Teams don’t go up to bat together. In fact a “team” never goes up to bat. The reality is that only individuals go up to bat. Ever. While all individuals do slump occassionaly, the odds that all 9 batters happened to choose the 1 game to be in a slump in are higher than hitting the lottery.

When an entire team doesn’t bat its because 9 individuals were all more worried about what one or multiple others did at bat, than they were focused on their own “individual” at bat. Each one of the 9 girls who take at bats, needs to focus ONLY on their at bat. They need to do “their” job. They can’t help anyone else, and they can’t be helped by anyone else.

The phrase “the team was in a slump” is really just an excuse to point the finger and take the blame of themselves when they’ve placed their focus on what others didn’t accomplish instead of keeping it on what they should have accomplished.

I encourage each of you as players, especially those of you Cross Training players who take lessons with me, to really challenge yourselves. Don’t fall into the trap of “the team is in a slump” because that’s not even possible. Challenge yourself to separate your at bats from others, stay focused, watch the release point for the ball and do your job. If the pitcher is doing something unusual then make the adjustment that “you” need to. Don’t use 8 other players lack of focus be an excuse for you to lose yours.

Call me a softie, but I really enjoyed Dairy Queen with all of them afterwards. Yes! Real coaches enjoy chocolate blizzards after a tough workout too.

1. That while all of us have the ability to see the play, they seemingly have the ability to visualize the plays/games that haven’t even happened yet. The leading hitter on the 1996 Gold Medal winning US Softball Team, Dionna Harris, said that her pre-game routine included closing her eyes and visualizing herself walking into her home, turning on the tv, and watching the game that was about to be played. She’d go through inning by inning, at bat by at bat. More often than not she said she’d end up playing the game out on the field, that she had already watched in her head before hand.

2. They have the ability to use their recall from what’s happend to look into the future. For instance one of my favorite pictures is a simple head shot of Caitlin Lowe as she puts her helmet on in the dugout. But as you look into her eyes you see an intensity that is just different from others. You can almost see her next at bat unfolding right before eyes. She isn’t just looking at the pitcher, she’s looking beyond the pitcher and witnessing her impending dual play out in her head. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Caitlin-Lowe/25187252465#!/photo.php?pid=1301190&op=1&o=global&view=global&subj=25187252465&id=602036881

3. Laser precision type focus. When most players having a hard time keeping their eye on the ball comes at them,  when you look into the eyes of the elite athletes you would swear they not only see the ball into the glove, but are looking through the glove to still see the ball. Then after the play/hit their eyes go back into “normal person mode.” And before the ball is released the next time … bam … their eyes are transformed again.

We often here it referred to as “being in the zone.” A friend of mine, fantastic former player and college coach, Tina Whitlock describes what I’m trying to articulate as “the ability to turn it on, and off.”

Sure wish I could teach players how to “turn it on, and off” on demand like the great ones. But what I do know, is that their greatness is in their eyes. See for yourself

Here is what I saw and read:
1. As Kenzie Fowler kept getting called for illegal pitches, the web forums were going crazy. “Umps stink” “Why are they calling it now if they haven’t called it all year”. But what I saw in Kenzie was an unbelievable level of concentration and determination that spoke volumes “I’ve busted my chops all of my life to get here and no team and no umpires are going to take this away from me. If I have to focus on the batters and change my pitching motion I’ll do it.” And incredibly when everyone else thought it was over on day 1, she came back and delivered the gutsiest performance I’ve ever seen.

2. During the first game of the championship series I saw 2 teams battling out. Neither willing to give in. Then in the bottom of the 6′th UCLA struck what was assumed by many to be the winning blow. 2 runs to put them up 4-2. But what I saw on the field was the Wildcats take the plate with a completely different mindsight, one that said “Ok we need 2 runs to stay in so here we go.” Sure enough they not only got their 2 runs to tie, but they got a 5′th run after back to back homeruns. UCLA then came to bat after having being so high and then being knocked so low. They came to bat and proceeded to mount a mini-rally and tie the game up. So they moved the 8′th inning. Now boths teams had gone from 1 extreme to the other. They both made it evident that neither was willing to lose. So Arizona came to bat and before you knew it the bases were loaded with a hot hitter at the plate. Surely UCLA’s second string pitcher would pitch very carefully to her and try and get her to swing at some “pitchers pitches.” Uh no. She attacked her with the straight strikes, which completely fooled Arizona’s hitter and she struck her out. Never got the bat off her shoulder because she was stunned. So we head to the bottom of the eighth inning and UCLA’s starter pitcher came to bat after having been taken off the mound in the top of the 7′th inning. What would she do? Would she fold? Would she bow to the pressure? Would she admit defeat? Uh no. She would proceed to drive the ball over the fence and win the game for her team.

3. So we start game 2 with all of the pundits saying “Certainly Arizona will walk UCLA’s pitcher who completely killed them at the plate in game 1 and was hot the entire WCWS.” No doubt. Who in their right mind would pitch to someone who “owned” you only the day before? Well perhaps a pitching coach and a pitcher that are never willing to admit defeat. A combination that says “I am not giving in to you.” “I will not allow you to continue to defeat me.” Well the decision didn’t exactly go their way. With 1 girl on base they pitched to the hot batter/pitcher and sure enough … crack over the fence 2 run home run. Unfortunately
the decision to pitch to her didn’t go their way, but I admire the attitude and spirit in which it was thrown. Worse for the team was the fact that it was the final straw for this 19 year old, true freshman pitcher. So many tough fought games in the heat in a row. So much emotion, that she finally succumed to it all.

4. So The University of Arizona then had to bring in their second string pitcher and she didn’t have “her A game” or “UCLA was just in a zone” and they proceeded to ring up 7 runs. With the game 7-1 after 4 innings of play the web forums and facebook were hot with the pundits all throwing in the towel. Certainly the Wildcats were dead at this point. Not so fast said the team. “As long as we still have at bats we still have a chance said their commander. They mounted a comeback and put up 3 runs. 7-4. The next inning wasn’t kind to them at all and UCLA proceeded to score 7 more runs. Now facing a score of 14-4 certainly the Wildcat’s would just give up, roll over, play dead, pack their bags, the fat lady had sung. A little overly dramatic? What would you do in that situation? How could you dig deep down and continue to battle in a game where you only had 6 outs left and were down by 10 runs to a team that was clearly in “the zone.” I wish I knew the answer because I watched them battle, keep battling, and then battle some more. The final score was 15-9 and they did get beat.

It’s taken me nearly a week to write this because my heart is still aching. Not because of the loss of “my team” but because I feel I was blessed beyond belief to have the pleasure of watching the fight of the age. The fight of 2 teams that somehow despite all of the cameras, all of the emotions, all of the momentum changes and all of the expectencies just kept on fighting. As an instructor I can talk until I’m blue in the face, and often do, trying to encourage my players to never give up. But as long winded as I am, I could never paint a picture for my girls any more vividly than The University of Arizona Wildcats and the World Series Champion UCLA Bruins did during this series.

All of us as instructors were touched by the incredible effort put forth by the players on both days of the camp. Session after session all of the girls dug deep, did what they were asked, then hustled right over to their next session. Yes they were hot. Yes they were sore from crunches, running, diving but they managed to do it all while smiling.

My hat goes off (and shows my bald head) to Howard Kobata, Marc Dagenais, Ashley Tomlinson, Tori Fobb and Keith Prichard for their efforts this weekend. Hopefully the players appreciated the effort that each and every instructor put in to trying to help them develop their skills. It’s easy to just pat girls on the back and move on to the next girl it’s much harder to do what we did in paying individual attention to each player and showing them what they needed to work on and then pushing them to make the improvements.

All in all …. just way to much FUN!!!!

By video taping it for the world to see of course.

That’s right I just got the news that Gary Leland of Softball.TV will be joining us for the cruise and will be video taping segments for his show so that the entire world will get a glimpse what you and I will be partaking in first hand.

That’s so cool.

If you are a coach trying to figure out how to get your players to hit to the opposite side of the field (behind lead runners) then you might want to have your players do the same thing. Run to third after a hit instead of running to first. Seriously!

More often than not, as players get started they have coaches/parents encouraging them to pull the ball because the poor little princess on third doesn’t have the arm strength to throw them out. So they learn from the age of 5 that pulling the ball leads to success. Which works great, right up until the time that the little princess at third has her arm transition into a cannon, or until there are runners on base and hitting it to third produces easy outs of lead runners. And as a team you find yourself unable to produce runs.

So if you are looking to help players break that habit, and they constantly say “but I can’t hit it to right field” then play a few practice games where they swing normally, but they have to run the bases backwards. It’s a fund drill to do that also serves a great purpose. Under those rules a hit to the third baseman becomes an easy out. So they quickly begin adjusting and trying to drive the ball to the right side. It also provides them with situations that are completely new to them and forces the offense and defense alike to have to think before every single pitch which is a good habit to be in. It also forces the defense to practice throws/tosses that are ordinarily not part of the game.

I guess you could say that running the bases backwards is like fashion, things always come back in style.

In hitting unfortunately we put the bat in their hands, teach them how to swing the bat but we spend very little time explaining that each at bat is a different situation. Then we get frustrated when they take the same swing on any pitch, in any count, in any situation and we can’t generate runs.

I’ve put together a handy situational hitting resource that I call my Hitterplication Chart. Much like a multiplication chart, the concept is that players should review every situation and prepare mentally for what they should do in that situation. I’ve used this with the players that I instruct for several years, but yesterday I watched a game in which a team kept stranding runners that were in scoring position several times. So I thought this might be a good topic to bring to everyone’s attention.

To get you started I want you to imagine the one pitch that is your favorite. The location where you know everytime you get that pitch you destroy the ball. We will call that your pitch. With no runners on and nobody out, with no balls and no strikes you should be looking for “your pitch.” That means you don’t swing just because the pitcher throws a strike. That is useless to you. You want to see “your pitch” because you know you will kill that one. You have 3 strikes to work with so deprive yourself of your chance to swing at “your pitch” unless you have to.

You may need to print the chart multiple times and redo it based on various situations at the bottom of the page. For example … if your team is trailing by 1, you will need to put the ball in play to the right side of the field if runners are in scoring position and just sacrifice yourself with less than 2 outs. But if your team is trailing by 5, you probably don’t want to give up an out just to score 1 run.

If you have any questions, comments be sure to leave them here so that we can all work through this “situational hitting” stuff together.

Or rather it will be coming in February 21, 2011 and I sure hope all of you are on it. In addition to great sessions on board the gorgeous Royal Caribbean Monarch of the Seas, our main stop will be Nassau, Bahamas where will spend an entire day on ball fields learning and playing games along with and against girls from the Bahamas.

Coach Dalton will be joining a great group of instructors that includes Olympic Gold Medalist and hitting sensation Crystl Bustos, her long time batting instructor Howard Carrier, pitching phenom Angela Tincher and softball peak performance coach Marc Dagenais.

You can check out more details on the Cruise Clinic page.

A very close friend of mine, David Newman, handed me an interesting article yesterday that captures the heart of what I’ve been trying to say for years. Interestingly enough the article is actually about supercross motorcycle racing. The article was about the need for practice, and more importantly the need for the proper practice. His illustration was that after riding for 20 years you could have learned each year and have 20 years of experience under your belt. Or you could be riding with 20 years of practicing what you learned the very first year. In other words you would have repeated step 1, 20 times.

What I loved most in the article was the simple quote from Jason Pridmore which applies to anything “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent.” I love that type of mental advice because it says basically the same thing that I’ve always said, but has the conotation to it that whatever it is you are doing is going to have permanence to it. It isn’t just going to make you better (or worse) while you are doing it.

I have no intentions of riding a “super” bike at 180 miles per hour, but I sure appreciate the advice of Jason Pridmore. Maybe I should invite him to demonstrate something at a softball camp one day. Not on any fields near my house of course.