep getting the same results.

In this podcast, Marc Dagenais discusses the various performance factors in three major categories (technical training, physical training, and head training) that you should be working on during the off-season. He explains why it's important not to underestimate some key performance factors in the physical and head training categories while also discussing what to emphasize more in the technical training categorie.

 

 Podcast #13 - The Key Performance Factors to Train [22:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download