Tennessee lost 3 straight to Florida. Texas, when confronted with some good teams (Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M) goes 2-5.
I've been saying that neither Texas nor Tennessee was as good as their ranking. Believe it or not, I'm not psychic. The truth is that the west coast teams, and then a few teams in the rest of the country, play differently than everyone else.
These teams play softball hard for the entire game. "Play hard" in softball doesn't mean what people think it means--it isn't "sliding into 2nd base with the spikes up"--it means playing softball with a high level of precision for inning after inning.
Playing UCLA, Arizona, California, Stanford, Washington Georgia, Oklahoma and Florida isn't like playing Texas State. It is more than athletic ability of the players--it is the ability of those players to execute every phase of the game almost to perfection for not only the entire game, but for 14 or 15 innings, if necessary.
Most people don't have a clue what I mean when I talk about precise execution. Precise execution means that every player on the field does her job "the way God meant for it to be done"--every aspect, from throwing positioning to catch a ball, the mechanics of catching the ball, and throwing mechanics are almost perfect.
Softball is a game played on a very small field, where fractions of a second win and lose games. (Sloppy execution is the rule in MLB.)
The elite teams do it over and over and over again, inning and inning, game after game. The good teams (and you know who you are) don't...they put in about 5 good innings of above average execution. Against a lot of teams, that is all they need. But, it ain't enough against the elite teams.
Sure, UCLA and Arizona don't have the talent level of other teams this year. But watch their games...watch the way their kids field and execute. They are a joy to watch.
I've been saying that neither Texas nor Tennessee was as good as their ranking. Believe it or not, I'm not psychic. The truth is that the west coast teams, and then a few teams in the rest of the country, play differently than everyone else.
These teams play softball hard for the entire game. "Play hard" in softball doesn't mean what people think it means--it isn't "sliding into 2nd base with the spikes up"--it means playing softball with a high level of precision for inning after inning.
Playing UCLA, Arizona, California, Stanford, Washington Georgia, Oklahoma and Florida isn't like playing Texas State. It is more than athletic ability of the players--it is the ability of those players to execute every phase of the game almost to perfection for not only the entire game, but for 14 or 15 innings, if necessary.
Most people don't have a clue what I mean when I talk about precise execution. Precise execution means that every player on the field does her job "the way God meant for it to be done"--every aspect, from throwing positioning to catch a ball, the mechanics of catching the ball, and throwing mechanics are almost perfect.
Softball is a game played on a very small field, where fractions of a second win and lose games. (Sloppy execution is the rule in MLB.)
The elite teams do it over and over and over again, inning and inning, game after game. The good teams (and you know who you are) don't...they put in about 5 good innings of above average execution. Against a lot of teams, that is all they need. But, it ain't enough against the elite teams.
Sure, UCLA and Arizona don't have the talent level of other teams this year. But watch their games...watch the way their kids field and execute. They are a joy to watch.
