Everything Fastpitch - The Podcast

Players must have soft hands when fielding ground balls. What do we mean by soft hands? The coaches discuss what to look for, the reasons and how to teach it.

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This weeks lineup:

• Warmup Segment:
• Listener Question: We attended our first college games. Saw many adults acting foolish. Are super fans normal? (@10:28)
• Paige's Power Play (@15:11)
• Playing in Bad Weather. Should we or not? (@18:42)
• Coach's response to bad behavior by a player (@30:05)
• Athlete Mental Health. We need to pay attention (@41:32)

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Hitting through the ball is a concept that a lot of players have trouble grasping. The coaches discuss what it means and some tips on how to improve your players hitting.

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This weeks lineup:

• Warmup Segment
• Listener Question: What do we think of the shift and other specialty defenses? (@12:24)
• Paige's Power Play (@23:58)
• We have a real problem with the lack of umpires. We keep adding more games but we are losing umpires and it is effecting the quality of games. (@26:08)
• Is it better to win your pool so you get in the gold bracket even if you only play 1 game in bracket play or to finish lower in your pool and play more games in the silver bracket?(@39:50)
• As long as a player is working hard, coaches have to stay the course to help that player. (@52:15)

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Sometimes we have a player that can throw the ball very hard and we don't evaluate how well they are throwing.  Accuracy is very important during the game and just because the player is throwing hard doesn't mean it is easy to handle on the other end. Work with those players so they can learn how to throw the ball correctly.

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This weeks lineup:

• Warmup Segment
• Listener Question: What value to we place on skills videos for recruiting? (@10:21)
• Paige's Power Play (@17:23)
• Interview with a dad and daughter that attended the Clearwater Invitational. (@20:59)
• Importance of the little things and there are no little things. (@34:54)
• Where is a coach most valuable on game day? Rethink what role you should play to get the most out of your team. (@45:29)

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Coaches have to teach and communicate their tolerance level for aggressive play. Aggressiveness can be almost zero with a play it safe mentality or all out on every opportunity. The players have to be taught your philosophy and most important you have to be uniform in your reaction to what happens in a game. Wherever your line of aggressive is you can't condemn a player that doesn't cross that line in either direction.  Parents and fans have to know what the team philosophy is also so they don't react negatively. 

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This weeks lineup:

• Warmup Segment
• Listener Question: What are some metrics that I can track for our team? (10:47)
• Paige's Power Play (@19:39)
• A listener asks for some advice for bullying on a team, isolating some players, etc. (@23:32)
• Early impressions of the college season. Coach Tory talks about some of the things he noticed in the first big weekend of the season. (@39:05)
• Training hitters for fast pitchers. Hitting is reaction time and there are some drills that we can do to help them. (@59:22)

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In this episode we warn coaches about creating an environment that is detrimental to the team and your own daughter. We are not talking about "daddy ball". If it wasn't for moms and dads coaching we wouldn't have softball. What we are discussing is your child becoming a de facto coach because of your actions. Points included are  having team discussions in the presence of your daughter. Using her as a messenger to the team. Using her to manage the drills, etc. We have all seen it where the coach's daughter acts like an assistant coach. And depending upon their maturity, becoming bossy, critiquing, etc.

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This weeks lineup:

• Warmup Segment
• Listener Question: I am a new coach and I believe I have a player that is not being honest about why she is missing practice. Any advice? (@12:43)
• Paige's Power Play (@18:06)
• Senoritis: it is a real thing. Just because you have signed it is not the time to coast.Signing is not the end goal it is just the first step to playing softball in college. You are not giving yourself the best shot at succeeding in college and you are not being fair to your teammates. (@21:29)
• Rankings in travel ball is not something to be concerned with. (@38:25)
• When a hitter struggles it is not always mechanical. If timing is bad, mechanics will be bad. (@52:04)

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