All About Fastpitch Softball Blog

So last week, I was at the University of Hawaii watching my daughters (and a number of other young softball players) go through the summer softball camp.

There was something cute and very interesting I saw happen on the very first day.

Five players were just arriving at a hitting station where they were going to be hitting into a net. The players were about 8-9 years old so, to make things fun, the coach running the drill asked, “Who wants to go first?”

Guess what happened?

Four of the players immediately raised their hands.

That left one player who didn’t raise her hand.

So which one of the four hand-raising players did the coach pick?

NONE

The player that got to go first in this drill was the “other one”-the one that didn’t raise her hand. Why?

Because when the coach asked the question and all the other girls stood there and raised their hand, this player stepped right into the drill and got ready to hit. She didn’t bother to raise her hand to “say” she wanted to go first. She took action and went first.

There are times, when you KNOW what you want, that it’s better to shut your mouth, stop talking about it, and just do it!

So are you just talking about what you want to do and what you want to accomplish?

Or are you out there DOING what you want to do?

This week, make the choice to start DOING. Every day, do something to get you closer to your goals. Don’t have goals? Time to set some! Need help? I can walk you through it step by step right here.

Technorati Tags: Goal Setting, softball clinic, youth sports

I know a baseball player on a fastpitch softball blog…seems kinda weird, but I thought this story was interesting and was curious to hear your thoughts on it!

If you follow baseball or read Sports Illustrated, then you’ve probably heard of Bryce Harper. I actually just heard of him for the first time this week via conversations that were going on over at Twitter.

Apparently an article recently came out that this young man will take a high school equivalency test and forgo his last two years in high school in hopes of entering the MLB draft earlier. He’s actually registered at a community college and will start taking classes in the fall as well as play baseball there next season. He then hopes to enter the draft in 2010 or 2011 since players become draft eligible at age 16 if they have already completed high school.

There are two main thoughts that run through my head when I think about this situation:
1. Provisions should be made for higher education (in case he blows his millions and has a career that’s prematurely shortened for whatever reason)
2. There no doubt will be others ambitious parents out there who think they should take this route with their kid even though their child is no where near the one in a million type prospect that Harper is

What do you think about Harper Leaving High School Early?

Technorati Tags: college, high school, youth sports

You’ve probably seen this before, but it’s always cool to be able to witness at least part of it in person. What am I talking about? A team working their way back from the loser’s bracket to win a tournament.

Congratulations to Po’okela for winning FIVE games this past Sunday to come back through the loser’s bracket to win the Hawaii State 12U ASA “A Division” Tournament.

They looked strong in the beginning of the tourney, but when they were 1 of just 4 unbeaten teams left in the tourney, they lost 6-4 to the Lady Rebels in the last game of the evening on Saturday.

They had to come back at 8:30 am the next morning and play at 8:30, 10:30, 12:30, 2:30, and 4:30. They didn’t just come back and win, they came back and obliterated every opponent they faced on Sunday (including the Lady Rebels who had just beaten them the night before). I don’t think there was a margin of less than 5 runs in any game. In fact, I think most of the 5 games were run-rule games. I didn’t get to see every game, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team come back from the losers bracket with that kind of dominance in the remaining games.

Just goes to show you, even if you have the loooooooonnnngggggg road on the last day – it CAN be done. Nice to see it happen every now and then. Congratulations again to the Po’okela girls (and coaches and parents and supporters too). Awesome job!

Technorati Tags: Hawaii softball, youth sports