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More Numbers
by Dave
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
For those of you looking to kill time via anything having any relation to the sport of softball, you may want to peruse the results from some of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Administered and Endorsed Recruitment Camps. Just pick a camp that has already taken place and then take a look at "Camp Quick Links," go down a bit and click on "2008 Camp Results." There are other interesting pieces of information accessible here aside from the results. Enjoy!
Several camps have not yet taken place and, as such, have no results posted. In these instances, the names of participants are usually listed. If you want to spy on your friends and neighbors to see exactly who may aspire to a college softball scholarship, take a look! Actually, that's a joke. What is interesting about the lists of participants is the graduation years. This is a good way to understand what aged girls usually participate in case you are contemplating applying for acceptance to a camp.
There are few 2012s, a few more 2011s, many more 10s and 9s signed up for one camp I looked at. In my many perusals over the years I do not think I have seen very many girls at these camps who are just going into their freshman years in the upcoming school year. Those are a relative rarity and for good reason. As soon as they set foot onto a high school campus, they are untouchable to college coaches. They'll mature and ripen into prospects late in their sophomore years, become approachable July 1 after their junior years, and while there is a lot of buzz about those early "verbals," I suppose one must really be a standout, approach the coach on their own, or otherwise catch the attention of a coach to attain that kind of status. What I mean is college coaches, to my knowledge, don't jump out from underneath their radar guns (reading 67!) at recruitment camps, walk by next year's freshmen, and pretend to drop their business cards and piles of papers detailing their programs' attributes. A little birdy tells me that there are other ways to skin that cat.
Another piece of information concerns the teams these girls play for. Lots of times I hear from people looking to find a team which can garner their kid some exposure to college coaches. The list of teams who have players at the NFCA camps doesn't really provide that information but it does show you some teams which might be a bit more serious about the college recruitment process. I believe all of these camps conduct a tournament in addition to the recruitment camp so you can cull out which of the teams with participants don't play the tournament. From there you can supplement this limited information by looking at which of these teams play some of the more serious showcases. This should give you at least a snapshot of teams from your area which may be of interest to you.
I suppose some of the more important figures folks might be interested in viewing are pitchers' pitch speeds, catchers' pop times, and all players' throwing and running speeds. The available stats vary depending on whether you look at administered or endorsed Camps. The administered camps list 20 yard dash results under the SPARQ testing results. Some of the endorsed camps list results for times from home to first. I don't have much knowledge regarding SPARQ but from what I can tell, the 20 yard dash does not resemble the home to first runs. I say that because there are few sub-3 20 yard SPARQ runs and many sub-3 times to first.
One of the things I like to do with data like this is pull it out of the charts and combine multiple camps results for a particular position, like catcher, and then post it into an Excel spreadsheet which allows me to manipulate the data. Once everything is pulled into a single spreadsheet program, you can sort the data fields by listing pop times, throwing speed, etc. by fastest to slowest. You can determine an average for all participants, pull out the fastest and slowest 10% (or whatever) and then see how that impacts averages, or a whole host of other numbers crunches just to see where your kid stacks up.
In case working with spreadsheets is beyond your capabilities or just plain bores you, there are other pieces of information which the NFCA publishes, not having anything to do with the camps, which can provide some of what you are looking for. For instance, there is a PDF page in the "Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Recruiting Camp Results" which answers the question: "How do my daughter's results compare to that of a NCAA Division I athlete?" But I'm not entirely sure I trust the information provided therein.
The pitching speed range for Div I athletes looks like this:
66 & above Excellent
63 - 65 Good
59 - 62 Average
58 & below Needs Work
To me, this is not all that valid or valuable. I've watched a lot of college games and I'd have to say "66 & above" may very well be excellent but it is also quite rare. The past couple of years I would hazard to guess that there were but a handful of pitchers whose top speeds in games were recorded at or above 66. Those few were not merely "Div I athletes" but athletes at elite Div I programs. It may not be commonly discussed but there are actually run of the mill and even some very weak "Div I programs." Those kinds of programs do not always attract the sort of pitcher who records 66 and up. Besides, there are effective pitchers who never get close to that speed but who have superior location and great movement.
Additionally, while the chart lists 63-65 as "good," I'd have to say that at least in my limited experience, it is a bit better than merely good. if you watched any of the ASA Gold national championships last year on TV, you saw very effective pitchers throw in this range and below. Some of them had already signed or received verbal commitments to top Div I programs. Can you imagine someone approaching you and noting that your or your daughter's recorded speed of 65 after her junior year of high school is "pretty good, keep working and maybe one day you'll be excellent, you're a pretty good little pitcher, keep working hard and maybe, if you're lucky, you might get into a mediocre Div I program."
I don't dispute that 59-62 is average though I haven't crunched the numbers or seen where anyone else has. I do believe I've seen a number of Div I pitchers who seldom hit 59. These girls usually have movement and command on their side, not to mention good mental toughness and loads of experience pitching high level games. 58 and below probably does "need work." But, on the whole, I'd say this chart could use some work. Not that many high school aged pitchers throw at or above 59.
As an aside, I feel the need to mention two things lest I get a bunch of e-mails "informing" me of some facts. Yes, I do know that pitchers in college throw from 43 feet while kids in high school and younger levels of youth softball throw from 40. This should not have any effect on the top recorded speed of any pitch. Obviously, when throwing longer distances, the ending speed of the pitch will be sloser. That is, a single pitch will record a slower speed when it is say 43 feet from the pitcher than it will when it is 40 feet from her. The pitch's top speed, however, is the same whether it is thrown from 40 or 43. If you do not understand that, please do not write to me for a clarification. I can't help you understand this.
Additionally, the way radar works, the gun (assuming you have a good one) will register a more accurate reading if it is pointed on the same line as the pitch. If the catcher were to hold a gun instead of a mitt and the pitch were to come in and hit the gun directly, the reading should be very accurate - though perhaps the gun would be broken! If the radar gun were held by somebody in the on-deck circle, the reading would be relatively inaccurate. That's because of the Cosine Effect which is "called this because the measured speed is directly related to the cosine of the angle between the radar gun and the target's direction of travel." If you want a more accurate reading of your daughter's pitch speed, stand behind the catcher and use a good gun. Don't sit in the stands and get discouraged because she is pitching too slow. Don't stand to the side and measure your daughter's overhand throwing speed from a point not pretty much in a direct line with the throw.
It often amazes me how many people don't understand the Cosine Effect. In fact, it is apparent to me that many, many people have never heard the term. I have been to many tournaments including showcases and watched as somebody, sitting 10 or more feet to the side of the direct pitch line, lifts the gun and takes a reading. You can imagine the lower echelon college coach doing this, looking at the gun and thinking to his or herself, "gee whiz, just 62, that's only average, I'm not interested in her."
So, be careful to not be concerned about getting speed measurements of pitches only at 43 feet, checking speeds from a "safe distance" from the line of the pitch, and/or spending too much time getting stressed out because your poorly taken measurements don't stack up well enough with the recruitment camp crowd or the NFCA's chart of typical Div I pitchers!
I can't say that I've ever timed pop times for some of the best catchers I've seen either in college or high school (or anywhere else for that matter). But if you compare pops at the recruitment camps with the NFCA chart, I do believe that while there are a few 1.8s, precious few are below that mark. And, interestingly, one girl who threw beneath a 1.8 pop also threw one try above 2.0. Her overhand throwing speed was 58 mph which happens to just barely make the mark of "good" found at another location on the NFCA's chart. I cannot judge this girl's prospects because for all I know she could be an 8th grader. She might have had a stomach virus or a bout of insomnia the night before the camp. But the important thing is that there is not a lockstep correlation between throwing speed and pop times. Using the chart, you might come to the conclusion that your throwing speed is so good, anybody would be nuts not to pick you for the Olympic team. Or, alternately, you might conclude that whikle your pop time is better than anybody else, your throwing speed is just average so you might just as well join the chess team and give up this stupid softball dream.
I saw one catcher who threw successively 1.72, 1.78 and 1.65. Those are some great figures. But I've never seen this no-name player catch a game. I can't say if her overall catching mechanics are good, if she is a good, average or poor receiver, if she blocks pitches in the dirt well, etc. I don't know if she can hit. I don't know if she can run to first in under 5 seconds. I expect a kid with that much throwing talent probably has the whole thing together but there's no way to be sure. Besides, while dry pop times are one measure, there's no way to tell if she tenses up too much in games, especially big important ones. That's not even to mention that she might stand, after hours of traction, at no more than 5 feet tall or maybe weigh less than 100 pounds. She may be a gifted 5 foot 11 athlete who plays better under real competitive pressures but whose school grades average around C+ in relatively remedial or basic courses. Pop times are a valuable measure but, as always, just one of many considerations.
The average pop for a Div I catcher may very well be in the range of 1.91-2.00 but I question the usefulness of some straight-A high school honors student freshman (just beyond puberty, who starts varsity, hits the heck out of the ball in competitive Gold games, calls pitches for the all-America, 67-mph-throwing pitcher on her elite travel team, and rarely suffers a PB) using this chart to get discouraged because her still youthful, muscularly-undeveloped arm throws only 57 and her dry pop times come in around 2.05.
Anyways, that's my rant for the day. I get so many questions about numbers that I thought I'd direct everyone to places where I would ordinarily obtain my understanding of them. It is easy to get discouraged by looking at the NFCA's chart. It is also possible to get unwarrantedly optimistic based merely on pitch, running or throwing speeds. These things represent a measurement. They, in and of themselves, should not encourage or discourage anyone.Labels: catching, coaching, college, parenting, pitching, players
Permanent Link: More Numbers
 
Versatile!
by Dave
Friday, July 11, 2008
Does it occur to anyone that Andrea Duran, a slapper, hits a fair number of home runs? Does it occur to anyone that Jessica Mendoza, possibly the best overall hitter in the game today, is equally comfortable dragging, slapping one to the outfield corners, or drilling one well over the fence? Have you seen Crystl Bustos play third? She has a rocket arm and lightening quick response to balls hit at her. By the way, she may not get down to first in 2.6, but she is NOT a slow runner by most human standards. Jennie Finch knows her way around the bat rack - she is a very good hitter. One of the elements of this game which differentiates it from baseball is the versatility of its top players. Ignore that at your own risk.
I once knew a girl who was a true peanut. She was smaller than girls two years younger. She was a quick runner so her parents decided to turn her into a slapper because "she was never going to hit the ball out of the infield." They followed this approach to the exclusion of any other kind of hitting. She's startiung to grow now and her strength is on the upswing. She may not ever be tall but she is probably going to be around average height once her body gets in gear.
There was a girl who, at the age of ten, was a "better athlete" than any of the girls in her rec league. She was good enough to play with the older girls and often did just that. By rec league standards, she was a good fielder with speed and a strong arm. She often played short, even when playing with older girls. Her parents saw her exclusively as an infielder even going so far as to exclude from consideration any travel teams on which she was not guaranteed starting time at short or another suitable infield position. Yet, anyone who watched her recognized that her throwing mechanics were not well suited to infield play and her instincts in the outfield were among the very best around - that is, best around travel circles, not merely in the rec league. In short she was a "B" infielder and an "A" outfielder.
My kid claims she wants to play second base. She has voiced some desires to see more time at 2B on the team I coach. But her load up on throws is a bit long for an infielder. She has a quick release when compared to her peers. But I can see that her throwing mechanics will be better suited to outfield if she is unable to change them. I've tried to correct this and perhaps we will one day but, you know, she's a very good outfielder who threw three people out at first in this her first year of seeing considerable time in right.
My other kid says she wants to play third. But when no action comes her way over say ten pitches, it is apparent to me that her attention wanes. We've talked about this but I have yet to see any improvement. She is a very good 3B on balls hit in front of her and her arm is suited to oplaying the position. But aside from the attention thing (which scares the heck out of me), she doesn't move laterally all the well on liners. She moves well to her left but her quick movements to the right are at or below average for all players and not as quick as they need to be at third. She can play outfield well enough. She's also not bad around 2B but hates the position.
We have a girl on this year's team who is an overall very good player. In the fall, we used her as a catcher. She was outstanding at the position. But she insists that she never again wants to go behind the plate. We used her some at first because she is tall, long in the arm, and scoops just about anything out of the dirt. It is pretty difficult to throw anything over her head and anything to either side is usually easy for her to get to. Once a throw pulled her off the bag and she quickly jumped off, caught it and tagged the runner before she made the bag. Nobody had ever taught her to do this. Her instincts fot her there. On another play, our infielder held a very fast runner at third and then made the play to first. The runner at third broke immediately to home. Everybody in the place froze. Nobody on the team, including coaches, found the voice to yell "throw it home." This girl made a great catch, pivoted immediately and threw the kid out by about three steps. Her throw, under pressure was about a foot off the ground, and a half foot off the plate. The catcher had only to make the catch and the tag was applied for her. This girl doesn't like first and would prefer to play third where her reactions are not quite as stellar.
We had a girl who insisted her one and only position was third. She was pretty good at it. But we needed a SS. This 3B was one of the fastest and quickest kids on the team, knew the game well, and could make any play required of a shortstop. We put her out at short one scrimmage game and she did quite well. But after that experience, she told us that she much prefers third. "That's my position." Anyone could see that this girl had the potential to be an "A" shortstop, anyone except her school and rec team coaches. Those folks had pigeon-holed her into the role of third baseman. It took everything I learned in the Dale Carnegie "How to Win Friends and Influence People" class I took in my late teens to finally convinve this kid to stick to short with us and play third wherever else she played.
I like girls to be happy in the positions they play. It is a cardinal rule of fastpitch softball that girls. particularly those just entering puberty, must be happy to play ball (the corollary being that boys must play ball to be happy). I don;t want kids out there moping around, cursing their assigned positions. That can be dangerous or a formula for losing and creating disharmony on a team. At the same time, I thoroughly believ that versatility is critical to a player's success in softball.
Many parents have approached me at various times to object to my playing kids at more than one, often more than two, different positions. They would like to know who is playing and hitting where in the line-up the same way they know their favorite professional team. Manny Ramirez never plays SS. Sabathia never is in the lineup as DH. Pudge Rodriquez isn't an outfielder. A-Rod doesn't play third base. Whoops, I messed up there. That last comment is a bit dated.
The parents really get upset when I place a kid at say 2B and she fails to cover first on a bunt. They let me know that "She doesn't know that position. She has never played there before. She doesn't know that she has to cover first on bunts." I like to respond to that oft-recited rant, "now she has and does."
Many very successful teams follow a principle of one player, one position, or, in the case of pitchers and catchers in particular, one kid, one primary position and one secondary one. In this manner, they have kids who "know their position." They avoid circumstances in which the girl out at second isn't playing the position for the first time and then fails to get over to cover first on a bunt. They avoid situations in which the LF doesn't know where to stand on back-ups. They are coordinated and their kids know what to do with the ball when it comes to their one position. But those kids lack verstility and often don;t have well-rounded senses of the game. They get on a team where there is a better SS, 3B, etc., find themselves trying to learn something new, and struggling in the field to learn this "new position."
I've told you before that I was a catcher who found himself on a team with another catcher who would go on to have a fairly long major league career. I had a stick so they put me in the outfield. But I was lucky because the team ahd a coach who had played outfield in the minors and he taught me how to do it. I had played outfield for exactly one inning to that point in my career. I had no idea where to begin. Had this guy not been there to school me, my bat and I would have spent that season getting acquainted wiuth the bench.
Jessica Mendoza tells the story of how she became an outfielder. She went to Stanford on an athletic scholarship and when she got there found the team already had a sophomore All-America playing her position. Stacey Nuveman tells of how much of her early career involved playing exclusively SS. I'd be willing to bet that very few Div I college players played their predominant college position when they were 12, maybe even 14 or 15. Doesn't Cat Osterman say that she began pitching at 12?
It occurs to me that several pitchers I know were also pigeon-holed in their youth. One girl was pretty slow so her parents focused on her movement pitches rather than speed. I remember her 11 year old year. She was the smallest kid on the team. She threw maybe 40 mph with a tail-wind. I saw her yesterday. She is easily 5 feet 10 inches tall with very long arms and will possibly reach 6 feet within the year, right as she enters her freshman year of high school. She's about ready to give up pitching however because she gets tagged pretty good. She throws too slow for top level competition. her mechanics are wrong and her parents still believe the secret to her success is the movement pitches. (Don't take me wrong here - movement and location are critical but anybody can hit a 45 mph curve if it comes anywhere near the plate.)
Another pitcher I know was very fast at young ages. Now I'd say she has slightly below average speed. But her movement pitches are great and she has wonderful command. That's thanks to her parents and pitching coaches' recognition that she was not going to be particularly long or bulky as she aged. Early on the focus was to be well rounded. If she maintained speed, fine. In that event, she would be a fast pitcher with great control and movement. She's happens to be an outstanding infielder and, for that matter, outfielder. She also hits the stuffing out of the ball. This kid can play anywhere and does because nobody would ever leave her bat out of the lineup.
I watched some very young team play a tournament recently. They had a very good 10 year old pitcher. But she was kind of small. You could see her parents pacing the sideline as she pitched her way through every game that team played. Her stamina was as big as her parents were small and nervous. She pitched 3 games a day without any apparent drop-off in her performance. She played no other position. To be quite honest, I've seen better pitchers at the same age. This kid is supposed to be a plow horse when it comes to practicing and perhaps that will make all the difference for her. But to me, she is getting such a narrow experience that I believe it is harming her. She'd be better served to pitch on or one and a half games, at least on Saturdays and see some action at other positions. Perhaps her team would suffer as a result. Right now the kid suffers though nobody seems to be aware of that.
If you read this blog much, you have undoubtedly noticed I have a penchant for criticizing the "rotational" style of hitting. Today I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I don;t actually think it is wrong. What I think is wrong is teaching young kids to hit with the hip-trigger method in order to have them record extra-base-hits and homeruns in youth travel ball. What really gets up my ire is when I hear all those myths promulgated in the name of convincing everyone that rotational is the preferred method of hitting, is what all the colleges teach, and is what the Olympic softball players use. Another part of the myth is that all the big name sluggers in MLB use rotational hitting mechanics.
Recently somebody wrote something to me which included a reference to a piece of the rotational mechanic, wondered why I didn't focus on that, and criticized me for not talking more about it. When I replied, the complainer wrote me back repeating all the common myths about rotational hitting and had a link to one Olympian hitting in what appeared to be the rotational manner. I explained to him the error of his ways and I won't repeat all that again here. But suffice it to say that every truly great hitter is a rotational hitter (or appears to be one) on inside pitches and a linear hitter on outside opitches and balls up in the zone.
The Olympic team may very well teach roptational hitting mechanics but head coach Mike Candrea's hitting videos are pretty much all decidely linear in nature. Michele Smith's (she was a great hitter) advice on hitting is decidedly linear. All the major leaguers cited as rotational hitters are to a man disciples of Charley Lau, an anti-rotational voice. And if you examine tape on say Stacey Nuveman or Bustos, you will see them never let their hips fly open as the trigger to their swings unless somebody tries to jam them.
The link the fellow sent me involved a top hitter being jammed. She did look like a rotational hitter on that one. I sent back links to a dozen or more video clips which showed her to be more of a linear hitter than a rotational one and obviously demonstrating her versatility as a hitter.
The same feelings I have about rotational swing mechanics are true of slap hitting though I admit being totally in awe of what a slap hitter can accomplish in a softball game. It annoys me when I'm in the other dugout but I have to admit a grudging admiration for a girl who can chop a ball into the air and then reach first before the ball comes back to Earth.
Those circumstances are pretty rare. There aren't that many girls who can pull that off. Most slap hitters I see merely tap the ball into play. And they can't do much more than that because they have been doing only that since they were 9. The sickest feeling I get as a coach is looking at the on-deck circle and realizing our girl who can only slap is coming to the plate with the bases loaded and us trailing by a run with nobody available on the bench to hit for her. We've never won a game in those circumstances. If only the girl could pull a Mendoza and hit one hard down the line or drive one over the outfielder's heads, then things would be exciting! We have a slapper in the lineup who can drive the ball to all fields. She is always in the lineup. The one who merely dinks the ball into play is not.
A final area of consternation for me on this day is the big time, number 3 or 4 hitter who cannot lay down a bunt. I understand that on most teams, in most circumstances, you don;t want the kid who hits 5 or 600 with power to put one down. But it isn't difficult to imagine circumstances in which you might want her to do exactly that. I have interacted with coaches and parents who say, "We never want Sally to bunt. She's too good of a hitter for that." All I can say in response is "Mendoza."
Every kid who ever steps foot onto a softball diamond ought to learn to play every position on the field excluding one or two. Nobody should ever be limited to just one position. No youth team should play all of its games with one kid at a particular position, especially pitcher or catcher. It benefits everyone if every kid learns what is involved with most positions. The team benefits at times of injuries and illness. The kid benefits when, later in life, she wanst to stop pitching because she stops growing at 4 feet 11 or when her speed peaks at 53 mph. The all-star rec SS benefits by learning to play a little outfield, a little first and maybe seeing some action behind the plate. Our society is far too focused on specialization. Sure, most scientists aren't brauny enough to work a jackhammer. But that doesn't mean they should never leave their computers or laboratories.
Versatility is good.Labels: attitude, coaching, parenting, players, playing time
Permanent Link: Versatile!
The First? Fielder
by Dave
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Paul writes in to ask:My daughter, a pitcher, has some problems fielding her position defensively. She tends to have a panicked look when the ball is hit back to her and loses focus on what to do with it once in her glove. Part of this is fear of getting hit with an odd bounce and part is just lack of proper fielding technique. After that she needs to understand where her place is after a hit and she needs to move to a back up position. I don't want to teach her the wrong things but need to get her working on this.
Here is my response:
The very first thing I want to address to you is the "fear factor." Pitchers may develop a fear of balls being hit back at them, especially if they have a little scar shaped like laces on the ball or located where their broken nose or jaw was fixed. It's very tough to be so close to the gal with the stick in her hand. I strongly believe that every pitcher needs to be schooled on keeping the pitch away from the sweet spot on the bat, that is, to hit corners on every pitch. If you can paint corners, your fear of having a hotshot hit back at you should gradually diminish.
My personal belief is that in fastpitch softball, pitches should never be on the middle 8 inches of the plate. From 10 or 11 on, pitchers must be taught to work corners. Our game's ball is just too big and bright. 1 thorugh 9 of any team worth its salt can rip it when it is thrown down the midddle.
Some of us out here watch too much baseball on TV and fall in love with a 95 mph fastball thrown down the middle, challenging the hitter to catch up with it. That's baseball, not fastpitch softball. I am an advocate of teaching pitchers to throw hard before learning command. But even I have my limits. I don't particularly care whether your 11 year old can hit 55-60 on your coach's radar gun. If she throws that cheese down the middle, eventually she is going to find someone who can hit it and hit it hard. If the ball is in the center of the plate, chances are pretty good that the 60 mph pitch is going to come back at her at 94-98. And that may end your stud's pitching career regardless of how fast she can throw. Stay on the corners. It is extremely rare for a hitter to hit anything on the corners hard, straight back at the pitcher. That is the first thing you need to teach your pitcher in terms of defense.
(As an aside, to umpires who "require" the pitch right down the middle - who don't give corners, particularly when one team is beating another pretty badly, you must be ready to take personal responsibility for the broken noses, jaws and other body parts, the shortened careers, etc. which your approach has caused. I have seen so many umps change their zone or do other things to make the game move along or to provide the beaten down team with something, anything, to make them feel less bad. Just the other day, the field ump called our runner out when she was obviously safe in order to end the top of the first because we were up by 7 already. He pretty much admitted this to me. He noted to me that the other team was all 11s. So I told them we have 5x11s and 1x10 on the field with just 3 young 12s. I think he was a little surprised but not as surprised as he was when the other team scored 3 runs in the bottom half and then held us down in the top of the second before scoring again in their half. Umpires should never try to control games like that. That's what the time limit and run rules are for. And they shouldn't try to make pitchers throw down the middle unless they want somebody injured.)
A lot of how a pitcher does things defensively depends on her team's coaches and players. General fielding (balls back at her) is a matter of normal fielding mechanics, athleticism, repetition, and confidence. Let me try to develop this topic, give you some advice on what you can do, and try to list some of the issues which may vary from team to team and situation to situation.
A pitcher is in a difficult position defensively, standing about 35 feet from the plate after release. She needs to get immediately in some sort of defensive position after release. She needs to be in shape physically so that her reactions are good. And she needs to practice fielding mechanics the same way any other player does.
The first, most important step, is to get into a good ready position. That means low, balanced, and ready to move. In my opinion, she should not aspire to get quite as low with her glove as the third baseman whose glove should probably be just inches from the ground, if not actually touching it. There's not enough time for that anyway but it isn't necessarily the best defensive position for a pitcher. Most balls hit back at the pitcher are bouncing ones hit hard into the dirt. She should be low but not as low as 3B and her glove should be about knee high, in front of her, and open. Pitchers sometimes close their gloves hard or slap it into their thighs as they release the pitch. They need to be schooled to get it out in front, open and ready to make a play right after this.
Her knees need to be bent, feet even and about shoulder width apart. Her glove hand should be out in front of her. And her shoulders should be square with the plate. You can't do anything without a good ready position. You can't move equally well to either side if your feet aren't squared up. So your first goal should be to finish the pitch with a good ready position after release.
The second consideration is physical conditioning. If you want to react faster to balls hit back at you, being in the best physical shape is the pathway regardless of natural athletic ability. Kids who are in the best shape they can be will necessarily have shorter reaction times. A good off-season, or in, program of speed and agility is advisable for any softball player. The same is true of pitchers. While it is a given that everybody possesesses different athletic ability, engaging in a good speed/agility program can help anyone. It will also help a pitcher's pitching so I encourage you to pursue this.
Pitchers, like anyone else who walks onto a softball field need to be schooled in fielding mechanics. My guess is your daughter doesn't pitch every inning of every game she plays in. She could play many other positions. She should be schooled in fielding mechanics of all varities at this age in any event. If there are good fielding clinics near you, Kobata, etc., sign her up. Aside from this, I would hope your team's coaches work all the girls at fielding mechanics of all positions anyway. If they do not, you need to have her out fielding grounders, linedrives, etc. from all positions just for her own development. If you can get out once or twice a week to hit a half hour's worth of balls, that will definitely help her.
The next consideration is drills for fielding grounders from her position after release. Repetition is the key to sound fielding at any position and this does not exclude the pitcher. I recently saw a pretty good drill for doing this run at an OC Batbusters clinic. Basically, you put a girl at first, a catcher behind the plate, and the pitcher out in the circle. The pitcher pitches the ball like she would in a game and a coach immediately hits a grounder back at her. She fields it and throws to first. You can place fielders at each of the bases or have her throw home as you wish. Obviously the footwork on throws to each of the bases is different and should be practiced.
The coach should hit all sorts of balls to the pitcher. You want hard ones and soft ones, liners at her feet, bouncing balls to either side and so on. Coaches should do something like this in practice but if they don't, talk to them about a "drill I saw done" and describe this to them. You need to have other players to do this drill so it's best done at team practice.
Sometimes coaches will assemble an infield and hit balls to the various fielders including the girl standing around the pitcher's plate. This doesn't get the job done. Sometimes the coaches will have the pitcher mimick making a real pitch. This isn't enough either as she will go through the motion but make getting ready her primary goal. The pitcher needs to throw a pitch and then make a fielding play. And it is really so simple to do. There's no good reason not to spend 5-10 minutes on this at every or every other practice.
If you cannot convince your team to do my (really the OC Batbuster's) drill, I suggest modifying it at your local field. If you can't get somebody to catch or play the bases, use surrogates. A pop-up net will suffice for a catcher. Most fields have garbage cans standing around - move one over to cover first. And then hit away. This is certainly not optimal but do what you have to do to get this work in.
Additionally, there needs to be an understanding between the pitcher, the coaches, and all other infielders regarding what a pitcher's responsibility is on struck balls. My team uses a general rule of thumb which is a pitcher's responsibility for fielding a ball ends inside the circle. That is, she should not have to run outside the circle to field grounders and pop-ups. Bunts are the responsibility of the first and third basemen. There are obvious exceptions to this and the pitcher will end up fielding surprise drag bunts and other balls which do not fit neatly into my general rule of thumb - those will be practiced in the drill I discussed above.
In my experience, there's no need top tell a pitcher to go after balls. Usually she will naturally and reactively go after a lot of plays beyond her area of responsibility. But it is important to let her know that she has a team of four infielders behind her, excluding the catcher who generally will cover anything hit within a few feet of home, and she needs to develop judgment about what she can and cannot do better than the other fielders.
The corollary to this is, while a pitcher should not field a ball outside the circle, even if the ball is in the circle and another fielder can make the play, the pitcher needs to let them do that. This is really a pop-up rule. If a batter hits an infield pop-up with any real height to it, the pitcher should not usually make that play. If the ball is coming down in front of her, that is typically first or third's play. If the ball is coming down to her left at or beyond the circle, that's either 2B or SS's play. If the ball is right in the circle, the SS should take charge and call for it. In these cases, the pitcher should get out of the circle and away from the play, allowing her middle infielders to make it.
About a year ago I witnessed a play on which a pop-up was hit sky-high and came down about where the pitcher's plate is located. The pitcher stood there, hands high, watching the pop-up come down. I'm not sure whether I heard both the pitcher and SS call for it, or if nobody actually did. But in any event, the SS and P collided and the ball fell to the ground. By the way, the bases happened to be full and there were two outs at the time of the "major league pop-up." I don't recall how many runs scored but I think it was two. That left runners on second and third with still two outs. The next girl lined a single into the gap and both baserunners scored. That one simple play allowed four runs to score. And that was a Gold level game. The defensive team never recovered from those four runs.
I think sometimes we, as coaches, coach a little too much to the age group we have in front of us. In 10U ball, often the team has something like 3-5 good players, often including the girls who pitch. We encourage the pitcher to get to everything she can and make the play because it is a matter of winning and losing. At 12U, we should hope to have more than 3 players who can make routine plays every time but sometimes because of conditions beyond our control, we still encourage the pitcher to make every play she possibly can.
Even at 14U, I have heard coaches encourage pitchers to do similarly. I like to think of this as the "BNB principle" which is, the tendency to view the team like one would the Bad News Bears - a few good players who should be encouraged to jump in front of all those kids who "don't belong out there" and make every play they possibly can. But the question is, what does this practice do to the kid who continues to pitch into her later teens, perhaps even playing at the Gold level? What it does is set up the play on which an infield pop results in the pitcher running into another infielder, maybe getting hurt in the process, and allowing 4 runs that should never have seen the light of day to score.
So, in this discussion, what I'm saying to you is teach the pitcher to get out of the way on high pops, to field balls only within the circle, and let her infielders field the rest of them including ordinary bunts. That is true regardless of age level since every 10 year old is eventually going to be 18, God willing. She will naturely field some balls outside the circle anyway. She doesn't need to be told to do that. What she needs to hear is that her fielding responsibility should usually end at the pitcher's circle line. Teach good habits early. Don't subscribe to the BNB primciple.
With this in mind, I certainly recognize that not all teams' coaches will agree with me. And you do have to get along with your team's coaches. But there are limits to what you as the pitcher's parent should tolerate. One of my kid's teams follows the BNB principle due to a certain lack of talent on the roster. For example, we have a first baseman who cannot field a bunt. To me, a first baseman who cannot field a bunt is similar to a slap-hitter who tends to pop the ball up. I call that person by a particular name which is "bench player." A first baseman who cannot field a bunt is not a first baseman.
The first baseman also cannot field a pop-up more than 5 feet in front of her, no matter how high it is hit. She sees her role on the defensive side of the equation as one in which her job is to get to the bag and then catch the throw from infielders. Anything that is too far to her right is left for the 2B to field because she just has to get to the bag.
I'm not a coach on that team. Actually the father of 1B is a coach. And he encourages this errant approach because he is far too steeped in baseball. He doesn't know anything about the FP game. So he has schooled the girl that her primary responsibility is covering the bag. And the other coaches feel there is nothing they can do about this. So, instead of correcting the mistaken approach to playing the position, they tell the pitcher to get everything to her left. This includes all bunts, every soft grounder, and pop-ups. They don't worry about the P colliding with the first baseman since she will see the ball is more than five feet in front of her and retreat to cover the bag.
(As an aside, the 1B also believes any throw that is not perfectly thrown is not her responsibility. If she cannot catch it without moving her feet, it isn't her responsibility. I've never heard her corrected for not pursuing the ball first and the bag second. I just don't understand how any coach or parent can allow a first baseman to continue to play the game at that position with such a wrong understanding of what her responsibilities are. But they do and maybe you've seen similar circumstances too. But to me, a team which follows this approach is a team we won't be playing with any longer.)
As far as backing up bases, etc., this often really depends on your team's approach. Some teams use the pitcher as the primary cutoff between other fielders and home. Some teams teach their first baseman to perform this function. Obviously, if the pitcher is the primary cutoff, she is not responsible for backing up bases. Her work is to get lined up between the catcher and the outfielder or infield cutoff between her and the outfield. My personal preference is for the 1B to be primary cutoff and the pitcher to be a base backup. I think at higher levels this is usually the case. But I don't want to go any further into the topic because I have seen a fairly wide amount of variation and regardless of what I said about the BNB principle or the lack of talent at other positions, the pitcher should perform base back up responsibilities in conformity with her team's practices. I'm not willing to be taken to task on this issue as I was with the other one.
Base backup responsibilities are not something you can handle within a vacuum. You need to have this covered in practice. Yes, I have seen teams which never handle cutoffs or base backups in practice and then scream at the pitcher for being out of position on base backups. This is wrong and maybe there is nothing we can do about it other than to have a discussion with coaches that these things need to be handled in practice.
Aside from this, I think the bottom line is, if the pitcher has base backup responsibilities, the coaches do not handle this in practice regardless of how much you implore them to do so, and you are frustrated about what to tell your pitcher daughter, here are my suggestions:
If the backstop is not a college one where there is considerable distance between it and homeplate, there is no purpose to trying to backup the catcher on plays at the plate. If the play is at home and nowhere else, the best you can do is pick a point to retrieve errant throws. I believe that is a point along the third baseline in foul ground. The first baseman should cover the area in front of home along that baseline. And the 3B should be covering her bag since, if there may be a play at home, there may also be a play at third.
If the backup seems to be most important at third but the fence and out of play are say 15-20 feet from the bag, again, I suggest about the same position though closer to third than home. This way if the ball gets away from the 3B towards home, she can retrieve it quickly. If the ball goes out of control up the line towards the outfield, the LF should get after those. If the LF is making the throw to third, the pitcher would need to be in foul ground along the baseline anyways to back up the throw. Otherwise the LF should be crashing in and handle everything up the line. Some coaches would have the pitcher positioned right behind third to prevent the bad throw from going out of play. But if the pitcher is just 10-15 feet behind the 3B, there is little chance she'll be able to make a play on anything the 3B can't get. I believe along the line in foul ground is the place to be.
On all other plays, where the ball is going to 1B, 2B or just in to some infielder, the pitcher, and everyone else for that matter, need to be aware that the ball may get away and be prepared to retrieve it quickly in such eventuality. Just as I want the first baseman to be wide awake and aware that a throw in to second on a basehit with nobody on may go astray, I want the pitcher to be watching any throw in that might get away. Everyone should backup every throw just as the 2B must backup all throwbacks to the pitcher with a runner on. Outfielders make mistakes just like anyone else, even on easy, no action plays. Everyone needs to be awake on every pitch, every play, every throw in.
As far as learning the situation on which a pitcher needs to back up home, if appropriate, third, etc., given that she is not the primary infield cutoff, I'm not sure what to tell you. Basically, this is dictated by game and inning situation which I'll get to in a minute. More importantly, the coaches need to explain to their pitchers where they want them on certain situations or during the actual play. The best teams conduct drills with this in mind, remind pitchers before the play develops, and then instruct them during the play. This is just like having a baserunner on first with one or no outs and telling them to watch linedrives. You've taught them this in practice, you tell them the situation when they are on first, and then you scream "BACK" when there is an actual linedrive. The same should be done defensively.
When, say, a ball is hit to the outfield and gets past the fielder, coaches should be instructing, for example, the SS to go out and get the cutoff. They also should be judging where the play is going to develop based on where the ball is coming to a rest, the apparent speed of the baserunner(s), etc. In doing this, if they want the pitcher to, for example, back up third, they should yell this to her. What should never happen is a situation in which the coach wants the pitcher to back up third, he or she never says anything (either in practice or before or during the play), and then when the right backup has not taken place, the coach rants and raves at the pitcher for failing to backup. That does happen but it is wrong.
Finally, it is an absolute that every player on the field needs to know the game and inning situation on every pitch and have some idea of what they will do if a ball is hit their way. The CF needs to be aware that she cannot merely soft toss the ball in to the 2B after a hit when there is a runner on second. She needs to know that there may very well be a play at home. Similarly, with runners on first and second, a pitcher needs to know that if a grounder is hit back to her, she is going to third with her throw. I don't need to go over all the possible situations. You ought to be able to handle this in practice if you are a coach or jot it down on paper and go over it with your daughter if you are the pitcher's parent.
The bottom line is, before throwing every pitch, a pitcher needs to check off in her mind where she will go with the ball if X happens. Sometimes, it can be difficult to do this with young kids. It is difficult but it still needs to be done. It is an important part of any player's development. You cannot move up to the next level if you do not think this game through on every pitch. It is as important as getting into a ready position or learning good fielding mechanics. If you have to stop and think after you field the ball, you're dead at least 75% of the time.
In closing, teach your daughter to get in a ready position after release. Do this whether you are conducting pitching practice or running specific drills. Improve her athleticism by engaging in speed/agility drills or by signing up for clinics which do this. Anything that improves her physical condition will improve her ability as a ballplayer and pitcher. Teach her good general defensive skills. She needs this anyway. She may decide to quit pitching in future years but still want to play ball anyways. Good defensive skills are a necessity for every player who wants to keep playing. Conduct drills specific to the pitcher position. I gave you one. Maybe you'll find others in your travels. But do something. Try to convince your team's coaches to conduct pitcher-specific fielding drills. If you are unsuccessful, conduct some on your own. The drills must involve throwing a real pitch and then fielding a ball and making a throw to a base. Teach your pitchers, whether you are a team coach or just a mild mannered parent, what the limits of their responsibilities are - in the process also teach the other fielders to take charge in the right circumstances. Teach your pitchers to think through game and inning situations before making the pitch. If you find yourself on a team which follows the BNB principle, get away from them. You are doing your daughter a disservice if you stay. And eventually, through lots of repetition, discussion, and learning, you should develop your pitchers' defensive skills.Labels: coaching, defense, fielding, parenting, pitching
Permanent Link: The First? Fielder
Breaking Away
by Dave
Thursday, June 19, 2008
I think I receive as many questions having to do with attitude than just about anything else. Usually it goes something like "My daughter is a really good player. She is a pitcher who also plays ... She has always loved the game but now I have trouble getting her to practice. When I can get her to practice, she doesn't practice hard. I go out of my way to make myself available to go out to the fields and hit grounders and flyballs, to pitch her batting practice or take her to the cages, or to catch her pitching practice. We bite the bullet just to afford her regular lessons. She's a very good player but she could be better. I think maybe we are wasting our time, effort, and money to try to pound a round peg into a square hole. Can you offer any guidance or advice?" My reply is, "I wish I could help you with that but I can't. If you find someone who can, please give me their name and contact information."
Here is my situation: I have a couple daughters who pitch and are decent ballplayers. The older one has physical strength which could lead her to find a pretty good deal of success in this game. She has been provided some very good pitching instruction. As a result, she's a pretty good pitcher but hasn't been invited to play for Team USA yet. If I've ever given you the impression that she's the greatest thing since the yellow ball, I've misled you. She's good but she's not all that.
When she practices, she improves quite a bit. She has 6 good pitches if we include the fastball. Practicing gives her pretty darn good command. Practicing gives her better speed and movement too. If I could put the fire in her belly and make her want to practice every day, she would be a very good pitcher.
When she practices, she gets high on practicing. That is, when I get her to throw, she really enjoys it. Her mood improves immediately. She, the girl who doesn't bother to tell us when she gets a 100 on a school test or an A for the marking period, actually becomes talkative, smiles, wants to be friends again. She becomes more than a good pitcher during practices. She becomes a human being.
The trouble is the initial push to get her away from the computer, Wii and cellphone, is a very difficult push. We've tried everything in our dysfunctional arsenal, threatened to take away the electronics, threatened to stop playing travel ball, threatened to halt the pitching lessons, etc. We've searched and searched for anything we can find that will get her motivated to want to practice more, and with more effort, but nothing seems to work. The only way she'll practice is if I ask her to do it and then get mad when she wants to push it off until later. the only way I can get her to really work is to find something that motivates her like losing a game. But what motivates her today will not motivate her tomorrow. I have to keep looking and looking for things to get her to work really hard. She's become too comfortable with practicing at a certain level.
It isn't that she never practices, she does. In fact, she generally gets about a total of four sessions in per week. And long ago I made it clear that I would not answer questions like "how long are we going to throw for" or "how many more pitches do you want me to throw." We have a policy which is that if those questions are asked, practice is over right there on the spot.
The sessions usually last about an hour. I try to gauge the degree to which she is genuinely tired from pitching a lot of innings in games or from genuinely working hard at one of her physical training sessions. There are times when we go to our pitching dungeon with the idea that after one half hour we are done. Then there are times when I would like to have her pitch until she drops. Many times we go longer than I plan because we haven't finished working through all the pitches or because one pitch needs more today than usual. Since the initial discussions regarding her not asking me when this practice is over, she's pretty good about keeping on point throughout these workouts which average between 100 and 200 pitches. That's not the problem.
The way I view practicing for any sport is, I believe you must exert at least *95% of game effort in order to get better. There's nothing magical about *95%. It's really just a number I picked out of the air but I think you can understand what I'm saying. If you disagree with *95% or any other number I use here, change it. We don't disagree in principle. Our numbers are just out of sync.
Further, I believe that any practice which is done at let's say 75% to 95% is a holding pattern. You're not going to get better but you will keep the skills you currently have. Less than that level of effort and all you are doing is wasting time and fooling yourself. You've got to raise your level higher if you want to get even maintain your skills.
To me, the way to get really good is to find a way to bring your game level of effort to the practice session and to increase the number of practice sessions at which you bring your best effort. If your game effort is called a 200 and your practice effort 180, bringing your practice effort up to say 185 will result in your game level being made into maybe 210. If you were able to say bring it to 200 in practice sessions, your game would go up to 225. From there, if you could bring your practice to 225, your games would jump to 250. And so on.
Are you with me? Do you understand what I'm getting at?
Another point I want to make is when kids start out at some activity, everything is new and difficult. They have to expend full effort in order to do the thing right. In sports, maybe in everything, I follow what I call a "three year rule" which basically says, you make regular, routine improvements for the first three years you do something just by working at your skills, regardless of the real effort level. What I mean is, the first three years a kid tries pitching, goes to batting lessons, or just plays softball, she will improve regularly through ordinary effort. After about three years, she has become a pretty good player, and after that, the only way she's going to make real improvements is through bringing the effort level to practice sessions.
The three year rule is not something I invented. It is something given to me by a coach when I was around 13. He said that whenever you do something new for three years, you will find yourself becoming very competent towards the end of the three years. You'll know your way around the block. You'll be able to discuss things involved in the activity. But you won;t get any better unless you drive yourself at that point and, at the same time, you'll also learn how to really dog it through workouts.
The three year rule is kind of a catch-22. You;ve earned a level of competence which provides you probably more enjoyment than you had at any time since you started. Now you need to turn it on, if you want to get better. But now you really now how to get through workouts without really putting anything out.
This is the point at which I find myself with my daughters. They've been doing this for longer than 3 years. But they know how to get through workouts without really pouring themselves into it. They have reached a plateau and the only way over it involves losing the dog it work ethic.
It's not just my kids. Every kid I have ever coached in any sport follows this pattern. The kid who is hardest to motivate is the kid who has been doing it for three or more years. You can try to push them but they don;t generally budge.
And it isn't anything to do with age. It doesn;t matter if I'm working with a kid aged 4 or 14. If this all is new to say a 14 year old, I have no problem pushing her to the next level. But give me a 9 year old who has been playing a sport for 3 years and I know there are going to be issues.
Just about any parent of a pitcher knows what I'm talking about. She used to do everything I told her and do it with a lot of effort. Now she gives me trouble about practicing her stuff and even when she does practice, the effort is just not there. She's not getting better, or at least not getting better at the rate I want to see.
Now, I don;t have any answers for the problem. I do believe I have identified it in a way which most people can understand. But I do not sit her with the idea that I have the answer which will solve everyone's problem of this nature. Instead, what I do believe I have are some tips which might help you break through the plateau.
First of all, think about how you were when you got to a similar point in some activity. It may not have been softball or baseball. It may not have been even sports related. But with something in your life, you most likely began it with no knowledge or skill set, worked at it for a couple years, attained a level of competence, and then got somewhat bored or lacked motivation to really improve yourself. Hopefully, at some point, you refound your mojo and got busy again. What I want you to do is get real introspective and try to remember how you were able to motivate yourself anew. Maybe it was some external event like a loss to a rival, a work raise somebody else got, or an inspirational speech you attended by someone in your field of endeavor. Maybe it was a realization which struck you like lightning. I do not know all the possible things which may have motivated you but I want you to figure that out.
Then think about times when you were unable to get out of a rut or overcome a plateau. What happened to your sense of self, your confidence, your life, when you sat at some point for a long time? How did your brain react to it? If you could avoid that in the future, would you? Was that enough to get you over the hump or was something else required.
Now picture your child and know that their mental makeup is not all that different from yours. Understand that, in an experiential sense, they don't know what you know. They do not fully appreciate that a superstar like Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods routinely pushes themselves beyond their pain threshhold. They don't understand that Jordan brought his game to practices. They don't understand that when you sit still and take a break while you are firmly on some plateau, you may never be able to get off it.
One of the tricks I think which helps people overcome plateaus is interaction with others, particularly good motivators. This is the chief attribute of a really good coach, whether at the professional, collegiate, high school, or youth sports level. The really good coach is the one who thrives in circumstances in which their primary work involves motivating others.
We see this sort of person in Vince Lombardi or Bill Parcells in football, Phil Jackson, the late Jim Valvano, or Pat Summit in basketball, Sue Enquist or Mike Candrea in softball. These folks may be very knowledgeable in mechanical stuff, may really know their games and how to make their teams do great plays to win games. But more than anything else, they are outstanding motivators who not only can help their teams do the mechanical things but also teach their charges how to be motivated and what it takes to play at the highest levels.
You can disagree with me that these people are primarily motivators, if you like. But when they retire from their sports and want to do something else, more often than not what they end up doing is motivational speeches. And there is high demand for these folks to come talk to business people, government employees, etc. precisely because what they have to say in this regard is extremely valuable.
To take this a bit further, I think many of us fall into a parental trap with respect to our kids' sports careers. At early stages, we recognize that the kid needs instruction and practice. The kid most definitely does not recognize this. So we set to pushing our children to do some kind of practicing in the same way that we supervise them and make sure all their homework is done. They are too intellectually immature to take care of business or to recognize that if they skip a homework assignment or whatever, things are only going to get much more difficult. Young kids very seldom, if ever, are self-driven.
We raise these kids up from the time they can't pick up their heads to the day they start getting speeding tickets or sit down with some guy with 50 years experience to tell him how he should run his business ... at a $400 per hour rate. We teach them to walk and to speak, to eat with a spoon or fork, to keep their fingers our of electrical sockets, to not be afraid of flies, to swing a bat.
Other aspects of life have rights of passage which tell us when to pull back some, if not completely. High school graduation lets us know that our kid has arrived at the point at which he or she must get a job or head off to school in a place at which we can't adequately tell them how to deal with all the dangers they may encounter. Marriage tells moms they aren't the most important woman in a boy's life and dad's that they can no longer threaten to shoot the boy driving the car with your daughter riding in it if he goes one mph above the speed limit. Softball has no rights of passage at which it is abundantly clear for dad and mom to move away from the dugout for good and just let her take care of herself.
I've seen parents of 18 year olds say in sugar coated voices, "Here you go baby doll, her's your power bar and some water, now eat it and drink up, you don't want to faint." I've also seen parents of 8 year olds pull up to tournaments and say, "here's a jug of water, a sandwich and five dolalrs you can spend at the snack bar. If I'm not here at the end of your last game, call me on your cell phione and I'll be here within a half hour. Stay with coach Bob, if I'm not here. If he has to leave, stay at the snackbar." Someplace between these two extremes is the optimal time to let go some.
Understand that I'm trying to discuss how to get a kid 10 - 14 years old to overcome plateaus by being self-motivated and I've digressed into a discussion about when to stop treating your child like a, um, child. The reason I've gotten to this spot is because I think the two seemingly different things are related. It is their game and they are the ones who really do the practicing. If they are going to get better, they need to find motivation from within or without. We cannot give them that though we certainly can and do try. But in the end, they need to fucntion outside our purview and find their own motivation. Otherwise, we are truly living vicariously through our kids.
I think it is fair to say that every year at a number of colleges, some kids return home, relinquishing their scholarships in the process, and evirtually ending their careers because they are incapable of finding motivation within themselves to overcome some hurdle, some plateau. One thing a kid can get out of sports, if we let them, is a certain level of self-confidence and competence which prepares them for that inevitable time when they are going to be truly on their own. Eventually they are going to be on a job, working on a school project, or p-laying for some coach in a situation in which our input is not merely discouraged, but rather completely forbidden. At that point, the kid who has been coached completely by the parent, who has never learned to go out their on their own, is at a decided disadvantage.
So, where I have come to with this issue of how to get your darling daughter motivated to practice and pratice hard so she can improve and overcome a plateau, is teaching the kid to be self-motivated and self-sufficient, to break away from taking care of everything, to allow her to fail of her own lack of effort. It isn;t an easy thing to do. And we don;t just throw her into the swimming pool and hope that she learns to swim before she begins gulping water and falling like a stone to the bottom of the deep-end. We have to talk to her and explain what it is we are doing and what it is she should begin doing. Otherwise we fail as parents.
Once I was at a clinic with loads of kids of varying talent levels around. A very smart father of a very gifted ball player struck up a conversation with me. Somehow he brought the subject around to issues of coaching your kids. He said, "At some point you can't coach your kid any more. At some point, if she is to progress as a ballplayer, you have to let her be coached by other people. She needs to learn to deal with other people including some she has never met before. She needs to break away from you and that's hard to do. If she doesn't break away from you, she'll never grow up in this game. She knows that. &mnbsp; You know that. But its hard for her to do. And if you hinder the process or if you put up obstacles to her breaking away, she won't be able to do it. She doesn't want to hurt your feelings. You have to let her know that its OK, really OK."
So that's my advice piece for the day. Having trouble getting your kid to practice? Having trouble getting your kid to practice hard? Don't make her. Let her make herself work. All you can do is try to explain the way things work in the real world. That other kid over there, she works really hard at her game. If she continues to do it and you continue to sleep through your limited workouts, she is definitely going to get better than you. You have to decide for yourself how much or little you are going to practice. I'm here to catch for you anytime you want. But please don't waste my time.
*95% = Originally this number was posted at 75% but I got some pushback on that. please understand that the number is drawn out of thin air. It is a concrete, objective way of expressing something which is neither concrete nor susceptible to objective measurement.
We Americans are fond of saying that you have to give 110%. But, honestly, that's just not possible. If you have 100 of something to give, you might be able to give 100 but you are incapable of giving 110.
Further, I sincerely doubt that anyone ever gives 100% while doing anything. If you gave absolutely everything you had on say a pitch or in a run, at the end of the line, you should be collapsed. I don't mean you would be on the ground with a smile on your face, knowing that you gave everything you had. I mean, you would be on the ground in pain, trying with all your remaining might to stay alive. In truth, nobody ever gives anything near a real 100%. They simply give what the effort requires or something short of that.
Most of what I know about training comes from a completely unrelated sport, swimming. Back in my youth, baseball and softball players never worked nearly as hard as they do today. Runners, swimmers, wrestlers and others trained in a serious fashion using scientifically proven techniques. Now just about everybody does that.
In a swimming training regimen, you usually overwork for much of the season and then gradually come down in something called a taper in which you taper off the distance and work towards developing fast-twitch muscles. But say you swam 100 yards of some event in 50 seconds during a race. You might, for part of the practice, work a sequence of 10 times 100 yards in which you try to repeat your sprint at an average time of under one minute with 5 to 15 seconds between sprints. This is, to my knowledge, one of the ways in which sprinters in all types of sports work out. And to me, this represents a 75% effort level. That's really where the 75% came from.
I have gone ahead and changed 75% to 95% so as to avoid further push back. But I don't really mean 95%. The numbers are unimportant.
So, please don't get hung up on numbers. The concept is there is an effort level associated with games and a different one with practice. I don't care who you are, you just cannot get the adrenaline flowing in practice that you can in games. But the idea is to bring your practices to as close to your game level as possible. If you don't, if you learn to dog it, you will never see the amount of improvement you are seeking and this will make your practices mostly a waste of time, your own and that of whomever is coaching you.Labels: parenting, practice
Permanent Link: Breaking Away
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