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Limitations
by Dave
Thursday, March 01, 2007
I had an e-mail exchange with a 14 year old softball player yesterday which raised an issue I would like to address here because I think it is relevant not just to softball, but also to every other aspect of our lives. The issue involves the artificial limitations we place on ourselves. There are, of course, natural limitations which can never be overcome no matter how hard we try. But most often it is the artificial limitations which have the biggest impact and ultimately determine our success or failure.
The girl who wrote to me wants to become a pitcher and she said she needed advice. Her parents suggested to her that maybe she ought to think about another position. She wants to defy her parents' advice and prove to all the "sporty girls" that she is good enough to be a pitcher. There are some slight catches, however. Tryouts are in less than a month, she's never pitched before, and she won't ask for any help from those "sporty girls" because she isn't really friends with them.
I suggested to this player that she can do anything she sets her mind to, but perhaps expecting to convert oneself into a pitcher in 30 days was a recipe for failure. I told her that if she wanted to become a pitcher, she could do it but that a longer time frame was probably more reasonable. I then went on to explain the steps I think she needed to take in order to accomplish the task. I broke down the motion as best I could with the natural limitations of words. I suggested she practice like a demon and throw as often as possible. She replied back to me that what I had to say was all fine and good but that it is extremely difficult to learn windmill motion from an e-mail and all the other girls who pitch are "like really excellent." She is defeated before she even starts.
I totally agree that one cannot learn to do something as complicated as the windmill motion by merely reading written words. One of my most realistic thoughts on pitching coaches is you pay them for their eyes as much as their knowledge. They can tell you how to pitch in a fundamental, step-by-step way but after you have the basics down, you still go back to them so they can pick out flaws in your motion.
The same dynamic is probably true in every other aspect of sport and life. You think you know how to do something but you hit some sort of a slump in which you just cannot figure out what you're doing wrong. Maybe you are a salesperson who just cannot seem to close a sale. Maybe you are a parent who just cannot get through to your kid. Or maybe you are a teacher whose kids just will not, cannot learn the concept you are teaching. So you seek out the advice of some sort of "coach" who observes you and tells you what you already know. But without that coach, you wouldn't recognize what it is you are doing wrong. This is the reason psychologists, self-help books, and "life coaches" are so popular in our culture. We recognize that sometimes we need outside input to help us do what we already know how to do.
A while ago, I read a comment on a softball forum which suggested that once you know how to pitch, you only sought the advice of a coach in order to avoid injury. The notion was you learn how to do something and then you own that skill. Tell that one to a top level softball or baseball player who is mired in a batting slump! And if that were really the case, why do all these college teams have coaches for various functions like pitching, batting, etc.? And why do they even bother to practice at all? If softball functioned this way, coaching a team would just involve finding top level recruits and then arranging games for them. That's not the way things work.
Still, I am reminded that seeking out the absolute best coaches is not the only way to skin the cat. The list of top level pitchers is not filled with girls whose parents had all the money in the world and could afford to place them in sophisticated and expensive lessons. There's both more and less to it than that. And this piece is not about obtaining professional coaching help. Rather, it is about the artificial limitations we place on ourselves.
There are natural limitations on what a person can do in any aspect of life. You don't have wings so you cannot fly without the aid of some sort of mechanical device. No human being can possibly run 60 miles per hour. No matter how hard you work, you will never be able to outswim a dolphin. But if a thing is possible for a human being to accomplish, then any of us can at least aspire to doing it. Aspirations, however, are not enough. We need to take logical steps and then we still have to overcome the artificial limitations we create for ourselves.
We place limitations on ourselves in a number of different ways. Part of the trick to successful living is distinguishing between natural and artificial limitations and finding ways to overcome the artificial barriers while still acknowledging the natural ones.
We place artificial barriers on ourselves through a number of techniques or methods. One way is to decide either consciously or subconsciously that we just can't do something. Another way is to give external factors and variables undeserved power. Finally, we shackle ourselves when we set unreasonable expectations. As you might guess, it is tricky business to distinguish between natural and artificial limitations but that is the game we play, the life we live.
Sometimes a coach or teacher hears the most displeasing sound in the universe coming from their student. The phrase "I just can't do it" usually indicates frustration as much as anything else. But if you "just can't do it," why are you trying to do it? Why waste your time and effort trying to do something that is not possible for you?
The "I just can't do it" syndrome is what we usually call defeatism. It is the most obvious form of artificial limitation we place on ourselves. It is a conscious decision that something is not possible for us. If you really, honestly do not believe you can do something, then most likely you can't. Believing that something is not possible will most likely lead to failure.
But there are other more subconscious ways in which we get convinced that we can't do something. Sometimes you see a pitcher who cannot get the ball over or execute a particular pitch. She can't seem to get her body to do what she wants to do. A good coach recognizes when a pitcher or any player has reached the point of subconscious limitation and usually he or she will remove the person from that situation so as not to reinforce the defeatist notion.
The very idea of subconscious defeatism is why sports teams heckle one another. In basketball, players try to intimidate each other into believing that it is just not possible to win this game or perform in the manner one is accustomed to, at least not today. A player might say something in passing like, "I thought you were better than this," "I guess you have your bad days like everybody else," or "you thought you were good before you played against me." They try to "get into each others' heads" and plant the idea that "you just can't do it."
The way in which to combat subliminal or subconscious defeatism in competitive situations is preparation. Pitchers who practice a lot usually don't worry much about getting the ball over because they have done exactly that perhaps tens of thousands of times before. They don't worry about executing a pitch because they recognize that if they have trouble doing it this time, they won't another time because they've been through this before. This is part of what we call mental toughness and that's a subject for another day. But suffice it to say that the belief that we can do something is a necessary part of performing in any sport.
Similar to subconscious limitation caused by opponents deliberately "getting into our heads" is something I like to think of as "failure indoctrination" or pushing of "failure buttons." As little children, we come to rely on our parents to tell us what we can and cannot do. They scream at us when we try to put our fingers into electrical sockets. They cheer for us when we take our first steps. There are thousands and thousands of little behaviors we perform which receive positive and negative reinforcement. Parents punish their kids when they fight. They give them rewards when they come home from school with good grades. But as life moves along, there are literally thousands of positive and negative reinforcements and some of these occur without parent or child being consciously aware of them.
Parents often refer to the process by which they gain control over their children's behavior as the installation of "buttons." Parents learn to push "their kids' buttons" and make them do what they want while avoiding the kinds of behaviors which they believe will damage them. The process is hardly a complete one as most parents will acknowledge that their children often do exactly what they don't want them to do. But parents also successfully install other kinds of buttons, some of which can lead to subconscious defeatism.
Subconscious button pushing is too sophisticated to explain in any detail here. Let's just say that it occurs in ways that are often not intended. Our 14 year old want-to-be pitcher, for example, noted to me that her father says she ought to play something else and not aspire to become a pitcher. My first thought upon hearing this was this girl's parents have triggered the failure button. I can't be a judge of that though when I really don't know the people involved. But my first piece of advice to her was to not listen to anyone who tells you that you can't do something. I wouldn't go so far as to suggest to this kid or any other that their parents don't have their best interests at heart. They most likely do. But they should at least be made aware that they have told this kid she can't do something which very likely she can.
I witnessed a more insidious version of this subconscious defeatism about two years ago. My youngest kid was taking pitching lessons in a clinic setting. There were 9 other girls in this clinic, one of which was a friend from our little village. The kid pitched in rec league for several years with some success. The parents put her into this clinic to see if she would develop into something more than a rec league pitcher. My kid and the other one were going to play for the same travel team and just who was going to be a pitcher was up in the air. We progressed to private lessons and practiced four times a week in the basement. By the time spring rolled around, my kid had become quite a good little pitcher and there was no doubt who was going to pitch. Once they saw this, the parents of the other kid completely gave up on pitching and discouraged her from even trying to practice. They taught her to be resigned to the fact that this other kid was better than she could ever be. That;s extremely sad. They have installed a button in their kid which, when invoked, tells her that when she encounters somebody good at something, she shouldn't aspire to be even better than that.
There are two other forms of defeatism which I despise more than the conscious and subconscious variety. These are learned failure through reliance on past personal success and through reliance on short-cuts. They are inter-related and that's why I look at them together here.
In my town it became common to talk about a kid who was a good softball player in the town rec league from the age of about 8 or 9 years old in a certain way. The phrase, "well, she's a really gifted athlete" was more common than it should have been. The notion was that success at this age indicated who was going to be good 10 years hence. Certain girls were gifted athletes so they would, of course, be the ones who were recognized as gifted during their high school years. My guess is these are the kids who our 14 year old aspiring pitcher refers to as "sporty girls." They are the kids who everyone knows are good athletes.
If only good athletes at age 8 or 9 became the really good athletes we recognized in high school or the truly great ones we see in high level college competition, there would be a geographical and cultural dispersion of them which roughly mirrored other demographics. To put that into English, if all it took to be a good softball player were good genetics, Southern California would not be the place which produced so many of the top players in the world. Instead they would come from all over. But Southern California does produce most of the best players in the world. And the reasons are varied.
First of all, everyone recognizes that SoCal has great weather for playing the game. But then again, so does Florida. Last year I heard a TV commentator say that ten years ago Florida colleges could not field a single team from the talent found at in-state high schools. But the state developed its youth leagues to such an extent that they do that today while also fielding teams that are competitive on a national level. So weather is not the only variable. And the bigger point is genetics has little to do with it. It isn't just the best "natural athletes" who make the best softball players. You do need some cooperative weather and, apparently, you also need the system which gives them an opportunity to hone their skills.
If natural gifts don't necessarily make the softball player, what does and does this really have any bearing on whether the so-called "sporty girls" who are considered good athletes at age 8 will be good softball players when they are 16? The overall point here is that in order to become a good softball player, you should worry more about the kinds of instruction received, the amounts of practice and playing time, and the level of competition faced, than you should about whether you live in SoCal or whether the kid is any good at 8.
Related to this aspect is the saga of the ten year old wonderkind. I can't tell you how many kids I have seen who were really excellent ball players at age 8, 9 or even 10 and who failed to progress. The reasons for this failure are also varied but there is one which sticks out to me. This involves the kid who could throw the ball past anyone at age 10. She is so enamored with her youthful success that she stops practicing as hard as what got her where she is. I've seen this with 11 year olds making the leap to 12U. I've seen this with high school age kids who had great success in 14U ball. Even the parents are appalled when that success is not duplicated as the kid moves up. I;ve talked with a lot of them and they believe progress will come automatically because of past success. When it doesn't heartache ensues. Eventually the kid quite the game because she cannot deal with this new thing called failure. Yet she brought it on herself.
The issue of failure learned via always seeking out shortcuts is a close cousin to the one of reliance on past success. The reason is anyone who has experienced success via shortcuts, believes they can always find a way to shortcircuit tedious hard work. perhaps our successful 10 year old pitcher became a monster flamethrower via some intense practice early on. Then she slacked off and enjoyed the fruits of her early labor while never realizing that she wasn't making consistent forward progress. Other kids who were neither intimidated by her early success nor learned defeat through slacking off continued to advance through hard work. Eventually they surpassed the wonderkind and now make quick work of her.
I have seen any number of people try to take shortcuts through whatever means they could find. There comes a point when such a person actually is willing to use more energy to locate the shortcut than he or she is to take the common sense, consistent-effort-intensive way. In one of my early pitching clinic experiences, I met a fellow whose daughter was one of those "truly gifted athletes" who has found a lot of success early on. That's probably because she is bigger and stronger than most kids her age. She will most likely be one of those "sporty girls" who everyone knows is a gifted athlete. She worked hard her first year but her parents also got her some instruction because they recognized they didn't know a lot about pitching. So, rather than spending a lot of money on that personal coach thing, they took the shortcut. They enrolled the kid in clinics and then videotaped it so they could refer back to the tapes in future years when they needed to work out kinks in her motion. It never occurred to them that what was being learned was merely rudimentary mechanics and there is far more to pitching than that. They were content to take the most obvious shortcut. We'll see how that one turns out.
I want to refocus back on the 14 year old girl who wants to be a pitcher. She has only given herself about 30 days to do what for many takes years. She's looking for a shortcut where I don't think one can be found. The e-mail exchange I had with her reminded me of other kids who failed because:
1) they just knew they couldn't;
2) others told them they couldn't;
3) parents made them believe their potential was limited;
3) they didn't receive proper instruction;
4) they relied on past successes which caused them to work less hard for future ones;
5) they believed they were such naturally gifted athletes that they didn't have to work for things; or
6) they spent all their time looking for shortcuts.
The bottom line here is just about anyone can make themselves into a good player at any position including pitcher. Don't let anyone tell you that you cannot do something and don't believe it yourself. Be prepared to take the right and logical steps to achieve the success you desire. Be prepared to put your muscle where your brain is. It will probably take more than 30 days for this girl to pitch but if she really wants to do it, she certainly can.
There is nothing worse than someone who talks about their personal failure and then explains why they failed when they hindered themselves or were unwilling to take the steps needed for success. There is nothing I dislike quite as much as watching failure in motion. Our 14 year old girl wants to become a pitcher. That is certainly possible with a lot of hard work and dedication. But without that hard work, dedication and a belief that achievement is possible, there is very little hope of anything more than accidental success. Playing the lottery has better odds.Labels: coaching, parents, players
Permanent Link: Limitations
 
Yes, Virginia, There Is A Knuckleball
by Dave
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Virgina writes in to inquire as to whether there is such a thing as a fastpitch softball knuckleball. Here's my response:
Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as a fastpitch softball knuckle ball. But you won't see it often and it is of questionable utility. Allow me to explain.
Several years ago, a friend of mine was bragging about his daughter's pitching. He bragged about how she had pitched a perfect game in a middle school competition. He explained to me that his daughter was extremely successful not because she threw with any velocity but because she had control and movement. Then he went on to list the litany of pitches she used and when he got to the knuckle ball I was dumbfounded. My curiosity was piqued. So I asked him how you throw it and he showed me that it is almost identical to the way you would throw it in hard ball. I vowed to one day really learn to throw it so I could teach my kids.
More recently I purchased one of a series of videos called "Coaches Choice," or something like that, which contained "advanced pitches and drill" as taught by the pitching coach at Cal State Fullerton. As it happens, one of the reasons I bought this tape was because it purported to teach the softball knuckleball. And I remembered my vow to one day learn it. The video taught the pitch the same way my friend explained it, the same way I had learned it in hardball. But the coach really mentioned it in passing as one of many ways to throw a change-up.
Basically, you dig your finger nails into the seam of the ball and when you throw the pitch, you push against the normal spin of the ball. In hardball, the spin normally is backspin. In fastpitch, the spin is normally overspin. But with a knuckleball, what you are after is virtually no spin. So your fingers push against that normal spin and the ball should never complete more than one or two full rotations in the air - ideally no full rotations.
The effect of knuckling in hardball is the pitch comes in slower than other pitches - almost floating - and it darts some but in an unpredictable manner. A hardball fastball at the highest levels is generally between 88 and 92. The two seamer and other sinkers generally run at the low end of that range though some few practitioners bring it in the 90s. The slider (late breaking, short curveball) is generally thrown in the range of 85-90. The bigger breaking curveball can be anywhere from 80 to 88 though the slower you throw it, the more it should break. Change-ups vary in the big leagues but they are usually ten or more miles per hour slower than the top end of the four seam fastball. By way of contrast, a high quality knuckleball is usually thrown around 70.
In softball, the speed variances between pitches depend greatly upon the pitcher and her choice of the way she throws a particular pitch. Top fastballs run into the 60s. So does a "power" drop, rise or screwball. But there are slower versions of these pitches. Curves generally vary quite a bit too depending on the way you choose to throw it. There is a fastpitch version of the hardball slider which has to be thrown hard to be effective since the break is slighter than the sweeping curve or dropball. And there are several kinds of curves and drops that a given pitcher might use. In fastpitch a broader variety of pitches is generally employed. A given pitcher might have an effective slider, sweeping curve, drop curve and straight down breaking curve. But usually she will settle on about three main pitches which get her the outs. And the speed variances will depend on the type of each pitch she throws.
Usually the 3 main pitches do not include the fastball since it is a little too easy to hit in fastpitch. Fastballs are thrown but only as a smaller part of the overall mix. So a pitcher uses maybe the drop, a curve and a change-up. Or maybe she uses the rise, a screwball, and a change-up. But most likely what she uses as her three main pitches are all thrown at different speeds. And perhaps she adds a fourth and/or fifth secondary pitch to her repertoire to keep the batters honest. She may add change-ups that mimic one of her other pitches or a curve that looks like her drop or whatever. But the knuckleball is usually only added as one variety within her stable of change-ups.
Knuckleballs are not all that common in hardball. That's because they are difficult to throw effectively. In order to throw the knuckle, you have to have it dart all over the place. And if you are able to do that, it is difficult for the catcher to catch so there are a lot of passed balls. Your average typical MLB all-star catcher has great difficulty catching a high quality knuckleball. Witness Jason Varitek of the Bosox who gladly rode the pine in favor of Doug Mirabelli whenever Tim Wakefield, the knuckleballer, pitched.
For whatever reason, the fastpitch softball version of the knuckleball does not move nearly as much as the baseball version. I suspect that you can figure out why based on the comments of baseball knuckleball pitchers who give the credit for their best performances to the weather - wind speed and humidity. Part of the reason a knuckleball is effective is it allows the wind to play it. If it is windy out, batters have more trouble with it. If the air is heavy, the ball seems to move more. If it is cool, dry and the air is still, a knuckleball doesn't move much.
I suspect that reasons why the softball knuckle doesn't move as much is the ball is heavier requiring more wind speed to move it around. And because the pitching distance is so much shorter, the ball doesn't get much opportunity to knuckle. If the softball knuckleball moved as much as it does in baseball, it would probably be discouraged since softball is more of a speed and baserunning game than baseball is. It is essential for the catcher to catch every ball since one run often determines the winner.
As things are, the knuckleball is really only one of several choices a pitcher has for change-ups. And not nearly the best option at that. This is because unlike in baseball where the pitcher tries to not allow the batter to see the ball until the last fraction of a second, in fastpitch with the windmill motion, the batter has a very good view of the ball long before it is released. A good batter should easily be able to pick out the knuckleball when the pitcher is at the top of her windmill rotation. She can relax knowing that a pitch of 40-45 is on the way and since, the knuckle action isn't nearly as prevalent, she isn't worried about hitting it once she knows it is coming. Perhaps the single most important element of any successful change-up is the element of surprise. If you are telegraphing a change by showing the batter your grip, you are not going to be successful.
So, yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as a knuckleball in softball but it is used infrequently and probably shouldn't concern you.Labels: pitching
Permanent Link: Yes, Virginia, There Is A Knuckleball
8U Tournament Ball?
by Dave
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
What's all this I hear about 8U tournament softball? Well, I don't know what you've heard. I can only tell you what I've seen which is a few games at a single tournament. But I must say, if you have an eight year old, it is definitely worth looking into.
IntroductionFirst of all, I am aware that some of the big, important fastpitch organizing bodies like ASA and Pony have 8U levels. I can't say that I've ever seen high level play at this age. Actually, I'm not really sure it is worthwhile to seek ought high level play for 8 year olds. I really doubt there is much benefit to be gained from looking to step up your eight year old's game by competing with the best players from around your area or the country.
I had two kids play 8U recreational softball. That was almost as much fun for the parents as it was for the kids. A coach pitched and each side batted through their lineup with the occassional out being made. If a girl overran a base or just kept going all the way around the bases, nobody stopped her even to suggest that she stay in one place for even a moment. At the end of my eight year old's last season of innocence, she proclaimed "this was fun but I wish we played with real rules like 3 outs."
I recently discussed the creation of an 8U tournament team with a fellow who is starting a "travel" program which spans 8U to 18U. I asked him if he ever watched an 8U tournament before. He said no, "but can you imagine how well these girls will play after a couple of years!" I suggested to him that if his goal was to put together a really good 12U or 14U team sometime in the future, when these 8s were that age, his efforts would be wasted if he focused all his attention on making this year's 8U team as good as it can possibly be. If on the other hand, he wanted to provide an opportunity to 7 and 8 year olds to have a rip-roaring good time, by all means, go for it with the 8U team.
The Play8U tournament ball of the variety I've seen is different than other kinds of play for a number of reasons. The most obvious difference is a coach pitches. That's necessary because there are very, very few kids at 8 who take pitching lessons. It is next to impossible to find a kid that young who can consistently throw strikes.
The coach pitches something like 10 pitches to each batter who can either strike out swinging, hit the ball into play, or use up their ten pitches at which point they are out. It is the batting team's coach who pitches to his own team. The defensive team has a pitcher and she is a valid fielder on ground balls but her primary purpose involves something else. When a ball is in play in the field, the play can be brought to an end at any time by throwing the ball into the pitcher. When she has possession of the ball within the pitcher's circle, runners have to go back to the last base they were at unless they are more than 50% of the way to the next one. One of the umpire's primary duties is to ensure that runners return to the correct base. There is usually a run per inning rule so the thing doesn't get out of hand. Typically there are time limits. I do not recall whether there was a game run mercy rule at the tournament I watched but I do not believe there was.
The level of play at tournaments like this can vary quite a bit. Some teams consist totally of 8 year olds who obviously have been practicing quite a bit. They make most routine outs quite easily. They hit the ball fairly hard and run the bases like they know what they're doing. Other teams are far less practiced and rely upon the inning run rule to get their at-bats. There is a full spectrum between these tow extremes.
The girls themselves seem to be having a tremendous amount of fun regardless of whether they are well in the lead or impossibly far behind. All the usual cheers you might expect from an 8U softball team are evident. And if there was one aspect of the game which every single team I saw excelled at, it was those cheers. The fun hardly stops there. If the kids have been coached reasonably well, then they are able to make a few outs, get a few hits and generally be competitive enough to not feel as if they are slaves being abused at the hands of cruel masters.
parentsOne thing I found disturbing at an 8U tournament was the seriousness of the players' parents. If I turned my face away from the field and didn't know the age of the players, I would have thought I was watching an 18U game. They were so nervous and serious that you would have thought their children's futures were riding on the outcome of this game. I'm not sure why they were so tense rather than enjoying this for what it was - a great memory they will forever cherish - but you can't stand in judgment of another person whose kid is out in the field. I would have preferred to hear some laughter or other signs of enjoyment. It was a little too easy to picture the kids of these "sports parents" burning out of fastpitch before they ever saw real quality play.
I urge you to enjoy your kids' softball play at all age levels. Nowhere is this more important than in the 0-9 age range. Take pictures and video and make mental images. You'll never enjoy anything quite as much as you will these years regardless of whether your daughter ever makes a play or gets a hit. This is as fun as life gets. Please enjoy it. Don't get tense. The outcome of a single 8U game or tournament has no bearing on anything else in the Universe.
CoachingI think the key to enjoying this level of the sport is finding the right amount and kind of practice for 8 year olds. I've coached this age group before and it is as tough as any coaching assignment you can imagine. The kids are fairly easily distracted so you've got to keep things moving. You need several stations just like with the big girls and you need to keep the girls moving to new skills at a good pace. But it is definitely the most basic fundamentals which should be stressed. The fielding of a ground ball and basic throwing are skills which should fill most of the practice time. And get parents involved to help you run the various stations.
I think the amount of practices you conduct is dependant on too many variables to list. Two a week for three weeks should allow you to cover the bases. More weeks will make your team better but you want to make sure you have some sort of games so it doesn't become too much of a grind. More than three practices a week seems like it might be excessive. An hour and a half should be just about right. An hour is OK but you won't get through enough skills. Two hours is just too long.
The way I would structure practice is to begin with fundamental throwing drills. I like to work things from the end of the throw backwards. I have all the kids get into three lines and put something in front of them like a lose base. I tell them all to kneel down on the base and throw the ball 15 feet by wristing it - snapping the wrist only. Each kid does 5 - 10 of these and then we move to the next drill - throwing on one or two knees. Then I stand them up and have them straddle the bases they were just kneeling on and throw without stepping. The throwing distance depends on how many practices you've had. I woiuld start with 20 feet and then move back to 25 and so on, ultimately trying to reach 50 feet, perhaps even 60.
At each stage I try to stress sound fundamental throwing skills. If parents can populate the catching part of each of three stations, I spend my time doing the actual instruction. I look for the kids needing the most instruction and work most closely with them but also take time to give pointers to those who need the least amount of instruction.
After these three drills, I have the girls stay on one side of the base with both feet and then step over the base with the front foot while making the throw. Next, we kick away the bases and I have the catcher/parents roll the balls to our girls and have them field an easy ground ball. As practice season progresses, I have the balls rolled progressively harder and then we move out to fielding lightly tapped (hit with a bat) grounders. One good way to do this is to start the girls out in a line at second base. One player moves over to the seond baseman's position, fields a grounder and throws to a parent stationed at first base. Then let them field one at the SS position and throw to first. Then move by third. I haven't identified a first baseman yet so a parent catching the throws keeps practice moving along. After we work on catching ckills, I judge who is the best catcher on the team and regardless of any other needs, this is my first baseman - that's probably the single most important position in 8U ball. After about three or four practices, I have her catch the throws to first and put a parent in back of her just to retrieve the balls.
We work on catching skills by using the same three lines we used with throwing and ground balls. I like to use softees for this so if a girl misses the ball, she won't get hit, hurt, and begin to fear it. You can also use tennis balls to teach catching skills. A lot of what is learned at this age has more to do with seeing a thrown ball than it does with hand-eye coordination of making a catch. A young player needs to see a lot of balls thrown to her before she begins catching them with any regularity.
Within a few practices, some of the girls will begin catching just about anything that is thrown near them. At this point, you can start to have the girls throw to each other. But use softees for the first several times and don't simply line up your girls in two lines and have them throw to each other. You need to be able to supervise more than that allows. Have two sets of girls play catch at a time so you can watch over them. Have plenty of balls so this drill doesn't break down into a game of running after the lose ball. Leave the over thrown ones rolling around the field, you can pick them up later.
After you have gone through a complete list of these kinds of drills, I suggest you set up various stations with a parent at each and perform the same drills simultaneously. Have each girl complete the circuit two or three times before you move to something else, like batting.
Batting practice must be fit into your practices too. Here your emphasis should maybe be a bit less on the perfect stance or swing than it is on just having lots of chances to see a pitched ball and take a hack at it. That brings up perhaps the most important aspect of the offensive 8U game. Whoever is going to pitch in the games should be the one pitching at practice. Believe it or not, all of us forty somethings lob the ball in via a slightly different method. When I coached at 8U, the kids could usually hit off of one particular coach but not the others. That's your pitcher for games! And the pitcher you choose doesn't necessarily have to be the one who pitches slowest - kids don't always hit the slowest pitcher best. If I'm not mistaken, in tournaments, the coach must pitch within a range of distances from homeplate. I believe it is something like 30 - 35 feet. It isn't nearly as easy as it sounds to pitch well from 30 feet to an 8 year old. Coaches who will pitch need as much practice as the kids do!
To conduct a good batting practice, you should have a station for hitting off the tee at which you will work the basics like stance and taking a decent, fairly level swing without spinng your body around like an ice dancer. Soft toss should fit into your regimen as well. Keep in mind that you can use whiffle balls for these kinds of drills and that allows you to use maximum use of your practice space assuming you can get multiple batting tees and parents to help in the cause. Then it's time to move on to "live batting practice." As I said, you want to designate a coach who will pitch in games and have that person do most of your live hitting instruction. &nbs-p; And work towards keeping all the girls involved in practice so they aren't just standing around waiting for their turn to hit. You can run some of your multiple stations for fielding or hitting off the tee, have a few kids in the infield chasing hit balls, and a couple kids out in the outfield with a parent practicing ground balls or weak popups (thrown by parent).
I would suggest you try to get in some inter-squad scrimmaging to give the kids a feel for what the games will be like. Have at least a full infield, including a kid playing the pitcher position. Use live game rules and have the kids run the bases just like they will in games. If you are smart, you can create balanced practices for your 8U tournament team which will be almost as much fun as the games.
If you are setting out to coach an 8U tournament team, I suggest you figure out exactly how much practice time you have and then structure a complete practice season intended to cover all the basic skills and leave enough time for 3 full scrimmages before you get into a tournament. The early practices will mostly consist of throwing and defensive drills with just a little time for batting - perhaps none at the first practice. You'll want to take the most time with the drills you do first and then as you get into practice number 2 or 3, you'll see that you need progressively less time for these drills, leaving you more time for drill sets number 2 and so on. Eventually, you'll get through all the drills including basic batting off the tee within the first hour of practice leaving you a half hour for scrimmaging. Then you'll break up the drills into stations and be able to fit perhaps 45 minutes of scrimmaging into an hour and a half practice.
Finally, if you coach an 8U tournament team, please do not set out to make these girls into the best they can be or try to set them up to bve really great when they are 10, 12 or 14. The best you can hope for with girls this age is that you improve their fundamental skills a bit and make them want to play again next year.
ConclusionAnd if you are the parent of a 7 or 8 year old kid who has just been approached about the possibility of participating with a tournament team, don't worry that things will be too serious. 8U tournament ball is not a miniature version of 18U tournament ball. It can be a tremendous amount of fun assuming the coaches and other parents have their hearts in the right place. If you need to get in the right frame of mind, go watch a game in which your kids are not playing. That's what drove it home to me.Labels: youth tournament teams
Permanent Link: 8U Tournament Ball?
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