The Saga of Rebuilding a School Program: A parent-coach's journal

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Jan 25, 2022
880
93
My son recommends Sabatan for metal, of course his walk up song is the Sponge Bob SquarePants theme so ymmv.
I'm not familiar with Sabatan. Last season I used Necrophagist, Vampire Moose, Cattle Decapitation, and Cannibal Corpse.

That's funny, because DD2 had that same walkup last season.
 
Jan 25, 2022
880
93
My son recommends Sabatan for metal

Despite the language barrier, this isn't too bad, but it's probably a little too easy to listen to. DD2 tends to dance if there's a groove. The stuff I hit her with is mostly just a brutal wall of sound.

I wish I could come up with some actual crowd noise, ridiculous team cheers to just play on repeat, etc. I'll have to search around.
 
May 21, 2018
567
93
Despite the language barrier, this isn't too bad, but it's probably a little too easy to listen to. DD2 tends to dance if there's a groove. The stuff I hit her with is mostly just a brutal wall of sound.

I wish I could come up with some actual crowd noise, ridiculous team cheers to just play on repeat, etc. I'll have to search around.
I checked out Vampire Moose and Cattle Decapitation because of the awesome names. Calling that a "brutal wall of sound" is a very generous description of what is going on there. :oops:
 
Jan 25, 2022
880
93
I checked out Vampire Moose and Cattle Decapitation because of the awesome names. Calling that a "brutal wall of sound" is a very generous description of what is going on there. :oops:

Yeah they aren't in my playlist. My rule is that I have to be able to reasonably understand the lyrics, but it also can't be straight-up singing. I've just picked up a lot of this stuff from XM over the years. I want this stuff as distracting as possible. For the fielders, add in the earplugs and it removes all their dependency on the coach or on someone else to yell from behind them what they need to be doing.

At a family gathering a few years ago they were calling out christmas songs for the Amazon Alexa to play, and I screamed "alexa play cattle decapitation!" and she pulled it up without hesitation.
 
Jan 25, 2022
880
93
Have you considered Yoko Ono?



That's funny, because she was the one I was trying to think of earlier. I kept asking myself who was the lady that was so off the wall and awful. My ex had a semi-unhealthy obsession with the beatles.

edit: Wow. I can't play that around teenagers. And god help me if someone walked in and didnt know what it was..hahahaha
 
Last edited:
Jan 25, 2022
880
93
Had a good practice yesterday with the kid. She hit the zone about 50-60% and had good zip. We worked on front side resistance more, and she seems to really know now whether she got it or not. We still gotta get the torso to rotate a little after the hip, but we're getting there.

We worked on the drop some. She got maybe 3 out of 10. She snuck a few changeups in there as well, and landed one. Things are progressing. I chucked a few random tennis balls at her after a pitch, just to get the ball rolling on safety defense. I've also told her it's time to start doing squats at home. Told her 30 per night for a few nights, then start adding them until she can get 100 a day.

We were talking during the session and she said "I'm worried, but it's not about my ability. It's about hearing people talk, and the chanting and noise. We really need to work on that soon." We had been talking about it anyway, and I had showed her the Yoko Ono video, which she thought was hilarious but agreed we couldn't play around the other girls..haha.

She told me later that she had let the other stress go. She's not worried about losing or performing badly. She's just chillin now. She just had to do some self talk I guess. The kid has many layers, and it's been good to see her start conquering some of the mental hangups we all get at times.

High school BP this evening. I don't know if she'll be throwing or not. These are still voluntary workouts, but even at that, the attendance has been abysmal. We're expecting as many as 20 girls to show up when practices go mandatory in two weeks, but right now it's averaging like 5. Drives me nuts because a lot of these same kids who aren't showing up will be the ones upset on the bench or crying during games because they can't make contact. And there are several who need every swing they can get. Several others are playing basketball. I hate that the seasons run into each other, but it is what it is.
 
Last edited:
Aug 1, 2019
962
93
MN
...High school BP... but even at that the attendance has been abysmal. We're expecting as many as 20 girls to show up when practices go mandatory in two weeks, but right now it's averaging like 5. ...
Not sure the reasons for your lack of attendance, so I can only speak for what we do. We've always held our "open gym" on Sunday afternoons. Evenings on a school night after basketball practice with homework yet to do wouldn't work for us. Even so, our attendance has been increasing the last few years. Seven years ago we were lucky to get more than three. Sunday we had about 20. Our culture is changing for the better. The girls are having fun at these and they're getting better. They're here for two hours and most are in no hurry to go home.
 
Jan 25, 2022
880
93
Not sure the reasons for your lack of attendance, so I can only speak for what we do. We've always held our "open gym" on Sunday afternoons. Evenings on a school night after basketball practice with homework yet to do wouldn't work for us. Even so, our attendance has been increasing the last few years. Seven years ago we were lucky to get more than three. Sunday we had about 20. Our culture is changing for the better. The girls are having fun at these and they're getting better. They're here for two hours and most are in no hurry to go home.
That's really probably the best time. They did a Sunday a couple weeks ago and had 8 or 9. Last Sunday try was snowed out. We just also still aren't teams with a large number of "softball players." Those kind of players should increase in the next few seasons, and kids will have less conflict.

I certainly don't blame any basketball player for not wanting to go hit. Some of the other girls are just chillin at home on their tiktoks, or whatever it is they do..lol. In the end though, they're just kids and I try not to take this so seriously that I forget that.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,481
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top