There are many ways to run a softball team, but time and time again, solid discipline and sticking to the right principles will make a good team great. In this article, read over the top 10 tips that will help not only the players but your entire softball team.

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• Develop your team philosophy, such as: “We do what we do best, all of the time.”

• Know your limitations.

• Experiment with hitting occasionally (maybe 15-25%) during practice, not in games! Find out what kind of pitches you like to hit, where you hit best, and learn to do it well. Being aggressive is important, but not so important that you end up swinging at pitches that you’re not good at hitting. Don’t be afraid to take a pitch. If being selective ultimately means a higher batting average, then striking out 1 or 2 times is surely acceptable. An out is an out (see section on “good out and bad outs”). It is very possible that your batting average may be poor due to swinging at too many pitches. Your hitting concept should be designed in a way that will maximize benefits to the team. Your hitting concept should be long run-oriented and should not be changing from game to game. A .650 hitter with 0 home runs may be just as good, or better, than a .500 hitter with 20 home runs.

• How many guys do you know that get mad when they are walked? They mumble things like “pitcher’s chicken” and “afraid to pitch me, huh?”. A walk is, most of the time, as good as a hit. Almost never can it be said that a walk lacks merit. If the pitcher walks you intentionally, often you earned it somehow during or prior to the game (it’s called “respect”). If he walks you unintentionally then you still earned it. The team philosophy concerning hitting states to “hit pitches you are good at hitting” which are basically strikes. By neglecting to accept a walk by swinging at pitches outside the strike zone is contrary to the team philosophy.

• Don’t hit balls where.…
  • you stroke the ball without authority
  • you have difficulty positioning the ball consistently
  • you must telegraph where you are hitting (unless of course this is where you hit best).
  • Never sacrifice the pure fundamentals of hitting (hitting line drives, being selective, and hitting where you hit best) just to become a place hitter. Conquer the former, then proceed with the latter.
• Observe the other team. Who has a strong arm? Who has an accurate arm? How well does the other team’s cutoff system seem to be working? How long is it taking them to get the ball in from the outfield? These are just some of the questions a good base coach will be attempting to answer as the game progresses (as well as the rest of the team, you never know when you will be base coaching).

• Remember that as long as the ball is in the outfield nothing can be done to prevent runners from advancing. The quicker a ball returns to the infield, the sooner we can prevent such advancement.

• The best pitchers are those who can throw a strike when they need to. An effective pitcher is often one who throws many balls, but has few walks (it’s called “challenging the hitters”). On the other hand, a pitcher who has no walks may be suspect of throwing too many strikes. This may suggest he is not challenging the hitters. Allowable limits for walks: 0 to 2 walks per game and walks with no one on base. Unallowable limits for walks: walking the 9th , 10th, or 11th batters, walks with 1st base occupied. or walking in the winning run ( these are called “untimely walks”).

• Keep the umpire on your side. Don’t ever argue with an umpire. It doesn’t do a bit of good. It only hurts you and the team. An umpire may consciously or even subconsciously get back at you and the team. And the umpire’s subconscious is a key factor for influencing. For example, when you are batting and the pitch is a marginal strike or ball, an umpire may unknowingly look for clues as to whether the pitch was a strike or not. The split second you decide you are not going to swing at the pitch, stop looking at it. If you watch the pitch all the way past the plate as if you possibly wanted to swing, you just told the umpire you thought the pitch was worth swinging at (at least it was worth looking at!). If there was any doubt in the umpire’s mind about the pitch, there isn’t now because you just made up his mind. If you are one ball away from a walk with no strikes and the pitcher likes to throw deep, move up in the box. Some umpires call the pitch where it lands, others call where it crosses your body, and others, well that’s another story

• Have good attendance. Softball is not our lives. If it were, we would be getting paid to play. Too often practice and games are scheduled around the coach’s ability to attend. And then the coach doesn’t understand when a player can’t make it. If you can’t make it, fine. Just make sure the coach knows as soon as possible. And you don’t have to make up some story about how your great-grandmother died and you have to go to Russia for the funeral. When you feel you have other priorities, simply notify the coach that you won’t be there as soon as possible! On the other hand, you are expected to be excited about playing. Habitually missing practices and games shows a lack of interest. This only hurts the team. There will be no other choice but to find a replacement player.