How can this softball team improve?

April 20, 2008 6:24 PM

My friend just started coaching his work's softball team. It's a pretty competitive league, and they are not very good. They have 2 games a week, but not much of a chance to practice in between, so obviously that's a big part of the problem. Even when they do practice, though, he doesn't know how to help them improve. What can they do to get better (drills, guided meditation, amphetamines, anything)?
posted by unknowncommand to sports, hobbies, & recreation (12 comments total)

A trip to the local batting cages might help in terms of maximizing pitches-faced-per-hour (of limited practice time).

It would help to know what, specifically, they're struggling with.
posted by ewiar at 6:44 PM on April 20

To second ewiar, just practicing on the softball machines at batting cages does wonders for getting timing down for hitting.

Also, check out this thread where a father asked for exercises and what not to help prepare his son for Little League. The fundamentals are the same.
posted by Atreides at 6:49 PM on April 20

Is his team completely clueless about playing, or are they OK and looking to get to the next level? Batting cages never hurt, but if they totally don't know what they're doing, it may be more productive to combine a live-pitcher BP with fielding practice.
posted by Calloused_Foot at 7:06 PM on April 20

Basically, they're not very coordinated as a team. In fact, some are decent players. The others can usually throw the ball where they want it to go, but it's hard for them to tell when and where to do so.
posted by unknowncommand at 8:28 PM on April 20

Last summer I joined the Vancouver Public Library team (the Dewey Decimators) because one of my friends was a librarian and they needed players. Over the summer we went from ragtag to ass-kicking.

One of the biggest problems is less experienced players don't know what to do under pressure. So:
- Regular practices, every Sunday or something, and really lean on people to be there.
- Outfielders always always throw to second base immediately. The fancier hotshot players can try to nail runners at third but odds are your weaker players will be in the outfield and the most effective thing they can do is get that ball into the infield as fast as they can. So two things to worry about: outfielders have to be ready to throw to second, and either second or shortstop (depending on which side of the field the ball is hit to) has to be ready to receive that throw. On deep hits, have the rover go out halfway and throw it in on a relay, but either way get it to second base.
- Infielders need to figure out what the force plays are while they wait for the pitch. In other words - ground ball, do I throw to second or first? Make the decision when you have plenty of time, so that you can just react.

These can be simple drills. Coach says "runner on first and second, where's the play?" Answer is "third second or first", then coach hits a grounder, infield fields it and makes whatever play is easiest, repeat. Coach could also hit one into the outfield and have the outfielder throw to second. They key is to have the players decide what to do ahead of time. It can get more complex as they get more comfortable too - start imagining multiple scenarios, such as a hard grounder, a soft grounder, a caught line drive, and so on.

To make it a little more fun, you can play workups. Three or four people bat and the rest field. They hit as if they are batters in a real game, running on contact, and the fielders try to get them out. If they get out, whoever made the out goes into bat and they go into the field (or you can take turns, or give them three outs before they switch, etc). This way you're likely to have a steady stream of action with lots of live baserunners. If you want to practice hitting a bit more, you let them hit three or four free swings and then say "OK he's running on this one!" and it's live.

Oh and one more tip. We would always stick around after the game and hit fly balls to each other well into the evening. There would often be five or six of us and we would bring beer just for the post-game. This was really fun and helpful too. Hitters get to really smack them, fielders get to practice their diving catches, it's fun.

Have fun. The season starts soon, I can't wait!
posted by PercussivePaul at 8:50 PM on April 20

They might be in the wrong league. I've played on a team that was in too competitive of a league and it sucked. We were 30 year old computer dorks, and everyone else was 25 year old ex-college athletes. We got stomped. We moved down a tier in the leagues and had a much better time.

Time is also important. All of the best teams seem to have been together for a few seasons. They just have to play together for a while. Maybe it's because the folks who don't take it that seriously stop coming.
posted by popechunk at 6:15 AM on April 21

Along the lines of what PercussivePaul said, if there are a couple players on the team who do know what they're doing (and who, presumably, would be in the infield), they can take the initiative by talking to their teammates prior to a given at-bat. "One out, and runners on first and second guys. Get the force-out at third if you can. Go to first or second if it's not there."
posted by ewiar at 6:20 AM on April 21

to add to percussive paul's suggestions - players that do know shouldn't be afraid to yell, "play's at first" or "second or home" before pitches etc. if you watch world class softball, those hand signals after a play mean something - like where the play is. i like pauls situational drill. We had a softball coach (youth but coaches at a national level) say games are won on throwing and catching and he isn't kidding. we lost more games on overthrows at home last year than i care to count, so playing simple catching and fielding games are just as important as hitting.
posted by domino at 6:24 AM on April 21

Yeah, but those hand signals mean things like "I'll cover second if there's a steal, you stay put" because knowing whether the second baseman or shortstop is going to be breaking toward second could be valuable information for the other team if it's putting on a hit-and-run.

There's no need to mess around with complicated hand-gestures to fool the other team about which base you want to throw to on a ground ball -- it's not a secret. Keep it simple, just talk.
posted by ewiar at 6:52 AM on April 21

*I know you weren't suggesting using hand signals, domino... just wanted to clarify that for unknowncommand.
posted by ewiar at 6:53 AM on April 21

Go to a batting cage, videotape everyone's swing, and have one of the better hitters "coach" the others.
posted by tiburon at 9:29 AM on April 21

Will: so we have discussed the suggestions on ask metafilter
me: ok
Will: and we are going to implement some of them at our next practice
thank you

Yay! Thanks guys.
posted by unknowncommand at 8:53 PM on April 21