Coaching Theory of Relativity

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Apr 17, 2014
8
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I am writing this as an educational piece that will give college coaches insight into improving their collegiate team.

First there is an improvement in vocabulary that has to be made before any great success can be obtained. The word and any association with “CAN’T” must be removed. That thought destroys innovation and success more than anything else.

Currently, the majority of coaches want to have a winning record and finish high in their conference or win its title and qualify for the NCAA tournament; end of story.
Once they qualify and play a few games, they return home after meeting one or more of the power conference teams. This is a fact of life for about 95% of the collegiate teams every year without change.

First you have to understand softball in its simplest terms. The championship team is built on “Power Pitching” and hitting.

Unfortunately, a number of years ago the NCAA made a change that seriously damaged or destroyed the chances of the mid-collegiate teams to compete at the national level; they moved the rubber back to 43 feet. With that 3 foot move, about 95% or more of all the collegiate pitchers became what we call “thumbers.” They had to rely more on movement, location, changing speeds, and a lot of praying. The problem is that each year, maybe 2 or 3 true power pitchers come out of high school and the chances of the smaller name universities recruiting one of them are pretty slim at best. The big boys grab up the #1 asset for a championship team. When a coach is looking to recruit a pitcher, the number one criteria they look for is velocity, no matter where the ball goes; then they hope to teach what’s needed.

The men’s major championship teams were built on pitching, catching, and beef on the hoof (hitting).

With the changes in bats and balls over the years, the change to the woman’s game that was needed the most was ignored! The woman’s collegiate game needs to go to the old men’s 250’ around fencing. You are playing in a phone booth; take advantage of that.
Positional players need to be big and take full swings. I have seen many mis-hit balls leave the yard in the woman’s game. In the old days the Dudleys and Harwoods (softballs) would soften up after about 3 innings; today you have a golf ball to the end.
Hitters need to be taught to hit away, up the middle. (check your physics department on how far a ball will travel % wise if hit straight ahead rather than pulling) All of the greatest men softball home-run hitters, hit away and were not pull hitters. Potentially, with today’s dimensions and equipment, almost every player in your line-up should be able to hit the ball out. The more big ladies with one eye in the middle of their forehead that you can put in the line-up, the scarier it becomes for the opposing pitcher. Some positions should be defensively sacrificed for the player that consistently makes good contact when batting.

The importance of the catcher being able to call a game without the coach relaying pitch selection is very important to the stability of the pitcher and getting into a good rhythm. Outside of the pitcher, the catcher is the most important position on the field. The catcher is the only player that has the whole field in front of them and giving signals and calling plays should be one of their responsibilities. The catcher has to be a take charge type of person. Pitcher, coach, and catcher should go over the opposing hitters and decide the general approach in pitching to them.

Back to the power pitching: Stop and think, where do the woman’s pitchers come from and how were they developed? It is totally different from what the men’s game used to be. Today, fewer girls go into softball unless there is a history or involvement in their family. Pitchers start because a parent can afford to pay for lessons and want their child to pitch/star; so that is what you get to pick from coming through high school. Many times the best “potential” pitcher never gets the coaching or encouragement growing up.
Traditionally and there are exceptions, pitchers are the biggest and tallest players on the team. The taller pitcher has a higher release point that is more advantageous when throwing both the drop and the rise. They also have the potential to throw the ball a lot faster. When the men’s world teams come onto the field, you can pick out the pitchers; almost all are in the range of about 6’4” and 230 lbs plus and there are also the exceptions. For a pitcher, Chuck D’Arcy was relatively short and an exception, but he had an exceptionally live arm, perfect mechanics, control, and threw in the low 90’s. Men became softball pitchers when they were already athletes and exposed to fastpitch. The learning curve is a lot faster when one is already an adult and an athlete.

Don’t believe the speed BS you hear and read about. The “top” woman pitchers “should” throw in the 80’s; it’s just that they have not been developed yet. A few of the top men pitchers from the heydays broke 100; Ty Stofflet at 104; Roy Burlison 105+; KG Fincher 100+. Not to knock Eddie Feigner (the King and His Court) who could throw hard, but a number of pitchers threw harder than he did.

Unfortunately, of the major attractive sports for women to compete in, Basketball, Soccer, and Volleyball, Softball comes in at a distant 4th in attracting the athlete/participant. It is easy to say that the “potentially” greatest pitchers have never played softball as a primary sport. If you watched the NCAA Woman’s Basketball Championships and saw the 6’7” BYU center and volleyball player, Jennifer Hamson, how would you like to see her as a pitcher? There’s more to it than that; flexibility, coordination, and explosiveness of action and willingness to work to achieve success all go hand in hand to create a pitcher. That’s an “extreme example,” but put thought into it. An athlete is usually at a college/university for “4+” years.
Now there is a drawback, the most difficult thing in teaching a non-softball playing person to pitch is not the pitching, that’s easy; the most difficult is in fielding the position and the mental grasp of what’s going on that takes more time to learn than to pitch.
To get an idea of learning how to pitch for those that coach pitching or throw batting practice, try an experiment; teach yourself to pitch left-handed (or from the opposite side). For a while you should feel like a complete klutz. That will open your eyes and cause you to focus on the mechanics and difficulties involved in developing the underhand muscle memory to start the learning process. That will also give you a personal firsthand account of what the learning pitcher is going through.
Work with some of the incoming freshmen volleyball or basketball players that have “size” and athleticism that are willing, on the side. Just being big and athletic is no guarantee of success. It will be a hit and miss scenario. See what becomes of it.

Without the necessary power pitching, the most you can hope for is conference success and an occasional cup of coffee at the nationals.
Honestly, you will not be able to recruit the top power pitchers to come to your average college or university. They belong to the “big boys.” If you want to compete to win at the national level, you will have to build your own.

For position players, a hitter should always set up next to the catcher when a pitcher warms up or throws. The player needs to “SEE” as many live pitches as possible. Batting practice should be taken against “live” pitching as much as possible. Bring in men pitchers, if there are any left, to fill in; the more live batting practice, the better. Eyesight is very important and diet and exercise for improvement of sight is necessary.

BUT coaches, look at your team today, and 5 years from now, change the names, and the team will probably look the same; the problems will be the same. And, that Monster U alumnus will probably take away another recruit that you were hoping to sign. You “have” to be a superior teacher of the game. You have to recruit the “biggest” best athletes and coach, coach, coach. “Hitting and fielding” are learned disciplines that can be taught. You can’t teach size or natural athleticism, and most important, the player “must” be willing to work to get better. Every position has its own separate mechanics that have to be drilled into the player, so that when it’s 105 degrees in the shade at 3 in the afternoon, the learned basic mechanics of fielding and throwing at their position lead to fewer errors.

I know what I have said will seem like fantasy to some, but how many in this forum have seen the game at its peak. Who have seen the old Raybestos Brakettes, the Clearwater Bombers, Guenella Brothers, and other championship teams.
The Mavin,
Recreational pitcher for 38 years; observed the woman’s and collegiate game through the 70’s, 80’s, & 90’s; observed the men’s championship and contending teams from the mid 60’s through the 90’s.
 
May 17, 2012
2,804
113
So your citation or reference is that you observed the game for multiple decades?

Not sure I buy into the "bigger is better" theory.
 
Feb 7, 2013
3,188
48
Your "educational piece" has several points but I think you are suggesting that college coaches should cross-train their top women athletes from volleyball, soccer, and basketball to be their school's pitchers because they are the superior athletes?

Forget the logistics issue of playing another college sport during the same school year as softball, I don't think it's possible to train an 18YO who has never pitched before to be a top college pitcher. There is a huge learning curve that you fail to recognize. Ever hear of the 10,000 hours rule? I think you also dismiss what it really takes to be a a great pitcher. It much more than the ability to throw hard to be a successful pitcher. You think Jennie Finch would have made the USA National and Olympic teams had she not picked up a softball until she was 18YO's? She was perfecting her craft since she was an 8YO playing against the best travel ball teams and high schools in the country BEFORE she even reached college.

Lastly, the extra 3 feet of pitching distance is not as big of an influence on offense as has been a) lowering of the high strike zone from under arm pits to below the stenum; and b) the proliferation of bat technology and power training for hitters, and personal instruction. You want to make pitchers relevant again, dial back the technology and softball.

You need to rethink your premise.
 
Last edited:
Feb 17, 2014
7,152
113
Orlando, FL
Of course, we agree with the points, but I don't think you needed all those nods to the men's game to make your point ie, its mens championship but womens collegiate when I would say men's beer league and women's college championship). My dad played fastpitch and saw the Brakettes. His family is from Connecticut. Or only men know how to hit other places beside pulling? That's silly, remembering the days of the dominating female pitchers where players hoped for a hit on the RF line and the best fielder was put in RF.

The fences are actually modern and yes quite arbitrary now (often due to running up against college property boundaries because they were built to the rules back when--in some cases, there is no property to extend to now as no one ever thinks ahead); many old fields in college and HS had no fences at all or were the same fields the men used (ie, off campus).

PS. I would put the strike zone higher. The wide low one where the riseball is high now is really strange to me.

OLIF - You got a mouse in your pocket? Hope you are not going to start referring to yourself in the 3rd person. :)
 
Mar 23, 2010
2,019
38
Cafilornia
Good points, but your last chance to implement this strategy is in HS. In college, the BB,VB athletes are not going to be able to play other sports, even if they were willing.
 
Jan 25, 2011
2,282
38
I find your mens pitching speeds to be a little high, ok a lot high. I know that this is when kids walked 10 miles up hill to school and home both ways in ten feet of snow era. With the training and understanding of the fastpitch motion today, due to the use of video and high speed cameras and more then likely the old timers guessing the speeds of pitches then. Now with modren radar those guys were more then likely the same speed as the men today, if not slower. Sorry I have to call some of your post BS.
 
Nov 26, 2010
4,784
113
Michigan
I think the point that the best possible pitcher might not be a softball players is true in many sports. The best basketball player might have never picked up a basketball, she plays volleyball. And in many high schools the best boys soccer player is the tailback on the football team. He has never played soccer in his life, but if he did he would be the schools best player in one year.

But what does that knowledge do for us? Should we look for the characteristics of a specific sport and segregate the children with those characteristics when they are young. It works great for the Chinese gymnastics and diving teams. Of course the parents give up their kids at age 5.
 
Apr 17, 2014
8
1
The basic theme of the piece is that for the greatest majority of the teams, their current ability to compete at the national level will not change from what it is now. Universities that do not have the ability to wave their wand and have the best high school players come running, have to make changes from their current approach if they wish to compete at the national level. The gist of the piece is to show how some of these changes may be made from a person with over 40 years involvement in the game.

The ability to clock or time the speed of pitches has been around a long time. The current use of Jugs or radar guns started in the mid 70’s or so. Ty Stofflet was said to have been timed at 104.7 mph. My team played against Roy Burlison in Newport News, Va and the players wished they had brought a change of underwear. The umps had also allowed him to walk through the rubber. He was the most frightening pitcher to face that I have ever seen throw. Although, Del Howard’s leaping into your lap to let go could also be put there.
 

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