Grow your Game
One of the things I really like about softball is the community. Fierce competitors on the field, friendly off the field. Talking with and learning from eachother and trying to improve the game and yourself is something I value. That’s why I love to do clinics and tournaments because you meet other people and you can talk about the things you love and learn from their perspective. From my background as a PE teacher and working a long time as a manager in sports I am blessed to be given the opportunity to give clinics, courses and attend tournaments all over the world. Learning from different cultures, different people, trying to be a better coach and a better person. A lot of time we are talking about tactics in the game, thinking about gameplan, and so we should. But most of the time we are on the field practicing with our players. Try to improve the skills of the players, make the team better, and one of the most important things, have fun doing it!
In our game a lot of times the coach is also the trainer, the driver to games, supplier of fruit, etcetera. Especially at club level. I see passion and love for the game all over the fields. Coaches go all out to improve players, doing their best to be the best for their players. Most often the coaches are working the hardest on the field; hitting groundballs to all players, throwing BP or doing something else. On clinics I always tell coaches to be the laziest person on the field . Try to find drills and organisationforms in the practice so you can walk around , look at the players, talk to players, try to correct them if necessary. That’s why you’re a coach, that is your job. It is really hard to look at the flaws of players while your hitting groundballs at the same time.
Another of the traps we all fall into is overcoaching. What I mean by that is that coaches after every swing or every fielded ball give feedback on what they see wrong and what needs to be improved. I am a firm believer in letting players learn from their mistakes, so give them time to adjust. With repetition you give them the chance to adjust and they learn to feel the correct path of movement. That doesn’t mean you do a drill 1000 times because you want your players focused and open to feel and having fun while practicing. So here comes your quality and expertise as a coach. Being creative, putting different drills in place to get to the movement you are looking for. My adagio is; less talk, more action. You can do that on every level of softball.
With the National team we changed our trainings methods a couple of years ago. The thought was: when you always do the same thing, you always get the same result, if you want to improve embrace change and be better! Changing is a hard process for players and for coaches. In our practices we put our players, on their level of skills, in different drills and situations. So for example, when we do hitting drills, we put different drills that we combine into a station, we have them jump just before the swing starts. Or let them swing, starting from one leg. Or whatever your imagination works out. Goal is that they are “ uncomfortable” in practice. Level of focus goes up, and because they are in different situations they have to adjust all the time to get to the same position and result. They need to “feel“ more instead of just doing. The aim is that their skills are going to be better, faster, more efficient. Going to a tournament or game we try to make them comfortable because they have faith in their skills from practice so they can adjust to all the different situations a game puts them in and “just” execute and perform.
As a coach I like to have fun on the field. I am always looking for a loose atmosphere on the field where players work hard. That’s why I always try to implement some games into the practice, for fun but also with a purpose. Conditioning drills for example while competing against eachother are much more fun than doing it on your own. Challenge another to be better. And no better way to have the winners enjoy a little ballet dance, or a song from their opponents as a price ;-). I am not a big believer in enforcing rules and punishments, it should be that your players, young or old, come to the field because they want to and to enjoy the time on the field. That doesn’t mean there is no discipline, but it is your choice as a coach how to go about it. I believe in teambuilding, knowing your players, but also that they know you and what you stand for.
Our game is changing, coaches are looking more and more for real athletes to improve the level of play. Our society is also changing, kids are playing video games instead of playing in the park after school or climbing trees. So this is going to be a challenge for us coaches as we need to be aware to skill our players better and in a broader way as they lack the experience more and more. That is one of the biggest challenges I see in the game for us coaches, so let us keep communicating and working together to keep our game evolving and be better as coaches!
For the love of the game.
Ben
