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).

Game Day Challenge

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

Softball Thought of the Week: Your Impact on Your Teammates is Often Far Greater Than You Know

One thing you cannot control is how your negative vibe impacts others. It can be one look, one word, or one action that we put out and can never get back.

While you may be able to drop it, move on and play your game, you have NO control over how others are affected by it.

One distraction from you may be enough to knock someone else’s performance just a bit off kilter and bring down their overall performance. If you have that affect on most of the teammates who were around you when you put that vibe out, impact is exponential!

On game day especially, do your best to make sure your actions, words, decisions, etc are HELPING your team performance their best!

Athletes like to be in a particular mindset or “groove” as they go into competition. Disrupting that “mojo” of any of your teammates before a game or during a game is not a good idea.

If you’ve ever run track or run for competition, you know how critical breaking stride or losing your form for just a split second can be. I know because it happened to me before. I was just ahead of another sprinter and for just a moment, I lost my form. I did get it back, but in just that moment, she went from just behind me to just in front of me.

After I regained my stride and form, I did close some of the gap, but not enough to pass her by again. That’s how I see disruption from inside the team environment/mojo before a game. It might be a “small” thing that just throws the team off balance just a little, but it can be enough to alter the outcome.

So the challenge for game day is to make sure your impact on teammates and on the team is positive and improves performance!

photo credit: softball team

Hawaii Crystl Bustos Clinic Scheduled for August

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

Mark your calendars! Crystl Bustos and Howard Carrier (Crystl’s hitting coach) are scheduled to be in Hawaii for a 2-day clinic in August.

The clinic is slated for August 6th and 7th at Kapolei High School.

Cost is $99 per player for BOTH days. Get softball hitting instruction from one of the BEST in the game!

General layout for this event will include hitting on Day 1 and fielding/defense on Day 2 (many don’t realize Crystl played SS for the National Team before).

Exact times will be announced soon. I will keep you posted here at All About Fastpitch when registration forms come out.

Crystl is also interested in doing a coaches clinic for $45 on Friday night. We don’t currently have a location set for this but will keep you posted as details unfold.

This is an event you don’t want to miss! Got Bustos is offering this first Hawaii clinic at a very special never-been-done-in-Hawaii-before discount. Hope to see you there.

Are You a Real MVP?

Posted on April 9, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

The most popular topic on the Facebook FanPage this week came from this post…

A player that lifts her teammates to a higher level and helps them quickly recover from mistakes is more valuable than a player who has a stronger arm or bat but doesn’t know how to be a source from which her teammates gain confidence, positivity, and power from.

That post received 53 “likes” within days. That’s the highest yet!

Have you had the opportunity to be on a team with a player like this? Or maybe just observe one on another team?

Players with decent softball skill and this exceptional softball attitude are so much more valuable to a team than a player that has superior softball skills but no further reach.

What do I mean by reach? Dr. Tom Hanson once wrote an article that I wish I could find right now. He was talking about Derek Jeter and about how, when you’re in the room with him, you can just feel his confidence.

His confidence just flows out of him into his surroundings, and therefore, to the people around him as well.

Some players have this effect. Their enthusiasm, confidence, and positive attitude spills over into anything near them.

Other players, while highly talented, do not have this effect.

It’s like everything is bottled up inside them. They perform great, but no none of their teammates can feed off them or “get their juice.” There’s nothing flowing out of them into their surroundings to feed off of.

While these players may perform at a high level, they do not elevate the game of those around them.

Real MVPs however…

effectively uplift their teammates
elevate the game of those around them
are a source of confidence, strength, resilience, and positivity that others can draw from
make the game easier and more enjoyable to play
draw so much enjoyment from simply playing the game their positive “can-do” attitude becomes infectious

Some people refer to this as the “it” factor. For MVP’s, whatever “it” is…

IT’s in their words and how they say it
IT’s in their every action and every move
IT’s not only when things are going well, but ALL the time
IT’s simply part of who they are

When they infect the rest of the team with their confidence and belief in the team, their team is practically unstoppable!

Seriously, when a team is unified under a common blanket of confidence – watch out!

A player that can bring that to the table every game, to me, brings so much more value than one that can hit a homerun in every game.

What do you think?

Softball Quote of the Week: Scoreboards, Value, and You

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

This concept of “Enough” has come up several times in various areas of my life over the past several weeks. One example was this great article over at SoftballPerformance.com which talks about this very concept.

Since this topic of “Enough” seems to keep popping up, I decided to post something about it on the AAF Facebook Page.

People seems to like it well enough and some have asked if they can share it with others. Of course, I have no problem with that, so long as you remember to mention where you got it from.

So feel free to share this Softball Quote of the Week with your team this week…

Whether you win or lose, you really won’t be much different, as a person, than you were 2 hours ago.

Never allow the scoreboard to dictate your self worth!

It’s a highly unreliable and completely irrelevant indicator of your true value as a human being.

Really, a couple of hours doesn’t completely change your life. Maybe you’ll learn a few lessons. Maybe it does give you a different perspective on things.

What you choose to do with your experience may very well change your life.

The win or the loss in and of itself does not do that. You do. The win or the loss does not suddenly make you amazing if you weren’t before nor does it make you worth less than you were before.

Never tie your self worth to the outcome of your performance or of a game. Your true friends and your loved ones don’t love you any more or less because you did or did not hit a ball, because you did or did not make an error, or because you did or did not win a game.

Who you are as a person, as a human being, is not at all correlated with outcomes on the field.

Silly Egos, Pre-Season is for Learning

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

Each year it baffles my mind how bent out of shape team “supporters” get over losing a pre-season game. Some people are hell bent on winning, even in pre-season.

Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t like to lose, but winning is not the ultimate pre-season goal for wise coaches. Placing the win above all else in pre-season is short-sighted and likely detrimental to your team in the long run.

Pre-season is for training and for learning.

It’s foolish to primarily play your “strongest” 9 players during all your pre-season games just so you can win.

The almighty W is NOT the most important thing in pre-season.

Any fan of NFL football could tell you that. There are professionals in the NFL that are getting paid big bucks and even they don’t focus on winning as the ultimate goal in pre-season.

Sticking with only your strongest 9 players in pre-season wastes opportunities to get your WHOLE team ready for regular season (the part that really counts). Sticking with only your strongest 9 basically translates to putting all your eggs in one basket (and before the season even starts no less).

How are you supposed to know what your players can do in “game-like” situations THIS season unless you put them there? Pre-season gives you an opportunity to find out, but you won’t ever know if you don’t take advantage of it.

Pre-season is the best time to…

explore your personnel options
formulate a solid “Plan B”
see how your team responds to less than “ideal” situations and lineups
get non-starters game reps so they aren’t shell shocked should you need them during the season
give some “sleepers” the opportunity to show you what they can contribute
see how “starters” work with “backups” in game-like situations
let your players EARN their spot
see how different players react under pressure (some elevate, some crumble)
etc, etc, etc

However there’s no way to see all of that if you are hell bent on winning every game and only want to go with the current “best 9.” Some players grow and get better under pressure, but if you never put them there, they never get that chance.

Others show that they need work on their mental game, but you never know that if you don’t put them under game-like pressure. Some personnel combinations work together better than others, but you never get to see that if you only try one combo. Some players improve by leaps and bounds from season to season but if you base their playing time only upon the past and never give them a true shot THIS season, you may not discover this until much later, wasting valuable time for that player and the team.

Pre-season is for training and learning first, not only for players, but for coaches too. Winning is second.

You don’t want to win pre-season. Ideally, you use pre-season to get the team as ready as possible for the season, and eventually post season, when games really count. Sometimes getting your team ready and winning don’t fall along the same path.

During pre-season, be willing to sacrifice short term gain (a.k.a. the win) to better your team over the long haul.

Do you really think, at the end of the season, anyone outside the team will even remember what games you won or didn’t win in the pre-season? Even if they do remember, is that the part of the season that really matters? Yes, I admit, the W is cool, but I challenge you to use your pre-season opportunities more wisely than that!

photo credit: rabbit

St. Patrick’s Day is Special Because…

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

Yesterday I asked if you knew why St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite days of the year. There were a number of good guesses, a couple of funny ones, and a number of people who have obviously been paying attention these past few years.

Before I get to the reason, I want to announce that the winner of our free DVD drawing (randomly selected from all comments left). The winner of the free softball training DVD is…

~ Brad ~

Congratulations!

Brad, if you’re reading this, please check your email to claim your DVD.

Now for the reason March 17th is so special to me. There were quite a few people who had the correct answer which is…

It’s my Anniversary!

Tomorrow my husband and I will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. Yes, green is also one of my favorite colors and we did use green in our wedding. Yes, 17 is also my favorite number (I wore it in college). Yes, I am actually old enough to have been married 15 years.

No, I do not like St. Patrick’s Day because I like beer. lol

In fact, anyone who knows me well knows that I dislike beer and that chocolate shakes are more my style. Another guess that made me laugh said something about green beer, which just sounds nasty, while another talked about getting lucky. haha

There were also a number of birthday guesses as well as someone who thought maybe I hit my first homerun on St. Patrick’s Day. That’s pretty creative. Honestly, I have no idea when I hit my first homerun, but it was an interesting guess nonetheless.

Thanks a bunch for participating in this prize drawing! We’ll have to do this more often!

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