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| SOFTBALL LINKS |
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Talk It Up, Ladies
by Dave
Friday, April 17, 2009
Chatter! That's what we used to call it. You know all those silly phrases, "hey batter batter," "this kid can't hit," "come on now, go get him (her)." There are any number of things you can say on a ball field which qualify as "chatter." The important thing is to be noisy and get into the head of the other team by telling them that you are REALLY into this game. For some reason, I just don't hear as much chatter in youth tournament fastpitch softball as I would expect. We've just got to do better.
If you have ever watched the US team play against the likes of Japan, Australia, etc., you know what softball chatter is. The Japanese are particularly good at it. My kids often get a huge kick out of these telecasts as the Japanese team is loud and incessant in their chatter. Of course, my kids have no idea what the Japanese players are saying because they don't speak Japanese. They just think it is funny. On the other hand, my young kids don't seem to get IT when it comes to the chatter.
Any of us who has young girls running around the house knows they have voices. We know they are quite capable of talking up a blue streak. Any of us who has tried to be heard in an early season practice - before order is restored and enforced - knows that the girls on our team are quite capable of making lots of noise. But for whatever reason, while they are capable of creating an absolute din at completely inappropriate times and places, they get outdoors in a setting which demands noise and they become mute monks!
Now, I've written about the organized cheering which often pervades youth tournament ball. That is not one of my favorite sounds. I get that organized cheers like "while you were pickin your nose, she was up on her toes, she stole on you blah blah blah" play an important role in focusing players' attention. Today I do not wish to talk about that sort of thing. Today I'm more interested in garden variety chatter - the kind of thing one routinely hears at baseball games, even youth baseball games.
Truth be told, all the better teams at higher levels of girls softball, be they high school, ASA, or some such, do in fact engage in the practice of chatter. I went to watch a HS game the other day and one team in particular was very loud and incessant in their noise making. They were cheering on their hitters, encouraging their fielders, and just plain flat out making noise. The outcome of the game did not turn on the noise making - the noisier team did not necessarily win. But one thing is for sure, nobody who was in attendance ever questioned the noisy team's enthusiasm or focus. When from the moment of the first pitch all the way to the last out, a team makes noise, it is clear that they are into the game. While it may not make a difference say to who wins the game many times, it does tell one's opponent that the noisy team has come to play ball. And nobody in their right mind can challenge that premise.
I watched tryouts for a gold team several years ago. About 80 girls were run through drills. Not one of these girls was asked to return. In fact, I believe the coaches running them through the drills knew all along that nobody from this group was going to make it. They had already pretty much hand-picked their team. The girls who were at this tryout had come to an open thing without any such invitation. Still the coaches poked and prodded, tested and encouraged, put the girls through the paces at full speed. One of the elements of this tryout which sticks out in my mind was some advice one of the coaches gave to the girls waiting for their turn in the drills.
The coach told the girls who were waiting their turns to "Talk it up. Don't be afraid to yell encouragement to that girl because you believe you might be competing with her for a position on our roster. This is softball. It's noisy. if you want to prove to me that you know how to play this game, let me hear you like you are a real player."
I thought this was sound advice. Any time you see a real team playing, the girls are all yelling for each other no matter what happens. This is even more true when you see a quality college team play. The noise level is higher than one would hear next to a busy freeway. The girls use everything they have to encourage each other, to show the opponent that they came to play, and to try to unnerve the opposing pitcher.
Certainly there are high school and college teams which are virtually silent during games but I believe most of the better teams are noisy. Certainly there are youth tournament teams which can make quite a racket but most of the time this consists of those organized cheers which many of us have come to dread. Most of the youth tournament teams I have observed act as if they are attending a wake. Every now and again, somebody yells encouragement to the girl up to bat or on base, especially if that girl happens to be their best friend on the team. But that's not enough. That's not what we're after.
So how does one go about getting a team to make real noise during games? For one thing, it would be best if somebody would explain this to the team collectively and individually. Secondly, I think that this fundamental aspect of the game is just like every other fundamental. You have to practice it. And third, just like other fundamentals, coaches need to remind kids that they should be doing it.
It would probably be best if the girls were able to see it themselves in action. This is one of the minor reasons I believe we should take our daughters, our teams, any girl to go watch the highest quality play we can find. There are a ton og HS gamers around this time of year. if you spend any time with a newspaper, you should quickly be able to identify which are the better teams. From there all you really need to do is try to get out to see games when two pretty good teams are playing against each other. As the HS season wears on, there are going to be tournaments for locations like county and state as well as conferences. Once you get past the quarter finals, things get fairly heated fairly quickly. Because there are so many games out there, you ought to be able to find time to fit one of the better ones in. And hopefully, if you do, you and more importantly your girls will be able to see how real ball players conduct themselves - make noise.
Next, I think when we have practices close to our season, we ought to take note of whether our girls are cheering each other on. If they are not, it might be a good idea to let them know that you are not hearing them and would prefer if they made a little noise. i would strongly encourage telling them to yell for each other in batting practice, base running drills, whatever. I would explain to them that like being cheered for and what they should try to do is give what they would want to receive. An individual can even think to themselves that what they are saying for another is really what they mean for themselves. Basically, whatever you can do to make the girls make a little noise is a good thing.
I would go so far as to stop practices at appropriate times and tell your team that they are not making enough noise for each other and you know they can do better. What you want to avoid, however, is the condition in which you are constantly the cue card for noise-making. This is all like being in a good ready position on every pitch. No coach wants to continuously hear himself or herself telling their team to "get ready." if you are doing that, you've done a poor job of teaching the girls during practices. What we tell girls is "if you are going to walk out onto the softball field, if you are going to call yourself a softball player, if you are not 10 years old, then as the pitcher begins her motion, you simply must get intoi a good ready position ... on every single pitch. if I have to tell you to get ready, you are not ready, you are not a ballplayer, you are going to get hurt ou there." This same principle applies to making noise. If you want to consider yourself a softball team, a good one, and you are not making noise all the time, guess again, because all the good teams constantly make noise.
I can relate to coaches who would prefer that their teams not constantly give them headaches but lets be real here. If your team is perfectly orchestrated, if everyone has their skills intact, if you are really playing great ball right now, what does all that matter when you come up against another team doing similarly but the other team never shuts up?
Let me put it another way, if your team is at the top of their game and from the first moment of the first pitch they are louder than the other team, what does this say about you? IMHO, what it says about you is the follwing:
1) This is not our first game. We have been playing this game for a long time and we are used to winning.
2) We get excited to play because we like to play. We are not just used to winning, we are used to running up the score. We are used to this game being very exciting and our team is going to hit, run and score on you.
3) We expect to win every game we play. We don;t merely think we are as good as you, we know it. We expect to beat you!
There are other aspects a team says about itself when it is noisy but I think those are the important ones. Confidence is a funny thing, it often spills over into success. Talking it up shows you are confident. talking it up tells your opponent that you are there to play.
So let's get out there this weekend and make some noise. Talk it up girls!Labels: attitude, coaching, game strategy, mental toughness, youth tournament teams
Permanent Link: Talk It Up, Ladies
 
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