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Ten Percent
by Dave
Sunday, February 22, 2009
At the beginning of practice, I was standing there in front of my 12 year old charges and wondering what one thing I might teach them that would have an impact on their enjoyment of the game. It was difficult to come up with one particular thing. There are so many different skills and we work on most of them. But I try not to do the same things over and over again. I try to devise drills which work the same skills but I don't want to just get into the rut of 15 minutes of this, 10 of that, and, boom, we're done. I like to have them spend at least one third of our practice time doing some drill that they have never done before. What to do? What to do? Look at ten percent, of course!
If I think hard about the overall experience of tournament softball, I realize that we play about 60+ games and usually win something like more than half of them, say an overall record of about 35-25. In a good year, we might win as many as 40. In a bad one, we could lose as many as 45.Lest I get a bunch of e-mails informing me that a 40-20 year should not be considered a huge success, my personal philosophy is, if somehow I manage to bring a team to say 55-5, I would probably injure my shoulder patting myself on the back about what a great coach I am. And I would have to chew myself out for not scheduling a good enough season for the girls to grow by playing better competition and gaining the experience of learning about losing.
No matter what kind of team we have, no matter what kind of year we are having, of these 60+ games, probably about ten percent of the games end up being one run affairs. It may be a little more or a little less. But the bottom line is we lose a lot of these one run games. If we could win a few more our year would be more of a success.
So start with my assumption of a range of annual results of 15-45 to 40-20 as being a goal for the year assuming a given level of age, strength and general talent. The question I had was how to teach my team something in winter workouts that would enhance their enjoyment of the game. I'm not really interested so much in increasing the win total but that certainly is a factor.
So looking back at the 10% of our games (6-10) which are won and lost by a single run, I guess we win about 1 or 2 of those. We pretty much go about a range of 2-4 to 3-7 If we could win another 2 or 3, well, that would be something.
Of all the games I have watched in our age category, I'd say the vast majority of one run games end as a result of one of two things, defensive error or an aggressive base running play. We've talked quite a bit about defense over the years and I'd prefer to get into the offensive side of things today. The aspect of the game which wins most of these one run games is aggressive base-running, successful aggressive base-running.
When I think of base-running success and failure, it very seldom involves a player being put out by a full second or getting in safely long before the ball arrives. Rather, it is usually bang-bang, a split second difference between out and safe, winning and losing. I'll randomly pick a number which I think represents the difference between out and safe. My number is one tenth of a second.
One tenth (ten percent) of a second is not real long. You cannot see something and process it completely within that time period. You really need two of them to do that. But still, the difference between safe and out is typically, at least most of the time, one tenth of a second.
For this reason, if we had to identify one thing which might enhance the overall experience in girls fastpitch softball, it is running speed. I told my team, "if one of you can improve your running speed over 60 feet by one tenth of a second, it will make the difference between us winning or losing at least one one-run game during the coming year. At some point we are going to be playing a one run game and somebody is going to need to steal a base or advance one additional base or score a run on a close play. And because that someone (I don't know who) got one tenth of a second faster, we will win that game. Now, that game might be an elimination game. We will play at least ten of those during the year, probably more, maybe twenty or so of them. And that one tenth of a second improvement one of you makes is going to provide one additional game for the team. That game might make the difference between earning a trophy or not. There's no way for me to tell. But if each of you make it your job to improve one tenth of a second, I believe that most likely all of you will improve at least one tenth. As a result, we will win lots more games AND, whether we win or lose, we will definitely have more fun doing it!" So the question is, what can we do to get that improvement. The answer is both simple and complicated.
First of all, kids do not run nearly as much today as they did 40 years ago. Most kids don't do as we did when we were kids. Instead of being out on the town, they are busy playing guitar heroes or checking in via networking sites, text messages, etc. to see what their friends are doing. They stop "playing" outside by the time they are 10, maybe even 8 in some cases. Just as their potential for running fast is getting into gear, they begin sitting around an awful lot.
I was not the fastest kid around by a wide margin. My recollection is of doing a 4.8 forty yard dash at 14 and something faster than that as I matured physically. I learned to run the old fashioned way, to avoid beatings. When I was about 10, I was out in the 'hood picking on some kid with my best friend. That kid had more friends than we apparently knew about, more older, bigger, tougher friends. One or two of them spied us picking on him and chased us down. My friend was very fast and he escaped. I wasn't quite fast enough and learned the taste of the water in our run-off brook as a result.
Then there was the other best friend I had at about 11. He had two older brothers, two older brothers with nothing but time on their hands and nothing much to do with it, except beat up their brother's friends. There were only two options, run or get beat up.
Finally there was yet another friend I had a year or so later who had this propensity during the winter months of forming snowballs with the exclusive intention of throwing them at state police cars. He was another fast kid.
So when the cop caught me, he was nowhere to be found. After juvenile court I realized I had two choices, stop hanging around with that kid or get faster. By the way, when the state cop first emerged from his cruiser, he said something which has stuck in my head for these many decades. He looked at us and said, "boys, I run the hundred yard dash in under 11 so, run if you must, but know that I will enjoy chasing you down." I'm pretty convinced that my friend was under 11 too. I think I clocked about 11.1!
That's how I learned to run and those opportunities are either completely undesirable or not available in healthy enough portions, pick your own poison. Besides, girls didn't face the same sort of environ when I was young and they pretty much don't to this day. They have to learn to run in a modern way.
If we break down the many aspects of running and identify just a few which girls (really both boys and girls), as a general rule, do not do very well, I think what we are left with are first step, arm motion, and stride length. The first step is absolutely critical. Arm motion propels us in ways most kids don't seem to know about. And when we try to run fast, apparently, our first instinct is to shorten the stride length and increase turnover rather than making sure we take long strides.
So, I decided to run a couple drills with the girls to work on these aspects of their games. Before I began each, I explained to them why we were doing it. I asked each girl to stand before the group and get in a base-running ready position. All ready positions are essentially the same but with base-running as opposed to fielding, you, obviously do not have a glove on and your hands should be out at your sides for balance. To be clear, when we talk about base running ready position, we mean the position you would take up after taking those first three strides off the bag after the pitch is released - not what we were talking about the other day. At first I asked each girl to just get into this ready position. Later we would take those first few steps and then get into base-running ready position.
When each girl was in the ready position I asked the group to watch them, focusing on their feet. Then I would subtly point in one direction or the other and have them take their first step ion that direction while the group watched. After each went through this, we stopped to discuss what we had just done. The first question for the group was did we all really get into a ready position? Was our butt down, our back up straight at this angle (say ballpark 70 degrees), our legs bent and knees loose so we could go in either direction quickly? We talked about this for a minute.
Once we had that ironed out (for the umpteenth time), the next layer was the first step. Generally there was no set pattern to our girls' first steps. They did not all do it with the same foot. If you are running to your right, you should take a very short step (not realy even a step but more like a shuffle) with your right foot and then a crossover with your left. The opposite is true if you are going back to the bag - running to your left. Some of our girls took the first short/shuffle step and some did not. Some kept their weight balanced properly, some did not. Some got off well and some nearly fell.
Just to be clear, the "first step," that shuffle step, is really part of the balancing act. What you want to accomplish is a foot position which suits being able to push off properly with the foot in the direction you are running. You can't do that with toes pointing in front of you - towards homeplate. You end up pushing off the outside of your foot and this is bad for both knee and foot. Rather, you want your toes pointing at least more closely towards the target direction. This way you can push off the toes and ball of your foot. You also want tio shift more of your weight over that foot as you shuffle it. And finally, you want to bend your knee slightly more so you can get that push off right after the crossover step. So the very first motion is a shuffle or slide of the foot into the right position. This is followed by a crossover step which should then be followed by a full, powerful stride.
Our drill was what I might call "non-wind sprints" or "anti-wind sprints." We set girls up at a mythical base, had them leave the base on pitch release, get out to the ready position, take those first two steps and then explode into the third and/or fourth. Thats it, end of drill rep. We did not wish to tire the girls or work their muscles to exhaustion. What we wanted was a motor memory exercise in which the first step began to become part of their repertoire. We did a lot of these because they are quick and easy. We plan to do lots more because this, before anything else has a very great potential of knocking one tenth of a second off anyone's running speed on the bases. I suppose you can and should do the same kind of thing with respect to getting out of the batter's box but I'll leave that for another day.
So, that was our first drill and we ended it by basically the same discussion which preceded it. I told the girls that if they want to improve their games on their own, outside of practice, they could do the same drill anytime, anyplace of their own choosing. I again explained that one tenth of a second by any of us might get us an extra win, an extra game, perhaps a trophy. I told them that they needed to do this exercise about 3,000 times before they might improve that one tenth and we had just done about 100 of those 3,000 so they each have plenty to do.
Our next exercise involved running while using our arms as much as possible, exaggerating the arm motion. While I certainly wanted each kid to improve their arm motion, I really wanted each to become convinced that arm motion makes you faster. So we ran casually for a distance of say 60 feet while moving our arms really hard as our legs leisurely went through the run, really a jog. The effect was each girl was able to feel the pull of the arm motion done properly. We ran several reps of this. I asked each one to tell me if they could feel the pull. When all had and we had done several iterations, we moved to running a little faster while, again, exaggerating our arm motion. In between iterations of each kid running, I told them again and again that their arms held the power to make their feet and legs go further and faster. I closed the drill by reiterating the one tenth of a second stuff and explained that from this point forward I needed them to remember to use their arms as much as possible when they run. Whenever we run, we go back to that day and correct girls using their arms improperly.
Our next drill was focused on stride length. We do several things that are intended to indirectly improve stride length like power skips and running with high knees, but those drills, while certainly strengthening our girls legs and probably making them faster, do not put the idea of lengthening the stride into our girls' heads. They may run a bit better but they aren't conscious of what they should be focusing on - improving stride length. So I figured I had better explain things and then do something to make them more conscious of how they run.
We decided to run over the same 60 foot course but this time I had the girls count their strides from one end to the other. After each run, I asked each kid to tell me how many strides. Some at first said 10, and some had as many as 12. As we did more of these, I think the girls got the idea that if they all said the same number, then nobody would stand out for correction or questioning. What we got was one rep in which each and every girl said 11 strides! Then this happened again and again, three times consecutively. The next time through, I decided to count for myself. The range was something more like 10 to 13 strides. And each girl again claimed 11!
At this point, I felt it necessary to explain to the team collectively that when we do these drills, we are not performing some sort of test which will yield a final marking period grade that will appear on a report card to their parents. I told them, "this team has all kinds of girls, tall and short, long legged and short legged. Also, our running styles vary quite a bit. So it is impossible that everyone takes the same number of strides over 60 feet of running. I know this intinctively but I also happen to be counting as you run so don't kid a kidder. Many of you said 11 and took 12 or 13. What is the purpose in that?" I explained about being honest and that just giving your best effort is actually all I am looking for. After this, the numbers came in a bit more truthfully.
After this, I told them I wanted them to work towards cutting down their strides by one over the 60 feet. I told them that the way to do this was to explode in their running and reaching up and out with their knees. Yes, it does take more energy to run that way. No, it is not immediately apparent to any individual that they are running faster when they do this. But the stopwatch has something else entirely to say about it. Typically when we take longer strides, our time is about one tenth of a second faster than it would otherwise be. If we run like that every time, each of us will have already improved by our goal amount.
After these three drills were done and explained, I got the girls together for one final discussion before we got serious about practicing. I reiterated the idea of us being a far better team with far better results if just one of us improved one tenth of a second. Then I explained that if each of us works realy hard to accomplish these three things every time we run, most likely each of us is going to improve three tenths of a second. Then I asked, how good are we going to be if each of us gets to the next base that much more quickly? All of them smiled and you could see in their eyes that they were thinking about it.
Fastpitch softball is not merely pithed fast, it is played fast. Speed determines the outcome of more games than we can imagine. If you play good enough competition to win half your games, how much better would it be if you won say 35 out of 60 instead and had the chance to play for a championship here or there? How much better would your year be if you could play just a few more Sunday games? You can get there by working on running technique more than you do now. Maybe you've got better drills in mind than the ones I have laid out for you. If so, great. If not, use mine until you come up with something better. But the point is, teach your girls to run well. You'll not only improve your win-loss record, you'll also be enhancing their enjoyment of the game while getting them ready for success at the next level.Labels: baserunning, coaching, Offense, pre-season preparation
Permanent Link: Ten Percent
 
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