OT: coaching softball

[UConnTrumbull]

Anyone on the BY ever coach softball? Primarily high school level softball? I'm a teacher and I was just asked by my athletic director to coach JV softball and I said I would consider it. Any advice? I watch baseball occasionally but I don't really have a clue how to coach baseball/softball.

 

[pinotbear]

Oh, my, Trumbull - a couple of us have done a fair bit of softball coaching. I did 20 years, including 8 years of high school varsity asst coach, summer ball, etc.. Ursusminor did JV asst coaching, as well as being "Momma Bear" to a good D1 club team. TonyC, I believe, also has good experience in this area.

I love coaching softball - love it, love it, love it. But, part of the reason I love it is that it's complex and multi-faceted, which makes it a tough game to coach without some help or experience. It's really too deep a topic to get into on a message board. In all seriousness, PM me. I wouldn't mind a bit talking to you about it. Are you in the Trumbull area, or elsewhere?

As far as JV goes, I always thought that was, in some ways, the most interesting level to coach. On several occasions, I chipped in a little time to help with our JV team. What makes JV interesting to me is, it really is a pivotal point in a programs' structure - it's where certain players are going to develop enough to become varsity-quality (whether this year, in "call-up" situations, or next), and certain players are going to "hit the wall" as far as their softball career is concerned. People, both players and parents, sometimes forget that JV stands for "junior varsity" - which means, unlike freshman ball (which is purely player skill development), not every kid is gonna get "their turn" even-handedly. But, neither is it varsity, where winning matters - for league standings, for state tourney qualification and seeding, results are in the paper, etc. - so, while winning is desirable, the #1 priority is turning kids into potential varsity players.

Again, contact me if you like!

 

[Bonpland]

Trumbull, I've coached softball on several levels and with younger girls I would emphasize the fundamentals (Kinda goes without saying), and postional play. Even very average players can play the game well if they practice the basics (fielding, hitting and base running) and then learn to anticipate "Where's the play?"

As part of the infield/outfield workout conditioning your players to understand where the ball should go (Runners at first and third, a flyball to shallow rightfield, where's the play? A flyball to deeper rightfield, Where's the play?) helps keep your team from suffering long painful innings.

It sounds so obvious but I was always amazed at how often girls will throw to the wrong base prolonging an opponent's at bat. Fielding is part atleticism, part technique, and running is about staying alert and knowing when to steal a base or to try to stretch a double into a triple. (Running is as much about instinct and learned behavior as it is about speed. Big lumbering girls run the bases very well if trained to anticipate where the ball is going).

Hitting of course is the single hardest thing to teach in sport and so the basics help, but repetition is essential. There are videos and books that help, but a good rule is not to try to fit a square peg into a round hole. Not every player can swing the bat the same,. and after correcting the obvious flaws in a batter's approach, I always found it best to let them learn to be comfortable at the plate.

Like others I had a lot of fun following my daughter's scholastically, and I then watched one play on in college. Great fun and girls are deffinately easier to coach than boys (they listen and make mental notes; boy's minds are all over the place). Good luck.

 

[vtcwbuff]

I player/coached fast pitch in the Navy for a couple of years. As Pinot suggested it's too involved for message board fodder. My suggestions visit the library or google "coaching softball" for some sources and learn the rules.

 

[cbraarj]

There will be alot of clinics coming up in Conn.and Mass. with college and top high school coaches.University of Hartford and Umass used to be very good.It has been a few years for me but learned alot from them.

 

[jimazee]

All good suggestions above. Today there are so many books, videos, clinics, travel teams, training businesses (batting and pitching especially) etc. Games and replays are probably available all over the Internet. Do some research. Talk to some people with experience...there are many....find some local 'experts'. Some may offer to help, especially if close to the team in some way.

Softball is different than baseball, but many basics are the same. It is a really fun sport when played well. Girls often love it. It isn't so complex that you can't learn to coach it. It will take your time...probably more than you think, but it can be rewarding if you like sports and working with kids.

Find an interested assistant or two. Maybe a recent grad or local college player to help.

As in any sport, there are always parents...(not that there is anything WRONG with that of course, but dealing with them is sometimes more difficult than the players...some will know quite a bit about the game...some will think they do too).

 

[Etienne]

Anyone on the BY ever coach softball? Primarily high school level softball? I'm a teacher and I was just asked by my athletic director to coach JV softball and I said I would consider it. Any advice? I watch baseball occasionally but I don't really have a clue how to coach baseball/softball.

UCTrumbull. - I am starting my 15th year of coaching Varsity High School softball and I would say it has been a wonderful experience and would encourage you to accept the challenge. As someone else has already mentioned the complexities of softball do not lend itself to answering your question in this forum. There are a miriad of training tapes that are readily available. They would be a great place to prepare yourself for the season. I would think that your local library would have some available.

 

[ursusminor]

Well, I'll toss in my two cents.

At the JV level, most of your players have been playing a while. They all have their style and routine to their basic skills. It may be good, bad, or ugly, but it is how they do it. Unless their form is really, truly, god-awful terrible, it's not worth it to break it down their muscle memory and rebuild from scratch. Even then, the kid has to be really dedicated or it won't work. Usually you can just tweak their mechanics, and there are drills and warm-ups you can look up that will help tweak them in the right direction.

Watch. Watch, watch, watch. Watch college softball - early season showcase tourneys will start pretty soon, and ESPN will probably broadcast a couple of games. The announcers on those are usually former high-level players, and they will often talk about useful little nuances of the game. Watch how it's done when it's done really well. Watch baseball if there's no softball on TV. The game is different in execution, but a lot of the ideas are the same. Especially spring training or early season games, if you can catch announcers chatting about how players may have worked on their game in the off-season. Watch training and coaching videos, like other people have said. Watch your players. If you see something that looks off, watch them do it a couple of times so that you have time to really see it and think about what the root of the problem is.

And watch the ball. It's the dumbest, most useful advice you can give for hitting or fielding. Don't just sort of see where the ball is: LOOK at it, actively point your eyeballs at it, and focus on it. Watch the ball.

ETA: Lots of college softball broadcasts archived on YouTube. ESPN isn't carrying much of the early February games that I can tell.

ETA2: If you're anywhere near the northeastern corner of the state, see if you can't drag pinotbear out of Massachusetts to help out. He golfs too much.

 

[pinotbear]

She's right, you know - I really do play too much golf.

 

[BigBird]

A ton of college softball broadcasts get routed to ESPN3. These games often don't get shown, or are shown only once on the main network. Get the app, as you'll see teams at all levels. From the MEAC to SEC.

And if you need help from a former softball broadcaster... Oh, just forget I said that bit.

 

[ursusminor]

A ton of college softball broadcasts get routed to ESPN3. These games often don't get shown, or are shown only once on the main network. Get the app, as you'll see teams at all levels. From the MEAC to SEC.

And if you need help from a former softball broadcaster... Oh, just forget I said that bit.

Yeah, I was looking at the ESPN3 broadcast schedule, but all the early games I saw are owned/whatever on the Longhorn Network. For me personally, I can't watch anything that isn't ESPN3; I don't have access to the SEC and Longhorn stuff that is hosted on the ESPN3 site. If you can watch that, it starts up in a couple of weeks.