MEDIA REVIEW

Coaching Softball Technical and Tactical Skills

With summer arriving and outdoor sports starting it is a great time to review a book on coaching softball. Softball can be played by both males and females, young and old, and competitively and noncompetitively. Coaching Softball Technical and Tactical Skills is a 5-unit book with 10 chapters. The units include teaching and evaluating, teaching technical skills, teaching tactical skills, planning for teaching, and game coaching.

Unit 1 focuses on teaching and evaluating the players in practice. The authors explain that coaching means teaching the action right and then evaluating the action that the players are doing to make sure they are doing it correctly. A three-step system to teaching is shared: shaping, focusing, and enhancing. Softball is a team sport so evaluations have to focus both on single players and on the team as a whole. Unit 1 also mentions testing each team member physically through strength, speed, agility, power, and flexibility measures.

The authors state that coaches need to be teaching the players about mental skills, communication skills, and character skills as well as technical skill. There is an example of an evaluation sheet in Chapter 3 to help coaches when they have to evaluate their players. Examples are provided for stealing bases and throwing technique. These examples can be modified to work for other skills but I think it would have been more beneficial if the authors had given more examples for different positions. An important topic brought up in the book though is that coaches need to take the time to get to know their players personally. Coaches are encouraged to have conversations with them about things outside of softball and competition.

Teaching technical skills is the main topic of Unit 2. It breaks technical skill into two parts: The first part is offensive technical skills and the second part is defensive technical skills. The offensive skills covered include hitting, sacrifice bunt, slap hit and hard bunt, squeeze bunt, running slap, baserunning, bent-leg slide, pop-up slide, and headfirst slide. All of these activities are described in detail and there are pictures to compliment the directions. The pictures help with understanding the directions. There are also key points at the beginning of each skill to guide execution.

The defensive skills taught in this section cover throwing, infield throwing, fielding balls forehand and backhand, fielding ground balls for infield and outfield, catching a throw, catching a fly ball, pitching, catching, and playing all of the bases. These skills also have pictures and key points to help explain them. Overall the explanations are very thorough and can be used to teach and critique players. This unit also has a common errors section for each skill. These common error boxes explain how these skills can be done incorrectly and how to correct these errors. attached

Unit 3 is on teaching tactical skills. This unit is also broken into two parts: Offensive tactical skills and defensive tactical skills. The offensive skills described include playing the short game, stealing a base, protecting the runner on a steal, first-and-third situations, aggressive base running, running home, hit and run, and situational hitting. The defensive skills reviewed are infield and outfield defensive responsibilities, defending the bunt, pickoffs, rundowns, and defending the first-and-third play. All of these skills are paired with pictures and helpful tips as in the previous unit. But these skill descriptions are not only about doing them right but doing them at the right time. The section goes over how to teach players about making smart playing decisions.

Unit 4 covers planning for teaching. The book identifies six steps in instructional planning: Identify the skills that your athletes need, know your athletes, analyze your situation, establish priorities, select methods for teaching, and plan practices. The authors explain each step and how to implement the process into coaching. Examples are given of how to prioritize the needs of your team and how to coach them to successful learning. The unit also gives a sample of how to plan practices for 10-weeks including pre-season and in season play. Looking at the "big" picture of the season is good for a new coach because it helps them to plan. The book provides a breakdown of how to run a single practice with a specific time frame. It recommends creating an objective for each practice because it gives sets a goal and a place to go. This portion of the book is important for coaches to help them stay on track and keep practices productive.

Unit 5 focuses on game coaching. The authors use the first section to discuss recruiting and everything that leads up to the first game. The next part discusses coaching during the game and what to do after the game. The authors discuss how to recruit players and the importance of keeping open lines of communication with parents and players. They point out that at most high school coaches cannot recruit their players. Keeping open lines of communication is important especially when working with minors and should be done with the best interests of the players in mind. Communication also needs to happen between coaches, captains, and players. In the second section, batting order and positions and substitutes for those positions are discussed. Another important topic examined in this unit is the post game debriefing. Talking about what went right and what went wrong can help coaches and athletes think about the next game.

Overall this book was very complete, informative, and explained softball coaching well. In one place, the order of the information puzzled me. I felt that Unit 1 would fit better if it were presented after the positions were described. The pictures and keynotes that went along with the skills were helpful and clarified the learning objectives. The tables with common errors and corrections for each skill were an excellent reference resource

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