This weeks lineup:

• Warmup Segment
• Listener Question: Are winter camps a good investment? (@6:44)
• Paige's Power Play (@11:26)
• Players often  think that hits are the only measure of success. We need to help them understand that their job is to hit the ball hard. They can't control where the defense is playing and if they continue to hit the ball hard the hits will come. (@15:11)
• Asking young players to specialize in softball rather than playing other sports is a bad idea. (@31:11)
• We need to check our vocabulary. Players may not know exactly what we mean when we use catch phrases. Make sure they understand what you are trying to say. (@42:07)

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An outfielder catching a deep hit ball at the fence can be a great play. It also is tough because of the danger of the fence. Teaching them how to handle the fence and make the play takes a lot of practice and practice with communication coming from a partner outfielder. Drills and techniques are discussed to help the coach develop practice plans.

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This Weeks Lineup:

• Warmup Segment
• Listener Question: Is there one thing that my team can work on that will get results in a short period? (@7:57)
• Paige's Power Play (@11:14)
• Weight Training is necessary but only if it is done correctly. (@15:20)
• 7 simple habits that make better players (@28:51)
• A patron gave us a tip on using a device that has been around for centuries that can help our players get into a better rhythm and speed them up. (@52:52)

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The quickest way to be get from point A to point B is not always a straight line. Anytime that we know we are only going one base, we want a straight line. If we are anticipating taking multiple bases our bodies cannot maintain speed and make a left turn so we have to round the corners . And it is better to round early rather than round late.  The coaches discuss the difference between the shortest distance and the shortest amount of time. Watch young players and you will realize that this is not intuitive, we need to teach it.

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This weeks lineup:

• Warmup Segment
• Listener Question: Why is covering steals different between baseball and softball?(@7:55)
• Paige's Power Play (@12:58)
• Coach Tory has some questions and he gets answers from Jeff our umpiring friend. (@16:46)
• Coach Don has a list of questions that should be asked in the recruiting process that are discussed. (32:05)
• Everything is better when the pitchers attack the strike zone. (@1:09:06)

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Field conditions and the facility come into play during a game. If your team is aware of these things and know what impact they have on their play it can be to their advantage. All fields are not created equal. Field preparation is different and sometimes is used to an advantage of one team. The coaches discuss how to make your players aware of the different things that they have to take into account to not be surprised and give them a better chance to win the game.  The little things count.

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This Weeks Lineup:

• Warmup Segment
• Listener Question: Coach demands players be on time, but coach isn't ready on time. What can we do? (@9:29)
• Paige's Power Play (@16:57)
• Speed isn't everything when it comes to pitching. (@23:56)
• Negativity is spoiling the game and is not making the negative person feel any better. (@34:32)
• A young coach is having trouble getting her pitchers to perform in games as well as they do in practice. (@43:21)

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You have a batting cage available or have rented one for batting practice. We prefer the term that you are going to practice hitting not just batting. We see a big percentage of the available time wasted by non-hitting activities. In this episode we give you some do's and don't to maximize the time and get the most number of swings in.

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This Weeks Lineup

• Warmup Segment:
• Listener Question:  Our team decided to add paid coaches. We weren't told about this. What do you think? (@8:03)
• Paige's Power Play (@14:43)
• List of Questions about Coach Pitch (@19:59)
• List of Questions about 10U (@47:06)
• Coaching Superstitions (@58:31)

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Unfortunately most games that are played have a time limit. In those games there is a lot of time wasted, that if eliminated, would result in the players getting a lot more playing time.  Too much money is being spent on softball teams not to optimize the amount of time in a game to play more innings. Coaches, streamline your game procedures to get rid of non-playing time. If you are playing in a showcase tournament this is extremely important because the objective is to showcase players, not teams or coaches.

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