Patience Young Padawan

We're 4 games into our U12 softball season and it's been an interesting ride already. In our first game, we struck out 11 times and had 1 hit. Granted, we walked 15 times, but we swung at way too many bad pitches. Somehow, we managed to score 12 runs and we slunk away with a win.

In game 2, we reduced our strikeouts from 11 to 9 which was better, but still way too many. Our 9 hits and 12 walks earned us another win - 10-6 over a very good team, but I had a feeling we had a ways to go.

Game 3 was a nightmare, I put some kids into spots where they didn't perform well, and we were flat all night. We took our first loss, a 17-16 walk fest where we drew 19 free passes against 4 strikeouts (yes!) but only managed 4 hits. We did win the last 3 innings 5-4 though - that's a great tip if you can use it to motivate and keep the team positive BTW (look at an inning or a few innings and declare victory).

At the beginning of game 4, I gave the girls a pep talk and told them to be patient at the plate. In fact, I told them, DO NOT swing at anything until you have a strike on you. I really wanted them to start to get comfortable at the plate and to start working the count and looking for what I am now calling their "dream pitch."

I told them, unless you have 2 strikes on you, get real picky - and only swing at that one pitch that you know you can smash. Game 4 started ugly, my 2 and 3 hitters popped out and grounded out weakly respectively, both swinging at first pitches! I was grinding my teeth and reiterated in my own "coach way" that they were now under strict orders of death (not really death) to not swing until they had a strike on them.

Immediately, things changed. The other team couldn't find the strike zone and because we were patient, we drew 19 walks in a 5 inning game. Additionally, we blasted 6 big hits (all of them solid including 3 into the outfield) and only had 1 strikeout on our way to a 17-6 blowout against the same team that beat us a week earlier.

Tell your kids to slow down. Be patient and to "pick out a good one and crush it!"

We're now 3-1 and I think on our way to a very solid season.