A Coach's Strengths?

[_MIA_]

Players win games for the most part so in general a HS coach is a slave to the softball culture of the town they coach in. In softball in particular you are only going to go as far as your pitching staff unless you absolutely mash.

That said imo most games at the HS level and below are lost because a team doesn’t perform the basic softball skills properly (field a GB, take a good route on a line drive in the gap, etc) so personally I am big on concentrating on that stuff rather than drilling game situation stuff for 3 hours. Not saying that isn’t important but making sure your team is fundamentally sound from a skills perspective is priority 1 and HS coaches have enough practice time over the course of a season where they can get their kids enough reps to hopefully make a dent in that..


So uh yeah..per usual I am not exactly on topic

 

[angispeds]

Players win games for the most part so in general a HS coach is a slave to the softball culture of the town they coach in. In softball in particular you are only going to go as far as your pitching staff unless you absolutely mash.

That said imo most games at the HS level and below are lost because a team doesn’t perform the basic softball skills properly (field a GB, take a good route on a line drive in the gap, etc) so personally I am big on concentrating on that stuff rather than drilling game situation stuff for 3 hours. Not saying that isn’t important but making sure your team is fundamentally sound from a skills perspective is priority 1 and HS coaches have enough practice time over the course of a season where they can get their kids enough reps to hopefully make a dent in that..


So uh yeah..per usual I am not exactly on topic

This is exactly right regarding basic skills. Our opening game Monday night. 2 great hitting line ups but 2 good pitchers too neither outstanding on their own but doing a great job. 1-1 ball game with each pitcher giving up a solo shot. 2 runners on with 2 outs pop up hit to LC where the outfield collides and drops the ball. 2 runs score brings up the top of the line up pitcher has gotten the kid twice but this time makes a mistake and gives up a 2 run HR and suddenly is 5-1. Winning team makes no errors and that’s where we finish.


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[John T]

Whoah! I thought 10 was good.

Rotating hitting stations…

 

[Northball]

... so in general a HS coach is a slave to the softball culture of the town they coach in. ...

This line caught my eye as it is what I am working hard to improve in our area. Coach has limits to how much time she can spend with the girls, so it is a strength to have a supportive parent base, school administration, and community members (softball crazy helps). Our school has a strong football and basketball culture; there's no reason we can't build a strong softball culture.

I read PJR202's Saga of Rebuilding a Program with special interest to see how the culture change goes there as well.

 

[_MIA_]

This line caught my eye as it is what I am working hard to improve in our area.

Good luck.

 

[tim_s]

I was just going through this idea of strengths and weaknesses in my head in the shower the other day.....



One thing that I think is underrated but super important is being able to teach......a lot of folks know what they want to get out to a player/players, but have a hard time getting that info out in a way that can be digested and learned

i am a PE teacher, so the idea of taking a skill and breaking it down into small bites/steps that are relatable and understandable to the player is a strength......back when I coached wrestling (never having actually wrestled haha) i was even able to do this with schools I couldn't even execute under "game speed"......but I could effectively teach it

this is something i see a lot of coaches struggle with, a lot of ex-players especially....they know what they want to teach, but struggle to get it out in a way that makes sense to the player


this is one of the things i liked about matt lisle over the years; love the swing he teachers, or hate it, love his marketing or hate it, but he was able to break something like a complex swing down into little sound bites that made sense to even young players, and he also focused on how these different parts felt, which is huge......

 

[Northball]

Good luck.

Thanks! We are seeing dividends. Just in the last four years:
-Our summer program has gone from HS kid coached to parent coached. Much better ball.
-We have some parents with a higher fastpitch knowledge level than "I played baseball in high school."
-We now have a fastpitch association.
-We host a summer tournament.
-Our summer teams are picking up more tournaments to play in (0-3 was the norm).
-Our summer teams are moving up in levels of play.
-We now have pitchers taking regular lessons.
-1st year of fall ball for four of our teams. Most of the girls never even knew fall ball existed.
-I've added another session for my grade school pitching clinic due to too many kids interested. First year I only had two kids.
-Our winter "captain's practices" have ballooned from 2-3 kids to 16-22 kids each Sunday starting in January.