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Players who slap from the left side of the box are cute. May even be nice kids. But I wouldn’t trust them if I were you. Why? Because if racing with them isn’t tough enough already, they get a lead. Seriously! It’s just not fair. Check out a current post I made for Fastpitch.TV at http://fastpitch.tv/slapper-save-10-by-dalton-ruer/

If you are one of those players/coaches/parents who assumes that players run 60 feet from home to first you don’t want to miss this special post I made for Fastpitch.TV.

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As it’s very name suggests Thanksgiving is always a time for giving thanks. As I sit alone at my keyboard with the sun rising in Georgia I count it a blessing that I’ve been able to spend the entire week giving thanks.

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If it were a movie the sun would be rising over a dew covered luscious field of green grass. One by one the camera would move from face to face. As it panned out you would begin getting the bigger picture, the picture of a ball team. Soon you would begin realizing that they were one of many, warming up for the battles that would unfold before you on the big screen. Soon the heart touching orchestra music would fade and the camera would begin meandering through it all as you heard the faint voices of the coaches and the players. It would finally rest on our heroine as you started hearing the music she was listening to. As she completed her mental preparations for the day, she’d remove the ear buds and put them away along with her iPod, pump her fist and storm out of the dugout with the loud noise that only cleats on concrete can make.

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How can the Softball Cruise Clinic possibly get better?

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The Buford Wicked that is. Although they had played a rough tournament yesterday most of the players made it out for a custom team clinic and every player gave me 100% of their attention and 100% effort. While I’ve worked with 1000′s of girls it always inspires me to look into a girls eyes before we start a diving session and see fear, then watch her kick fear in the butt and do it anyway. I got to watch every player that was their do just that. Full speed, flat out, head first dives into bases. In the words of Boston Rob from Survivors that’s just “WICKED” AWESOME. Of course if any of you read this, don’t think for a minute that the next time I come out to work with you that I’m going to take it any easier on you.

If you know me at all you know that I LOVE teaching girls the game of fastpitch softball. So it may shock you that teaching softball wasn’t the thing that I loved most about the recent softball clinic cruise. The thing that I absolutely enjoyed the most was just getting to see the girls and their families just hanging out and having a good time together.

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Game 2 for me at yesterday’s Georgia Tech Buzz Classic was between the Georgia State Panthers and the Bowling Green Falcons. I went to college not far from Bowling Green, which is up north in Ohio so I was excited to see them play ball way down here close to my new home. More exciting for me though was watching one of my former students, Emily Althafer, as a collegiate player. When Emily was younger her nickname was Elmo (like the Sesame Street character) but of course I’d never call her that now because she’s all grown up and everything.

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching the Mercer Bears as they played a game against the Rhode Island Rams. The game ended 1-0 with a dramatic game winning hit in the bottom of the 7′th by Holly Oglesbee. Before I get to that I should explain why I chose to go watch the Mercer Bears in the first place, and why it was such a joy to see it ended in dramatic fashion by Holly.

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You would think that as long as I’ve been doing instruction I would have seen it all by now. But the truth is each time I do a camp or a clinic like the recent Softball Cruise Clinic I am still amazed at the young ladies that play this sport.

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