Softball Coaching Tip: Less is More
What Does Chemistry Have to Do with Softball?
I’m not too sure, but this blog post will eventually be about softball…just stick with me 
Chemistry had to be one of my weakest subjects in high school. It’s not so much the “chemistry” that I didn’t get, but the unit conversion thing took me a while. Anyway…there are 2 things my chemistry teacher used to always say that I distinctly remember (funny, neither has anything to do with chemistry).
One was “Neato Burrito” which I still say from time to time.
The other is “More does not mean better. Less is More.”
Some people say, “Less is the new more.”
I find this to be true in softball too.
For example, more “muscle” is not always better. Trying to muscle the ball when you throw, pitch, or hit often times causes your body to tense up in ways that it shouldn’t and actually stops you from performing your best.
More is not better.
Obviously more practice or more training can also be detrimental if you overdo it. Again less is more in this case. Especially if “less” means higher quality whereas your “more” is just quantity, quantity, quantity.
But let’s break it down even a little bit further.
I find that players get more quality in when they’re not continuously bombarded with reps.
For instance, when hitting in practice, we sometimes tend to do too much at once. Hitting an entire bucket of balls in one station (be it soft toss, machine, wiffles, or anything else) is not always the best idea.
After all, most batters will probably have their best, most focused, highest quality hits right there in the beginning. After 10+ balls (maybe even less) players will often start changing the way they swing, start getting tired, start getting a little lazy with mechanics, etc.
So let’s say their first 5 balls were great, but you kept going and did 15 more where their swing and their performance quality was not as good as the first 5. What did you just practice? Good habits or bad habits?
5 good, 15 not so good…which one is the body more likely to “remember?”
Same goes for defensive practice. Break your practice down into shorter, bite-sized more manageable chunks (in the players eyes) and I think you’ll find that players will be a bit more focused resulting in a higher QUALITY of performance in practice.
Just remember that More is Not Always Better and see if there are ways you can squeeze more quality out of your players by turning your practices up into bite-sized, easy to handle portions.
Have a great week!
*******************************
For additional practice tips, drills, and ideas, don’t forget to check out Fastpitch Assistant at
http://www.allaboutfastpitch.com/fa
This is a great site and I am happy that I stumbled across it. You provide an immense amount of information that this coach / daddy can put to use immediately both with my daughter and myself.
There is no denying that the recent fastpitch craze began with the super teams on the West Coast and the US Olympic teams. Its arrival here in the East in the last few years has spurred us to do all that we can to catch up, and now we even have a few legitimate East Coast superstars. We also have an excess of parents who want their daughters to be the next Monica Abbott, which brings me to the reason for this post. I am excited to see that you and the sites that you link to all suggest that young pitchers start with simple mechanics and that you don’t even have pitch training aids until the age of 10. Too many young Baseball arms have already been ruined and it is refreshing to see a pro come out and say “hey guys there will be time, slow down and enjoy the game, learn to throw strikes first.”