I’ve had a number of questions about where to get those conversations with experts I was doing as well as what exactly is in the Fastpitch Insider Bootcamp (week by week).
So, I’m going to answer those questions for you right here.
Expert Conversations
A while back I mentioned that every now and then I read articles or newsletters and end up having all kinds of questions pop into my head. Then I figured I’d try to actually contact the experts who I had questions for and see if they’d be willing to talk story with me and answer those questions. Of course, I was excited to find out that some of them were more than willing to have a chat with me. I ended up being able to talk with 4 different experts. Now originally, I was just going to put those conversations together to create a mini seminar series and that was it. Then I decided that I could give you more and that’s when the Fastpitch Insider 2008 session went from being a “seminar series” to becoming a full blown “bootcamp.” In addition to putting the conversations together, I added in a bunch of resources to help you get ready for the 2009 season. With good preparation you can greatly reduce your coaching stress during the season, avoid many obstacles, and increase your chance at success. So that’s basically what the bootcamp is all about and although doors will be closing soon, there’s still time for you to get in at www.allaboutfastpitch.com/bootcamp.html
HOWEVER, if you’re not interested in all that and you just want the conversations, ONLY the experts conversations, and want to forego all the resources to help you reduce your coaching stress while increasing your chance of success for ’09, then keep an eye on the blog next week because I will give you a chance to grab the “conversations only” package.
For those that had questions on just what the bootcamp covers over the course of the 8 weeks, read on.
The bootcamp week by week
Here’s your “table of contents” so to speak…
Week 1: Pick up your 3 bootcamp bonuses, introduction, and logistics to think about
Week 2: What does it take to be a great coach, an exercise to get you thinking about specific improvements for ’09, a good hard look at YOU.
Week 3: Coaching Philosophy – definition, how it will help you as a coach, why you should be addressing it now, the key ingredient and how to get clear on it, and an exercise to help you develop a solid and effective coaching philosophy
Week 4: Vision, definition, how it’s different from philosophy, vision basics, what a good vision is like, and exercise to get clear on your vision for your team/program
Week 5: Tryouts! Conversation with Marc Dagenais and how he got a team full of dedicated, hard working players, how to effectively evaluate your players to build the best team possible, plus tips from other coaches, and 2 printable forms you can use for player evaluation
Week 6: The all important parent meeting, what to cover, sample letter and agenda, leadership, time management, and stress relief so you can be the MOST effective coach possible.
Week 7: Coaching the mental game, conversations with both Dr. Patrick Cohn, and Dr. Tom Hanson. Pre-game mistakes you and your players may be making, how to start implementing mental game training in your practices, plus Dr. Hanson’s #1 tool for helping athletes and why you should start thinking about coaching the mental game now.
Week 8: Special lesson, recap, and conversation with Bill Hillhouse about pitching, mistakes, how to evaluate instructors, when to teach pitch calling, rules of thumb for attacking batters, how to go after batter’s your not familiar with, and more.
In addition, all bootcamp members get free access to the Online College Recruiting Educational System and will be able to access it to be able to help their players through the college recruiting process and also can access the softball training workouts included in that online system.
Gosh, that seems like a lot, and I know how busy you are so I’m not going to ask you to listen to hour long seminars or read super long reports. I know I don’t have time for that right now with it being the holiday season and all and I figured you probably don’t either. So each week is broken down into bite-sized, easy to manage parts so that even if you just have 15-20 minutes 3-4 times a week, you should be able to get through all the content without falling behind.
If you aren’t interested in all the information mentioned above, I’ll be in touch next week with a “conversation only” option.
Well, that’s about it. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
P.S. – Lots of questions have also been coming in about the mental game and earlier this week I gave out a link to a free program Dr. Tom Hanson has for helping players consistently play at their best. Well since then a flood of coaches and parents have been going over to check it out. I know because Tom’s been keeping me posted on sign-ups and it’s just crazy! Apparently, lots of people really want this information and I thought you might too. If you haven’t picked up your free copy of the program yet, CLICK HERE and get the information you need to help your players consistently play their best.
Well, if you are here on the blog, you may have noticed the small “twitter stream” over in the sidebar. I know a lot of softball people are unfamiliar with twitter and what it’s all about, so I just figured I’d showcase a little of the softball talk that’s going on there. Obviously, I can’t show a whole lot in the sidebar, but if you click on the “View More” link, you will be taken to this page where you can see a few more of the recent tweets that have been posted by some of my favorite softball tweeters (or twitterers – I’m not sure what the exact term is). lol