This weekend’s 9/10 year old All-Stars area tournament in Monticello was well done. Hot ( not Low Country Hot, but still drawing fan moans as these folks don’t know “Low Country Hot”), but a tournament well done for the most part. As usual some teams were terrific, and a couple others, well, they were there and playing: learning, not on the couch. One thing new to me was a particularly good team from about 50 miles north, who “paid” their coaches....More

(This may end up a Coach the Coach article, as the basis of the effort is asking for help, expanding input to a universal issue. The help would be for us, individually or collectively, to devise a coaching strategy to cure the Dink Syndrome, in training young ladies to hit softballs.) There are four mechanical parts to hitting: 1) The batting stance; 2) the start of the bat swing toward the ball; 3) contact between the bat and ball (hopefully); and 4) the finish of the swing....More

We build Teams, practice, and play chiefly to Win. Win with individual player development. Win with parental pride and fun of association with the rising players. Win with the stories and experiences we take home after each game and effort. To actually “Win” from the game most often, takes a Team. A real Team is not a Team because players join together with a similar uniform. The Team comes from practice, sharing common experiences, placing optimal strengths in one position,...More

by Coach Fox Every Pre-Game is a special time for the coach and the entire team to understand the smart plan for the game and create the best on the field from the hard work at practices. Each game can be a Next Level opportunity for the team, and for certain players who are prepared to step-up. The Pre-Game is when we turn the grueling demands of practice, into the fun and “business” of the sport. The actual game starts, when Pre-Game starts, no sooner –...More

By Coach Fox Although many younger players want to practice and be pitchers, few players can effectively conquer those skill requirements to be pitchers. Working with a focus, preparation, mental understanding of the position in Ladies Softball alone takes two years of practice before a player can actually pitch in a live game, all the while necessarily maintaining the critical fortitude to do so, not bending to the ever-present temptation to quit. Boys pitching...More

By Coach Fox A catcher is the team leader and should be the spirit of the team, trained to be the coach on the field. Train your catcher to know where the team is, and where the game is, when the intensity of the game has other young players intimidated. Being your team’s catcher is the best, most funnest-of-all, greatest position in all of sports – to be a catcher is a prize in itself. Hard work and hard play are the trademarks of the catcher. “Owning...More

by Coach Fox In the Coach’s crosshairs are Hitting and the puzzle of “Teaching Hitting”! The art of “Hitting” (softball or baseball) is thought so casually by many new coaches, that too often these otherwise thoughtful adults, who coach, feel comfortable in hitting instruction without the actual study of the process. After all, “it’s just Hitting”. Coaches, excellent in their professions and fields of daily...More

by Coach Fox Run your Team like a small business, with goals, a plan to implement skills and with core operational values that bond the Coaches, Players, Parents and anyone surrounding the events, including the umpires and league officials. Train the “Diamond Master” way so that young players, new to the game or already playing, may be challenged to be as good as they can be in development and execution, which will also strengthen life’s skills....More