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Hey Look At Little Sister!
by Dave
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Little League ought to be ashamed. If they are not, I sincerely hope someone from Little League reads this blog and gets ashamed.
The Summer 2006 issue of "Little League Magazine" arrived in the mail today. There was one copy for me because I have coached Little League, one for my youngest daughter who is playing her last year of Little League, and one for another daughter who used to play Little League but who no longer does. I threw out their copies and kept mine because I want to be reminded of what Little League stands for. Little League stands for paying lip service to girls.
The issue contains 56 pages chock full of articles and pictures ... of boys and men. There is one single solitary two page article discussing the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) Softball League entitled "A League of Their Own" and containing exactly three pictures of girls/women. There is one animated figure which appears to be an effeminate boy. But that's it. A League of Their Own? Give me a break!
There are fifteen articles listed on the masthead page, so that means women get one out of fifteen slots or less than 7% of the whole. The 2 of 56 pages calculates to just 3.6%. There are articles about major leaguers, the men's Baseball Classic, and all sorts of tip articles for little ... boys. There is an article about the boys Little League World Series including a photograph of the winning team carrying the banner. There are quizzes on the lingo and rules ... of BASEBALL!
There is nothing about the girls Little League World Series. There is nothing about windmill pitching, slap hitting, or anything which is applicable to softball. There is nothing about the Women's World Cup which is the pinnacle event in the game. There are no interesting quizzes about girls game lingo or the rules of fastpitch softball. The only thing a girl could get out of this is that boys and boys games are more important than girls and girls games!
So you wonder why girls simply must play softball sanctioned by ASA, NSA, PONY, Babe Ruth, etc.? This is one good reason. Little League doesn't give a hoot about girls. So I ask, why don't they just give it up? Acknowledge that where softball is concerned they are just plain not interested? Maybe that is why they make 12 year old girls play with an 11 inch ball. Maybe that is why they still have these ridiculous pitching restrictions which belong in ... baseball ... not softball. Maybe that is why the marquee Little League softball event, the LL World Series of Softball consists of "B" level girls from cold weather states playing each other at a level which can best be decribed as substandard. Maybe this is why girls who come out of towns with softball leagues sanctioned by Little League seldom make their high school teams because they cannot compete with girls who play real fastpitch softball on ASA club teams.
Can you tell that I am more than a little upset with Little League? If your town currently has a softball league sanctioned by LL, by all means, please work to align the girls' league with one of the well known and respected softball organizations. If you are not involved in the league, consider moving your daughters to at least a Babe Ruth or other sanctioned league. But by all means only leave your daughter in Little League if you think girls are just not capable of playing competitive sports. If you think girls should only play sports for fun and to firm up their bodies so they can wear pretty and tight dresses, keep them in Little League. If you want your daughters to grow up thinking men are just more important than women, boys more important than girls, leave them in Little League and save all those copies of "Little League Magazine" for your granddaughters so they can fully understand why their mom has such low self-esteem and doesn't like sports.
Permanent Link: Hey Look At Little Sister!
 
What To Do With Your Slumping Star Hitter
by Dave
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
A visitor to the site writes in with the following question:
If you have a girl that has been the leading hitter for the past 3 years and she starts to slump do you leave her 4th in the batting order for the remaining season or do you move her?
That's an extremely tough question which nobody on Earth can answer with any sort of real confidence. Hitting slumps are a real mystery. You can't explain them and you can't really do much to improve the situation. I suppose the answer to your specific question is, it depends. It depends on a huge host of variables. There could be physical or competitive causes of a slump. It could just be some (hopefully) temporary mental thing. Analyze the possible causes and use your head before you do anything.
Is this a girl who is in the same class of competition for all the years we're talking about, who has had success against the very level of pitching she is now struggling with? Or is this a girl who has just moved up an age class, from JV to varsity, or from "B" level competition to "A?" The answer to the question would really depend on that more than anything else. But, for the sake of argument, let's assume she is hitting against the same or similar pitching. If the class of pitching has changed and she is really a great hitter, she'll self-correct soon enough as long as she keeps getting at-bats.
Is this a girl who recently changed hitting coaches or is trying a new style of hitting? Have you noticed a change in her stroke or to her approach at the plate? Or is everything other than her confidence intact? How deep of a slump are we talking about? Has it just been the past two games or is it now 30 at-bats without a hit? I'll get to the mental side in a few moments but ask yourself if there is something important which has recently changed.
Is she making contact or is she whiffing? Has she been an aggressive first pitch hitter who is now watching everything go by? Is her judgment at the plate similar to what it has been in the past but she just isn't making good enough contact? Has she had her eyes checked recently? Right after puberty girls can need vision correction. Is she at an age where in addition to a full class schedule, she is also spending significant amounts of time studying for college boards? Is she reading more because school is out, maybe playing lots of video games or staying up watching late night TV? From the physical point of view, eyes are the most important tool for hitters. If she hasn't apparently changed anything about her swing or approach, maybe she needs to have her eyes examined.
If you are playing against the same competition for a prolonged period (the three years you speak of) and there's nothing wrong with her eyes, maybe the other teams have simply adjusted to your star hitter. Maybe they're throwing around her, knowing that she aggressively goes after every pitch or not caring if she has to settle for walks. Maybe she's not getting anything worth hitting. Maybe they'd rather face your number 5 and 6 hitters even with runners on base. Perhaps there is someone else who should be moved in order to get your star better pitches to hit.
On the other hand, it is just possible that your star hitter has a big hole in her swing. Maybe the competition just figured her out. I remember watching this monster of a high school freshman hitter struggle her second year. And that wasn't just some sort of sophomore jinx. The girl made a name for herself that first year playing varsity. Then during summer ball, pitchers and coaches began to figure her out. Pitchers began sharing notes on her. She never again hit as well as she did that first year.
The way to know if your star has a hole and pitchers have found it is, if she is making outs on essentially the same pitch sequences. Obviously if she's striking out on balls, a little patience can go a long way. But if she repeatedly goes down on drop curves on the outside corner and low or some other frequently occurring out-pitch, your opponents have found the hole. Your job as coach is not limited to establishing or correcting the batting lineup. You are another set of eyes to watch for flaws and help correct them. If you see something which is causing the slump and you're sure that's the problem, you should work with your star to correct it, if possible. A girl playing at a high level who once hit very well then fell into a prolonged slump needs to have some help in disecting her swing and seeing if holes can be easily patched. If they can't, she is going to need some serious help from a serious hitting coach.
We have covered better pitching, swing mechanics changes and flaws, eyesight, and pitching adjustments. But aside from these physical and competitive causes of slumps, sometimes a girl just gets herself in a bad hitting frame of mind. Let's not forget that hitting is a particularly tough mental exercise.
We human beings should not be able to hit a fast moving, curving ball (all pitches curve up, down, or to the side) thrown from 40 or 43 feet. But somehow we find "the force" and do it well, at least some of us do. We learn to be confident. Hitting is a "zen" thing. If you blindfolded me, threw ten pitches around the middle of the plate and gave me some sort of audible clue as to when you threw each one, I believe I could hit one. I shouldn't be able to do it but I believe I could. That is what hitting is really all about.
Scientists have determined that we don't actually see pitches as we hit them. But somehow, magically we do hit them. How we accomplish the task is through experience and, most of all, a firm belief that we can do it. If a hitter, absent other causes, suddenly convinces herself she cannot hit, she goes into a slump. And if someone who is in a slump gets another reason to believe she stinks, watch out! You may never get her back if you do the wrong thing.
I suppose you could move your star hitter. But in moving her, explain that you want to take some of the pressure off her and the move is purely temporary. You must consider your "best hitter's" psychic needs as well as the team's. Remember, she's a part of the team too.
You actually don't just want to produce more runs. You also want your star hitter back. If you move her, it is as much to get her back as it is to produce more runs. The only reason to move her out of the four hole for the "remainder of the season" is because she continues to slump afterwards. And no matter what you try, she just cannot get back to what she was. Hopefully you can get her back into the swing of things by temporarily moving her to another position (maybe fifth?) and getting her to press a little less. All you want to do is get her some more hits and as soon as she starts hitting again, put her back into the four slot.
As someone once told me, softball in practice is 90% physical but in games it's 90% mental. As coach, you are at least as responsible for the mental as you are the physical. You want your # four hitter to drive in runs. She has to hit or your team will suffer. But consider what the causes of a prolonged slump are before doing anything potentially destructive. Before you move her, consider what your objective is. Then explain it to her. Let her know that she is a great hitter who has been an important cog in your machine for a long time. By moving her, you are only trying to remove some of the pressure. As soon as she starts pounding the ball again, she's gonna be your star cleanup hitter again. She's earned at least that much respect and consideration.
Permanent Link: What To Do With Your Slumping Star Hitter
Get Inside The Pitcher's Head, Body and Soul
by Dave
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Your team did pretty well in the seeding rounds of this tournament. You ended up 2 and 1 and now you're trying to get through the championship round playing as many games as possible. You win your first game and arrive at the field for game 2 only to be forced to sit and watch your next opponent disembowel an inferior team. They have this really big pitcher throwing really hard and you sense your girls might be dreading this next game. You tell them to relax, she probably won't pitch back-to-back games. But as you move your equipment to the dugout, you notice the same pitcher is warming up to face you. She's still throwing hard. So what is your approach going to be to beat this girl who gave up no hits in the game just concluded?
The first thing you must recognize is any pitcher can be beaten. The second thing to recognize is that, at least in age groups 14 years old and under, any pitcher no matter how hard she throws can be worn out and made to throw hittable pitches. She's most likely not going to beat herself but you can proactively wear her out if you do things right. Most age group players under 15 are not well-conditioned athletes. Some are, but the girls with a few extra pounds on them are generally not. They may be able to throw 300 pitches a day, every day. But if you make them work hard when not throwing pitches, they are going to get very tired fairly quickly.
The first thing you want to do is gauge her degree of fatigue right away. Your first hitter must not only bunt but bunt so as to make the pitcher move at least a few steps, field it, and throw to first. I hope you have taught all your players to bunt properly. That means bunt in sacrifice mode, not drag or slap bunt for basehits. Dragging and slapping are important skills but everyone on your team should know how to place a plain vanilla bunt.
When your first hitter sets up to bunt, she should know that the object is going to be to make the pitcher field it after running at least a couple steps. Place a slow rolling bunt to the pitcher's throwing-hand side so she is forced to move her feet those extra two steps. At this point you are trying to gauge her fatigue and try to wear her down just a little. Hopefully your first hitter has gotten on but even if she hasn't, your next hitter should also bunt and so should your next. I'm hoping that you will be able to generate a run in this fashion the first inning but if you don't, don't despair. The primary objective is wearing down the hard thrower.
You should tell your team that this is the objective. You're not looking for basehits but if the other team flubs the play, so much the better. Then after a flub, what do you do? Bunt again. Make her move her feet again. Maybe this time you ought to bunt to the glove-hand side. You may come out of the first inning with no runs but at least you've got that pitcher using her legs for something other than a hard pitch. And if she's tired from the first game, you're going to begin wearing on her and getting her to drop the speed down.
Now, hopefully you've got that pitcher a little winded but you want to keep the pressure on her. You want to continue to bunt at least once each inning. If she flubs a throw on a bunt, your next play must be another bunt. This way you get inside her head and stay there. If you've successfully bunted a few times and one of your best contact hitters, who also tends to hit back through the box, comes up, let her swing away. Hopefully she'll ground something past the pitcher while also making her work to try to field the ball.
You also want to make the big, hard throwing pitcher throw pitches, as many as possible. Unless she has impeccable control or persists in throwing first pitch strikes, you should instruct your hitters to watch at least one strike go by. If you succeed in making her throw a few balls, you will get better pitches to hit, but more importantly, you'll up her pitch count. This taking of the first strike will not only continue to wear down the pitcher and get your hitters better pitches, but also will give them a real chance to gauge her speed.
As the game moves forward, one of the things you want to look for from the opposing pitcher is if she shakes off a sign and then throws the change-up. Many pitchers will use the change more frequently when they feel their bodies beginning to wear out. Sure, the change should be done with the same arm motion and leg drive but most pitcher just do not expend as much energy throwing it as they do the fastball or their motion pitches. If they're tired, they're gonna want to throw more change-ups. If you notice her beginning to use her change more often, especially after shaking off the catcher's sign, tell your players to sit on the change. Tell them what you noticed and instruct them to look for the change after a shake off at least once during each at-bat.
Also, assuming you have clued your players in to the objective of wearing down the pitcher, and you see it starting to work, between innings let them know that what they are doing is working. They'll keep an eye on the pitcher and if they sense they are having an effect on her, their confidence will grow. And remind them to keep the pressure on her by continuing to bunt, taking that first strike and sitting on the change-up.
There is no question that one day you're going to face some really big girl who throws lightning and who is not susceptible to this strategy. But if you at least give yourself a chance to wear her out, you may win games you might not otherwise. Keep in mind that if your opponent pitches the same girl in back to back games especially in a championship round, there is a pretty good chance their number two pitcher is not all that effective. Anything you can do to wear out the pitcher is going to help your team improve their chances.
This sort of technique can be modified to wear out other players too. Assuming you are not facing some monstrous pitcher (which should be the first concern), let's assume the other team has a big hitting first baseman, third baseman or both. You can use the short game to get these players winded as well. A winded slugger is not going to beat you as easily as she will if she feels good and rested.
Remember that as coach, once you get into a game, your job is primarily a mental one. You need to summon your powers of observation and teach your girls how to beat superior opponents. The girls can handle other aspects of the game if you've prepared them well. During games, your responsibilities are more along the line of team psychologist. Best of luck!
Permanent Link: Get Inside The Pitcher's Head, Body and Soul
Head First Is Not Always The Hustle Play
by Dave
Monday, June 05, 2006
Game one of the championship round of the WCWS is clearly a blowout by Arizona to go with a superb pitching performance by Hallowell. But I'm not writing because of the game per se. I am writing because of the collision at third base in the seventh inning. On that play the Northwestern kid slid head first into third base where the AZ third baseman blocked the bag while expecting the ball. The ball arrived, the runner was out, and an injury occurred.
First off, I want to be absolutely clear that the AZ third baseman should be removed from the competition for what she did on that play - not blocking the bag but for slapping the baserunner in the head with her glove after the play was over. That was unacceptable. That was totally bush league. If Candrea has guts and this incident is brought to his attention, he should suspend the player for the remainder of the tournament. Absent that, the NCAA should do similarly. There's no room in this sport for that sort of thing.
I suspect the AZ players were upset at an earlier play in which a Northwestern player slid hard into second to break up a double play. She hit the second baseman so hard, she ripped her sock right off. But guess what? The AZ second baseman made a horrendous play on that one. It was her fault that the runner ripped her sock right off. No middle infielder should stay around the bag on a double play. You either push off the inside or the outside of the bag or you brush your foot across it. But the relay throw to first is never done while standing right on the bag. That is a fundamentally unsound play. That is a play which would be unacceptable by 14Us let alone high school girls or even low level college. The Northwestern girl was right to dig her spikes into the defender. That is the fundamentally sound play to make.
But more to the point of this article, there is a general misconception on the part of young boys and girls alike that sliding head first is always the hustling play. It isn't. While I do think it gets you to the bag faster, slightly faster, when there is a fielder trying to make a play on you when you are coming into a bag, having your spikes up is the hard-nosed, hustling play to make. No, I don't want anybody to get hurt. But if you and your team always come into a bag spikes first, the other teams will learn the hard way that they should not block bags with their bodies unless they are truly willing to give up their bodies to get an out. That's hard nosed ball. That's winning ball.
Northwestern is not out of this series but they have a long way to go to get back into it. Arizona deserved to win. If Northwestern wants to play in this thing, they are going to have to use their heads ... and ... their spikes. Arizona should learn to control their rage. Their second baseman made a poor play - it was her fault she got spiked. Northwestern should have spiked the third baseman. But she should be suspended until next season for unsportsmanlike behavior on the diamond. That swing at her opposition was amateurish!
Permanent Link: Head First Is Not Always The Hustle Play
Good Series ... But ....
by Dave
Monday, June 05, 2006
I hope you had a chance to watch some of the Women's College World Series over the weekend. It's fun to watch some of the best players ever go head to head like this. There were plenty of homeruns, exciting finishes, and agony of defeat moments. As usual, there were some shocking upsets and surprises. The third biggest surprise of the tournament was a Big Ten team in the finals. The second was that the team was named Northwestern. The biggest surprise, at least to me, was the quality, or lack thereof, of the umpiring.
It is always fun to watch Cat Osterman pitch. I was surprised to see UCLA's Zaplatosch take her out of the yard in the elimination game. While not having a great year at the plate, the Bruins' catcher is a big game player so maybe that one doesn't quite qualify as unexpected. As Lisa Fernandez aptly noted, Cat was over-adrenalized and throwing her pitches through the break. You could have powered most of Oklahoma City for a week on the energy pouring from Osterman's eyes as she made her last quest for an NCAA title. You can draw your own conclusions from Texas' loss to UCLA but I think it is an abject study in a softball reality. It is not aggression which wins games but controlled aggression. Either Cat did not have ample time to warm up and take the edge off her adrenaline rush, or she didn't feel right and was trying to over compensate by throwing harder than usual. In either event, her world famous drop was staying up and that's what Zap drilled over the wall.
There were other fun performances to watch. I thoroughly enjoyed watching 5 foot 9 Stephanie VanBrakle pounding the ball in and out and flipping that incredible drop. But opponents seemed to be ready for her bread and butter pitch. When VanBrakle didn't have it, she was well replaced by Soph. Chrissy Owens showing that the Tide will rise again next year. But Owens could not hold down Northwestern's home run hitters and ultimately the Tide was knocked from the tournament by UCLA.
After last year, I fully expected a pretty much intact Michigan to make it to the great eight. But drawing Tennessee in the super regionals is a tough obstacle to overcome. With Jennie Ritter, and some others graduating, Michigan will have to fill some huge holes including the meteor-crater inside the pitcher's circle next year. Their 2005 national title, however, should provide the recruiting impetus for the team to be competitive for some time.
It was something of a surprise to see the ascension of the Northwestern University team. This was made even more surprising by their first game loss to UMass at the super regionals. For the second year in a row we have a "cold weather" school in the finals although almost half their roster consists of players from "warm weather" states including ace pitcher Eileen Canney. The team played an aggressive non-conference scheduling, often losing to top 10 or 20 teams and apparently learning from that tough schedule. They were crushed by Arizona in the second game of the year back in February (8 - 0 in 6 innings) when they were no hit by Alicia Hollowell. But Canney did not start that game and only came in to try to avoid being run-ruled. She faced just two batters walking one and giving up a hit to the other. But AZ has not really faced her yet. AZ ace Hollowell threw the entire game against Northwestern so they should be at least somewhat familiar with her. Even so, it will be one of the bigger upsets in softball history if Northwestern can actually pull this best of three series out.
Even as I go over and over the many great games which were played the past several days, one play sticks out in my mind. I cannot shake the image of UCLA Bruin Andrea Duran beginning a swing on a hard inside screwball but holding up enough to check the swing, then being hit on the right forearm, and the umpire apparently calling foul ball then seemingly changing the call to not getting out of the way of the pitch. Let me say that I was pulling for Northwestern in that game. While I totally respect the UCLA players, I don't generally root for the perennial powerhouse because I like to see other schools go for the title. But that was unquestionably a game-changing blown call. It is one thing when the batter is struck near the bat or the ball catches both arm and bat on a ricochet. But when the ball so clearly hits a batter's back arm, in such a low spot when she is so clearly holding up her swing on such a hard-thrown screwball, that's another matter. It seems to me to be impossible to not:
A) see that it hit her arm (just where was the ump looking? It wasn't even close to the bat),
B) notice the batter has held her swing (it wasn't particularly close),
C) actually hear that flesh has been hit rather than metal (you could hear it on TV, in person must have been more obvious), and
D) know absolutely that there was no getting out of the way of that particular pitch (it was thrown at an angle and screwing towards the batter at 66!).
I've seen pitches where it is difficult to know whether the body or the bat has been hit. I've seen questionable check swings. I've heard sounds which make it confusing whether or not the bat has made contact. I've seen batters not move out of the way of inside pitches. This particularly play wasn't close enough for there to be any question that the batter was hit by a pitch which she had zero chance of avoiding.
The call likely changed the outcome of that game. A badly blown call would be bad enough but that was not the only extremely poor call during the tournament. There were instances of line drives down the third base line which were clearly touched by players in fair territory before ending up as called foul balls. There were several plays at first where wrong calls were made. There were other hit by pitch scenarios in which the umps got the calls wrong. It is unacceptable to have bad umpiring influence game outcomes to this degree.
I really hope the TV ratings on this tournament are even higher than they were last year. I'm obviously a fan of softball's popularity growing. I sincerely hope we have good games for the best of three series between AZ and NW. But most of all I hope the umps do not influence the outcome of the championship round of the WCWS. And I hope this particular crew never sees this tournament from the field again. Every ump is entitled to a bad call ever now and again but the number and degree of these blown calls over the four day period was astounding. The NCAA cannot tolerate these sorts of performances at its marquee event.
Permanent Link: Good Series ... But ....
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