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Old/New School Stretching
by Dave
Friday, September 05, 2008
I recall the bygone years of my participation in youth sports somewhat fondly but sometimes the bad things about those days pop into my head. There were those times when I nearly passed out from dehydration at hot football practices, the various injuries from different sports due to improper stretching, and the year long sore arm. Lots of our approaches in sports have changed over the years. Many have not. Some of the mistakes from the past are probably repeated frequently because the approaches have been perpetuated by those who do not bother reading up on changes suggested by scientific research. Some of the approaches remain because no researcher has looked into them enough. There are more "old wives tales" utilized in sports than there are in probably any other specific aspect of life. But coaches and parents need to keep up to date, understand changes, and use a little common sense or risk injuries, sometimes serious ones.
I have two old football stories regarding antiquated thinking. When I began playing football, we were encouraged to not drink a lot of water before practice because it will cause cramping. How stupid was that? This idiotic approach was compounded during practice by the absolute refusal of coaches to permit any real drinking of water while workouts were underway regardless of the temperature, humidity, or intensity of drills. I've seen kids go down under these circumstances. I never went down myself but there were times when I nearly passed out.
When I was a 13 year old 8th grader, I played Pee Wee football which had a weight limit of 125 pounds. I weighed 135 after a summer of Forest Gump activity, running to friends houses so we could run to someplace where we could play sports all day long. Two of my friends were of similar weight. But we were the best players on that team and the coaches needed us. So they made us wear sweatsuits and multiple clothing layers beneath those to every practice. We were refused any water, encouraged to exist on celery and carrots - but not fruit. They worked us until our bodies registered just this side of 125 at weigh ins before games. Then, after making weight (or negotiations between coaches to permit this 129 kid to play if our two 126s could), we were actively discouraged from eating anything or drinking any water before game time so we wouldn't "cramp up."
Later, in high school, where no weight limits were involved, all of us were still denied water. The "trainer" did wheel out a contraption which was rumored to hold water. But players were discouraged from doing more than wetting their mouths - take a quick squirt and then spit it out. If a player was seen standing around the water for too long, coaches would freak out and demand he move away. If a player was repeatedly found near the water, he was forced to run laps to burn off any excess water and teach him a lesson. The result was 100 kids on the brink of dehydration every so often glancing at this octopus-shaped thing holding a few gallons of 90-100 degree, dirty, germ-infested, plastic-flavored water, while not even entertaining the thought of taking a drink from it.
I guess that octopus held about 3-5 gallons of water. After a two hour practice in the late August, early September sun, it was usually still half to three quarters full. The "trainer" would pick up from the ground some hose at the side of the building and add a little more dirt, some bacteria from the ground, and a few gallons of hot water which was previously standing inside the house, in the sun.
Today, it is pretty clear that athletes need to hydrate well before any activity and then replace all fluids which are lost during the activity. Experts tell us to drink fluids the night before and then continue up to a half hour before the activity. Then they encourage us to continue drinking during the activity. Finally, they note that when we allow ourselves to get even slightly dehydrated, our performance levels drop. Further, because water gets quickly absorbed, and cold water actually helps the body to cool down properly, drinking that dirt soup at 90-100 degrees is not helpful. So, everything my football coaches told me and my teammates with respect to water drinking was wrong. Nowadays, some far better trained fellow calls himself trainer and brings cool sports drinks to the practice and game field. Nobody screams at the big kid hanging around by those drinks. There is some yelling but it often sounds more like "hey, stupid, hydrate yourself." Times have changed.
One thing my old football coaches did seem to have an accidental handle on was that of stretching. No, we didn't do much of what I have recently come to call "static stretching" in which muscles are stretched to a point of elongation, before pain causes one to stop, held there for some pre-determined length of time, usually 10-20 seconds, rested and then stretched again. Rather, we performed what I recently have come to call "dynamic stretching."
Dynamic stretching, broadly defined, involves no pull, hold for ten, rest, repeat sequence. Rather, it involves performing movements that mimick athletic movements like running with very high knees, lunges, crab walks, rolling shoulders, and performing other actions that are a part and parcel of the movements one will make during actual athletic competition. Dynamic stretching warms up specific muscles, increases their range when compared to that found at resting, and encourages blood flow to the appropriate muscles.
In my football days, we performed jumping jacks, squat thrusts, push-ups, light agility drills involving accentuated movements of the legs and arms, boiuncing up and down while jumping slightly into the air and reaching high with our hands, sideways burst running while extended our arms in a repeated push-up like move, and many other "exercises" which were intended to accomplish essentially the same objectives we see today discussed as "dynamic stretching." At the end of a series of exercises, each of us was usually lightly sweating and we felt very loose. I do not recall a single kid ever getting a pulled muscle or experiencing significant joint pain during those football days.
Today I understand a little bit better why that is. Today, the information I receive from sports training experts like Marc Dagenais tells me that the things we did before full football practice are preferable to the "static stretching" I was instructed to perform in other sports. To my knowledge, there is no information out there today which recommends static stretching over dynamic stretching immediately prior to engaging in athletic activity.
But back in the day, many coaches in many sports, as well as gym teachers in school, often required static stretching before all activities. In particular, I had a swimming coach who was a huge proponent of static stretching. He was brought in to coach our YMCA team because they wanted to take things up a notch and compete on a national level. He was a serious-minded man, if not the brightest bulb in the Universe. He understood that he had certain limitations and, as a result, brought in a woman who had won Olympic hardware to help us train. But when it came to stretching, he was absolutely certain he had a handle on that aspect.
This coach forced us to arrive at the pool about a half hour before practice began in order to complete a full compliment of static stretching exercises. First we received a lengthy instruction on which exercises to perform. Then he supervised us to make sure everyone knew how to do these exercises properly. Then he encouraged us before every practiuce to do our stretches. He was very big on personal responsibility, one of his strongest suits, and after these early stages, he informed us that it was as much our duty as athletes to perform stretching before every practice as it was to give our all during the practice itself.
One of this coach's weakest points was his coaching approach. He worked on the principle that if I want you to do something you are not doing, or not doing properly in my judgment, I will belittle you until you have no other choice but to do it my way. I didn't care much for static stretching and I could not feel the benefit in my body. I was accustomed to dynamic stretching and sometimes I reverted back to that. This coach would call me out on the pool deck and belittle me in front of my peers. He would make fun of my "football exercises" and then tell me I was failing in my personal obligation to my teammates because I did not properly perform the entire repertoire of static stretches he had recommended. Of course, I complied. I also began to sneer at those ridiculous "football exercises" I had been performing. And then I began to have shoulder problems which continue to this day! But I never equated these events. I carried my lessons in static stretching with my until very recently.
To be quite honest, I considered myself to be rather knowledgeable on the subject of stretching. I recall a girl I coached just this past year who frequently had stiffness in her arm and shoulder before practice. I taught her a regimen of static stretches I wanted her to perform several times a day and then, especially, right before practices. She never performed these on her own time but did do them right before we began our sessions. When I next see her, I am going to make sure her parents understand that this is precisely the wrong approach.
At some point, I got curious about what was meant by static and dynamic stretching and began to read up on it. It now becomes pretty clear to me that my swim coach was wrong, the football coaches right, and what I have been carrying around with me for all these years as an adult needs some revision. I came to this conclusion after reading several articles by sports experts and then noticing the way Olympic and other athletes at high levels prepare right before competition.
If you watched the Olympians in action, you probably witnessed many dynamic stretching exercises performed by them. For example, the track stars would take a short jog on the track while pumping their knees and arms very high and fairly hard. Swimming phenom Michael Phelps was never seen right before races performing static stretches - stretch, aided by a trainer, hold, rest, stretch. Rather his pre-competition movements were rapid stretches, ending with a flapping of his arms to increase blood flow into his shoulders.
If you ever watch football in the last few minutes before a game begins, you see the players running along the sidelines similar to what I described above. Field goal kickers do perform some of what appears to be static stretches along the sidelines before that game winning kick but they do not hold positions for ten seconds. Rather they seem to do these movements far more "dynamically" and hold for two seconds or less. Then they kick into the air. Appear to do some more conventional stretches but only holding for a couple seconds, and then kick again.
Baseball players in the on-deck circle also often perform what can be called dynamic stretches. They pick up a couple bats or some weighted rod, swing lightly to loosen up their wrists, and then take a couple "practice swings" in which they over-accentuate their actual swing. They very slightly over extend certain limbs, get the blood flowing, and prepare for the very dunamic movement they will make shortly, when their turn at-bat comes. They do not stretch, hold for ten, rest and then stretch again.
Relief pitchers can often be seen getting ready to throw in the bullpen by performing dynamic stretches. They stretch quickly, flex, make abrupt motions, and then start throwing in an exaggerated way before settling into normal pitches. When a pinch runner enters a game, most often, you will see them perform conventional static stretches while holding for only a few seconds. Then they will run down a sideline while accentuating the more demanding aspect of running, similar to what you see track stars do. Infielders replacing someone in the later innings also perform what can best be described as dynamic stretching.
I guess I fell into a trap all the years I witnessed athletes performing dynamic stretches. I just assumed these people were short on time, had no time for proper stretching - or didn't know how to do it, and/or just did the best they could under the circumstances. I was wrong. They are most likely doing what they do with a specific purpose in mind. They have very expensive and skilled trainers advising them on how to avoid injury.
Please understand that I am no trainer and have received no formal education, let alone degrees, in this discipline. I am merely an ex-athlete, a parent of players, and a coach who pays attention to what I see before me. I read a ton about anything when I have serious questions about what I am observing. I rely on the experts and you should too. I am not advocating that all of you start performing dynamic stretching immediately. I am encouraging you to start asking questions of trainers, read everything you can get your hands on, and make up your own mind about this.
Also, please understand that I am not jumping on some bandwagon or getting up on a soapbox from which I encourage everyone to sneer at static stretching. I believe these exercises have an important place in athletic training. There does not seem to be any question that both static and dynamic stretching hold benefits to athletes. The problem is, they are each typically used the wrong way.
Static stretching is something an athlete should do when he or she is not about to engage in some other sort of training such as a throwing, running, fielding or batting drill. These exercises in which muscles are elongated, held in stretched position, rest, repeat, are very good ways to increase range of motion and flexibility. If you perform the ole standby, "toe touches," your hamstring flexibility will increase over time. The same is true of static stretches for every significant softball muscle in your body. Flexibility is very important in this sport. I think engaging in things like yoga or other flexibility-related organized activity can help any athlete improve her performance. I am not a newly minted anti-static-stretching fanatic. But I do discourage you from performing static stretches right before practice or games - as my swim coach required us to do before practice and races. At those times, I do believe dynamic stretching is better.
Please finish this article not so much armed with new information but rather with an active intellectual curiosity to learn more about the benefits and potential harm of dynamic and static stretching. I send you forth to the internet, library, bookstores, and to your local strength, conditioning trainers, armed with questions you need answered. OK, GO!
Follow-up:
Recognizing that some folks need a little help locating things on the web, I will add the following links for your use:
1) a good video demonstrating some dynamic leg stretching exercises
2) a pretty good list of some dynamic warm-up drills in pdf format
3) some dynamic warm-up exercises with illustrations from the US Tennis Association (Yes, I know sport-specific stretching is important but many of these exercises are standard for softball)
4) If you see anything with a great softball-specific dynamic stretching routine involving the upper portions of the body, please send the link to me and I'll post it here if I like it.Labels: coaching, parenting, practice, pre-season preparation
Permanent Link: Old/New School Stretching
 
Banish Eleven
by Dave
Thursday, September 04, 2008
I'd like to make a proposal that the number 11 be banished forever from the game of softball. My reasoning is two-pronged. First of all, the age of eleven is by far the hardest for young softballers. Secondly, a roster of eleven is a disaster waiting to happen. You can disagree with one or both of these lines of reasoning but before you do, allow me to explain.
The jump from 10 to 11 in youth play involves 1) moving the pitcher back 5 feet, 2) changing the ball size from 11 inches to 12, not to mention the increase in weight from about 6 ounces to 6.8, and having players compete with girls that are leaps and bounds aherad of them in terms of both physical and mental maturity. There are other differences but I think these are the major considerations.
The ball size change represents about a ten percent increase which wouldn't seem like much but consider that it never increases again. Girls get used to throwing the 11 inch ball for a couple years when they play 10U. Then, right at the end of their last 10U year, they are expected to go tryout and make 12U teams using the bigger ball. This can be daunting as kids who sported some of the better arms on their existing teams struggle to make strong, accurate throws using what feels like a watermelon.
I know one of my kids reallt struggled at first but quickly got used to the bigger ball in terms of both the strength and accuracy of her throws. It took her about a month. But her 10U team played its last game late in July and her first tryout was early August. In fact, the last 12U tryout she went to was just about 3 weeks into August, before she had gotten accustomed to the ball. By September, it was no big deal but her lack of experience with the bigger ball very well could have determined her eligibility for any number of teams.
I have spoken to a number of parents of 11s recently who are now going through what I went through. They struggle to find teams their daughters can make despite very solid 10U careers with very competitive groups. They tried out for 12U teams of similar caliber to their 10s and don;t get invited back. They often feel they have to settle for inferior teams with inferior coaching, perhaps playing an inferior schedule, just to find a travel team. This isn't what they hoped for based on past experience. It can be a very difficult ordeal and these folks will not exhale until their daughters are firmly members of a team of an acceptable level.
Right now is too late for me to provide advice for the parents of this year's 11s. The best I can hope to accomplish is to provide a little advice for next year's batch. I strongly urge you to throw as much as possible with the larger ball during the summer months of 2009. Overhand throwing does not seem to make much impact on one's ability to move back to the 11 in games. Actually, in my experience, it is a useful exercise which seems to strengthen the throwing arm and not have any appreciable effect on one's accuracy with the 11 inch. If I ever coached 10s again, I would have them practice with the 12, especially after the midpoint of the 10 season.
You wouldn't think the increased size of the ball would have such a huge impact on hitting. Sure it is heavier but that might be compensated by the larger size which should, theoretically, be easier to hit. But that ten percent increase in weight comes with a much faster pitch from the 12 year olds. When I think of 12U ball, the good pitchers throw 50 and above. There are certainly many who are around the mid 40s but it is not uncommon to see a pitcher lined up against you who routinely brings it at 50, maybe even 55, sometimes higher, especially in the more competitive tournaments. Getting the ball out of the infield at 11 years old is often rather difficult. I believe this is a major contributing factor to why we see so many hitters utilizing styles which are meant to add to power while detracting from bat control in the 12U age group.
This brings me to a related consideration. 12 year old girls often have developed effective change-ups and movement pitches which actually move. We saw a 12U girl with about a half to full one foot break on her curve a few years back. She threw that pitch 95% of the time and our girls (half 11s) had a very difficult time tracking it. A few of the older girls, with a year of 12U ball under their belts, were able to make decent contact off her. One actually drove a couple extra-base-hits off her. But most of our girls flailed meakly and struck out.
The offspeed pitches are particularly daunting for 11s. In my experience, most 12s don't adjust well to change-ups. Certainly a few do but the majority struggle with them. 13s may still have trouble but most better 14s can deal with one unless the pitcher is really crafty. Pitchers with very good to excellent changes can use the pitch effectively at all levels. But as girls mature, they are better able to hit some of them. At 12U, change-ups are a real problem. 11s, playing 12U and facing pitchers who change speeds well, really struggle.
There can be a considerable size difference between most 11s and 12s. The difference is more obvious when you have a December 11 playing with a January 13, a pretty common occurrence in 12U ball. It is possible that a fourth grader (December birthday) might be hitting, or playing, against an 8th grader (January birthday) with a couple years of middle school ball behind her. Among the various older 12 year olds we have seen over the past four years were several girls standing as tall as 5 foot 9 and a few who were 200 pounds while also being rather athletic. I've known no girls who have achieved adult stature by the time they are 11 and many who have by age 13 - those January 12s. A girl could grow 8 inches between her 11th and 13th birthdays.
Maybe your 11 year old has already begun a growth spurt and you think perhaps she'll be right in the middle of the mix. Good luck with that. When inches are added to a young girl's height, something gets up and leaves. That something is coordination! Still, while your daughter may be adding inches and pounds while trying to compete with older girls, doing anything athletic is going to help her overall coordination as she moves towards adulthood so you shouldn't fear or dread this growth spurt.
Among those who struggle most to make the jump from 10U/11-inch softball to 12U, are the pitchers. They not only have to contend with the increased (10%) ball size but also the significantly increased (15%) distance. The jump from 40 to 43 shrinks by comparison to the one from 35 to 40. The 40 foot jump is larger in real terms as well as percentage. Also girls who move from 40 to 43 are bigger, stronger, and generally far more accomplished. Our tens and elevens don't have enough experience to know that they will one day be able to succeed again like they have in the past.
Sometimes a girl who was a good 10U pitcher perhaps has a smaller hand size. The grip on the ball can be a major hurdle, especially when she hasn't had much experience with the 12-inch. Everything she threw last year is a struggle in tryouts. Her once reliable change-up is no longer even reasonably close. Her other pitches no longer move because she can't get her grip and the ball is too heavy to rotate properly given her current level of hand and forearm strength. She may be able to somewhat locate her fastball but given the added five feet, everything is in the dirt and seems slow to her. This is perhaps the biggest struggle any self-respecting softballer ever has to go through.
You can overcome the ball size much more readily than the distance. You need to throw plenty in order to get used to the larger size and heavier weight. And the speed should come as the added 8 ounces becomes more normal to the pitcher. But when the release point is moved while you are also trying to build strength, it is very difficult and requires loads of patience, especially from the bucket moms and dads. While the pitcher was able to develop that change-up, screwball or curve over the span of two years of 10U ball, she only has a few weeks to get the feel of the ball, build the strength on her hands and forearms, and regain reasonable location before 12U travel ball tryouts begin. She not only needs to throw a lot but also to throw a lot of each pitch. Often the best approach is to focus on the three best pitches in her repertoire including, hopefully, a change-up and one movement pitch during the transition while planning to get back to the others gradually as the 3 key ones improve.
My experience with a couple pitchers who moved up from 10U to 12U was rather instructive to me. In one case, a girl who was throwing about 45 mph with the 11 inch ball began at about 38 with the 12. We started throwing in mid July with the 12 and her speed was at or above the 11 inch starting point by the time fall ball was over. In tryouts, for some reason, a reasonably good team decided to take her. And they were rewarded for taking the chance. By the time the season began, she had all her pitches back, was throwing hard enough to compete with even good teams, and was improving with every passing session.
I could suggest to you that pitchers begin working with the 12 inch ball much earlier on but I would be lying to you if I said their control with the 11 won't be effected. In my experience a girl practicing with the 12 will liose her command with the 11. If she is really ambitious and practices from 40 feet rather than 35, she will almost invariably throw everything in 10U games too high. She will get stronger and more comfortable with the bigger ball but her success ratio in 10U games will drop significantly. So I suggest advise this.
The experience for an 11 year old can be very difficult on the player and her parents. I don't like 11 as a result. But there's another aspect to the number 11 in fastpitch softball for which I have a stronger aversion.
I'd also like to banish the number 11 from any discussion of an appropriate roster size but my reasons for this are more complicated and subject to debate. My preference in youth travel ball is to have 12 kids.
I could tell you that having 12 girls works out better in practice, assuming you routinely get all 12 to show up, as you can split into 3 groups of four which usually works best for me. But the truth is, you probably cannot count on everyone showing up all the time. Chances are better than even that someone will be down with the flu, injured, working on a school project or have myriad other reasons for not coming to every practice. My own kids usually will only miss one or two practices in any given season but if you mutliply that out by 12 kids, you end up with 12-20 practices at which you won't have a full roster present. So that, in and of itself, isn't a very good reason to choose 12 over 11.
I could claim that on those occassions when all 12 are at practice, you can more easily conduct live-pitched scrimmages. If you have less kids, you really can't fill an infield, assuming a pitcher and catcher. But there are ways around that and, when everyone is not present, your plans to scrimmage get gummed up anyways. That cannot be a deciding factor.
Injuries can shorten a roster as fast as weddings, family crises, or anything else. I remember going into several big tournaments one year when we had one kid down with a season ending injury and two others out temporarily. One kid would come back and somebody else would go down. The next week, two kids came back and two others hurt themselves somewhat seriously. We just couldn't get above the number 9 for several weeks.
Still, there's nothing magical about 12 vs. 11 or 13 when it comes to injuries. We could just as easily have had more girls go down. You could have a roster of 15, experience 7 injuries, and not be able to field a team. You can't manage by what-ifs. There's no way to project how many kids might be injured at any given time. So, this can't really even enter the picture when deciding the right number for your team's roster.
I will tell you that my experience with 13 kids on a roster has not been positive. In every instance, one kid has left the team. You might think that's because I had trouble getting everyone satisfactory amounts of playing time. I can tell you that once, a girl left over playing but it wasn;t the number of innings she saw. I feel I can manage to get 11 kids into enough games - it isn't that hard to do. The girl who left, did so because of her choice of position - she didn't see time in the circle. And that was for reasons I won't go into today. The other times our 13th player has left involved personal reasons, not playing time. There's nothing you can do about that. It will happen if you have 13, 17, or just 9. I suppose there is some average incident rate for kids leaving a team. Maybe having 13 on an initial roster pushes you over the egde and makes it a certainty that one kid will leave!
One of the items I consider when contemplating roster size in club ball involves the team's finances. More kids means more money in the treasury. It it costs each kid $500 to play for us (before uniforms, etc.), and it costs $500 to enter most tournaments, we can add an additional tournament for each new member of the team. I believe many teams I have seen which carry 14 or 15 or thereabouts do so for precisely that reason. Playing time for 15 kids is difficult to manage unless you are playing exclusively showcase ball with no more than a half game guarantee for each one. I can think of no valid reason to have a 15 kid tournament teamroster other than the ability to have more money with which to enter tournaments. And since, that many is difficult to manage on every level, I'll stick with the idea that 12 is better.
But none of these reasons should have convinced you that 12 is the right number. The discussion should alert you to the hazards of 13 and above. But why is 11 a bad figure? I think I have better reasons for having 12 rather than 11 kids on a roster for tournament play. Those reasons involve discipline and the ability to rest players.
As girls age, team discipline becomes a more significant issue. I have seen all manner of attempts made to maintain some sort of focus for an entire team. You need to be able to make girls (really their parents) feel responsible to show up at practice. You need to be able to get them and keep them focused at practice and in tournaments. The best tool I have seen used to compel kids to show up at practice and not fool around when there is the threat of bench time. Of course, the threat must be something you can follow through on.
I know of a team which would like to remain "lean and mean" by keeping their roster to 11. Once upon a time, a few of their kids decided that they were better than the others. So when school dances came up, a friend had tickets to the Jonas Brothers, or mom and dad had more pressing social engagements, the kids were absent from softball practice. The team actually had a system of demerits in which absence from practice was recorded and tallied. At one point, three kids had merited bench time. But this could not be enforced as advertised because that would have left them with just 8 on the field. 12 kids give you that one greater number with which to bench kids who are absent or otherwise create distractions.
There is also, assuming no behavior problems, another good reason to have 12 on your team. Sometimes it gets to 100 degrees out there. Sometimes you play hard tournaments and a kid needs to rest. Pitcherts and catchers perform better when they are appropriately rested. But you can't sit both tired kids in a game when you have 11 on the roster and one missing or whatever that day. Having more affords you the ability to rest more kids when necessary. But having less than 12 seriously curtails anything of the nature.
For another thing, many tournaments permit runners for pitchers and catchers either as a "courtesy" or to speed up games. But most of these require the runner to be someone who has not been in the game previously and that runner must be a different player for pitcher and catcher. So, when it is 100 out, you have a great pitcher who is really on but you don't need her for this game, your catcher is beginning to hyper-ventilate because she is working really hard, the other teams seems content to just barely prevent you from run ruling them, one of your team members has a nose bleed, and you just don't know what to do, you should be happy to have 12 on your team. It may not be your perfect dream for lean and mean. But 11 just doesn't cut it for me.
For these reasons, I say banish the number 11 from softball for the duration of its existence!Labels: coaching, youth tournament teams
Permanent Link: Banish Eleven
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