Fastpitch Parents

When a negative incident happens at the field, as parents we’re often quick express our thoughts about the event.  Often times we tell our children what should or should not have been done.  We may even point out actions or even people who were right or wrong.   If your children are younger, they may ask questions about a particular incident:

• Why did so-and-so do that?
• Why did so-an-so’s say this?
• Why didn’t they do that?  It wasn’t fair!

Those questions can be tough to answer!  The Washington Post shared and article about How to Turn Controversies into Teachable Moments. It doesn’t explain it all in a sports setting, but the concepts can still be applied.  I have to admit, it may take quite some effort on our part as parents to pull this off, but it’s definitely something to think about.

Technorati Tags: attitude, controversy

I’ve seen a LOT of cases where parents are just wayyyyyy too serious about their child being in sports. They are just so intense from a young age and I think some are just so way over the top. Others can only see their child through rose colored glasses. While there are many negative stories of parents being involved with youth sports, I just came across an article that talks about some benefits for parents of kids in sports including:

• Better spousal communication
• Improved time management skills
• Motivation to learn
• and a few more

Read the full article at the Washington Post.

I just finished listening to Dr. Tom Hanson’s 7 Success Secrets for Baseball/Softball.  Dr. Hanson was co-author of the ever popular Heads Up Baseball which many softball coaches use as required reading for their team.

Dr. Hanson’s CD, 7 Success Secrets for Baseball/Softball shared some very interesting information.  Most of which I already knew, but the thing about hearing someone else talk about it is that they often can put it in a slightly different perspective or help you see it in a different light.  Because they talk about it in a different way or explain it in a different way it can help you gain a deeper understanding of the concepts OR give you a better idea of how to apply the concepts to your life more effectively.

One thing that Dr. Hanson did mention was an acronym for WIN that I had never heard before and I thought it was a pretty clever, very accurate acronym.  He also goes into practice, focus, the law of attraction, understanding team spirit, the true nature of the game and more. I also really like a point he makes about the true nature of the game and how he describes something I talked about quite often last month at All About Fastpitch – allowing circumstances around you to affect your performance.  Like I said, it was something I already understood as a concept, but Dr. Hanson talked about it in a different manner from a different approach and it just opened up a better understanding of it for me.

Overall Dr. Hanson did a great job putting this resource together and is giving it away for less than 5 bucks (the cost to ship the CD to you).  Go over to Dr. Hanson’s Success Secrets site to grab your copy today.

Technorati Tags: confidence, Mental Game Information, softball performance

So you want to play softball in college and think you have the grades and skills necessary to do so.  That’s great!  But do you have a plan?  Even if you’re one of the best on your team or even in your league, you still need a plan.   Hopefully by the time you finished reading this you’ll understand why.

Being able to continue in sports after high school is over involves more than just good grades and physical ability.

I know a student-athlete who:

• Was a 4-year varsity starter
• Made the all-conference team 3 times
• Made the all-state team 3 times
• Was named player of the year in her conference as a senior
• Graduated with a 3.6 GPA
• Graduated with an Honors diploma from an academically challenging prep school
• Graduated in the top 10% of her class
• Took the SAT only once and scored a 1290 back when the test was still out of 1600
• Was on a “high profile” team (conference champs 4 times, state champs 3 times)

Her senior year the local newspaper did an article on her and said she was “a top college prospect.” In the 15 years her coach led his team to 4 state championships and even he said she was “the best fielding, throwing, hitting, and running player I’ve had in my 15 years of coaching.”

This player had physical ability and strong academics, but no college recruiting plan.

This player was me…READ MORE

Technorati Tags: college recruiting, college recruiting tips, college softball

One of the most common questions I get asked is. “What do I do to get my daughter noticed?”

When it comes to the subject of college recruiting, there are usually two kinds of people (and this goes for both parents and coaches):

1.There are the ones who actually know something about the process and typically have put forth effort to know as much as they can.

2.Then the majority of everyone else falls into the category of “clueless.”

Even the few that sorta think they know “something” about the process, for the most part, they are “clueless.”

Because this is such a hot topic and one that most do not get a second chance at, I’m giving you the opportunity to get some of your most pressing college recruiting questions answered. Read More »

Technorati Tags: college recruiting, college softball, youth sports