Vision: What Does it Mean to Be a…

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

I’m currently reading the book EntreLeadership
and I do believe that many of the principles shared in the book also applies to leading and running a softball team or program. One thing that struck me yesterday were the thoughts on vision. It’s not the first time I’ve thought of vision in relation to a team, but this book added some additional insight which got me thinking about it again.

Here’s what I picked up:

First and foremost you need to actually have a vision for your team
You must talk about your vision early and often
You need to talk about your vision for your team 21 times before they really start “hearing” it
You can’t talk about your vision “too much”
Even after they “get it” you still need to restate it so that as your team or program grows and changes it continues to reflect that vision

With that said, do you have a vision for the team or program you lead? Does your staff and your team know what that vision is? Do they know what it means to be a part of the team?

Having a clear vision which is communicated to the team and coaching staff will ensure everyone understands:

What it means to be a “insert your team nickname here”
What is expected of team members and what they represent as part of the team
What you are striving toward together
Why your team chooses to do things the way we do
That there is a bigger picture involved, not just decisions for “today”

The single biggest thing I realized after reading this part of the book was that most coaches don’t communicate or share their vision enough. They have it in their head. They may mention it once or twice. They may share it in bits and pieces, but in most cases they fail to saturate the team environment with it, then they wonder why team members don’t represent the team colors or the team name or the organization as a whole they feel it should be represented.

Most coaches don’t tie every job, biggest and smallest, to the team vision. As a result, some things are seen as less important when they’re really not and team members fail to take pride in everything they do, they only do so in the things that feel important.

Having a vision is the start of influencing the “culture” or environment of your team. Sharing that vision is essential to cultivating that culture. Mission statements clearly and succinctly communicate your vision to all team members. However, mission statements are not something you can come up with in a matter of minutes or even within a few days. The best mission statements are mulled over with input from the entire staff until it fully embodies your vision. A good one will last for years and years and help keep you, your staff, and your program on track toward your ultimate goals.

Textbook Shmextbook – There’s More You Need to Learn From

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

If you always make the textbook call as a coach you will never catch your opponent by surprise. You will likely get outcoached by your opponent because you make it easy to anticipate your moves and appropriately prepare, plan, and/or counter them.

There is value in knowing general recommendations for specific situations, so I’m not saying to throw the “textbook” out altogether. However, sticking with what “should” be done in every situation every time gets a) very boring and b) very predictable. Neither is what you’re striving for is it?

When people ask me what should I call in “this” situation, I really can’t give them an answer. I can give a general answer given general guidelines, but there is so much more to consider than the number of outs, the score, the count, and so on.

Honestly, in my opinion, making coaching calls comes down to doing the best you can with the information you have and trusting your gut (not only your head). Yes you will make the wrong call from time to time, but that happens to every coach. It’s highly unlikely you will make every right call every single time regardless of the decision making method you choose. So why not make the one you feel strongest about?

In any given situation there are various calls that could possibly give you an outcome you desire. There’s more than one way to skin the cat you’re after, in other words.

However, as a coach, you can only choose one option and have only a limited amount of time to make that choice. I believe, the more you make the call your gut tells you to (after evaluating the situation the best you can with the information you have), the more you learn and the better you get at it.

Sometimes, even with a great call, the ball still doesn’t bounce your way. Other times you simply blow a call. Then there are times you make a call you shouldn’t have and it all works out just fine, or better.

Regardless of how things shake out, the bottom line is you need to…

Do YOUR best in that time and place to make a decision based upon the information you DO have
Make the call you can stand behind even if it doesn’t work out (aka go with your gut)
Learn from the situation regardless of the outcome

So yes, you can study to your heart’s content, but in the end, make the call that’s really tugging at you, jumping up and down, waving it’s hands in the air, and calling out to you. If it goes great, file that piece of information away for the future. If it goes terribly, file that piece of information away for the future.

It’s when you have no method to your madness and just try things just for the heck of it (and on top of that don’t bother to learn from the situation either way) that you never make any real progress or get better at making the best softball coaching decisions for your team.

The last thing you want to be saying after a game is, “I knew I should’ve done this, but the ‘right’ call is _____, so I went with that.” You’ll just keep beating yourself up because you had a feeling you should make a certain call, but since it’s not what most people would do, you played it safe and made the more traditional call that people would expect. That way you don’t get blamed for making a “bad” call since you made the “right” decision coaches are “supposed to” make.

I’d rather be able to look back at a decision and say, “I made the best choice I could in that time and place and really believed it would work, but today it didn’t. Now I know X, Y, and Z and will make a better decision in the future.”

Any time something doesn’t work out, there will be people who will say you made a “bad call.” That comes with the territory. Like I said before, sometimes it’s not the call. Sometimes things just don’t work out. Newsflash: You can’t control outcomes! You can only control your process. Did you make the best evaluation you could and make your best decision based upon that? If so, you’re process what right. Things just didn’t bounce your way. That’s not in your control.

If not, then there was something in your process that wasn’t right. Could be what information you gathered to make the decision. Could be how you interpreted the information to make your decision. Could just be your decision.

Whatever the case, instead of looking at the only the call itself, also remember to look at the process that led to the call. Sometimes there is something there that can be fixed for the future. Other times, it just wasn’t meant to be. Other times it was flat out a bad call. You need to be able to look back, evaluate your process and see where you can get better. Your learning needs to go beyond just the “textbook.”

Softball Coaching Tips for Time Limit Games

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

With summer softball tournaments coming up, time limits play a big part in the game. I’m sure you’ve seen coaches make critical time management errors in tournament games. Poor decisions as a coach really can make the difference between a win and a loss for your team. It’s absolutely imperative that you understand the implications of the different kinds of time limits used in the games you play.

Failing to understand the details of the situation your team is in can cost your team an important game, maybe even your tournament life. The last thing you want to do is lose because of a simple and avoidable coaching error after your girls worked so hard to be in a position to win near the end of a game.

If you’ve ever wanted an easy to use chart to help you figure out what softball coaching strategies to use in time limit games, you’re in luck. Such a chart actually does exist!

This Softball Time Management Chart was shared by Don McKay at BellaOnline.

It gives you softball coaching strategies for…

drop dead
no new inning
when you’re the visiting team
when you’re the home team
when you’re ahead
when you’re behind
when you’re at bat
and when you’re on defense!

Talk about thorough! I love it.

But I do have one note for Mr. McKay: one situation you did forget was the no new inning after 1 hr 15 with a drop dead at 1hr 30 min.

I’m dead serious!

Am I the only one who thinks it’s SO weird to have BOTH in effect during one softball game. Does anyone else run tournaments like that or is it just Hawaii??? I really want to know.

Click on the Chart Below to see the Full Version

Softball Coaching Tips – Are You Misplacing Your Hope?

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

One thing I learned as a softball coach is that placing hope on the wrong things or the wrong people is a bad, bad idea. This is true not only in softball, but in life. It’s like when thousands and thousands of people though the government and mortgage companies were going to help them out with the loan modification program.

Almost ALL of those applications got denied and many of the ones that went through didn’t work anyway. Thousands of Americans thought they would get much needed help. Instead, they were strung out and denied. Or they did get their loan modified, but still ended up losing their home even after modification.

That is an example of placing hope in the wrong place, on the wrong things or people. It stinks. You get kicked in the teeth.

When you misplace your hope, prepare to get messed over.

In softball, this happens when coaches place hope in just Plan A or in players who lack a track record of reliability.

You’ve probably seen it before. The coach who has one strategy of attack and when that doesn’t work on a particular day, he has nothing to fall back on as a Plan B. He mistakenly pinned all his hope on one strategy that, contrary to what he believed, is not the best strategy for every single situation or team you can possibly face in a season.

Maybe you’ve also seen coaches misplace their hope on the wrong person. The Princess Diva All-Star that…

doesn’t work hard in practice
shows up late and doesn’t think anything of it
only gives 100% when she wants to or when she feels like it or when it’s convenient for her
acts as if it’s everyone or everything else’s fault when she struggles (the sun, the rain, the umpire, the catcher that called the wrong pitch, etc)
never owns up to any of her errors, mistakes, or faults

This is NOT the type of player you want to place all your team’s hope on.

Instead, choose players who will, regardless of the situation, dig in and give it their best shot.

Players who pick and choose when to be on time and when to try hard are going to be inconsistent in their performance because they are inconsistent in their approach and training.

Often times they will only try hard in drills they think are fun and slack or go through the motions in drills they don’t like doing. This inconsistency in their training will lead to inconsistency in performance.

Not only that, trying hard only when they like what’s going on often equates to trying hard only when things are going well in the game. For goodness sakes, that’s the easy part. Anyone that can be upbeat, energetic, motivated, positive, confident and full of hustle when things are going great.

It’s the players who can do that no matter what that gives your team championship character and championship opportunities. These players can play their game and perform at a solid level whether they’re in a situation they like or not, whether they’re in a situation that’s easy or not.

If a player can’t even make it a point to give their best in a practice drill just because they don’t like it or it gets too challenging is NOT going to be the one you can rely on during “big time” game situations or when your team gets behind or faces any other kind of adversity.

These players often make excuses for poor performance…

The ball is wet today, I can’t pitch like this
The sun is in my face, I can’t catch like this.
The wind is drying my contacts out, I can’t field like this.
The dirt is too soft in the batter’s box, I can’t hit like this.
The dirt is too hard on the field, I can’t run and slide like this.
The mound is crooked, I can’t pitch this.
The umpire is inconsistent, I can’t hit like this.
My rubberband isn’t holding my hair back…you get the idea.

Some of those might sound silly, but this type of excuse making is often evident in players who only give their best when they feel like it, who only follow team rules when they feel like it, who only hustle when it’s convenient for them. They’re not what I hear Coach Heather Tarr refer to as “true athletes.”

Look for players who enthusiastically dig in to any challenge and give everything they got no matter what. These players, no matter what you throw at them, just jump in and do it. Whether the situation or task is hard or weird or uncomfortable, they will do their best to get the job done. Whether people around them think they can or they can’t, it doesn’t matter, they are going to give it their best shot!

Players like this, who give everything they have day in and day out, are the ones you know you can count on! These are the ones you place your hope in to go out there and play ball! THESE are the players you put in key roles, not the ones you have to “hope” will show up and feel like playing on game day.

Process vs Results – Don’t Get This Wrong!

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

I have to admit. I see this all the time at youth softball practices. Coaches who are more concerned with the outcome of a play in practice vs the process.

Example? Trying watching a youth softball team practice turning a double play. More often than not you’ll probably see coaches satisfied when the ball is fielded sure handedly, thrown to 2nd, thrown to 1st, then thrown back home.

As long as the ball makes it through all those stages and back to the catcher everything is good and the coach is happy.

But what about how the ball was fielded? Did that person do a good job with footwork while fielding and throwing? Did they transition the ball well and get it to 2nd as quickly as they could? Did they make the catch as easy as possible for the person covering 2nd? Or did they use poor fielding and throwing technique and footwork? Did they make the catch and “turn” at 2nd difficult?

What about the “turn” at 2nd? Did the person covering 2nd approach the bag properly? Were they set up on the base right? Did they use the most efficient and effective footwork to get the out and quickly get rid of the ball to 1st base?

Then there’s the first baseman or the person covering 1st. Did they stretch to the ball correctly?

Was there good communication between the players on the play?

…and so on and so on and so on.

Too many coaches disregard all these components of a good double play. Their only concerns are that the hit ball is not missed and that the thrown balls are not thrown wildly away. All they care about is that the bases were touched and the ball makes it back home – in other words, the result.

But what is that teaching the players? Are they practicing it right? Are they practicing it right consistently? Are they even close to getting both outs? Are there things they could do better? Or are they just practicing how to turn a double play incorrectly and inefficiently?

None of these things get addressed most times I watch a practice.

I know, I know. Taking the time to correct and refine ALL of that would take so long. Yes, it’s true that you may only get about half the amount of double play reps if you take the time to actually coach all that. So what?! I’d much rather have 10 quality reps than 20 poorly or incorrectly done reps!

I also see this “Results over Process” mistake with hard throwing players. By the time I get to coach players they are 14, 15, 16 years old. Many have been playing since they were 8 or younger. They’ve been throwing the way they throw for a long time, and yet I see many, especially the hard throwing ones, who have poor throwing mechanics. They don’t get the most out of their body with the throwing motion they use. Most barely use their legs and rely on just their arm.

Since hard throwing players have a these nice strong throws, it seems most coaches during their youth ignored the fact that they weren’t throwing with the best mechanics. Coaches see a nice hard throw and which ends up in the catching vicinity of the person receiving the ball and that’s all they care about. The end result of the throw was good, so why “fix” anything?

Why? Because that’s your job as a coach! To help players get better even if they are already the best on their team or the best in the league for that matter. There is always room for improvement. You do your players a great disservice of you don’t help them get better despite how “good” they already are.

Allowing hard throwing players to continue using poor mechanics…

wastes a players energy. Proper throwing mechanics are efficient allowing for maximum output with minimal effort. This is super important on long tournament weekends or over the course of a long season!
makes them slower defensively than those who use efficient mechanics. The point on defense is to get the ball to your target in the shortest possible time frame (not with the highest possible velocity) in order to get more outs.
puts unnecessary strain on their arm.
reduces their arm’s effectiveness over the course of the season.
shaves time off the longevity of this cannon arm over the course of this player’s career.

Like I said…disservice.

Focus on process over results – how they threw the ball, not where it ended up or how fast it was going when it got there – and you will avoid this issue.

Process Over Results
It’s not whether you get the ball here or not, it’s HOW you made the throw.
It’s not whether you came to practice or not, it’s HOW you trained while you were there.
It’s not whether you ran your sprints or not, it’s HOW you ran them.

Is the point simply to complete the task or complete it well?

It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s HOW you play the game.

You cannot always control the outcome of a performance. You can choose a good pitch and hit a ball well, but you cannot completely control whether you get hit or not. Someone on the other end may make an unbelievable catch and steal your hit. It doesn’t mean you did a bad job. You just couldn’t control the outcome of your good hit. All you can control is your performance.

Did you give it your all?
Did you do your best on that given day?
Did you do what you trained to do to the best of your ability?

Have you ever walked away from a win with a less than satisfied feeling? Have you ever walked away from a win disappointed and bothered by your personal performance in it?

In contrast, have you ever walked away after a loss without anything to be ashamed? Have you ever walked away from a loss feeling proud that you did all you could do and simply came up short on that day against a worthy opponent? Have you ever come away from a loss more deeply respected by your teammates, your opponent, your coach, your family and your fans?

Was it the score or the result of the game that allowed you to hold your head high after a loss vs stew with dissatisfaction after a win?

The score or the result of the game is ultimately NOT the most important factor in how positive the experience was for you. It was about the PROCESS!

Funny thing is, mistakenly emphasizing results, results, results typially don’t get you to the results you want.

Focus on quality process, on best effort in the process, on best attitude about/in/regarding the process…that’s what usually gets you results you want.

Good results are a BYPRODUCT of excellence in your process (in your HOW)!

Good results are not “the point” – good results are what happen when you really truly get the point.

Coaching Softball is Not Math

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

Many people have theories on how lineups should be made. There are general rules of thumb that many coaches follow. For example:

lead off hitters general have good on base percentages and speed
hitters in the 2 slot are typically decent bunters with speed as well
3-4-5 tend to have more power than hitters in the first 2 spots in the lineup
etc, etc, etc

However, coaching softball isn’t as simple as going “by the numbers.” If the ultimate lineup was based upon basic hitting stats, there would be formulas out there by which to create the best possible hitting lineup for a team, but there aren’t. At least not that I know of! I don’t know of any software program or softball calculator where you plug in your team stats and have it spit out your “dream” lineup. (If you know of one, please shoot me an email and let me in on this secret weapon!)

Then again, that would take a lot of the fun out of coaching wouldn’t it. Then “anyone” could make head coaching decisions regarding playing time so long as they know how to do math or work the software.

Can you imagine if the ultimate defensive lineup was based on basic fielding stats as well, how on earth would you reconcile a player who has a wonderful fielding percentage and an abysmal batting average? The computer software would probably spit out two completely different lineups if you entered both hitting and fielding statistics and had it compute “strongest” lineups based upon defensive stats and another based upon offensive stats! Then what would you do?

Obviously, creating an effective softball lineup is more than just filling in the blanks based upon past results. If you base your lineup solely upon stats, you fail to consider the conditions under which those stats were generated. For example, some coaches talk about “protecting” hitters throughout the lineup. For example, if you don’t “protect” your biggest power hitter, she may not have the RBI stats you think she should simply because opponents opt to walk her and pitch to the next batter instead. So if your #4 has weak RBI stats, it may not be because she’s a poor RBI hitter. It could be because of the “conditions” under which she hits. Place this same hitter in a spot before another hitting threat and you may see her RBI stat increase.

Another reason coaching softball is not math…
Math is great. I love math. It was actually one of my favorite subjects in school. Yes, I was a bit of a nerd. But math that normal people like you and I can do does NOT factor in any human element into the equation. Let’s face it, when we create a softball lineup, we are dealing with human beings. Any human being that is breathing, especially one going through the first few decades of their life, is undergoing change, transition, or progress. Human beings are not static individuals who never evolve. What a player did yesterday or last week or last month is NOT today’s reality. The benefit a particular player provided your team last week or last month may not necessarily be what your team needs today. All these variables factor in to the lineup you write for this game.

Yes, past performances give you the information you need as a coach to make informed decisions. Numbers are great at showing quantifiable facts so that you have something to “lean on” besides your memory or a “feeling.” I’m not dissing the math altogether or saying you should never use stats as part of a your decision making process, just that stats and numbers are only part of the equation when it comes to putting together your strongest starting lineup for this game.

Besides, if math and numbers were the ultimate way to figure out who the best is, there wouldn’t be so much controversy surrounding the BCS system in college football.

Download the Crystl Bustos Hawaii Clinic Registration Form

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

We’re making progress on hammering out the details and logistics of the clinic Crystl will be doing in Hawaii in August.

We now have the registration form ready for you to view, print, or save to your computer.

Get the Clinic Registration From HERE

Crystl will do a coach/parent clinic on Friday night (August 5th) then a 2-day player clinic which will include BOTH offense and defense on Saturday and Sunday (August 6th & 7th).

Cost for the coach/parent clinic is $40.

Cost for the 2-day player clinic is $99 (includes both days).

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