Body Language and Finding the Diamond Within the Coal

[Ken Krause]

Today’s topic was suggested by a longtime friend and reader who is also a highly successful travel and high school fastpitch softball coach as well as a private instructor. His name is Darrell, but he is mostly known to members of the Discuss Fastpitch Forum by his screen name of Cannonball. He is well known […]

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[Cannonball]

Ken, that was nicely done. Thank you.

 

[Ken Krause]

Ken, that was nicely done. Thank you.

It was my pleasure. I love sharing positive stories like this. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Dabears17]

Excellent article. An important lesson I learned in my 3rd year of coaching with two young women on a 12u team. I had to relearn it the first year I coached my daughter on an 8u All-Star team. I almost didn't pick a player who was probably the 8th or 9th best because of "bad" body language. We won our first tournament, and when I looked at the team photos from the trophy ceremony, I didn't recognize her because she was smiling.

A common meme out there says to try to remember practice is the best of your athlete's day, and make sure they leave feeling the same way. Ever since that 8U tournament, I have tried to be more encouraging to the players who show some poor body language. When I give coaching advice, I challenge coaches to take one player who has potential but seems to show a poor attitude, as a project. In the long run, it can pay a lot of dividends.

 

[Cannonball]

Please forgive me but I wanted to bump Ken's article in case some here missed this very important topic.