Softball Coaching - Tips for Leading Female Athletes

Softball Coaching - Tips for Leading Female Athletes
By guest author: Becky Wittenburg


Softball coaching can be difficult, no matter what age, ability level, or gender of the players. Coaches need to be aware of what their players are going through, both in the sport and out, so that they can build trusting relationships and lead the players to be their best.

Some female athletes face mental and physical struggles when they feel pressure to perform. Girls softball coaches should know the signs of these problems so that they can know when they need to step in and help, before the situation gets out of control.

Female Athlete Triad

Softball players who feel overstressed might develop the Female Athlete Triad, a syndrome of three combined disorders that result from over exercising and not taking in enough calories.


Disordered eating: this aspect of the Female Athlete Triad occurs when an athlete stops taking in enough calories. It can develop as an effort to get their weight down or as a way to deal with stress. Disordered eating can be in the form of anorexia, where the athlete stops eating enough food, or bulimia, where the athlete consumes food but then throws it up.
Amenorrhea: amenorrhea occurs when the athlete starts missing her menstrual cycle. Athletes who normally experience regular cycles may stop to menstruate if they no longer eat enough or if they are exercising too much.
Osteoporosis: this part of the Female Athlete Triad happens when the athlete's bones start to lose their density, becoming fragile and prone to breakage. It is related to, and worsened by, the other conditions in the syndrome.

The Female Athlete Triad is not only unhealthy, it can be extremely dangerous. Watch for signs that your players might be over exercising or under eating. Ask them questions about their lives and let them know you really want to listen. When a player seems particularly stressed, make sure she knows how to relieve the pressure in a healthy way.

Helpful Tips for Coaching Girls


Let them be involved, particularly in picking positions. Have tryouts for different positions every season so the athletes can show how they perform and have a chance to try something different.
Develop a relationship based on trust. Coaches need to trust their players, and players need to trust their coaches. This means that a coach needs to respect when an athlete says she needs to use the restroom and understand that women's bodies are different from men's. This also means that a player should trust that a coach has her best interest at heart when he asks her to push harder, try a new approach, or change her position.
Remember that softball is just a game, and it's supposed to be fun. Coaches and athletes need to work hard, but practice shouldn't be a dreaded thing. Drills can be both challenging and rewarding, and if a coach is able to keep things positive, players will learn the sport, perform well, and have a good time.

For more coaching tips and free softball drills, go here to watch a free video:

http://www.softball-spot.com/vid/
Becky Wittenburg is a kids softball coach, and the owner and publisher of Softball-Spot.com, the web's #1 resource for softball practice drills, tips, and coaching ideas for youth and high school coaches.

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Youth Softball - Things You Should Know

Youth Softball - Things You Should Know
By Guest Author: Blaine F Johnston

People who love softball often take their family to play this sport, including their children. This activity can enhance their skills, especially if the parents want the children to be professional players. However, there are several things that parents should know before starting to do efforts to make the children like softball superstars.

For you who do not have any idea about this sport, you can try to understand that softball is sport game played by nine players in a team. The game needs two teams that alternate between offense and defense. The team who makes more runs than the opponent team will be the winner. In addition, it can be played for both girls and boys, so it eliminates your worries that your kids will be rejected.

This game requires several skills that include strength, teamwork and craftsmanship, eye-hand coordination, and also some position-specific skills like running, pitching, and fielding. That is why the minimum age to play this game is 4 or 5 for tee ball and 7 or 8 for player-pitch teams. A kid needs to be patient and attentive enough to deal with the slower pace of baseball. In addition, the kid should be team-oriented, as the game requires team coordination to win.

If you put your kids to a softball course, you will find that they spend a lot of time lingering in the outfield. Physical activities are not done too often, but the play will become more athletic and aggressive depending on their growth. You should provide the suitable equipment that fit their body well. You can go to stores and ask the shopkeepers or even go there with your kids to know which ones that fit them perfectly. Things you must buy are uniform, gloves, cleats, batting gloves, and batting helmets. The price may vary, but the equipment for beginning players is mostly cheap.

Then, you need to consider the potential injuries that possibly happen during the game. That is why you should know the tricks to prevent injuries, such as using softer balls to reduce injury factors. This kind of ball is often used by younger places as it is well known for the ability to reduce the risk and severity of head injuries. Then, you can also reduce the risk of ankle sprains and other injuries by giving your kids breakaway bases, or also called safety-release bases.

There are several conditions you may find after certain periods of play. If your kids throw too many pitches, they can experience an overuse injury. In a response to this, you can make sure that the kids get plenty of rest for their arms. The coach may even ask you to do this. Further, you can get some tips to prevent the injuries by contacting the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.

You can buy a baseball softball pitching machine to enhance your kids' skill of hitting. However, there are also other types of softball pitching machines available on markets that you can choose base on the kids' needs.

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Coaching Your Daughter's Softball Team for the First Time

By Jim Moyer

Finally, Spring is here and with it comes the beginning of Fastpitch Softball season for hundreds of thousands of little girls. Along with the start of Softball season also comes the recruitment of parents to become volunteer coaches. The FEAR, the anxiety, the hope that you don't lead your daughter's team to a winless season. Here’s the good news, like just about anything else, if the new coach will find a successful mentor the coach can quickly learn what skills and strategies need to be utilized to win. However, the large majority of new fastpitch coaches are dads that think since they played baseball 20 years ago they can easily transfer that knowledge to their team and be successful. After all, it's just a bunch of 7 & 8 year old girls, right? Wrong. To be successful the new coach not only has to coach his team, he must also out coach all of the other dad-coaches.

If you think coaching doesn’t make that big of a difference, then please explain how a coach went 93-4-2 over a 5 year period in 8U fastpitch softball while coaching his daughters. That’s a very impressive record no matter what age you are coaching. And don’t think for a moment that it was talent that led to that record. I’m talking about a team that every year lost half of it’s players to promotion to the older age group and had to pick up 6 or 7 brand new players…typically girls that had never played the game. So how could this one coach pile up 5 straight 1st place finishes and compile a winning percentage of .960%?

It boils down to great coaching and knowing what strategies work at different ages. That’s the only possible answer. For example, the three most important positions in 8U Softball are First Base, Pitcher and Second Base. As players get older it’s certainly true that talent can make a difference. But talent still has to be coached. An athletic player under a poor coach will never achieve her full potential. However, average talent can achieve superior levels under the guidance of a great coach.

Regarding offense, most new coaches tend to build a batting order similar to how professional baseball teams put together a batting order. That's a sure way to lose games in 8U softball. The best advice is to stagger the strong hitters with weaker hitters mixed in. That way your team is able to bat further into the lineup, allowing for a couple of outs, yet scoring the maximum number of runs allowed. Many new coaches also forget to teach the girls how to bunt the ball. The younger the team is the more important it is teach girls to bunt as it helps to build hand-eye coordination while allowing the player to contribute to the success of the team.

Finally, most new coaches don't know what training tools would be of greatest benefit to their team. Typically the league will issue a sack of softball gear that might include a couple of bats, a dozen balls, a few batting helmets, and some catcher's gear and the new coach never gives it a second thought. However, regardless of age every coach needs to have a sack of plastic poly balls and a hitting tee just to name a couple of training aides. In the younger age groups a coach might want to have two or more hitting tees so his team gets plenty of practice time swinging a bat. As for the poly balls, not only are they perfect for batting practice, but they are also perfect for learning how to catch pop flys in order to prevent injuries.

Good Luck to all of the new softball coaches. Don't assume you know it all, find a mentor, do some research, teach skills that are age appropriate, and have fun. It's going to be a great season of softball and one that your daughter will never forget since her dad was the coach.

Jim Moyer is the author of http://www.mysoftballcoach.com Having coached over 500 youth fastpitch softball games, Jim decided to put the information online to allow parent/coaches to draw on his unique experience.

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