#3 Pass the pen - Coachable Coaches

It all seems like a bad movie script. Sports cancelled, businesses closed, not allowed to go out to eat, movie theaters closed, people not allowed to gather together for any reason or risk being fined or in some areas jailed. No way any of us ever thought that would ever happen 6 months ago, but that is our reality all over the world right now and for the foreseeable future. 

I am probably just like many of you who will be reading this article. I am bored, lonely, I miss seeing softball being played either in person or on television. I have been coaching softball for over 35 years and I was scared. I currently run a training facility in Lawrence, KS for young softball players and have been doing that since leaving college coaching. I had been at the Division 1 level for 23 years and then I coached the Dutch National Team for 6 years. 

A few weeks ago as the virus began to ramp up in the States, I was staring at a potentially empty facility with no training and no contact with my kids. I began to talk with many of the parents that I had about a way to continue to train, despite not being able to do it in person and the response was almost always, YES! 

When reality finally hit and the state of Kansas closed everything non-essential and issued a statewide stay-at-home order, I began to make plans to create a new way to coach. To be honest, I had my doubts about how well this would work and if it would really be worth my time and the player's time. As I have jumped headfirst into “virtual training”, I find myself really excited about what I am still able to do with my kids. I still miss the personal contact with my kids and their parents, but I’m amazed at how much coaching I can still do with them. I also find myself on line more and more looking for more drills and more ways to improve my players. I truly believe that virtual training is going to push me to be a better coach. 

Like many of you, I am a people person and I am a huger, so separation from people has been tough as I am sure it has been for all of you. The interaction that you can still have with your players might be more important right now that at any other time for them. They have their families and many of them are trying to manage online schooling, but they are bored and need activities to keep them occupied. Virtual training is a great way to continue to motivate, to teach, and to stay connected as we all are uncertain when we will be back on the field. It could also be a way to improve your personal connection with your players. I would hear often from my players, when I was coaching at the college level, that they didn’t always feel connected to me when I was a head coach because I was always dealing with something else. Most of us have time on our hands right now. There is nothing better than inspiring and helping a young athlete through a tough time and making that personal connection with them that many of them need.

Hopefully now you are asking yourself how is this done. There are several different video platforms that you can use. The ones that I have thought about and are using are: facetime (must have iphone to iphone), Zoom, What’s APP video call, and I Messenger Video call. I primarily work with pitchers and hitters during this time, but I could easily use this technology using Zoom to set up a team session and do chalkboard sessions with the entire team at once, work with catchers, infielders, or outfielders. 

I set up a time for each athlete to be ready to go. I ask my pitchers to be warmed up and ready to go and for my hitters to be set up and ready. The pitchers need to have several balls and any other training aids that they have access ready along with a catcher (parent or sibling) and either a tripod or someone to hold the phone or ipad. Most of the pitchers are filming from their backyards or driveway. A few are able to find an empty softball field and do the session from there. Hitters need to have a tee, bucket of balls, and a net to hit into or something else to hit into that they have created (like an old mattress against a fence). 

I always have a plan in my head of the things that I want to work on with each athlete before we start and once we get started it seems like the time just flies. The only thing that changes for pitchers is I often ask for the camera angle to change depending on what I want to see. The toughest part of working with the pitcher’s is not being able to see ball rotation/spin. It just makes me focus a little harder to pick up any small issues with mechanics or hand position for spins. 

I have always stressed to my athletes the importance of hard work, being a good teammate, being coachable, and staying positive. This is a great time for us as coaches to show that we can adapt to a bad situation and make the most out of it. I believe that most of us can say that at one point in time we have all talked to our teams about dealing with adversity and finding something positive to learn from in every situation. This is just another example of showing kids how to deal with a bad situation. Leadership, leadership, leadership! 

I hope that this article has given you all some ideas and virtual training can begin. I am hopeful that by June we can all get with our teams and get back to the game of softball that we love. Best of luck to all of you. Stay safe and stay healthy. 

Tracy Bunge 
Owner of Bunge Fastpitch Lawrence, KS 
tracybunge@aol.com