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Train Your Mind As You Train Your Eyes
by Dave
Thursday, September 15, 2005
It is often said that batting is reactive. The pitcher knows what she is going to throw, you don't. She is only 40 feet away and throws at 60. You only have abut a half second to decide what to do. Obviously all you can do is react, right? You could guess the type of pitch and the location before she throws it but chances are pretty good you'll be wrong. You could work on your powers of ESP and really concentrate hard to detect what the pitcher is thinking but what if she misses her spot? Batting is not reactive, guess work or ESP. It is a discipline which is mostly self-taught.
Have An IdeaWhen you go to the plate to take your turn, you must have knowledge and a plan of attack. You cannot know what the pitcher will throw and guessing is a sucker's bet. What you want to do is approach each at bat with the best knowledge you can piece together quickly and then attack the predicted events in a manner which plays to your strengths and away from your weaknesses.
The Strike ZoneThe first, most obvious aspect of batting is knowing the strike zone. People often break the zone down into 9 equal sized blocks. To visualize this, think of a tic-tac-toe grid. But that presupposes umpires make perfect calls. The reality is you must extend the lines of the grid outside the standard strike zone since umpires may very well call strikes just outside of one or more of these 9 boxes. Hopefully a given ump on a given day will consistently apply their strike zone so you will be able to judge for yourself whether a given pitch is within today's zone or not. But humans are imperfect and some umps are better than others. This is the single best reason to watch every pitch of a game to prepare for your at-bats. You must walk up to the plate knowing if this ump has an overly broad or tall idea about the strike zone and whether he or she is likely to make inconsistent calls. The last thing you want to do is take a fairly close pitch (though one that is obviously, to you, a ball) on an 0-2 count with an umpire prone to making wild calls.
Also, truth be told, you might hit better on some pitches outside the grid than you do some within it. Many great hitters hit balls just outside the zone better than they do a ball pitched right down the middle. Lot's of hitters do better on pitches just off the inside or outside corner of the plate, a little low or a little high. Just about everyone has a tendency to do a little better with certain sections both in and just outside the strike zone. You have to know what your strengths are and make conscious choices about your personal power zones.
The Pitcher's HabitsThe second aspect of hitting you should be aware of is that pitchers are human beings. As such they are creatures of habit. Pitchers throw 100 or more pitches every game, perhaps a couple games per week, perhaps more at important tournaments and a few dozen games over the course of a season. They do the same thing over and over again. It is virtually impossible to come up with a novel idea 100 times per day, a couple days each week. Pitchers fall into habits. Maybe the girl you are facing today likes to throw her changeup high and just outside on 0-2 counts. Maybe she likes to start every batter off with a fastball low and down the middle. Maybe her curveball is used most when she is behind in the count or maybe when she is ahead. Perhaps the rise ball is her strike-you-out pitch. Maybe it is the drop. Those habits may vary some over time but they generally are predictable enough to make use of, particularly in the short run. Regardless what she does and when, she will undoubtedly have patterns which you can recognize, keep in your head, and make use of at important moments.
The CountAnyone can tell you to always take 3-0 and always protect the plate on 0-2. But every count situation is a different situation for the pitcher and the batter. You stride to the plate carrying your bat, some sense of where today's strike zone is, and the pitcher's habits or tendencies. The count is 0-0. You should expect something from the pitcher and know what you are looking for. You should have a strategy wherein you are looking to work the count to a particular point where the pitcher is more likely to give you what you want to hit.
There are so many possible permutations of pitches and counts, it is not possible for me to list them all and then pair them up with various strengths to develop a plan for every person. But there are some general thoughts about the count which I want to share. I believe you should always take on 3-0 and always look to swing on 0-2. But let me extend this a bit. On 3-0, you should never, ever swing. Instead use it as an opportunity to watch the pitcher more carefully than you otherwise get the opportunity to do. It is a freebie which tells you what she will throw when she really, really wants to throw a strike. That information may come in handy with two outs in the bottom of the ninth on 2-2 when all she needs to do is strike you out so she can go back to the hotel and dive into the pool.
On 0-2, you do not have the luxury of watching the pitch. You are going to have to swing unless it is a fairly wild ball. But the pitch which is chosen to throw to you tells you what the pitcher and catcher think your weakness is. The other team is probably trying to offer up something to get you to swing at a bad pitch. Their choice says something about what they think of you. And 0-2 pitches are not always balls. Sometimes the pitcher is trying to lay something right on the edge of the strike zone and at the place she thinks is your greatest weakness.
When you first go to the plate on 0-0, you should have a picture in your head of a narrow section of the zone which, if the right pitch is delivered there, you will swing. You are patient and if things work out for you, you will be waiting for a particular spot in the count. If you get the right opportunity before then, you will be ready to hit. Maybe you have watched this girl pitch to the first three batters and she likes to start off with a fastball down the middle, expecting girls to take the first pitch. If that's your strength, you should be ready to swing but also consider that she may miss her spot. Go up looking for the pitch but be ready to hold up if it rises high and this is not your strength.
On 0-1, maybe you might think "advantage pitcher." I know everyone in the stands does. But as long as you are still at-bat, you have a chance to get a hit. And maybe you hit better 0-1 than at any other time. Or maybe 0-1 is when this pitcher likes to throw her changeup, nice and fat. Basically you need to have a broader view of the strike zone on 0-1 than you did on 0-0. But it is certainly not panic time and you are still in control. Broaden your zone a bit but don't be in protect mode. You're still looking for your pitch. You're still gaining knowledge on this pitcher.
1-1 happened either because you got a ball on 0-1 or because you got a strike on 1-0. If the count was 0-1 and she threw something to make you chase, the next level of the analysis is what does this pitcher habitually do. Does she like to get a strike and then make you chase, get another strike and then make you chase? Whatever her tendency is whether you have seen her many times before or if you have only seen her today, you should adjust your expectations accordingly. If you haven't had time to analyze her yet, expect a strike on 1-1. If the count was 1-0 and she threw a strike, expext her to be looking to go up 1-2 on you with this pitch unless she is fairly wild and just got "lucky" with the last pitch. If that's the case, treat this next pitch as if the count is 0-0. Acquire knowledge or drive one that is in your power zone. Wild pitchers sometimes throw great hitters pitches as they try to get ahead. So don't just be back on your heals.
0-2 is a little worse than 0-1. You still know what you like to hit but you must now protect or risk being called out on strike three. Protect does not mean wave harmlessly at any ball you think might be called a strike. It means you are looking for a ball to drive but you are going to have to swing at anything close. I hope you have practiced hitting foul balls. If a pitch on 0-2 is something you really don't like but it is close, your next course of action is to foul it off, if you can. You can continue this for as long as it takes to get something you can sink your teeth into. But if the pitcher is trong willed, she may continue to offer that up. So you need a fallback position. I hope you have also practiced hitting the ball where you want to. The situation will dictate what options are available. If you've got a runner on first and there are no outs, you want to at the very least put the ball into play in a manner that can move the runner along. If there is a runner on third with no or one outs, maybe you can hit a sac fly to right. The important things are to know the zone, know your strengths, know what the pitcher is likely to send your way, and understand the options you have before you.
1-2 may just as well be 0-2. There is nothing different between the two situation accept that the pitcher has thrown a ball. If she went up 0-2 and then threw a ball trying to get you to chase, 1-2 is possibly no different. the only thing that can happen is the pitcher may decide to not "play" with you. She may just try to blow you away with her out pitch. You should expect the next pitch to be an attempt to make you sit down whether it is via a chase pitch or her best pitch.
1-0 is a positive count you may find yourself in. The pitcher is going to look to throw a strike here. Your mental picture can be a bit more narrow than it was on 0-0 but not much since hopefully you came up to the plate with an idea of what you wanted to do in the first place. The pressure is on the pitcher but only slightly more than it is on you. Frequently you can get a pitch to drive on 1-0 but sometimes the pitcher is just having trouble getting it over or has just set you up for the next three pitches. You are aware of what she likes to throw on 1-0. You have narrowed your zone. You are not over anxious.
2-0 is quite a bit different from 1-0. The pressure is really on the pitcher to get a strike on this pitch. She doesn't want to go 3-0 on you unless she is working around you. Your view should not be much different than 2-0 but you should expect that she may throw the pitch you have been waiting for here. 2-0 is a good hitter's pitch. Be ready. but remember, if she doesn't throw your pitch this time, the worst thing that will happen is the count will be 2-1.
2-1 is frequently called "the hitter's pitch." This is because the pitcher has thrown a strike in the count so she knows she can. She doesn't want to go down 3-1 where she has to either groove one or walk you. She still thinks she can get the upper hand. She is likely going to throw something you can drive on this one. You don;t want her to go up 2-2, one pitch from a K, so you must be ready for action. Look for your pitch, or alternately, look for something you can do something with like getting that sac fly we talked about a moment ago.
2-2 is a bit tough because you are one strike away from that K. Also, the pitcher knows you are tense. She can throw something outside the strike zone and get you to chase it. Or, if that pitch is close enough, she may get a called third strike, same result. She is far less likely to throw you your pitch than she would be on 2-1 or 3-1. To a pitcher, 3-2 is not much worse than 3-2. You mus be prepared to drive a good pitch in a broader area than you were on 1-0 or 2-0, but you do not want to chase a bad pitch which is somewhat likely in this situation. You can take the same approach as 1-2 and 0-2 where you want to protect against anything close. But you do not want to really go after an apparently fat pitch outside the zone. This is the situation which probably calls for the greatest discipline on the part of the hitter. Keep in mind that you may have noticed a tendency on the part of the pitcher to do something predicatble on 2-2 like throw the change or a riser out of the zone. Keep that in your mind.
3-2 is similar to 2-2 but it is far more likely you are going to see either a strike or something at least close. You have already watched 5 pitches, perhaps more if you have fouled some balls off. The pitcher has also thrown you 5 or more pitches. She is probably a little uncomfortable about how many pitches she has thrown. If you, as the pitcher, throw 5 pitches to every batter, you are havng a long day even if you got all of them out. If the pitcher has had baserunners on all day, it is a very long day indeed. But pitchers don't just get physically tired at the end of long days. They also get mentally tired at the end of long innings or at-bats. 3-2 is a long at-bat especially if several fouls are involved. Look for the pitcher to make mistakes when she is tired.
3-1 is obviosuly somewhere between 3-0 and 3-2. Pitchers sometimes "give up" when they have gotten to 3-1 from 2-1. Sometimes they make a mistake here and you should be ready for that. But your hitting zone is smaller than it was on 2-1. You are thinking almost like 3-0 when you never swing. It isn't quite a free look at the pitcher but it is close.
You have thought about different counts to match up with your knowledge of today's strike zone ond the pitcher's habits. Keep in mind that while the count is very important, sometimes how that count came about is as important, sometimes more. You'll have to think this out but if the pitcher has walked the two batters before you and just now thrown a strike on 2-0, this is quite a bit different than a 2-1 count where the two batters before you were retired on one pitch each. the count is important but the progress of the game and the inning itself can be equally important. You don't want to get ready for a 2-1 pitch thinking this is going to be a ball because she has been wild all day and is tired now. But you do want to have a sense of what her fatigue level is and expect either a mistake or a good pitch. The count for a single at-bat does not exist in a vacuum. You must think out the situation.
Your WeaknessesIn addition to the things we have discussed, there is one final important piece of information you carry with you when you approach the plate. You bring to the plate your personal batting report card which contains a list of your weaknesses. These might be a tendency to swing at high outside pitches on 2-1, always swinging at the first pitch because you are anxious, or the inability to lay off outside curveballs on 0-2. Whatever your weakness is, you want to work to fix it. One of the things you have in your battle plan is the desire to eliminate your weaknesses. Obviously you must work this into an overall plan and the other knowledge you have with you today. A glaring weakness is something you want to perhaps keep right in front of your mind. If you swing at high pitches outside the zone, try visualizing what it will feel like to completely lay off such a pitch right before you go up. It is probably best to work towards eliminating one glarinf weakness at a time. You don't want to get into the situation where all the other aspects of hitting are too much to think about.
ConclusionI have, I think dispensed with the notion that hitting is reactive, that it involves guesswork or ESP. I think I have shown that hitting is a discipline which requires you to train your mind as much as it may require you to train your eyes. I have raised some important points for you to ponder. Please remember that softball is a thinking girl's game. There is as much work to do with your mind as there is with your body. Think about the things written here and then return to refresh. Over time, you will make these thoughts a part of your approach at the plate. Then it will only appear that when you are at the plate, you are reactive.
Permanent Link: Train Your Mind As You Train Your Eyes
 
A Few Facts For The Lesser Experienced
by Dave
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
I keep running into the same set of general questions asked by people new to the sport of softball, yet familiar with baseball. So I thought I would publish some useful facts for those with less experience.
OrganizationsBasically in softball you have Little League, Babe Ruth, PONY, ASA and variations on these. Little League is not the gold standard in softball that it is in youth baseball, up to 12 years. ASA and PONY are the most important organizations. Little League seems to get more press and TV coverage but serious softball players compete in ASA and PONY tournaments. In the serious softball world, the Little League World Series is not looked upon as a high level of competition. The PONY Nationals, for example, are viewed as a much higher level.
Field of PlayThe field of play for softball is flat, no raised mound, and has a "skin" (dirt) infield. The reason softball is played on a skin field is because it is essentially a faster game than baseball. Grass slows down the speed of ground balls. Bases are placed 60 feet apart regardless of the age group playing. There may be instances when a recreational league makes the bases closer for learning purposes but I have not encountered this in practice.
The pitcher's area is flat. There is no raised mound because pitchers throw underhand as opposed to overhand in baseball. The raised mound in baseball is used to provide the pitcher with an advantage - he gets to throw downhill at the batter. Playing softball on a field with a raised mound provides a disadvantage to the pitcher. You often see recreational leagues which play softball on baseball fields and, as a result, they have raised mounds. But a serious softball organization will provide for flat pitching areas on its softball fields.
The pitcher's plate is two feet wide and placed 35, 40, or 43 feet, depending on age of players, from the back corner of homeplate. Generally 43 feet is used for NCAA and international play. Florida is now experimenting with 43 feet at the high school level. 40 feet is used for ages 11 and up in all other play including most high school ball. Girls aged 10 and under pitch from 35 feet. This is true for all the leagues mentioned above.
Normally first base is a little different than its counterpart in baseball. Softball makes used of a "safety base" at first which looks like two bases put together. One base is placed in the normal position, the other (which is typically red-orange) sits next to it but in foul territory just at the end of the runner's box. On an infield ground ball, the batter running to first must step on this orange base located in foul ground. The base in fair territory is the firstbaseman's domain. If a runner is legging out an infield hit but steps on the inside base, she can be called out for not stepping on the base before the first baseman receives the throw. But this seldom happens. If the ball is hit into the outfield, the safety base is ignored. The runner makes use of the part of the safety base located in fair territory.
BallThe ball is yellow with red lacing. It is not white. There are two primary sizes of balls, 11 inch and 12 inch. Depending on the league or organization, a 12 inch ball is generally used for ages 11 and up, while an 11 inch one is used for ages 10 and younger. Little League, however, uses an 11 inch ball until age 12. Little League World Series Tournament play (aged 11 - 12) uses an 11 inch ball. PONY and ASA use a 12 inch ball at this age level. Some recreational leagues, even good ones, will make use of a ten inch, spongy, white ball in order to avoid injury. This is typically used at young ages like 8 - 9 and younger.
PitchingThe accepted style of pitching is referred to as "windmill" in which the pitcher steps off the plate towards the batter while moving her arm in a full circle, or near full circle, motion and releasing the ball at her hip. Often people new to the game make the mistake of thinking the pitcher is making multiple rotations of her arm. This is not allowed. You cannot swing your arm in a circle over and over and then release the ball. Only one 360 degree circle is permitted.
Windmill is the accepted norm of pitching in softball. The "modified fastpitch" in which the pitcher raises arm backwards like a bowler, but with the hand slightly above the shoulder, was once acceptable but it is no longer used in serious play. The reasons for this are that windmill is faster, puts more movement on the ball, and is a far more deceptive motion to the batter. Pitchers who use modified fastpitch in serious competition, in the rare cases it is used, get hammered by batters.
Windmill is the accepted norm of pitching in softball. A plain vanilla underhand pitch is no more accepted in serious softball than it is in any level of baseball. No parent would ever tell their son to throw underhand in order to make batters put the ball into play. Many inexperienced parents and coaches in recreational softball encourage girls to throw straight underhand in order to "get it over." This is a mistake which harms the pitcher and fails to teach batters to face windmill pitching. There is no logical progression of moving from underhand pitching to windmill. Batters who face underhand pitching become frightened and cannot adjust when they face windmillers. Encouraging any use of a pitching method besides windmill is bad for the sport, bad for those being encouraged to use it, and bad for those against whom they use it.
It is difficult to master windmill pitching in terms of control. It can take more than a year before a girl throws consecutive strikes but even when a windmill pitcher cannot find the plate, nobody involved with serious softball even thinks "maybe she should just throw regular underhand." Encouraging a girl to throw underhand only delays the time when she will need to learn the windmill form. Learning other motions can actually be a hindrance to learning windmill. Aside from the stark differences in physical motion and release point, which are extreme, a girl who has convinced herself that she is a good pitcher but who throws regular underhand or modified fastpitch will quickly become totally frustrated when trying to change to windmill.
Learning to pitch faster is better than learning to throw strikes. A pitcher who tries to learn only to throw strikes will modify her motion and end up bending her arm or learning other bad habits from which she may not recover. If your daughter cannot throw strikes and the coach "corrects" her to make her throw strikes, tell the coach your daughter will no longer be pitching for the team. Then practice with her until she can throw hard strikes. There is no other way to go about this.
Pitch speeds vary but here are some general guidelines with the caveat that pitch speed alone does not make the pitcher. Good pitchers at the 12U level will pitch around 45-55 mph. Few throw 55, some throw low 50s and many are in the range of 45-50. At 14U the speed increases to 50-60. Again, few actually throw 60 and many are in the low 50s. In high school, a quality pitcher will throw in the low 60s all the way up to world class speeds which range up to around 65-70 mph. Yet many effective high school pitchers throw in the high 50s. The trick to successful pitching is mixing up speeds and movement and hitting spots which are "holes" in the batter's swing. A complete discussion of this is well beyond this article's scope.
Pitchers throw more varied kinds of pitches than baseball pitchers do. Typically you will see fastballs, changeups, curves, screwballs, rise balls, and drop balls. At ages 12 and under, most pitchers will throw a fastball, changeup and something that bends. Some pitchers have more than three pitchers at this age but very, very few have mastery over more than two. As girls move up in age and experience they get mastery over a couple pitches but should still learn others since in high school and tournament play, you are likely to see the same batters over and over again. You need something new to fool them before they get you figured out.
BattingBecause softball pitch speeds are relatively high when combined with the close proximity of the pitcher to the batter, there is little time to adjust a swing once started. Even in high school, softball batters frequently have less time to react to a pitch than do major league baseball players. For this reason, softball swings are shorter than baseball swings. I suppose a "proper" baseball swing is probably shorter than what one typically sees. But softball fanatics try, with greater persistence, to shorten girls swings.
The nob of the bat should face the expected impact point of the swing. First base is a decent proxy for this - so nob of the bat should face first. The back elbow should not be cocked back. I think you know what I mean if I say the way you dads were taught to hit a baseball is wrong for your darling daughter's softball instruction. Do not pull their back arm back and up before they swing when you are showing them. This lengthens the swing. It is a mistake. The elbows should be in a position where you can place a pole on your daughter's biceps and it will not fall to one side or the other.
The batter's step is a timing mechanism and a device for shifting the weight back 60-40, then forwards 40-60. It does not provide forward motion in and of itself which is then converted into bat speed. No lunging forward, please. Leave that particular method for the old man's recreational softball league's annual homerun derby. Home runs are sometimes hit in girls fastpitch softball but these are the result of good mechanics, solid contact, and good timing. Softball is a fast, strategic, "small ball" game. Good contact is the key.
BaserunningBase runners in college and high school as well as high level age group competition are allowed to leave the base once the ball is clearly out of the pitcher's hand. Once the pitcher receives the ball back within the pitcher's circle, all runners must immediately move towards a base. The runner may advance by stealing the next base or she may return to the base from which she came. But she may not dance around trying to encourage the pitcher to make a throw. Once the pitcher has received the ball within the circle and is moving towards the pitcher's plate, runners must make an instant decision which base they will move to. If they do not, they should be called out by an umpire. In recreational leagues, this is seldom enforced. In Little League Tournament and higher play, this is usually enforced.
There are a couple of methods taught to base runners in terms of how to stand on the base. Most high level competitors put their push-off foot on the side of the base facing their running direction and the other foot in back of them while facing the direction they will run. The idea is to start your running while the pitcher is in motion but not step off the base until the ball is released. Your strongest step is your first step and anything you can do to make it stronger and in perfect timing with the pitcher's release is a good thing to do. Sometimes you will see baseball refugee coaches who encourage girls to stand like a baseball-player-leading-off-base with one foot on the base and the other towards the next base. I think this is wrong for a very simple reason. You never see world class runners standing like this. You always see such runners with the foot they will step with first in back of the other. The best advice I can give to base runners is to use the base as a device to push off from by stepping over it with the first step foot and pushing off the base with the planted foot.
The same other general rules apply to softball baserunning which apply to baseball. Tie goes to the runner. A runner who overruns first base is considered to be on the bag unless and until she makes a move towards second at which time she is considered to be off the base until she safely returns to it. The turn to the left thing is a myth. There is no need to turn towards foul ground after overrunning first except that it is an excellent way to observe if the throw there is an overthrow. Umpires who don't know the rules will sometimes call a tagged runner at first out because she turned towards the field rather than towards foul ground. But the rules do not say anything about that.
Other aspects of the gameThe infield fly rule applies to most competitive softball games.
I haven't made a study of it but I would swear the strike zone in softball is somewhat more generous (to the pitcher) than it is in baseball. Perhaps this has more to do with the size of the ball but batters should be taught to see the strike zone as larger than what we teach boys playing baseball. The umpires apparently do. The general rules for the strike zone are identical but in practice the umps call the corner and high and low more generously than in baseball.
I'm not certain what the rule in baseball is but in softball, a batter must make an effort to get out of the way of a pitch. You cannot simply stand there and take one for the team. The umpire should not award first base to a batter who is struck by a ball when she is trying to get hit as a means of getting on base.
Bunting is generally allowed. Some tournaments have their own rules regarding bunting but usually it is allowed and you may see it frequently over the course of several games. Sometimes you may see a batter begin running before the pitch reaches home and then take a short stabbing swing at the ball. This practice is called slap-hitting. Some levels prohibit slapping but off hand, I don't know which ones do. Generally a batter must be in the batter's box before, during, and just after a pitch is thrown. It is illegal to hit a ball when you are outside the batter's box and the batter will be called out if that happens. Slappers usually practice stepping in such a manner that they are able to take two or one and a half steps timed just right to hit the ball while they are still in the box. This allows them to build up running momentum before putting the ball into play. A slap is not a bunt. A foul bunt with two strikes is a strikeout. A foul slap with two strikes is just a foul.
The primary objective difference between a slap and a bunt is that a bunt involves holding the bat in the strike zone during the pitch. If the bat remains in the strike zone and the pitch is not hit, a strike will be called regardless of where the ball passes the plate. In order to avoid this, the batter must remove the bat from the zone by pulling it back into her body. Slappers on the other hand avoid a swinging strike by not swinging. And once the pitch passes the plate, they are no longer prohibited from leaving the box so they will not be called out for leaving it at that time.
Conclusion
I'm sure I have missed a few good beginner questions. I hope this piece covers some of the more common ones. The ones I missed will come to me in time and when they do, I'll post them here. If you have a good beginner question, I'd love to hear from you.
Permanent Link: A Few Facts For The Lesser Experienced
The Problem With Age Group Ball
by Dave
Monday, September 12, 2005
The problem with playing age group ball is that you are alternately one of the youngest or oldest, worst or best, on the team. Every team, at least well-designed ones, of 14U has about half its members aged 14 and the other half 13. This is the second year of 14U ball for one half and the first year for the other. As a result, every autumn parents look at the team their darling daughter was on this year and wonder what it will be like next year when the "core of really good players" moves up. The other half hope their DD can get some playing time at the next level. Invariably kids jump to new teams hoping that things will work out. But this might not always be the best idea.
Softball is a game in which a girl has to know she can be one of the best on her team. Some years she is going to be one of the rookies and some years she is going to be a veteran. Her play will likely appear to improve quite a bit in her rookie years because she is trying to step up her game and play with these older girls. She will probably have 6 role models of good players and she will want to impress them with her drive and eventually ability. Then, the next year, there is nobody to look up to. There's only the new rookies who are looking up at her. She teaches more than she learns and parents wonder if this isn't going to hurt her skill growth in the long run.
Each of us goes through this at one time or another in our lives. We work our way up to the top of some organization, learning along the way, and then, when we are the ones to whom others look for leadership, we have the confidence that we learned along the way. Softball is no different. You simply cannot always play this sport as one of the rookies. At some point your ego just needs you to be one of the best players. You need to be the one who when she gets up to bat, everyone says, thank goodness so and so is up. We'll get that run in now. The place where you get this confidence is these circumstances when you are one of the veterans, one of the "core of better players."
We have age group play in general as a recognition of the principle that while it is OK to be one of the least, you also need to be one of the beasts. If it were not true, we would probably do away with age groups or at the very least combine several groups into one. There would be no need of 10U play. We could simply have 12U and let the 10 and 9 year olds find their way. They would see little playing time initially and then work their way up as they aged. Of course, when they reached 12, we would try desperately to get them on 16U teams where they could again work their way up to eventual playing time. That is patently absurd, of course, but many parents already try to accomplish this by jumping to better teams or pushing their kids up an age level. Sometimes there are benefits to this but many times it is a path to disaster.
When girls are young, we don't always notice the difference between an 8 year old and someone a year older or younger. None of the girls is "that good." But there is a pretty good disparity between the playing abilities of say a 9 and a 10 year old. You cannot really judge this just by seeing how your daughter plays with other girls. What makes it more clear is seeing your daughter's own progress from one year to the next. Her throwing becomes far stronger and more accurate. She seems more aware of what is going on while she runs the bases. She is more aggressive at the plate. Maybe, if she is a pitcher, the idea of hitting the corners or not just throwing the pitch down the middle of the strike zone begins to make sense to her. As they age, the differences broaden through 11, 12, 13, and 14. Then right around the second year of high school the differences begin to recede, they are not quite as stark. After girls finish with puberty, a one or two year difference of age becomes less and less apparent. A girl who is 16 might be better than most of the 18 year olds on her high school team. Junior, even sophomores are often the team stars. That is not quite as true in 10U, 12U, or 14U ball.
Anyone who is serious about their daughter's softball career wants to see rapid, steady development. This is the reason we switch from recreational ball to travel teams and then look around to find better and better travel teams. And within this search for better coaching and better competition, we sometimes make the mistake of allowing ourselves to become upset when our darling daughters become one of the older or best girls on the team. The question is not always whether the team is going to be good enough in any one given year. The question more often is whether you like the overall organization.
Most organizations have an unstated philosophy. The coaches talk to one another and share ideas about drills and player development. Hopefully, if your daughter is on a good team one year but the team's coach and core move up a division, they will still be able to attract good girls and the coaching will be almost as good as it was the previous year. If this is not the case, perhaps you are justified in making a jump. But be sure you have at least considered that maybe the new coach will be as good as the previous one, perhaps better. If you make a quick jump to another team, next year you may find that the coach at the next level doesn't meet your standards. You may wish you were back with the old team. You may even jump back. But what are you accomplishing if you constantly switch teams.
One of the things we want our daughters to learn playing this game is the habits of successful people. Not many of us will experience the thrill of watching our girls play for the NCAA championship or the Olympic (God willing) gold medal. But we will all hopefully get the chance to see how our girls do out in the real world long after they have hung up their shoes, bats and gloves. One of the things we want to instill in them is the notion of dealing with adversity. We want them to build up good persistence. We don't want to teach them to willy-nilly jump around every time things don't go quite as well as they might.
We often criticize professional athletes for jumping around the league in a free-agent dash for ever greater financial success. I think that is warranted. We hold an ideal of a player who sticks with one team. We hold an ideal of an organization (in what ever pursuit) which sticks together and gets better because of their experience as a team and their longevity in pursuit of a common goal. We should not practice what we least value when it comes to our children's sports. It is far better to be a part of something than it is to be a lonely star.
So with the leaves beginning to turn different colors, with the new school year already in motion, perhaps a little greater patience is in order. I am not telling you that you shouldn't almost constantly evaluate where you are, but I am asking you to do a real gut check before you make hasty decisions. How do you feel about the organization as a whole? What are you going to be thinking next year when your daughter jumps from 12U to 14U? Are you going to wish you had stayed with the current team? Is she really good friends with the kids on this team? Are all her real friends leaving to go to the next age group? What is your goal in moving your daughter around to different teams? Is she good enough to get a full scholarship to college? Will she not be if you don't switch teams? Parenting is tough. We all have to ask ourselves a lot of tough questions, and do so often. Just make sure you are not doing the knee-jerk thing when you switch teams. Make rational decisions and thereby teach her more than just softball.
Permanent Link: The Problem With Age Group Ball
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