Miscellaneous

Written by Stacie Mahoe

Most coaches have fears, worries, or anxiety about something. In fact, I'm not sure I know any coaches who don't.  It's pretty normal, when you really care about something greatly, to have concerns or worries about it.

However there is one softball coaching fear in particular that I see get in the way of good coaching time after time.

Can you guess what it is?

It's the fear of what others will think about you. I've heard advisers in other areas of life say that if you really want to be successful, you have to stop caring what other people think of you and your choices.

I believe that holds true for coaching softball too.

It's an easy trap to fall into. You and I both know how many critics there are of any softball coach. It comes with the territory. It's tough not to take things personally. Sure we all intellectually know that we shouldn't, but that's not always easy.  You're not the only coach who finds challenge in not allowing whispers (for shouts for that matter) from the outside impact what you do and the choices you make as a coach.

Keeping What You See in Perspective
Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

Softball fanatics love evaluating what those at high levels of play are doing. We may even watch the mechanics of some of the top players in Major League Baseball. As fanatics, we love to study those mechanics and try to learn from them in order to help our players, or our own children (male and female) become the best they can be.

There is a danger in all of this, however. Namely an inability to keep what you see in context.

While the mechanics of some of these great hitters make a good model and a good goal, it's important to be realistic in your expectations. Because like it or not, there is a huge difference between a 28 year old MLB player and a 12 year old girl.

Let's start with the obvious: a grown man is much stronger than a young girl. Not just in the upper body, but in every aspect. Take the strongest 12 year old girl you've ever seen and put her in a cage match with a 28 year old male professional athlete, and the girl is going to lose. Badly. So expecting a 12 year old girl to have the exact same swing mechanics, including the explosiveness, of a 28 year old MLB player is not very realistic.

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

Yes, it's that time of the year again. The fastpitch softball summer is season is coming to a close, and with it players (and their parents) are starting to look at next year.

For some, the decision will be easy. They like their team, they like their coaches, they want to stay right where they are. For others, it's not quite as clear-cut.

If you're in the former group, congratulations. Glad to hear it, although this article probably won't be of much interest to you. If you're in the other group, though, you have a lot to think about in the next few weeks (or days).

Where you go likely will depend on your situation and what you want out of the game. If you're a starter but just unhappy with the coaching, or with some of your teammates, or some other general aspect of the team, you may just be looking for a change of scenery. But if you feel like you haven't been getting a fair opportunity, you may have to make some tough decisions.

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.

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.

The King and His Court is like the Globe Trotters of softball. They do a really fun and great softball show. Click on the play button below to watch a clip from one of their shows - courtesy of Fastpitch TV. Enjoy!

I recently read an article at TheGuardianOnline.com which was so full of softball awesomeness, I just had to share it with you.  It's no wonder this team is experiencing success this season and quite impressive under a first year head coach!

Here are some of my FAVORITE highlights from this article…

…everyone has identified their role and what it takes for the team’s identity of success…
Too many players and coaches miss out on that part after the "and!"

"It’s important that every player that wears a jersey realized they are just as important as a starter," …. "It is a constant reminder they need to be prepared to produce."
I could not agree more. Many times "bench" players are asked to "accept" their role, but this often diminishes their importance within the team environment. Make sure everyone on the team grasps how important and critical EACH team member is.

We have to get the little things done.
The "big" things don't always go as we plan. Sometimes they happen. Sometimes they don't. The "little" things are usually what we have the MOST control over. Make excellence in those "little" things a priority and I'll bet more of the "big" things fall into place.

Fastpitch TV Episode 155 features Alissa Haber in Part 3 of her hit series.  In this video, Alissa explains the keys to a good softball hitting swing. Find out about…

• How to give yourself the best chance of hitting success
• The simple test you can use to make sure you're avoiding extremes in your swing
• Heel plant
• Hip action
• Hands/staying in plane
• And generating most power with maximum efficiency

Watch Part 2 - The Stride
Watch Part 1 - The Stance

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Discover the Secrets Elite Softball Hitters Use to Frustrate Pitchers, Hit with Power, and Earn More Playing Time by Achieving Extraordinary Performances at the Plate!
===> SoftballHittingOnline.com!

“If you are not enough without it, you will never be enough with it”

I love quotes. I just absolutely love quotes. Whether they are about chasing dreams, building confidence, working hard anything that I can use to inspire me. So I love watching some of the all time classic sports coaching movies. The ones where at just the right time emotionally the well respected old coach delivers the perfect motivational saying. The one that rallies the troops to come back from an insurmountable score, the one that sticks with you the rest of your life and you just wait for the right time to share it with others and pass it on.

One of the lines that has stuck with me for 18 years now actually comes from one of the most unexpected places. The comedy classic “Cool Runnings” which is about the Jamaican Bobsled team. The coach in the movie is played by John Candy and throughout the movie he is the exact opposite of what you would expect from a “great coach.” He’s not very disciplined. He doesn’t even try hard. As the move progresses you learn that he got kicked out of the sport he loved, bobsledding, for cheating. Clearly not the kind of person you would want leading your daughters … right?

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

With each new season, many softball players and coaches get new bats, new gloves, new training devices, new DVDs etc. That's great, and we hope you got everything you wanted.

Yet we also want to issue a basic warning: those bats, balls, gloves, machines, DVDs and devices are only effective when you get out and use them. Now, that might seem obvious, but in my experience it's not.

I remember borrowing a guest player from an older team a few years ago. She was age-eligible to play with us, but since her dad was the coach of the older team I could see why she was playing with them.

In any case, she came to play with us one day, and brought her nice Rocket Tech bat with her at a time when they were not very common. She comes up to bat with runners on base, and I'm waiting for the payoff. She stands there as strike one goes by, then does the same with strike two. I finally yelled, "Leslie, those expensive bats work better when you swing them."

Coaching softball is not just a matter of running drills. There is actual teaching involved and I am amazed at how many coaches seem to bypass or forget about that part.

I recently watched some newer coaches coaching Little League baseball and I realized that some coaching mistakes are universal. The same mistakes that are made while coaching softball are also made in other sports as well. Take this teaching issue for example…

Some coaches skip this aspect altogether for a number of reasons. Sometimes it's because they feel the pressure of the season coming up. Sometimes it's because they simply aren't sure how to teach skills. Sometimes it's because they feel players should already know certain things and they shouldn't need to teach it.

I don't care what age level or competition level you coach in, if players don't know how to do something, whether they "should" already know it or not, it IS your job to teach them!

Where the mistake is made

It's said that becoming good or competent at something or reaching a level of mastery happens in stages. First you learn the skill or concept. Then you practice it. Typically, you need to do those two things in order before you can master something.

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