| SOFTBALL TIPS |
|
|
|
| SITE STUFF |
|
|
|
|
ARCHIVES
|
| • |
June 26, 2005 |
| • |
July 03, 2005 |
| • |
July 10, 2005 |
| • |
July 17, 2005 |
| • |
July 24, 2005 |
| • |
July 31, 2005 |
| • |
August 07, 2005 |
| • |
August 14, 2005 |
| • |
August 21, 2005 |
| • |
August 28, 2005 |
| • |
September 11, 2005 |
| • |
October 02, 2005 |
| • |
October 09, 2005 |
| • |
October 23, 2005 |
| • |
October 30, 2005 |
| • |
November 06, 2005 |
| • |
November 13, 2005 |
| • |
December 04, 2005 |
| • |
December 18, 2005 |
| • |
December 25, 2005 |
| • |
January 08, 2006 |
| • |
January 15, 2006 |
| • |
January 29, 2006 |
| • |
February 05, 2006 |
| • |
February 12, 2006 |
| • |
February 19, 2006 |
| • |
February 26, 2006 |
| • |
March 05, 2006 |
| • |
March 12, 2006 |
| • |
March 19, 2006 |
| • |
March 26, 2006 |
| • |
April 02, 2006 |
| • |
April 09, 2006 |
| • |
April 16, 2006 |
| • |
April 23, 2006 |
| • |
April 30, 2006 |
| • |
May 07, 2006 |
| • |
May 14, 2006 |
| • |
May 21, 2006 |
| • |
May 28, 2006 |
| • |
June 04, 2006 |
| • |
June 11, 2006 |
| • |
June 18, 2006 |
| • |
June 25, 2006 |
| • |
July 09, 2006 |
| • |
July 16, 2006 |
| • |
July 23, 2006 |
| • |
July 30, 2006 |
| • |
August 13, 2006 |
| • |
August 20, 2006 |
| • |
September 03, 2006 |
| • |
September 10, 2006 |
| • |
September 17, 2006 |
| • |
September 24, 2006 |
| • |
October 01, 2006 |
| • |
October 08, 2006 |
| • |
October 15, 2006 |
| • |
October 22, 2006 |
| • |
November 12, 2006 |
| • |
November 26, 2006 |
| • |
December 31, 2006 |
| • |
January 14, 2007 |
| • |
January 21, 2007 |
| • |
January 28, 2007 |
| • |
February 04, 2007 |
| • |
February 11, 2007 |
| • |
February 18, 2007 |
| • |
February 25, 2007 |
| • |
March 04, 2007 |
| • |
March 11, 2007 |
| • |
March 18, 2007 |
| • |
April 01, 2007 |
| • |
April 08, 2007 |
| • |
April 15, 2007 |
| • |
April 22, 2007 |
| • |
April 29, 2007 |
| • |
May 06, 2007 |
| • |
May 13, 2007 |
| • |
May 20, 2007 |
| • |
May 27, 2007 |
| • |
June 03, 2007 |
| • |
June 10, 2007 |
| • |
June 17, 2007 |
| • |
June 24, 2007 |
| • |
July 01, 2007 |
| • |
July 22, 2007 |
| • |
July 29, 2007 |
| • |
August 12, 2007 |
| • |
August 19, 2007 |
| • |
September 02, 2007 |
| • |
September 16, 2007 |
| • |
September 30, 2007 |
| • |
October 07, 2007 |
| • |
October 14, 2007 |
| • |
October 21, 2007 |
| • |
November 04, 2007 |
| • |
November 18, 2007 |
| • |
November 25, 2007 |
| • |
December 02, 2007 |
| • |
December 09, 2007 |
| • |
December 16, 2007 |
| • |
January 13, 2008 |
| • |
February 17, 2008 |
| • |
February 24, 2008 |
| • |
March 02, 2008 |
| • |
March 09, 2008 |
| • |
March 30, 2008 |
| • |
April 06, 2008 |
| • |
April 13, 2008 |
| • |
April 20, 2008 |
| • |
April 27, 2008 |
| • |
May 04, 2008 |
| • |
May 11, 2008 |
| • |
May 18, 2008 |
| • |
May 25, 2008 |
| • |
June 01, 2008 |
| • |
June 15, 2008 |
| • |
June 22, 2008 |
| • |
June 29, 2008 |
| • |
July 06, 2008 |
| • |
July 13, 2008 |
| • |
July 20, 2008 |
| • |
August 03, 2008 |
| • |
August 10, 2008 |
| • |
August 17, 2008 |
| • |
August 24, 2008 |
| • |
August 31, 2008 |
| • |
September 07, 2008 |
| • |
September 14, 2008 |
| • |
September 21, 2008 |
| • |
September 28, 2008 |
| • |
October 05, 2008 |
| • |
October 12, 2008 |
| • |
October 19, 2008 |
| • |
October 26, 2008 |
| • |
November 02, 2008 |
| • |
November 09, 2008 |
| • |
November 16, 2008 |
| • |
November 30, 2008 |
| • |
December 07, 2008 |
| • |
December 21, 2008 |
| • |
December 28, 2008 |
| • |
February 15, 2009 |
| • |
February 22, 2009 |
| • |
April 12, 2009 |
| • |
April 19, 2009 |
| • |
April 26, 2009 |
| • |
May 03, 2009 |
| • |
May 10, 2009 |
| • |
May 17, 2009 |
| • |
May 24, 2009 |
| • |
May 31, 2009 |
| • |
June 07, 2009 |
| • |
June 14, 2009 |
| • |
June 21, 2009 |
| • |
July 05, 2009 |
| • |
July 12, 2009 |
| • |
July 19, 2009 |
| • |
August 02, 2009 |
| • |
August 30, 2009 |
| • |
September 06, 2009 |
| • |
September 20, 2009 |
| • |
October 04, 2009 |
| • |
October 11, 2009 |
| • |
October 18, 2009 |
| • |
November 08, 2009 |
| • |
November 15, 2009 |
| • |
November 22, 2009 |
| • |
November 29, 2009 |
| • |
December 27, 2009 |
| • |
January 03, 2010 |
| • |
January 10, 2010 |
| • |
January 17, 2010 |
| • |
January 24, 2010 |
| • |
January 31, 2010 |
| • |
March 14, 2010 |
| • |
March 21, 2010 |
| • |
March 28, 2010 |
| • |
April 04, 2010 |
| • |
April 18, 2010 |
| • |
April 25, 2010 |
|
|
| SOFTBALL LINKS |
|
|
|
JHS Coaches, Give Me A Little Time
by Dave
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Junior High School / Middle School coaches, please give me a little of your time. The vast majority of you are paid. And while I understand that you do not get wealthy from your relatively small coaching salaries, all I ask is that you give just a little time to the sport in general, and to your kids in particular, above and beyond your required time to do a couple things.
Now, I know several of you are very good coaches who either played recently or are huge fastpitch fans. But recently I have heard a number of disturbing stories which led me to write this little piece. One of the stories involved treatment of ace pitchers - girls who had fairly extensive tournament ball experience. Two kids I know are the aces of their JHS teams who were "rested" so they could be ready for "big games" in a few days. I've got news for the coaches who rested these girls. When they play tournament ball and are expected to pitch in the championship game, "rested" means the coach takes them out of the preceding game in the last inning or maybe sits them for half a game an hour before the "big game."
A number of other kids I know who play other positions have complained about the practices their coaches run. They described in hilarious detail the various drills their coaches have devised to practice the team. I won't go into detail but suffice it to say, nobody should be doing these drills in this sport. These coaches invented stuff to do because they had no idea what they were doing. The drills had absolutely no value. They came up with these things in their imaginations and used them because there was nobody to stop them.
Other kids have complained to me about the way the coaches have tried to alter kids' swings, pitching motions, etc. One of these kids pays weekly for private lessons from one of the top three or four high school coaches in the state. The JHS coach tried (aggressively) to change this kid's pitching motion and when the kid protested that XYZ coach tells her not to do that, the coach replied "I don't know who that is. Who are you talking about? You can do it my way or you can ride the bench." Of course, the kid knew far more about the game than the JHS coach, refused to do it that way, and was benched! This JHS coach didn't know who the best HS coach in her county was! She insisted that the kid do something wrong and then got insulted that somebody else was coaching "her kid" so she benched the kid for insubordination! There are circumstances in which that would be right but this wasn't one of them. This coach let pride get in the way of intelligence.
Here is my remedy for some of the worst possible coaching out there. This applies exclusively to junior high school / middle school coaches who cannot in any way say they have an expertise in the game and the way it has been played over the past ten years. I know many of you do have that expertise. I'm not talking to you. To the rest of you, please recognize that if you, the coach, played high school softball twenty years ago, everything you may think you know could very well be considered wrong today. Unless you played ball in a softball mecca twenty years ago, and perhaps even if you did, the game has changed substantially. You need to get up to speed with today's game. So here is what I propose you do:
1) Go watch a high school game. See if you can catch a game played by the high school to which the majority of your 8th grade students will be going next year. If that team is not very good, read the local sports page and find a couple good teams who will be playing sometime soon. Go watch a good game. It doesn't have to be a conference, county, or state championship. It could just be a regular season game between two good rivals. If you are adventurous, go watch the conference, county or state championship, semi or quarter final game. The idea here is just to watch a somewhat high quality game where the play is the way it is supposed to be.
2) When you have your team tryouts next year and you ask kids to fill out some sort of form, also ask them for: A) any travel teams on which they play and B) names and locations of any private coaching or clinics they regularly attend. The idea here is to understand what your kids' experience level is and to build your knowledge about why your kids are making funny faces when you give them instruction. I'm not saying you have to walk on eggshells or defer to private coaches. But when you force a kid to do something under threat of being benched, you have a duty to at least understand where the resistance is coming from. You might actually be dictating to some 12 or 13 year old that they do something which is absolutely, positively wrong and which they are working day and night NOT to do.
3) If you haven't done so already, open up the lines of communication with the coach of the high school team. Call her or him and introduce yourself. Get an e-mail address so you can have mutually convenient discussions throughout the season and afterwards. Ask the coach what she or he sees as the one skill which the girls you have sent to the team in years past is most lacking. You don't need to give the coach scouting reports on next year's freshmen unless she or he asks you directly. What you are trying to accomplish is an inmprovement in your skills as a coach and to improve the chances of your kids making the team, perhaps starting, even on varsity, next year.
4) If you have accomplished number 3, see if you can find a time when you can go watch the HS team practice. You don't need to go to tryouts or an early season practice. Your season probably ends before theirs does. Go to a practice then or give your girls one day off in the middle of your season and go watch the HS team practice to see if you can learn any tricks or drills which might benefit your team in the short-term and the girls moving on in the longer-term.
5) Check TV listing and see if you can catch a college game on ESPN or another sports channel. Right now some of the best college fastpitch is being played in the NCAA tournament. ESPN has games just about all weekend long. Last Saturday night they had several games on. You can learn a lot just by watching for an hour.
6) If you are, or in the process get, hooked on fastpitch softball, ask the kids who play tournament ball when and where they are playing. You may have to ask the parents since the kids don't always pay particularly much attention to the schedule. See if there is a tournament which you can attend for an hour or two to watch some of the kids on this year's or next's team play against good competition.
7) If you are truly adventurous or ambitious, find out who the really big name private coaches in your area are. Learn their names and understand that they may have earned their bona fides when you were in HS. They may have been responsible for that girl who used to give your HS team so much trouble. They may have been responsible for feeding you that constant stream of ace pitchers you always seem to have and wondered where they learned their craft. Many coaches coach kids from a wide geographical area but have a large group of kids in one town over a long period of time who all go to the same JHS or HS. If you are dealing with kids who go to this coach, wouldn't it serve you to understand who is responsible for a good part of your team's success?
8) Consider that this game is complicated and that there is no way one person can know it all. Consider that regardless of who you are, there is always something else you can learn. You can can learn from HS coaches, travel coaches, etc. If there is any sort of decent coaching seminar before the season, why not go and see what is said? You just may discover something that you thought was a golden rule of the game was long ago disgarded and anyone considered to be "in the know" now laughs at. One example of this is the "rested pitcher" example I used above.
Well, that's it. I think there is some sound advice in this. I haven't given JHS coaches a laundry list of things to do but I could have overwhelmed you with suggestions. I could have suggested a bunch of coaching seminars. I could have suggested you purchase Howard Kobata's, Mike Candrea's, or other fastpitch guru's videos, tapes, or books. I might have steered you to numerous web sites which are required reading for anyone in this sport. But I didn't suggest these thing and others which professional and paid high school coaches routinely do. I didn't request of you one percent of what unpaid travel coaches often do. I believe what I have suggested is the bare minimum for earning that paycheck which, while not making you rich, makes summertime lots more fun and comfortable.
If you'd rather just put in the same amount of time and effort you did last year so you can earn that extra money which pays for the summer beach vacation, I can't stop you from doing that. But while you are on the quiet beach enjoying watching the sun rise or fall, please do hear the voices of travel parents hanging around tournaments as we laugh about your drills and the stupid things you say and do at practice. Hear us as we make fun of your drills or chuckle at the resting of the ace pitcher two days before the "big game." Understand that we often complain or make fun of the under-qualified, under-skilled, know-nothing JHS coach because we are worried that our kids won't survive you.Labels: coaching
Permanent Link: JHS Coaches, Give Me A Little Time
 
Free Agency
by Dave
Monday, May 21, 2007
Quite some time ago I promised you a discussion of "free agency" or something more about those kids and their parents who I see as "free agents." The context is youth travel softball although some of the issues fit into other kinds of play like school ball. But in whatever environment we examine, it is absolutely critical that all who participate in this sport, as players, coaches, or parents of players, recognize that this is very much a team sport. The old saying was there is no "I" in team and it applies equally to fastpitch softball as it does to any other endeavor involving more than two individuals working towards a common goal. Free agency is a threat to team. Free agency is a threat to the very thing we are working towards.
Our society is undoubtedly sports crazy. Kids across the fruited plain play all sorts of athletic games. Basketball, hockey, football, soccer, running, tennis, golf, bowling, even cheerleading, etc. involve a very high percentage of the nation's youth. It is almost unusual to find a kid who doesn't play some sport at some point during the year. It is equally unusual to find any individual in the workplace who isn't almost completely absorbed by the goings on of some professional sports team or player at some point of the year. Sport is the spice which most effectively takes us away from our everyday lives. And because the media sees us as worshipping at the alter of the individual, we are fed a focus on "stars" of sport as much as we are fed stories about one particular actor, singer, business person, etc. As the country's population broke through 300 million, we have all seemingly sought out ways to stand out from the other 299 million, 299 thousand, 299 individuals.
Nowhere is the desire to stand out more evident than on the nightly primetime television shows. A large percentage of Americans seem eager to grasp their 15 minutes of fame by singing on a grand stage whether they have any actual talent or not. Older tone-deaf teenagers whose parents have always encouraged them to "perform" are crushed when Simon Barsinister tells them not only can't they sing but, for the good of the planet, they should never sing where any human being can hear them again. Still, their adoring parents continue to encourage them to sing and remortgage the house to bring them back to American Idol tryouts the following year. It would be comical if it weren't quite so sad.
With regard to sports, many of us fall victim to the cult of the individual. Free agency in the professional sporting industry was once a way for players to get a piece of the pie which was more closely related to their value in this entertainment industry than they received previously. The professional baseball players of the olden days were poorly paid. Many joined off-season barnstorming groups or took up whatever job was available in order to make ends meet for their families. Today, it is possible for at least one baseball pitcher top earn double the top salary of a 1950s phenom for each inning pitched. Even after factoring for inflation, the current salary free agents negotiate is through the roof relative to those who made baseball into a national passtime.
There is little doubt that winning fills the stands and coffers of the Major League Baseball teams who manmage to pull it off on a regular basis. And, in this day and age, winning seems to be closely associated with obtaining the best players available at whatever the cost. I don't begrudge the pitcher or any other professional athlete for obtaining whatever they can in a free and open negotiation. But that is just not relevant to youth sports.
In fastpitch softball, I suppose the end goals consist of starting positions on the high school team, all-county, conference and state honors, college scholarships, and in a miniscule percentage of cases, positions at the really big softball schools or perhaps even the national team. It is a free and open competition and every parent or kid who dreams to attain the highest levels, looks for ways to achieve them. But sometimes, the effort to achieve the highest levels causes us to lose sight of what elkse should be gained from playing competitive sports.
When I look back over my own personal sports experience, the things I see that I learned involve self-esteem, work ethic, the manner in which a group can achieve what is impossible for the individual, and many other important concepts which run the gamut from personal morality to the value of participating in something that is bigger than oneself. I learned more useful stuff for my professional career and other aspects of my adult life from sport than I ever did in all the years of my formal schooling.
If I examine my life as a parent, I know I have endeavored to instill certain values and behaviors in my children. But these efforts were often difficult and many of the lessons I wished to teach my kids were far more easily taught on the playing field than they were in any other setting. My kid might have a social problem with another kid in school but because I'm not allowed to participate in that setting, I never really get the whole story and, as a result, am unable to make meaningful suggestions to help her resolve her problems. Sports provides more opportunity to freely discuss issues or to actually see what the problems might be and obtain a fuller account of what happened than any other activity my kids ever participated in.
Aside from dealing with problems, be they social or other, there are a number of aspects to living which just do not lend themselves well to being taught in school. If a kid is assigned a group project, usually there is a kid in the group who is unwilling to participate in a meaningful way, perhaps someone who acts to sabotage the project, or someone who is not particularly good at the kind of work required. Most often, at least in my experience, one or two kids who are ready willing and able to complete the project, do 99% of the work and then try to coach the other kids in a way which makes it look as if they participated fully. Teachers are not all that good at sussing out the weakest link on an assigned project team. And the fact is the unwilling, incapable kids have to participate anyways.
In sports, on sports teams, often the team members who are least able to perform at the level of the stars are the ones whose performance determines the outcome of the contest. I like to think of this in terms of my high school's hockey team. I wasn't involved with ice hockey but a number of my friends were. We usually had very good hockey teams thanks to a local travel program. In one particular year, we had a bunch of really great offensive and defensive players who had played for years in travel but they were missing one important link to a championship season, a high quality goalie. The one kind who hadn't played much travel was the goalie. The other kids got together and decided what they needed to do was make this kid into a travel level goalie. So, in practices they banded together to take the best possible shots at this kid. They worked him so hard I think at one point he wanted to quit. But he stayed with it and eventually they worked him so hard that he became what the team needed. They had a great season and so did this one weak link. I doubt any of them will ever forget that one season.
On the softball diamond, there are usually about 5 or 6 very good players except on the true "A" teams which recruit only the very best players available. On the typical team, that leaves at least 3 players on the field and perhaps 3 or more on the bench who are not quite up to snuff. Suffer an injury to a "star" or two and you've got bigger holes to fill. I believe the biggest part of managing such a team is the work you do with the least among your players. But if what you are trying to accomplish with your neediest players is constantly broken down by your "stars," you are fighting an uphill battle, one you probably cannot win.
I suppose one of the important aspects of coaching is creating a team unity and a buy-in of your stars to the philosophy. You, the manager, has to choose the team for temperment and then try to get the stars to step up the way the high school hockey team stepped up to the challenge of working their goalie. It is not often possible to fill a roster with kids having the right attitude but you've got to at least try. You sometimes cannot take the very best pitcher available because you sense she may be poison to the team philosophy you want to create.
I know that in my personal experience, I have encountered a number of what I call "free agents" who I turned away. because this sport is centered around the performance of the pitcher, because pitching takes expensive lessons and endless practice sessions, because the parents of kids who pitch have to sacrifice so much to make their kids even competitive, most often the free agents one encounters are pitchers.
I believe I told you once about a very bad 14U team I once watched play. That team had a somewhat talented pitcher who thought very highly of herself. It was easiest for her to maintain her personal sense of greatness by thinking of her teammates poorly. When one made an error or a foolish play, she rolled her eyes, shook her head and performed other actions so anyone who was watching would presumably know, this mess wasn't her fault.
That's one kind of free agent. Another is the one who looks for the perfect opportunity. Often it is the parents who control this sort of free agency. There was a pitcher who played briefly with a team I was involved with. She was pretty good, but nothing to write Mike Candrea about. She was 12 and played for one of those "A" clubs who draw from a wide geographic area. But she was not the team's ace, far from it. She was the number 3 pitcher and saw little action. Because she was on an "A" team, she saw no playing time at all unless she was in the circle. Her family once travelled far to a very big tournament only to watch her pitch just three innings in a game which was never competitive. She did not develop from this experience but rather her abilities atrophied since she had less time to work on her pitching.
This pitcher played for us in a scrimmage after summer championship tournament season. She was maybe our second or third best pitcher but this was a scrimmage and we have a different philosophy - our kids play regardless of situation. She got 3 innings worth of pitching in I think about a 9 inning practice game. She was somewhat effective but hardly sharp. Her father went to great lengths to tell me about how little she had pitched because she had spent so much time with this "A" team, she had lost the time to workout 4 days a week the way she had in years past. The kid really seemed to enjoy the other kids on the team who welcomed her with open arms and made sure she had a good time. In the end, the father decided he didn't want to play with us because we were a middle of the pack team. She stuck it out with the "A" team where I'm sure her abilities have continued to atrophy.
That's an example of someone striving so hard for the best that they put themselves in a situation which harms them by its very nature. Other "A" or just barely "sub-A" players have suffered similarly. There is indeed a value to playing and practicing with kids who are better than you but at the point at which one's abilities begin to atrophy, it is probably time to reassess.
There's another sort of free agency within this "looking for the best possible situation" approach. I tried out a number of pitchers over the past 12 months and had all manner of discussion with their parents about the sort of opportunity my team might provide. My sense from many of these discussions was that the parents were looking for a very specific situation. Sometimes they wanted guarantees of a particular amount of pitching time. How in the world they expected me to be able to give them that after watching a half hour's workout is beyond me. Other's asked about the number of pitchers already on the team with an eye towards gauging for themself how much pitching time their kid would get. That I understand better than seeking a guarantee of circle time. The last thing you want to do is put your kid on a team with 4 better pitchers while you are spending a small fortune on pitching lessons. But soemtimes you have to do just that in order to get the right situation.
The last subcategory of "looking for the best possible situation" free agency involves a subtler approach. This one involves all of the above. First you seek out teams which you think might end up being decent, at least competitive with some of the "A' teams. Then you make inquiries regarding the number of pitchers. Then you encourage the coach to get a pitchers practice together so you can see all the other kids throw and thereby judge for yourself how much pitching time your kid will get. I'd say there is nothing wrong with your actions to this point. Perhaps we all ought to take that approach. But if you go from this to demanding pitching time from the team coach under threat of quitting, implied or otherwise, you have stepped into the realm of free agency.
I remember a kid who was kicking around without a team during the late fall and early winter. The father ran into a coach and let him know she hadn't chosen a team yet. The coach invited her to practice. She came and didn't throw badly. But she wasn't actually working at her craft the way the other 4 pitchers were. In the middle of the season, the coach stopped feeling comfortable with her in the circle and her opportunities dried up into dust. Gradually the father began making veiled threats about leaving the team. Eventually she left in the middle of an important tournament. Basically what happened was the father decided time was up. he asked the coach whether she would get any opportunities to pitch this particular tournament in which we ultimately played 7 games. early on the coach promised a few innings. But after he saw the kid throw, and after he saw the way the competition was, he decided not to throw her in a particular game because he worried about her safety and also felt he owed it to the team to put out better pitchers. the father became enraged and since his pre-set tinme limit had expired, he left the team right in the middle of the tournament. The word about that kid got out in a hurry. Just about everybody I know within our relatively small cricle has heard the story. Some people I had never met before walked right up to me and asked me about it!
I had an experience with another pitcher which almost exactly tracks that one but it happened more quickly. We had a young kid who I took with an eye towards the following year. But she wasn't working and her speed location and movement were not up to snuff. We played essentially a "friendly" three game tournament and were shocked to see the way the hitters were killing the ball. I couldn't put this kid in so the father told me they were leaving the team. That was OK with me. I had no trouble replacing her on the roster. But what troubled me was that father told me that what hgis kid really needed was innings. I agreed and said goodby. But what I really wanted to tell him was that before game innings, one ought to consider a few innings worth of practice, about 4 times a week, for about 4 months before one considers approaching the coach to ask for pitching time.
These last two scenarios involove pitchers who weren't working but there's an equally disturbing version of this involving pitchers who do deserve time in the circle. This involves a father who has found the perfect situation and then looks to prod the coach into putting his kid into every important situation. I faced this once with a pretty good pitcher. She was really our number two. I wokred her by leaving her in situation in which her walks cost us some unimportant games. early on, I went to great lengths to explain precisely what her situation was with the father. I told him she was definitely our number two and that means this that and the other thing. I gave him specific tournament cricumstances and told him exactly what my approach would be - not number of innings but what I would be thinking about in terms of development.
Early on the father and his DD pitcher were the beneficiaries of my approach. I left her in when her wildness cost us major runs and when she was getting hit. I needed her to work through these situations. In previous years she had been on teams with several good pitchers and had seen no action in the circle. This team was her opportunity to pitch. And this was something of a last chance since she was getting older and it was now or never for real pitching circumstances - you do have to get innings after all. If I had been interested in winning any of the games we were playing, I would have pulled his daughter but I didn't.
At this point, I should tell you that my approach to tournament softball involves picking a team for temperment and position, then working them as hard as i can during the winter, followed by as good a practices of fundamental skills as I can put together during the spring until I get everybody together after school ball is over, and then beginning to work the team on plays and situational reaction. I like to scrimmage whenever possible and put the team into as many tournaments as our schedules can handle. But I do not care very much about the scrimmages or the first several tournaments. There are even some late in the season tournaments which I see more as character builders than I do things we want to win. Yet, even though I discussed this with the father in question, he continued to push and prod and tell me what i should do in order to win the early tournament games. we actually played games in which I had no interest in winning and he complained about who was playing what position. I was all about team development and he was all about his daughter's opportunities. had I taken his approach with respect to his own daughter, i would have pulled her so many times that they would have been really upset. p yet when I took the same approach with other kids, he got upset and tried to tell me what to do. I've tried talking to him about the specifics but to no avail. In every game situation, he does the same thing. I can tell you that large numbers of people will hear this story in full detail. I'm not saying that these people will then shun his kid or that they should. But before anyone brings this kid onto their team, they should know they are getting themselves a free agent and the player agent who will be in their ear almost constantly. I'll never have her on my team again despite the otherwise considerable contributions she makes. I just cannot have that. I don't like free agents - not in youth sports.
That is the crux of what I'm trying to tell you here. In youth sports, there is so much that can be gained. Nothing championships or wins should not be a part of that picture. yes, there is room for really good, perhaps great teams. yes there is a time when what we are teaching is about accompishment - about wins and losses. But building a team mentally, keeping the right philosophy for an organization, preparing girls for life, are higher objectives and must take precedence. if you're looking for Team USA, a college scholarship at a name school, if what you seek is the big time, go there. They're waiting for you to come. Don't just try to force yourself into the star roll on a team which has already told you "we don't want free agents."
If you are the parent rather than the coach, try to see this thing in the bigger picture. What are your real chances of Team USA and/or a scholarship? You can work towards that goal anyways without developing a reputation of being a free agent. And if you lose all the good possibilities in an all-stakes gamble to make the bigtime, understand what it is you may be losing. The lowest rungs on the societal ladder are filled with the bones of once potentially great athletes. I have personally known many of the once-had-a-shot-to-make-it-to-the big-time would be star "free agents." Most often I have seen them at taverns late at night, taling about their glory days to an audience that has already heard that tune too many times.
As a postlude I want to tell you that at least two of the free agents I have referred to in this post openly expressed a desire to one day get a scholarship for their kid. Both of these girls were poor students. Given the chance to pitch for an hour or two, the parents of these girls would skip homework because they believe pitching is the path to college for their kid. That's so misguided that I feel it incumbent upon myself to explain exactly why. I once had a discussion with a division one college coach regarding a tremendous prospect. he explained to me that he would love to have her on his team from a softball point of view but he can't offer her any money. When I asked why, he explained in detail about the "harsh" realities of college softball and scholsarship money. He explained that he just could never offer a full scholarship to any player who was not an EXCELLENT student. It wasn't OK for a kid to be a pretty good student and excellent softball player. He NEEDED them to be an excellent student and then if they happened to also be an excellent player, so much the better.
Given a world of let's say 2,000 really good softball players, there are maybe a quarter of them who understand this reality. If there are just 500 scholarships to give, teh deciding factor is going to be grades, performance on college board tests and the like, and other academic related things. In girls-softball, there is no such thing as the absolute great athlete who gets the full ride even though she just barely got by in school. That just doesn't happen. So if you are after a big-time scholarship or anything along those lines in softball, get your shool work done first and then go out to practice. Don;t be a free agent with your softball career. College coaches also sense that. That's why they spend so much time getting to know the player and her parents BEFORE they extend offers.Labels: attitude
Permanent Link: Free Agency
|
|
|
