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Some Common Catching Mistakes
by Dave
Friday, January 15, 2010
Most fundamental mistakes, though certainly not all, begin at one's connection to terra firma, the feet. From there, the most common mistakes move up to the general stance though many of these are caused by the positioning of the feet. And then there are the little nagging habitual nuance type problems that plague most, if not all, players. The Catching position is no exception to this general rule.
Catchers make all sorts of big and little mistakes. But what I guess bothers me is many of these are actually taught by a majority of team coaches. No team coach can possibly know every position and I doubt many individuals can be a real expert in even one position. As team coaches, we have so much to be concerned about that it is virtually impossible to focus enough on one position that we become masters of all there is to know about it. Yet many coaches presume to know their most critical positions which undoubtedly includes the catcher. The reason private coaches exist in our world is that these individuals focus on one aspect of play, teach it, and then adjust their own thinking in accordance to results and the different opinions of their peers, or at least they should do this. If we team coaches presume to know a single position and teach what we know to our charges, it is critical for us to really study all the varying opinions about different nuances private coaches teach. we must approach the subject with humility. We must really think things through before we teach and then instill a habit to the play of our charges.
Like I said, there are a number of common mistakes catchers make. Today, I want to go over some of these. But rather than start with the feet and work upwards, I want to do the reverse. I want to go over some finer points and then drop back into the larger fundamental issues because I believe this 9is the right way to have you really consider some of the important issues.
First of all, I start with the fist. Many coaches say to their catchers, "make a fist with your throwing hand and put it behind your back or knee during the pitch so that you don't break fingers on foul tips." The motivation is right. They don't want their catchers out with a broken finger or two. And that particular problem is a common one. But the advice is actually quite wrong.
To begin with, the phrase "make a fist" implies that one does what one would do when throwing a punch, close the four fingers tightly and then wrap the thumb into the fist. That does not work to preserve a catcher's hand on a foul tip which strikes the throwing hand. What you want instead is to close the thumb and then wrap the fingers in behind it. If you did that and punched someone, chances are even that you would break your thumb. But you're not throwing a punch. You're protecting your thumb, arguably the most important digit for playing softball. Secondly, if you try this, you may notice that it is almost impossible to make a tight fist thumb first. That's a good thing because the tighter you make the fist, the more likely you are to experience a broken finger. There must be some give in the closed hand so that there is a shock absorber to the impact of the ball. A fist with thumb on the outside is tighter than one with the thumb inside. And that creates the give or shock absorber effect we need. The primary goal of making a fist is to preserve the thumb and the secondary purpose is to preserve all the other fingers by not leaving them hanging out there to be busted by a wayward ball.
Next, if you advise your catchers to place their closed fist behind their back or knee, I want you to perform a long study using videotape. Videotape every catcher you can find who puts their hand behind their back or knee. At the moment the ball is about 5 feet from the hitting zone, note where the catcher's hand is now located. At least 90% of the time, the catcher will have pulled her hand out from behind her and brought it towards the glove. This is a natural human reaction. Most people cannot help this. Most people cannot be trained to keep the hand back because it is a natural motion to put both hands in front of you in order to protect oneself.
If you force yourself to think about a frontal knife attack, you probably think the best and most natural move would be to dodge the incoming weapon. But, in fact, most people who are attacked like this do not react that way. Instead, what they do is instinctively try to protect themselves by putting up their hands. Obviously your hands and arms are not much defense against an incoming sharp knife. But that is what people do. That is what is commonly discussed as an instance in which the victim "put up a fight." But they put up their hands and arms because the body's most reactive tendency is to protect the vital organs. -; You can live with injuries to your arms and hands but you cannot live with a knife wound to your vital internal organs and rather than chance the injury and dodge the incoming person, the reflex action is to protect using the extremities.
So catchers are just as ill advised to put their throwing hands behind them as they are to make a punching fist. The first reaction is to pull the hand out from behind you. And when the ball is fouled, you are more likely to be struck. If you have a punching fist, that strike is going to bust a finger. catchers would be better off if they made the catching fist and then placed the throwing hand behind the glove by a few inches. If you watch a catcher who does this, what you will most likely notice is the throwing hand moves in tandem with the glove hand. The "fist" remains behind the glove and protected.
As side notes to this discussion, you do not want the hand right up against the glove because if will absorb shock on hard pitches. rather keep it back those few inches so that when the pitch is caught, it won't be struck by the shock absorbing glove and so that as the glove slows down, the throwing hand will be right there next to the glove. Lastly, the catching fist, with the thumb on the inside, is a much more natural way for the hand to go into the glove to get the ball. Because the four fingers are not tightly wrapped and because the thumb generally springs open immediately upon releasing the fist, it is just a hair quicker.
Another common error catchers make is putting on those ridiculous pads attached to the shin guards behind the knees. This would seem to be an innocuous mistake but let's take a look at it. What are those things for? What are they supposed to do? Protect the knees? Get serious!
The first time I saw those pads on a set of shin guards, I thought to myself, "I wish I had those when I caught. My legs would not have gotten so tired." Then I watched a catcher wearing them and realized that they are actually never used, not should they ever be used. It is easy to watch catchers giving signs to their pitcher and think they are some sort of seat which protects the knees by not allowing the upper and lower legs to close to tightly together. But if you put on a pair of shin guards with those things attached and then give some signs or pretend to, the first thing you'll notice is they are bearing no weight. That is, the pads behind the guards are too small to get your butt to without bringing your upper and lower legs too closely together. Even if you did bring your legs together enough, those things are soft and spongy. They can bear no more weight than a pillow. They crush up like any foam object when weight is put on them. They not only don't bear weight and thereby provide absolutely no support, but they tend to encourage catchers to sit when that is the last thing they should be doing.
As a final assault on the shin guard pads, there is one real effect they do have which is a negative one. But discussing this brings me to a mistake many catchers make which has nothing to do with any of the other stuff in this piece. The mistake many catchers make in travel and high school ball is not backing up first base.
When there are no runners aboard and a ground ball is hit to the infield, a catcher should run or trot down the first base line in order to retrieve the ball in the event the throw gets away from the first baseman. If she does that, about half the bad throws will be retrieved before the runner can advance to second.
Obviously, if there is a runner on third or second, the catcher must hold her ground and be there to cover the plate. But with runner on first, I would prefer she back up first on grounders because the runner from first should not even make third before she is able to again get back t0o home and cover her bag. The one exception to this general rule is when there is a runner on first and the batter bunts. In that case, there isn't much purpose to backing up first and the focus should be on either getting the ball if the bunt is within 5 or 6 feet of the plate, or telling the infielder where to go if it is further out.
For years I have watched fastpitch softball catchers not back up first. It bothered me but I wrote it off as just one of those things. Then I watched good girls playing at showcases and realized real softball catchers do in fact back up first. If they have those stupid pads on the backs of their legs, not only do they look foolish running but I imagine those pads bouncing up and down distract them and also perhaps slow them down a bit. So take those do nothing pads off your shin guards. They serve no positive purpose and the guy who invented them already has made enough money from his invention.
The next mistake catchers and their coaches make begins the move down towards the feet. When catchers repeatedly make bad throws to second, the natural reaction most coaches have is to tell their catcher that she is not "finishing the throw." What they mean and sometimes say is she is not following through. Unfortunately, that usually has nothing to do with the bad throw.
The most common error which is made when a throw to second sails to the rightfield side is she is throwing three quarters (like a two seam baseball fastball) or she is actually sidearming it in order to be fast. Both mistakes are bad. A third common mistake happens to the catcher who continually throws high and that would seem to be thje result of not following through. That may have something to do with it but is not usually the reason.
Generally sidearming catchers eventually play another position due to the sail of the ball and repeated errors caused thereby. Aside from the throw being an error, it also places the SS in a precarious position as she reaches to catch the ball right into the path of the incoming baserunner. Those who value their SS generally get pretty mad when their catcher repeatedly throws balls on the RF side of second.
Three quarters throwers also get some sideways sail on the ball but many times they are throwing three quarters to, again, be faster. It isn't so much a matter of finishing the throw. Yes sidearmers and three quarter throwers can learn over years of experience to adjust their throws and hit the mark. Similarly the 12 to 6 thrower can learn to adjust her throw and get it lower. But what is most commonly missing from the analysis is foot positioning.
Everything in athletics begins with the feet because they are our connection to the Earth. There is little you can do if your feet are improperly placed. You can't field a ball; hit; or throw, if your feet are in bad position. Catcher's feet are critical to many aspects of their play and we'll get to this in a moment but the point here is: if your catcher is making inconsistent or bad throws, don't look at the release point or finishing point of the arm. instead, watch her feet. When she attains proper foot position on a consistent basis, most likely her throws will be more consistent and better. If you want to know how the feet should be when throwing out a baserunner, you should consult a coach or, better yet, get Dave Weaver's New England Catching Camp video. If you fix the feet, your catcher's throws will be better.
Now, to the most critical element, to the item which caused me to write today's piece, to the single most common mistake in positioning which most catchers do and most coaches never correct or do not know to correct. The catcher's stance and foot positioning are the most common mistake.
Let's take a look across the broad spectrum of catchers. If you take a simple survey of catchers in travel ball and high school, what you will find is the majority of these girls are up on the balls of their feet and toes on every pitch. It does not particularly matter if they are just receiving the pitch or have a potentially stealing runner on base. They adjust their body position with a runner on but they do not typically adjust their feet. I'm not saying they should necessarily adjust their feet with runners on. Rather, I'm simply noting that they are up on their toes most or all of the time.
Let's take a second survey. Ask a bunch of coaches, team and private trainers, whether this is correct or not. You will get a few people who will say that it is wrong and then explain why and how a catcher should position herself. But most of the answers will be either that it is right or that it doesn't make much difference to them but they would prefer that all their defensive players be up on their toes at all times. Some few will answer that they want their catchers to be on their toes at least when runners are on base. Only the first group, which says they want their catchers to not be on their toes or balls of their feet, is correct.
I expect some folks at this point are getting a little anxious if not downright mad at me. Some have just left because while they doubt I am right about the catcher keeping her hand behind her back and the fist thing is just a ridiculous comment to make since it really doesn't matter. What really cheesed them off was this foot placement thing. This guy is wrong. he just doesn't know what he is talking about. Most catchers are up on the balls of their feet and most coaches teach it that way because ... well ... it's right. That's the way I learned it and I was an all-county catcher. This guy has gone too far this time.
OK, throw a punch at me if you want to. I can take it. But if you have stayed and are considering what I have to say, start reading again.
In order to verify what I am about to say, you're going to need to go out and get yourself a catcher or a reasonable facsimile of one - somebody else. So go get somebody. I'll wait. I'm in no particular hurry and this point is so critical that the rest of the class will just have to wait for you. Get moving. Go get a catcher.
Tell your catcher to get into receiving position while making her stance begin with the balls of her feet or on her toes. OK. Now take both your hands and put them on your catcher's shoulders. Give a slight push and over he or she goes. It's hard to be balanced while crouching on your toes. Your catcher is unbalanced (maybe I am too but that's not relevant). That's test one.
Second test time - ask your crouching catcher to reach out to her sides with each hand as far as she can reach without moving her body. Mark the spots with balls. Now move those balls six inches away from her and the spot and ask her to pick them up. The first thing she'll do is shift her weight to the opposite side of the ball and then step with the foot on the ball side and reach for it while picking it up. That will probably happen equally on each side though one side will possibly be better, quicker and less awkwardly than the other.
For a third test, do the same thing but move the balls a full foot away. the distance at this point should be about the inside line of the batter's box on each side. In other words, all we are asking her to do is retrieve balls on the ground within the distance from the inside of each batter's box, left- and right- handed. The retrieval is slower and looks even more awkward. Again, if you had accurate instruments, you will find that she is slightly faster to one side than the other but both sides take fairly long.
The fourth test is to place a ball on the ground to her side as far away from your catcher as the worst pitch you have recently seen. That likely is a couple inches inside the batter's box on either side and the results will be similar to the previous tests.
Now, finally, put a ball three to four feet in front of your catcher, about at the plate, and ask her to pick it up. She will either get up awkwardly to get it or fall over forwards. Neither movement is particularly elegant looking and neither is a particularly fast motion. Something is wrong with this "on-toes" stance.
The reason we would like our defensive players to be "on their toes" is so they are able to react quickly. That seems logical enough. But we forget one simple thing when 3we encourage catchers to do this. When an infielder is on her toes, she gets there while watching the pitcher go into her motion. She does it at the last possible second like the way the batter perhaps loads. If we were talking about batters, we would never encourage them to step into the box and then load immediately while waiting for the pitcher to step onto the rubber, take the sign and then begin the pitch. That's because early loading causes the muscles to stiffen up and slows down the swing. Yet, we tell our catchers to throw the ball back and then load immediately, even before the batter gets into the box. How quick should we expect her to be regardless of how being on her toes effects her ability to move laterally or forwards? If anybody's muscles are too over extended to explode at the right moment, it is those of the catcher. But this is a minor point.
The more important points having to do with proper foot positioning of the catcher involve the acts of receiving and throwing out baserunners. The proper positioning of a catcher's feet are flat footed - heals down - and with the weight slightly on the outside of the feet.
I was watching two catchers ply their trade recently while standing with the father of one. one girl was flat footed, the other on her toes. I was with the father of the girl on her toes. He was commenting about each kid in a constructive way. He noted that he thought his kid was the better catcher but the other kid had better lateral movement, particularly to her left, particularly on balls in the dirt. I didn't mention the flat footed thing to him because I have done so before and he takes my comments to be wrong. But it was clear that the other girl had better lateral movement precisely because she was flat footed. I'm getting ahead of myself so I'll come back to lateral movement shortly.
Perhaps more importantly, while this fellow noted that his daughter had the better arm, he noted that the other kid was a little more accurate. As games wore on, this became more evident not due to watching more throws but rather because the kid on her toes got tired more easily. As she got tired, she had greater and greater difficulty getting her feet into proper position to make an accurate throw. The other kid, probably just as tired as the on her toes girl, continued to make accurate throws and I believe this is because it took considerably less effort to get into throwing position with the flat footed approach.
There is good reason why a flat footed catcher has better lateral movement but rather than explain this in detail, I'll demonstrate it to you. Hopefully, you let your demonstrating catcher go back to her De Grassi program. You don't need her for this one. Instead, I'd like you to experience it for yourself.
Get into the catcher's crouch on the balls of your feet. No imagine a pitch a bit outside and move to catch it. You either turn a bit sideways or you lose your balance to the side of the pitch. Now do the same for an inside pitch. Basically the same thing happens. Now try this with a wide base, flat footed, with your weight very slightly on the outside of your feet. What haoppens is your body shifts slightly and gracefully to the place of the ball. So the lesson is, when a catcher is on the balls of her feet, she cannot move to catch balls to either side of herself without getting a bit unbalanced or shifting her weight sideways. That's not good for a couple reasons.
When we incorrectly teach "framing" (Gosh, I hate that word), we emphasize the glove movements. We tell girls to pull the ball back "into the strike zone" as if that might engender a strike call from the umpire. I've discussed that before and don;t wish to bring it up in detail again. But let's just acknowledge that a catcher is fooling nobody when she pulls a ball back into the strike zone. What she can do instead is easily catch a marginal strike without giving the umpire any sort of body language hints that the pitch is marginal. That is accomplished when she moves only slightly to the side with just a little body shift. If she reaches, steps, or obscures the ump's view because she does not have good lateral movement, chances are pretty good that an ump will call what is really a strike as a ball. So having that good balance, position, and lateral flexibility is the real key to "framing" properly.
Perhaps more importantly, the flat footed girl with the better range had that better range because of her flat footed stance. To see what I mean, take up each type of position and imagine yourself catching an obvious ball well outside the strike zone. You should see, if you are performing this honestly, that you can move much more easily from the flat footed position. Thus, your range has improved.
Yet even more importantly, we teach catchers not to catch balls in the dirt but rather to block them. If you get into each position and then try to block a ball in front of you and to each side, what you will find is that getting into proper blocking position is A LOT easier from the flat footed position. Not only is it easier, it's faster. And when the average high school catcher has no more time to get down and block than a major league baseball catcher, she needs that additional time.
I have grown so frustrated listening to catchers' father complain that they just don;t understand why she didn't block that ball when she does it all the time in drills in their garage or basement. Yes, she does do it in those drills and she has built up the muscle memory but she still does not have enough time to A) recognize and B) drop and block when she is on her toes. To see what I mean, go get your catcher again. De Grassi is over anyway. Find a tennis ball and tell your catcher to pull her shin guards out of her bag and put them on as soon as she gets those "knee protectors" off.
Bounce the tennis balls at her low and hard and tell her to drop and block from each of the two positions. Bounce some right at her and then go to the sides, gradually further and further out. f you are consistent and push so that the balls are harder and harder to block, I think you will see that not only does she drop and block more easily, but also she has greater range with which to block. Better yet, if you ask her to retrieve the ball and get up after dropping and blocking, I'm gonna guess that she will do so faster from the flat footed position.
I didn't want to get into the proper foot position for throwing because I want you to consult experts on this. But I will add at this point that once you understand that, it is a heck of a lot easier and quicker to get into that position from the flat footed receiving position.
To sum up this piece, catchers should make their fists opposite to a proper punching fist, with the thumb on the inside. They should not be taught to keep their throwing hand behind them because they will immediately counteract any protective value reflexively. Take the knee protectors off the shin guards. They do not protect knees and serve no purpose. teach your catchers to back up first. All real catchers do this. When catchers make repeated bad throws, look at their feet, not their arm follow throughs. Learn a little something about the proper positioning of the feet in the various catcher's stances - giving signs, runners not on base, runners on base. Flat footed is better. Flat footed is right. If you consider these things and follow through with training, your catcher will break less fingers, she'll not look silly with flapping knee protectors, and she'll be a better player than she was doing these things the wrong way.Labels: catching
Permanent Link: Some Common Catching Mistakes
 
Duck - Iguana Warning!
by Dave
Thursday, January 14, 2010
I was really looking forward to our trip to Florida last week. Either I'm getting old (very likely) or global warming (highly unlikely) is causing temperatures to drop this winter. The pre-Christmas snow created a pretty backdrop to the usual, though this year more reserved, holiday lighting spectacular in my neighborhood. But after the first day, I would have preferred a little warmth to the dirty slippery stuff. Then it rained and everything pretty much disappeared. Then it got pretty darn cold again. So, I was probably looking forward to a couple days in the Florida sun more than some fairly high quality Rising Stars winter softball showcase games.
It came as news to me that Florida can actually experience sub-freezing temperatures as well as, gasp, snow. I watched the weather before we left. Friday looked OK. Saturday threatened a little rain late in the day. Sunday would be cool. I wasn't worried. Florida always gets a little rain in the afternoon, doesn't it. If we could get 3 of our 4 scheduled Saturday games in, that would be just fine. It could rain a bit and that would be no big deal. And, so what if it was a little chilly on Sunday. 45 is still what we call Indian Summer where I live. I went so far as to pack an extra hoody. I was prepared.
We crammed ourselves into what pass for seats onboard the Spirit Airlines flight to Fort Lauderdale. It was an uneventful flight, if more than a little claustrophobic. We landed, collected our equipment bags, found our rental car easily and got to the hotel in short order. We spent a little time figuring out where the fields were located relative to our accommodations and were pleasantly surprised to see that nothing was more than a half hour away. We found dinner at a chain restaurant, held a team meeting and settled down at the bar while our high schoolers played elevator tag and watched Jersey Shore (a show about low-life New Yorkers) on MTV.
The TV was on near the bar but folks were too loud for me to really follow what was being said on the news. There was something that caught my eye about "if you think this past week was cold, wait for next week." But all I took from that was, after we leave, it is going to get cool here again.
The next morning we had a very reasonably scheduled 9:30 am practice game. Our team played poorly but it was good to be out in the sun and watch some softball for a change. It wasn't quite warm but very pleasant. Our showcase game later in the day was also a softball disaster but the weather was decent and we actually played respectably for an inning or two. We hit the ball. We made some decent plays. We scored some runs. The game was decidedly less embarrassing than our "practice" one. And all was well with the world.
During the evening, the "extreme exposure" games were held and I'll get to them in a minute. The weather was still decent. We visited the main site and bought some tournament sweatshirts. The food there was reasonably good though nothing to write home about. The equipment for sale was enough to keep us occupied before the games. We stood around and chatted then watched the games before going home and hitting the hay.
I awoke about 4:30 the next morning to see what the weather was going to do. We were scheduled for an 8:00 am start and I wanted to advise my kid on what to wear. When I arrived outside the hotel, it did seem pretty cool and the wind was kicking up. But I, not having checked the weather very closely, still held out hope that we would get in 2, maybe 3 before a Florida rainstorm shortened the day. I told my daughter to wear her under-armour and carry the hoody. I grabbed my hoody and down vest as we headed out for the fields about 6:30.
A few raindrops fell and the wind whipped as we approached the complex. Someone noted that they hoped we got in 2 as we huddled in the stands while the girls warmed up. Then the rain got sort of steady and the temperature dropped. By game time, the rain was decidedly steady and cold. I believe someone checked the temperature and found it to be about 40-45.
Nobody really hit the ball that game. I think our team had the only hit. The pitchers had great difficulty getting the ball over and walked a few kids. There were numerous wild pitches and the runners who got to first pretty much all scored. Backstops were deep and sometimes girls got 2 bases on one WP. It reminded me of rec games at 10U rather than showcase games. After 3 + innings of abject misery, umpires on all fields at our complex called rain delays and then rainouts. We went back to the hotel and called the hotline repeatedly to learn if our next games would be held. Finally we learned that everything at our complexes was called for the day and we settled in to watch the NFL playoffs.
The next morning, we were again scheduled to play the early game. We got word that everything was going off as scheduled for us and that we had been granted an exhibition game after our first and only scheduled game Sunday. We were mostly satisfied with this since we had been shortchanged by the weather Saturday. Some wished we had been given yet another game but that was before anybody went outside to check the weather.
As we got outside to head to the fields, the cold bit into our faces and butts. We rushed to our cars to get out of the wind and cold in the hotel parking lot. As car engines warmed up and frost was scrapped from windshields, the readings of our thermometers read an outside temperature in the range of 30-32. Burrrrr! We drove to the fields hoping that temp.s would rise a bit as the sun came out. The rain had stopped. The clouds were breaking up. We thought that if the temps would get up to the previous day's levels, everything would be OK.
While I was standing there along the sidelines, a parent from our team told me she had seen an interesting story on the news the night before. It was a "falling Iguana warning" story. I said, "falling what?" To tell you the truth, I wasn't aware there were Iguanas in Florida!
Just in case you have not heard this before, they do have Iguanas in Florida. They are, of course, cold blood reptiles. When the temperature falls to a certain level, 5 Celcius, their bodies go into a sort of involuntary state of suspended animation - similar to hibernation. Their breathing and circulation slows, extremities and non-vital functions stop working, and, because they live in trees, they have a tendency to fall. I suppose that, given the touristy nature of Florida, the newsies wanted the unaware to be careful around trees so as not to have the bejesus scared out of them. I know I might have been scared to death had some Iguana dropped out of a tree near me.
The parent from our team told me that she and her party had gone out after seeing the news specifically to look for falling Iguanas. They weren't disappointed. In about a two mile stretch, they had seen four on the ground. One was unfortunate enough to have been found by a turkey vulture who busily ate it alive. Ah, such is girls fastpitch softball!
But seriously folks, this story is about softball. For beginners, I want to point out some things I learned during my brief vacation. I had known about Rising Stars showcase for several years. What I did not realize, however, is that of the several of these things they hold each year, the winter one, generally the second week of January, is not a particularly important one. That is not to say there are no college coaches in attendance. There are some, just not a ton. We did not see the numbers we saw in California around Halloween. And that was far lower, I'm told, than the numbers who came to scout the Rising Stars showcase held in mid October.
It occurred to me that Rising Stars ("RS") does not publish coaches expected at each event and rather lists any college that has ever attended one of their showcases precisely because they do not want to call attention to the fact that the winter showcase, for example, is more sparsely attended. This is their business. They want teams to pay and come. They are not being dishonest by claiming more coaches will be there. They are simply just not highlighting the fact that this event draws fewer coaches.
It should have been obvious to me and anyone else that the winter showcase, not falling within the NCAA recruiting window, was likely to be a lesser event. It should also have occurred to me that while the fall showcase is next to impossible for a new team to get into, it was fairly simple to get into the winter show because the biggest name teams are not there.
There are many very highly regarded organizations in attendance at winter RS. About 25 states were represented plus Aruba and, I think, one team from Canada. I wonder what the Aruba kids thought of the weather! The level of play was mostly very good, aside from our team and a few others. Many high level players whose teams were not there arranged to guest with other teams. But we did not see very many of the top 20-50 Gold teams. I understand that many teams were elsewhere for another event. other teams are practicing to get ready for spring qualifiers and the summer showcase circuit.
The umpiring at RS was very good, better than California had been. Teams generally played at the right level for their resumes. The tournament is arranged in twenty something 7-team pools and the teams in each pool played just the teams in their own pool, except for any practice or subsequently arranged exhibition games.
The teams spanned the range of experience from 18U Gold teams down to 14U Pony teams. Most 16U teams played against other 16Us. The 14s played either other 14s or weaker 16U and 18U teams. There were, of course, exceptions, as some teams chose to hide their age by altering their usual name slightly to not highlight the age group they had recently played or would play the next year.
In general, the play was ordinary showcase play in which books and scores are not really kept and in which players are frequently rotated in order to provide opportunities for showcasing their skills. I've mentioned this before but for the sake of those who might have missed it, teams do not usually play to win at these kinds of things. If, for example, a pitcher is throwing a perfect game through her scheduled 3 innings, she is going to come out to make way for pitcher number two regardless of whether the score is 0-0, 1-0 etc. Similarly, a stronger player is going to be pulled in favor of a weaker one merely because that is the way the game is played. Nobody sits so the team can win. That comes as a shock to many but that's just the way it is. Of course there are exceptions but those involve teams which simply just do not understand the way showcase ball is played.
You can easily identify the showcase neophyte parents at RS. They are the ones who treat games the same way they treat travel ball games. They get upset when their kid hits a shot and some very skilled outfielder hauls it in with a great play. They get upset when their team threatens but doesn't score because the "idiot coaches" have that kid in the lineup and she strikes out. They get worked up when the third or fourth pitcher on the other team looses the plate and starts walking kids. They act as if winning and losing actually matters.
By contrast, the parents who understand where they are rarely cheer except for a good play or hit ... by anyone. If some kid gets up and goes yard for the other team, they clap. If some SS on the other team makes an all-star play, they clap hard and yell "nice play!" If their kid drills a pitch and it doesn't find the ground, they are happy because she had a really good at-bat and hit the ball the way she knows how to. If a kid on either team hustles and plays hard, folks are happy for that kid. These games mostly lack the competitive edge we are all accustomed to and that is the way it has to be.
The extreme showcase games are even less competitive. They are perhaps one of the better parts of this tournament. RS has a camp early on Friday before the regular games start. Then everybody plays a regular showcase game. And then, Friday night, they hold the so called "maximum exposure" games. The maximum exposure games generally involve sophomores and juniors arranged into 11 or 12 player teams. They play 6 innings in which 5 or 6 batters, depending on roster size, hit and then switch sides. Everyone is guaranteed 3 innings at their primary position and then they play wherever the team needs a player. It was great fun and the level of play was very good. We saw some wonderful pitching performances, some very good hitting, and outstanding defense even considering the number of kids out of position and the fact that these girls had not worked defensive plays together before. Girls from one showcase team were generally not placed on the same teams.
Everyone seemed to really like the extreme exposure games. In fact, I heard at least one person saying "this is the way showcase should be played." He wondered if it might not be a good idea to arrange an entire showcase using this format.
Most of the kids at RS were sophomores and juniors. The 14U teams obviously had some freshmen and 8th graders. But the vast majority were 10th and 11th grade kids. The extreme exposure teams and games seemed to be organized along grade lines. One game involved mostly soph.s while another had mostly juniors. The quad we spent most of our time at seemed to have 2 games of each grade going on. There was the soph game I was at and the next field over was juniors, then the next soph.s, then the next juniors. It is noteworthy that all of the college coaches were watching the juniors. I suppose this is a final or almost a final look at certain kids before offers are extended in July. Yes, they'll see kids at NFCA camps and a few showcases in the spring but they must make up their minds soon and this was probably a last look for many kids.
So what I learned is, RS organizes the pools according to the way it sees the level of each team, there are neophytes everywhere including this level, the coaches here are more interested in juniors than they are at other venues, the extreme exposure games are perhaps the best part of RS, and winter can still be winter even in the sunshine state. Additionally, I learned that regardless of anything I may have said in the past, teams which consider themselves to be underaged still sometimes go around bragging as if it is some sort of badge of honor.
The exhibition game we were granted was against a team in a higher (weaker) pool than us. They looked pretty small so we made inquiries as to why. It turned out that they were either a 2009 or 2010 14U team, I'm not sure which. They had a few older looking girls but most were pretty darn young and their pitching was decidedly weak. Their outfielders played shallow. And they could not hit very well.
When we inquired as to the age of the team, one person proudly told us the 14U/15U thing and how they had won their games 22-1 and 11-0, against older kids. They wanted everyone to know that they had come in as a very young team and kicked some butt against the 18Us. I doubt they did that. I think it is very likely that the teams they faced were either the same age as they were or were very weak older teams, mostly perhaps about the same age.
We beat this "young" upstart team pretty easily. And we were a pretty darn weak team whose roster included 15s and 16s. We were not an 18U team in the classic sense. I saw several better 2010 14U teams this past fall. But this team insisted on bragging on their extreme success despite playing against those evil older girls. Oh well, I suppose you just can't prevent teams from making fools of themselves.
Myu kid pitched the opening two innings and allowed one runner on a walk. We quickly scored 5 and then our girls began fooling around. It was very cold. There were no college coaches around. After this we were heading home. And these younger girls were not very good. Our next pitcher gave up a run on some silly play. Our girls started goofing off at the plate. Then we put in our third pitcher as time ran out. She walked several kids and we misplayed some softly hit balls. They scored a couple runs and the time ran out. It was fun but just not real good ball.
Overall, I would say we had a fun time going to Rising Stars. We got to play the Gold Coast Hurricanes 16U and actually played a couple good innings against them. My kid hit a shot against the Canes that might have gone over the fence were it not for the 35 mph gusts at the time. She had some very good at bats and we caught her swinging at a pitch in the dirt on film. It is a great picture. I'm gonna have it blown up and made into wallpaper for her bedroom!
If you want to go have some fun while playing against good players, I do recommend Rising Stars winter showcase. But try to avoid Spirit or similar airlines. We were significantly delayed on the way home and given no good reason for it. We got home at 4:00 am Monday and my daughter had to miss yet another day of school. Many teams can probably get into the winter showcase even the young ones. But don't expect a ton of college coaches to watch your kid. If you are a soph. or junior, get yourself into the extreme exposure games. And before you head down to sunny Florida, make sure you watch the weather. Running out to the car to empty your already packed suitcase to put on everything you brought with you is not the best way to deal with the weather. Oh, yeah! If it is extremely cold, stay away from trees. You don't want to be struck by any falling Iguanas.
Permanent Link: Duck - Iguana Warning!
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