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Marc Dagenais - Softball to me show details 5:35 AM (2 hours ago) Reply
10 Rules to Shift the Odds In Your Favor
Hi Kirsten,
I'm a firm believer is shifting the odds in your favor.
Softball is somewhat of a complex game.
Yet, to be successful, it comes back to accomplishing afew very simple things.
Doing those simple things will "shift the odds in yourfavor."
What are these simple things?
Here's my top 10 list of rules to shift the shift the oddsin your favor.
1) Pitching - keep the ball low most of the time and on thecorners.
How many hitters do you know that can hit an inside or outsidelow pitches very hard?
2) Pitching - Throw strikes early. Get ahead in the count. Then mix.
3) Avoid walks at almost all cost except in a few situations.
I'm allergic to walks. Most of the time, almost 60-70% come toscore - especially when given early in the inning.
4) Don't give easy bases to any runner, especially to thetrail runner.
5) Always get at least one "sure" out. Lead runner if you can.
The team that gets to 21 out the fastest usually wins.
6) Catchers or any fielder - don't throw if you have almostno chance to get an out.
The team that makes the least errors usually wins.
7) Swing at strikes and if you are going to swing at a bad pitch -swing hard.
Even if you are chasing a bad pitch, at least, send a message orswing hard enough to maybe get a scratch hit out of it insteadof a lazy pop-up or weak grounder.
8) With two strikes and less than 3 balls - swing at anything thatlooks like a strike.
I would rather go down fighting and have a chance to hit than getbeat without a fight.
9) Be aggressive on the bases. Make the defense work to get you out.
10) Get the sacrifice bunt down in fair territory and don't aim forthe lines.
The purpose of the hitter in a sac bunt situation is not to be safeat first. It's the to advance the runner. Too many are trying outto bunt the perfect ball - often along the lines and it rolls in foulterritory.
Make sure the ball is in play well inside the lines and just try tobunt not directly at a fielder to make sure the runnerwill make it safely to the next base.
Bottom line...
Offensively - Put the ball in play. Swing the ball hard. Run a lot. challenge the defense.
Defensively - Get at least one "sure" out on every play. Avoid walkslike the plague in most situations. Keep the ball low most of the time.Get ahead in the count. Don't get easy bases. Force the opposite team to "earn" theirruns - don't give them to them.
These are somewhat very simple and very basic.
Yet, I see many youth teams forget about it. They often lose focus by focusing toomuch on the more advance strategies.
I'm been applying and "really emphazing" these basic rules withmy pitchers, catchers, fielders, and hitters very systematically overthe years - very successfully.
And at various levels of game from 12U to 23U.
The thing is that you have to always emphasize them untilit becomes second nature - even though most of them are very obvious.
Play to shift the odds in your favor and win A LOT more games.