Nominations Are Sought For Gatorade's Fastpitch Player Of The Year Program

Nominations Are Sought For Gatorade's Fastpitch Player of the Year Program

High school fastpitch athletes! Be sure to tell your coach about the Gatorade Player of the Year Program.

At the invitation of ESPN RISE Magazine, the ASA will again assist in the nomination process for Gatorade Player of the Year (POY) Program state and national award-winners for softball. The staff at RISE Magazine is seeking input from all local ASA associations regarding the top female fast pitch softball players in their state. RISE Magazine will accept any and all nominations from local-, regional- and state-level ASA members and coaches.

As designated by RISE, the ASA will act as the Sports-Specific Chair for softball on behalf of the Gatorade Player of the Year Program, a title that appears on Gatorade’s Player of the Year web page as well as RISE Magazine’s web page.

RISE is aware that the ASA has no formal association with high school softball on a local or national level. In accordance with POY criteria, RISE will consider for Gatorade Player of the Year honors only those ASA players who are still playing high school softball. Since RISE must provide Gatorade with its final recommendations in 50 states (and the District of Columbia) by 05/29/08, and for a national winner during the week of 06/08/08, ASA nominations must be received by April 10, 2008.

This is a great way to continue to promote the ASA Junior Olympic Program as the top program in the country and increases the likelihood that the Gatorade Player of the Year winners will be ASA players.

Your coach should send all available information regarding nominees to RISE Magazine’s Eric Snyder.

Get your coach involved. RISE is hoping ASA members and coaches to be proactive about nominating talent. Maybe you'll become a nominee!

Meet Duane Ford: Softball Authority Guest Coach

Setting Measurable Standards of Performance: The 20 Feet Per Second Rule

by Coach Duane Ford - Softball Authority Guest Coach

Here is the fourth featured coach in our new series for 2008 called "Softball Authority." The premise of Softball Authority is to showcase articles and/or training videos by coaches who have have demonstrated an exceptional ability and devotion to transfer their knowledge and expertise of fastpitch softball in order to help female softball athletes reach their maximum potential and take their game to the next level.

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As Hall of Fame catcher, Yogi Berra, once observed in his own uniquely profound logic during a commencement address, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else.” Legendary UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, put it another way: “if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”

Whatever way you phrase it, the message is clear. This game has become two competitive to allow players to stand still in their development and rest on past accomplishments. If you wish to move onward and upward, you must improve your level of performance and bridge that gap between desire and achievement with a genuine and effective plan to accomplish your goals.

Unfortunately, the inability to recognize and meet sound standards of performance often interferes with your capacity to determine whether or not the goals of such a plan are being met. Despite all your effort and hard work, how do you know if you are really getting any better and whether some changes in technique are necessary to do so?

I don’t propose a definite answer to these questions, but we do employ a standard here that may give you a good start. We call it our “20 Feet Per Second Rule”, and you need only a stop watch and some simple math to gauge progress in several critical areas on both defense and offense.

Essentially, this rule is based on the statistical guidelines that most colleges use in recruiting players. “Rabbits” aside, most recruits are expected to run from home to first in three seconds. With 60 foot bases that breaks down to 20 feet per second, and it is roughly the same when advancing from any base to another or covering several bases. What you gain in momentum is offset somewhat by taking you terms around bases or sliding, so the time is still very close to this 20 feet per second benchmark.

From there you can project with some simple math that a player can also cover ten feet in ½ a second and five feet in ¼ of a second.

For a player working on defensive skills, measuring improvement is now possible by timing how long it takes to make the same play, from the same point, on the field. when she began the process and when the practice sessions are completed. Several trials should be used in the beginning to establish an average baseline and, again, at the end of the sessions.

Maybe you are working on footwork, throwing technique or gauging arm strength after a weight training program, but you now have a standard to judge results.
To a casual observer, consistently cutting a ¼ second off the time an outfielder throws from the same spot to home plate may seem inconsequential. However, with the “20 feet per second rule,” the player involved may now visualize that close play at home as an out rather than a slide under a late tag.

Obviously, none of this, whether from shortstop or center field, has any bearing on accuracy, but that is easily measured visually and doesn’t need any help in comprehending.
For catchers throwing to second base, the benchmark for most college recruiters is two seconds from touch at home to catch at second, but the variables are reduced. The catcher is always in the same place and always throws to the same target. Since many steal attempts are decided on “bang-bang” type plays, cutting even 1/10 of a second off the time may make a difference. All other factors regarding receiving ability being equal, a catcher who can consistently throw with accuracy and shave ¼ second off that two second standard, is a highly prized prospect at any college division.

This same approach is also useful on offense in measuring improvement in such areas as getting out of the batters box and running to first, rounding bases with proper technique, and sliding styles. It may also help you to determine whether or not to use metal cleats, which are now legal in high school.

In this case the situation is reversed, but the rule is the same. Every fraction of a second you can cut off your winning time puts you that much closer to the desired base. If you’re wasting a second with a wide turn around first base, you’re also giving away 20 feet in your attempt to search second base. Turn the stop watch on and off, mark the time and do the math. Whether you’re changing shoes or technique, the results will be very clear after a number of trials.

If you’re a coach trying to convince players to change their techniques, this is a far less confrontational approach and gives you sound objective data to justify your decisions when it comes to making out your line up rather than relying on mere subjective opinions to defend your choices.

I’ve been coaching high school softball during five different decades at the same school, and there was a time when players, parents and fans simply accepted coaching decisions in such matters. That is no longer the case, however. We have also entered an era where there seems to be a national societal dissatisfaction with people making judgments about us and our children. High school and college administrators often reflect this trend by moving toward quantitative rather than qualification criteria for evaluating coaching performances. Unable, or unwilling, to simply judge that a team is “improving” or “better” under a particular coach in terms of performance on the field, they sometimes look to unrelated or peripheral criteria (improvements in times for distance running, increased lifting capacity in the weight room ,etc.)

The “20 Feet Per Second Rule” not only gives you relevant criteria for judging genuine improvement but also provides justifiable data to compare performances and determine line ups.
For players, it provides that most crucial and important avenue to success—genuine feedback regarding performance levels necessary to take their game to the next level.

Coach Ford with Daughter Abbey, a three-time league MVP!

About Coach Ford
Entering 39th season as Haed Softball Coach at Central Columbia High School(Bloomsburg,PA) with a record of 635 Wins and 136 loses,including a 28-0 State Championship season in 1994. Also won 266 games as Head Girls Basketball Coach and 318 games as Head Boys Basketbakk Coach,including a 1981 State Championship(only coach in PA history to win a state title in two different ports).1219 total wins here at Central.

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Have a question? Contact >> Coach Ford directly.

Breast Cancer Awareness Fundraiser: "Swing for Life" Hit-a-Thon Softball Tourney is Set for April in Utah

It's "Swing for Life" Hit-a-Thon time again and it sure looks like a another successful tournament is on tap.

So far over 45 teams from three states are participating: California and Colorado and Utah. The event is scheduled for April19th at the Cottonwood Complex in Salt Lake City, Utah. Team entries are still be accepted.

For team entry forms contact >> Kathy Howa

Swing for Life is a not-for-profit breast cancer foundation founded by Coach Kathy Howa to increase the awareness of breast cancer.

If you are unable to make the Utah tourney but want to organize your own team's Hit-a-Thon in you town, click >> Swing for Life

To read the remarkable story about how Swing for Life got started click: How a Girls' Fastpitch Softball Team Helped Their Coach Battle Cancer

Softball Tweety: Connecting Players, Coaches and Fans to the World

Softball Tweety: Connecting Players, Coaches and Fans to the World

Many of you are probably already using Twitter to follow friends and family. One of our youthful tech saavy interns came up with the idea of "Softball Tweety" as a fun communications tool for players, coaches and their fans.

With Softball Tweety you can "Tweet" to the softball world about what's happening to you and your team - a great catch, a clutch hit to win the game, or an unbeliveable come-from-behind win. Whatever tweets you on! You can also follow other Softball Tweeters literally from anywhere in the world.

Tweet up today! Click. Tweet. Click. It's that easy.

Look for Softball Tweety on the left sidebar. And Tweet your own horn!

For Starry-eyed Kids The Olympic Dream May Flame Out

Games Have Given Softball a Big Boost Every 4 Years

Editors Note: This story is another good reason why female fastpitch softball athletes, teams and leagues need to make their collective voices heard.

Find out how at >> Back Softball. Get involved!

Dozens of girls wearing softball uniforms pressed against the makeshift fence well before the game began. They watched stretching, jogging, swinging. Then they waited until long after the game's conclusion, chanting, reaching, until finally getting every last U.S. player's autograph. "Pretty awesome," said Shelby Turnier, 13, a pitcher in the Palm Beach Gardens Fast Pitch program. "Because they are right in front of you." The U.S. national softball team was at Osceola Park last week because the Olympic Games in Beijing are just five months away, and a barnstorming tour is part of the team's preparation. Softball interest generally spikes before, and after, the Olympics.

But what will happen to softball participation nationwide if softball never again appears in the Olympics after 2008? "Every fourth year, we get that shot in the arm," said Matt Dunbar, umpiring chief for the South Florida chapter of the American Softball Association. "So I think it will start to dwindle. Let's face it: If little kids' dreams are crushed, they will go after something else that they can dream of."

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Mike Candrea, coach of the U.S. team as well as Arizona, agreed that taking away the "very powerful dream" of the Olympics will have a "trickle-down effect on our youth." Hector Torres, the bullpen coach for the gold medal-winning U.S. team in Athens, argued that many young athletic girls will choose volleyball or soccer.

Girls like Jennie Finch, the popular U.S. pitcher whose name and No. 27 were on the backs of many of the girls in attendance. Why a favorite? "Just everything," Turnier said. "To be able to be a wife, a mother that age, and playing softball at the same time, that's so much responsibility." Finch, now 27, played basketball and volleyball growing up, but preferred softball.

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"When 1996 came around," Finch said of the first Olympic contest, "I was in line to get an autograph from Lisa Fernandez like everyone else. It gives you that little spark, that dream. I hope [the exclusion starting in the 2012 Olympics] doesn't affect it, but I can only hope that." Many girls at Osceola Park said that they would still play for the love of the game, the possibility of a college scholarship, or even a chance to play in the six-team National Pro Fastpitch league, even saying the latter should get more coverage.

But that league doesn't generate anything near the exposure, or sponsorship opportunities, of the Olympics."You're not going to make a living doing that," Candrea said. "The college game is good, and is growing, and is safe, and you will get that notoriety, but you can't take a college team and get what you get with this team." Like the scene South Florida got last week.

Article source: ETHAN J. SKOLNICK South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Inspiration For All Female Fastpitch Athletes

Timeout With … Hannah Anderson, A Senior, Granite Falls Softball

It's something softball coaches and parents suggest all the time: Keep your eyes on the ball. But for Hannah Anderson, the task is much more difficult.

Anderson, a four-year starter at Granite Falls, has a rare vision deficiency called vertical heterophoria that prevents her eyes from staying in vertical alignment.To counteract the problem she wears special glasses when she hits. Still, some days the glasses don't seem to help much and Anderson has a hard time seeing the ball."It's definitely proven to be a struggle," she said.The third baseman has overcome the vision flaw, though, earning All-Cascade Conference first team honors and becoming an indispensable team leader.

Coach's corner

Second-year Granite Falls softball coach Candi Reeves called Anderson a kind, modest person who always carries herself with style and class. "She's one of the best kids I've ever known in 21 years of teaching," said Reeves. "She's a phenomenal all-around kid."The hot cornerTo play third base, which Anderson has done for the Tigers since her freshman year, a player must be ready for anything, including a laser-like line drive."That's actually what I love about it," she said. "It's completely a reaction position, definitely a hot spot. You get a lot of action."

Never perfect

No matter how good a player gets, there are ways to get develop more skills, said Anderson: "There's always room for improvement. That's something I pride myself on, that I can always do better."TrailblazerAnderson was a key part of two historic Granite Falls sports achievements. First, as a freshman she helped the girls cross country team qualify for the state meet for the first time in program history. Then, during her sophomore year she played for the Tigers softball team that made history by advancing to the fastpitch state tourney."That was a blast," Anderson said of the latter achievement.

"It's definitely a proud moment, being able to say I was a part of that team."Getting involvedOn top of her athletic commitments, Anderson is highly involved in other school groups. She's the Associated Student Body activities coordinator, Honor Society president, Spanish Club vice president and co-president of the school's Future Business Leaders of America club.

On a mission

Eventually, Anderson, who is interested in becoming a high school math teacher, hopes to do missionary work and help the needy. Said Anderson: "I really enjoy helping people and making a difference."Positive thinkingAsked what kind of music she likes, Anderson said, "I definitely like inspirational songs." One of her favorites is "Don't Give Up" by Eagle Eye Cherry.

Source: Written by Mike Cane, Herald Writer - Herald Net

Eating Game Plan: An Excerpt from Fuel for Young Athletes

Eating Game Plan -by Ann S Litt

Editors Note: This is an Excerpt from the Athletes' Choice Performance Improvement Collection of bestseller book Fuel for Young Athletes and is reprinted with the permission of Human Kinetics, of which we are a business partner. At the end of the excerpt this is a link that directs you to additional content reviews and where to purchase.

An athlete’s training should include lessons about foods that are and aren’t well tolerated before physical activity. Young athletes should understand the importance of fueling during events and eating immediately afterward to recover.Pregame PlanPregame meals are those meals eaten three to six hours before a game or other activity. The purpose of a pregame meal is to keep the blood sugar in a normal range and to add to the existing glycogen stores so that your athlete has a maximum amount of fuel before the event. The pregame meal should be well digested but filling enough for the athlete to avoid hunger during competition.
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Normally, it takes about three to four hours to completely digest and absorb a regular mixed meal. As long as there’s enough time for digestion, the pregame meal can be anything that contains carbohydrates, protein, and fat and which the athlete knows he or she can well tolerate (table 9.4).Because fat takes longer to empty from the stomach, it’s probably wise to avoid fried or high-fat foods on game day (and most other days). Eating high-fat foods can cause sluggishness because the energy they provide isn’t as available as the energy from carbohydrate-rich food.

Foods high in fiber, such as bran cereal, should also be avoided before exercise. Fiber can cause cramping as well as necessary bathroom visits at inconvenient times. Athletes competing in events with short, intense bursts, such as sprinting, short-distance swimming, or rowing, should allow their stomachs to empty before competition starts to prevent nausea. During intense activity, working muscles channel blood flow away from the stomach, causing discomfort if exercise is begun with food still in the stomach.
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For some athletes, eating a carbohydrate-rich snack within an hour before their event fuels them up. A piece of fruit, an energy bar, or some crackers should be easy to digest. Some athletes can tolerate anything they eat. Others find that drinking a carbohydrate drink such as juice is easier than eating. All of this depends wholly on the individual. Whatever athletes choose as their pregame meal should be familiar to their bodies and taste good. This is not a good time to experiment with new foods.For early morning events, encourage athletes to get up early enough to allow time to eat.

A carbohydrate-rich meal helps increase muscle glycogen before morning exercise. At the very least, have athletes drink a box drink of fruit juice and eat a cereal bar. During EventsAthletes know the phrase “hitting the wall” but usually associate it with distance runners depleting their glycogen stores and running out of gas. In fact, hitting the wall can happen in any sport. Soccer, football, and tennis use glycogen to fuel the intense stop-and-go activity common to these sports.
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Without snacking and drinking during these long games, athletes feel exhausted quickly and hit the wall. When muscles are well nourished, with good glycogen stores at the beginning of an event, they perform longer if they also receive fuel during the event. Encourage athletes to take advantage of breaks in activity to eat or drink easy-to-digest, carbohydrate-rich foods such as fruit, energy bars, or sports drinks (tables 9.5 and 9.6). They’ll feel more energetic throughout the event.

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Recovery
What you eat within the first few minutes after a workout or competition is known as your “recovery meal.” This small meal is the most important and underrated part of training. It sets the stage for how the athlete feels for the rest of the day and affects the next day’s training or competition. Recovery eating is essentially reloading the muscles with glycogen.
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Fifteen to 30 minutes after exercising, the muscles are like sponges, waiting to refill the glycogen stores that have just been exhausted. If athletes refill within this time range, they’ll be revved to go. If they miss their window of opportunity, they’ll feel sluggish and lazy for the next event. Carbohydrate plus protein appears to be the most effective combination for restoring glycogen. Eating a snack (such as a banana with yogurt) within 15 minutes of the end of a workout and then eating a regular meal 2 hours later maximizes muscle receptivity (table 9.7).Many athletes just can’t or don’t want to eat directly after exercise. In such cases, drinking a sports drink or diluted fruit juice is a good first step to refueling.
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Athletes who want to lose weight often choose not to eat right after exercising; they rationalize that they’ve just burned a bunch of calories and shouldn’t replace them right away. In fact, recovery eating often helps these athletes refrain from bingeing later in the day. Remember that the recovery meal is just a small eating episode—-it’s not breakfast, lunch, or dinner.Planning meals for athletes is challenging, but the payoff makes it worthwhile. Young athletes feel much more energized if they take time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They’ll have more productive workouts when they refuel correctly and can better manage their day. When families are involved in these meals, everyone benefits.

To review and purchase, click >> Fuel for Young Athletes

Meet Ken Krause - Softball Authority Guest Coach

Meet Coach Ken Krause

Here is the third featured coach in our new series for 2008 called "Softball Authority." The premise of Softball Authority is to showcase articles and/or training videos by coaches who have have demonstrated an exceptional ability and devotion to transfer their knowledge and expertise of fastpitch softball in order to help female softball athletes reach their maximum potential and take their game to the next level.

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About Coach Ken Krause
Ken Krause has been coaching girls fastpitch softball for 12 years. Some may know him as a contributing columnist to Softball Magazine, where he writes Krause's Korner -- a regular column sponsored by Louisville Slugger. Ken is also the editor of Marc Dagenais' "No BS Softball Performance Newsletter." He is currently a One Star Master Coach with the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA), and is certified by both the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) and American Sports Education Program (ASEP). Ken coaches the Mundelein Thunder 16U team and is a private instructor specializing in pitchers, hitters, and catchers. He teaches out of Grand Slam USA in Spring Grove, IL and is Head Softball Pitching Instructor at North Shore Baseball Academy in Libertyville, IL.

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It’s Your Career
By Ken Krause

One of the toughest choices a player has to make is what to do when the skills she’s been working so hard to acquire in the off-season conflict with the way her current coach wants her to do things. For example, she’s worked hard to develop the type of power swing being advocated at the top levels of the game, but her game coach (who’s stuck in 1985) wants her to throw her hands at the ball and "just make contact."

In a perfect world, the game coach would take a look at the results she’s getting, such as hitting doubles and triples on a regular basis, but this is rarely a perfect world. (If it was perfect, lettuce would taste like chocolate and oil companies would decide they’ve made enough profits and drop the price of gasoline back to a dollar again.)

Instead, what often happens is that the coach takes one look at what she’s doing and insists that she change what she’s doing to what he wants her to do, even if it sets her back three steps. Then when she does it and her production falls off, he decides to bench her for non-performance and put someone else in her place. Now she not only doesn’t get to play, she’s lost the skills that could help her play for another team.

A long time ago, I used to think the answer to the dilemma was to go along with what the coach says in practice, but then do it the way you know how in a game. I came to find out that’s a bad idea. What is most likely to happen is you will lose your way completely, stuck in a kind of no-man’s-land between the skills you worked on during the off-season and the ones the coach is trying to get you to move toward. In other words, you’ll be totally confused and ultimately frustrated.

So do you stand your ground and risk the coach being unhappy with you? Or do you abandon those skills under the mandate of "go along to get along?"
To me, what it comes down to is that it’s your career. You have to decide what is best for you, based on your goals and what you want out of this particular team.

If your ultimate goal is to play on this team – for example a high school varsity team – the answer becomes pretty obvious. The coach has absolute power, so unless your family is prepared to move to another school district with a coach whose philosophy is more in keeping with what you’re doing you will need to do what he/she says. Even if it’s not the best way to go.

If your ultimate goal is to play in college, however, things change. On your skills tape, and in your summer tournament games, you’re going to need to demonstrate the skills for which college coaches are looking. You won’t be able to do it if the skills you’re being asked to perform aren’t the same as the ones the college coaches want. In that case, you will need to "respectfully decline" to make the required changes and trust that your level of performance in games overcomes any objections to the way that performance is achieved.

How do you "respectfully decline?" You don’t do it outright. No sense in generating confrontation and animosity so directly. That’s a quick ticket to the bench. It’s also the wrong way for a player to act toward a coach, no matter what you make think privately. A better strategy is to meet those suggestions with an "Ok" or "I’m trying," then continue to work the skills you know. Most coaches have many things to do during practice, and will usually move on when they don’t see progress being made. As long as they believe you’re making the attempt, most will be satisfied.
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Practice is the place these situations tend to crop up most. During games, everyone is usually too excited and focused on the overall play to see how skills are being executed. If you’re asked to lay down a bunt and you lay it down, odds are no one will notice whether the technique you used was the "approved" one or not. If you drive in the winning run with a two-out double, no one will notice whether you turned your hips on the ball or just threw your hands at it. If you pitch a three-hit shutout against a major rival team, it’s likely no one will really notice whether you "closed the door" with your hips or stayed open and drove straight in (as you should). In fact, it’s likely that the coach will tell the whole team about how well you did because you listened to him/her; you can just smile, knowing the truth.
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All that being said, one thing you want to be careful of is automatically dismissing a coach’s comments out of hand because they’re different from what you do. Again, this is part of taking responsibility for your career. What you really should do is listen to every bit of input you can get, and then sort out what makes sense. See what the elite-level players are doing, and compare that to what you’re being told. Watch the Women’s College World Series – better yet record it on your DVR or VCR so you can play it back and analyze it later – to see how they’re executing the skills. Buy, borrow or rent instructional videos from people you know to be credible and see what they have to say. Then compare all of it to what you’re being told.

If it lines up with what the coach is telling you, you probably ought to listen, even if it’s different from what a private instructor told you. Private instruction varies greatly in quality like everything else. If what you see is different than what you’re being told, however, you then have to make the decision on whether to comply with the coach’s wishes or stick to your guns and take the heat.

Again, doing the latter isn’t easy. It’s like that old saying: Doing what’s right isn’t always popular, and doing what’s popular isn’t always right. Only you can decide what’s right for you.
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Remember, it’s your career. If the coach ultimately screws you up big time, he/she will find another player to fill your spot. Meantime, it could take you a year or more to get back to where you need to be. Learn the game, know your goals, and take ownership of your skills. No matter what the immediate outcome, you’ll be happy you did in the long run.


Coach Ken has a very cool blog called >> Life in the Fastpitch Lane, where you will find numerous training articles, drills and tips.
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You can contact the coach directly at >> Coach Ken Krause.
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To receive notice of our next featured coach, submit your name to receive an email alert (use the subscribe button on the left sidebar of this blog). If you want to nominate your coach to be featured on Softball Authority, please a email the Softball Authority Guest Coach Program.