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| SOFTBALL LINKS |
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Get Out Of Your Lawn Chair!
by Dave
Monday, May 15, 2006
Is there anything as difficult as sitting in your lawn chair ... looking at your daughter's number ... on the back of her jersey ... as she runs away from you ... to retrieve the ball ... which got past her ... and should have been a routine single ... had she not completely missed it?
Why yes! There is something worse than that! What's worse is being your daughter ... running away from everyone on the field ... wishing you could crawl into a hole in the ground ... or perhaps get a broken bone trying to catch the linedrive you just missed ... running as fast as you can ... knowing that 50, 100 or more people are staring at the number on your back ... while you run after that ball .. and the girl who hit it, along with her three friends who were on base at the time, circle the bases ... and there is no way you're going to be able to get the ball in time to stop her ... from scoring the opponents fourth run to take the 4 - 3 lead from your team ... in the bottom of the fifth, or sixth or whatever the heck inning it is ... and if only you had a little practice, this might not be happening.
I often proclaim that you are seriously remiss in your duties as parent, if you do not go out and play catch regularly with your softball playing child. Nothing improves hand-eye coordination better than a little regular game of catch. The same is true of hitting - regular batting practice is what makes decent hitters into good ones. But what is often overlooked by parents is the value of outfield practice.
You can teach a girl to catch. You can teach her to run. You can even teach her to catch while running. But in order to learn to judge a hit ball in the outfield, you need to experience a lot of hit balls. I'm not writing today to discuss the correct mechanics for playing a fly ball, linedrive or outfield groundball. What I'm writing about is learning judgment in the outfield through experience. The only way to learn it is to have lots of balls hit to you. If your daughter is going to be playing some outfield, it behooves you to get yourself a bucket of balls and head out to a local field for some practice.
If you're getting my message and planning on following through, here are some random thoughts about it. Bring some water - you're gonna need it. Hitting fly balls is not effortless. Dress appropriately. You're gonna break a sweat. Wear light clothing suitable to athletic exertion. Wear a baseball or golf cap. You'll need to shade your eyes. Put on a little sunblock. If you go out during the heat of the day for more than a few minutes, you'll likely get burned.
Get yourself a bucket of balls. If you have to constantly chase balls thrown in from the outfield, you are going to get worn out faster than your daughter will. Choose your bat wisely. Don't go for the 33 inch (- 8) bat you bought your young hitter. You'll thank me for that one when you CAN get out of bed in the morning. Choose a good light bat. You ought to be able to do alright with a 31 inch, 21 ounce bat. For the enterprising, get yourself a softball fungo bat. SoftballJunk has a number of fungo bats available for purchase at decent prices. Fungo bats are generally lighter than ordinary ones and make it relatively easy to hit pops, flyballs and linedrives.
When you hit balls to your daughter, you have to be able to judge her ability as well as your own. Unless you were a minor league ball player, you probably can't hit the ball to the point of danger if your daughter is 11 or 12. If she's younger than that, I suggest you try starting softly and then hit harder and harder until you feel you are just beneath her abilities. Let her tell you what she can handle. If your daughter is 11 or 12 and a decent player, hit away! She can handle it!
You might wonder where you should hit them. It really doesn't matter. You should strive to spray the ball all over the place. Hit some hard ground balls through the infield. Hit some linedrives within close range of her in the air. Hit some over her head. Much of the value of shagging fly balls is seeing the trajectory. Knowing that you have to go back on a long fly means having experienced a few over your head. Similarly, knowing that a linedrive during a game is going to land in front of you involves having experienced a volume of them beforehand.
Every so often take a break to get a drink. You're getting over-heated and so is your daughter. While you two are sitting on the bench enjoying a drink, you have a real opportunity to bond with your kid. Enjoy these moments. They don't last forever. While you are sitting around drinking some water, discuss some of those plays. Let her tell you how she felt chasing that ball. Teach her to understand that you don't expect her to catch every ball but you do expect her try. You expect her to learn how to judge them and make an effort to get as close as possible. Tell her about a fly ball you once missed - didn't we all miss at least one at some time? Maybe you could explain to her how that one that got past her and cost her team that game was really your fault because you were too dumb to realize she could use a little practice like this. Maybe tell her about a time you remember this major leaguer completely misjudging a flyball and costing his team the game. Don't let her believe, for even a moment, that anybody always correctly judges flyballs.
And after you've finished with this outfield practice, plan to do another in the near-term future. Recognize that you will again be sitting there, watching her number on the back of her jersey as she runs after another game-costing home run one day. But that's OK because this opportunity to spend time with your daughter was priceless even if she never becomes even a decent outfielder.
 
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