In this episode of Fastpitch TV, Gary Leland features Leah O'Brien Amico inspiring talk from a Fellowship of Christian Athletes breakfast.
Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog
The day after Christmas is known as Boxing Day in many countries outside the U.S. Traditionally, it's a day where the wealthy either give gifts to their servants or trade places with them for a day.
That latter concept isn't a bad one for fastpitch softball coaches to adopt now and then. We get so used to barking orders and instructions that we forget that what we're saying may not be what our players are hearing. And we may not be coming off quite the way we'd like.
That's a lesson that often gets learned when the team puts on skits as part of a team building exercise. Sooner or later, someone does an imitation of the coaches, and while it's meant to be funny there can be some interesting truths that come out.
A good question to ask yourself is "Could I play for me?" While the temptation is to give an immediate "yes," stop and really think about it for a minute. The answer might surprise you.
In this episode of Fastpitch TV, Gary Leland talks with Coach Patty Gasso about:
- how she got involved with softball
- what it was like to win the WCWS
- how she got started in coaching softball
- what some of the challenges where when she first started coaching
- what it likes to be a Sooner
- and more
Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog
Traditionally, the holidays are a time for family. So what better time to take a step back and re-evaluate your priorities than during this time when things usually slow down a bit? Especially when it comes to being a parent/coach.
Most people who coach start out for the right reasons. Usually a team their daughter is on needs a coach, the coach has some knowledge and wants to give back to the game, and the parents wants to spend more quality time with his/her daughter.
Somewhere along the way, though, competitive natures come out and even for those with the best intentions it becomes a little less about spending time with your daughter and more about racking up the W's. That's when the trouble starts.
Suddenly your daughter isn't your daughter anymore. She's the kid who threw a pitch down the middle on an 0-2 count with the winning run on second. Or she's the kid who dropped the easy fly ball, booted the grounder, or popped up with runners in scoring position.
Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog
About once a year I like to tell the story of how the Discuss Fastpitch forum that we all love got started. I think just about everyone there will agree that it's a tremendous resource whether you're a rookie or a grizzled veteran. Yet it didn't come from nowhere. So gather 'round the Yule log kiddies and here this great and hoary tale.
Many years ago there was a similar resource call the Fastpitch Forum. It was run by a guy named Dr. Alan Ross out in California who had a daughter who played, and for several years it offered the finest discussions anywhere.
Once Alan's daughter graduated and stopped playing he lost interest, and the Fastpitch Forum was taken on by a couple of members who quickly let it slip into a sorry state. One in particular was the culprit, turning it into a forum for his political views, and soon it deteriorated to the point where nearly everyone left. Cue the sad music.
A few years later, one of the members of the old Fastpitch Forum thought it was time to give it another try. That person was Marc Dagenais.
In this week's episode of Fastpitch TV, Gary Leland talks about the NFCA convention, what the NFCA is, and why you should join if you haven't already.
Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog
Many of you have probably heard the expression "Practice doesn't make perfect — it makes permanent." Yet how often have you really thought about that in the context of your own work?
I know I see that in action all the time. Walking through a facility or along a field I will see teams diligently running drills or working on techniques that essentially have them practicing to lose. Even though they may have best of intentions.
I see it with hitting a lot. I like hitting stations as much as the next coach, but they can do as much harm as good if they're not set up or supervised properly.
Now, if you have older players whom you've worked with for awhile you can probably have them work the stations without someone being with them every minute. But for younger players it often doesn't work as well.
I will see young players putting no effort into hitting off a tee because they think it's for babies. So they just sort of knock the ball off instead of working on elements of their swings.
In this Fastpitch TV show, Arron Weintraub talks about attitude, it's affect on performance, and the two most important mental skills for success.
Also watch this episode to find out how you can win a Rip It Force Fastpitch Bat by Rip It Sporting Goods.
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Thoughts?
Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog
Whether you're working with a team or an individual, many fastpitch softball coaches struggle with where to start. There's so much to learn in our game that it can be quite overwhelming.
This is where coaches can take a cue from the business world — in particular the "funnel" approach used in sales. Most sales organizations have it down to a science. They know that if they're going to close X number of sales, they need to X number of customers to come to the website, which means they need their promotional efforts to reach X number of people in total.
In the case of coaching, it works this way. Start with the big things, get those happening first, and then work your way down into the details.
Now, that may seem rather obvious but you'd be surprised how many coaches try to get to the detail parts too quickly — or try to teach everything about a skill at once. What usually happens is the player becomes so overwhelmed by information that she doesn't learn much of anything.
In this episode of Fastpitch TV, Jennie Ritter talks about the Q Sport, what the basic idea of the Q Sport is, what it tells you about player ability, how it helps softball players improve their game, and more.
