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Spring training is here! The snow is starting to melt up north, and coaches and players involved in the "summer game" can hardly contain their excitement.
Literally millions of athletes play baseball and softball every year. They certainly are the oldest contested team sports in America and much has changed over time. The games are so much safer - and faster - than they were not 20 years
ago.
Therefore, even experienced coaches need to revisit the essentials of these games each season. To assist in the process, this installment of "Coaching &
Sports" focuses on these grand old games and what coaches can do to make them safer and more enjoyable for everyone.
But don't assume that there's nothing here for you if you don't coach, or even like, these games. Look into most of the sites listed, and you will find information for other sports and coaching in general.
Mike Clark
Coaching & Sports Section Editor
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For some ideas on getting a key body part ready for the season, visit "Condition Yourself Against Softball Shoulder" (These also apply to baseball!). It's all part of Softball Tips from Catholic Healthcare West in San Francisco.
Additional stretches for baseball and softball players can be found at Avoiding Baseball and Softball Injuries from the Cincinnati Health Alliance.
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It's too easy to be critical of sports and coaches, and especially coaches who seem preoccupied with the "inside" bits of a simple game. But look at these two quotes.
Chris Elze, a college softball player and coach, points out the joy of the game: "In softball you experience immediate success--and failure. Luckily, you almost always get another chance. If you strike out, you get the chance to get a hit the next time you're up."
Compare this with a similar sense of the game from former major leaguer Rick Dempsey (He was quoted in an article by Roger Angell). "You've got to concentrate on each play, each hitter, each pitch. All this makes the game much slower and much clearer. It breaks it down to its smallest part. If you take the game like that-one pitch, one hitter, one inning at a time, and then one game at a time-the next thing you know, you look up and you've won."
So the games are simple. But they reflect some of the essentials of life. You fail; you get a chance to redeem yourself. You take it day-to-day, moment-to-moment. The games we play teach those things. Good coaches help athletes learn these lessons.That's why we keep at it. And that's what stays with our athletes.
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Lots of us are clueless when it comes to sports for special needs populations. A good introduction to this area is available at Coaches Education and Certification. The Special Olympics movement has a proven track record in coaches education. And their information would help any coach do a better job. Check out the site to see what you might be missing.
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"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."
~ Thomas Paine ~
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Look at this site to see what one coach has done: Home State Bank Team Manual. This electronic guide for coaches may remind you of some things to do, or make you reconsider some of the things you've been doing. It's always good to start the season by reviewing what you've done before. Sometimes part of the process is seeing how someone else tries to get to the same end.
There's not a lot of skills and drills information here. Most such sites are commercial. Some even charge for their services. So the best thing is to take a look at what's there and make your own decisions. Possibly the best place to start is the Baseball
Coaches' Links site. Lots of links to just about any topic you can
imagine.
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If you have ideas, comments, letters to share, or questions about particular topics, please email one of the following Coaching & Sports Section Editors:
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Help to support quality physical education and health education by contributing to this site.
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Yes, they do play baseball in Australia! There are several major leaguer and lots of minor league players from "Down Under." So it should be no surprise that Australian researchers have something to say about the game. Researcher at Monash University have produced the page, Pitching
Injury Prevention to Baseballers and Softballers.
What you'll find is an excellent summary of the kinds of things that can be done to make the sports safer. Some of these are controversial of course. But even these serve to remind coaches and players of some of the problems associated with the sports; Low-compression balls, break away bases, over-use injuries-those sorts of issues.
You'll also find a link to Countermeasure
Fact Sheets that provide quick two page summaries of safety tips and
injury information in PDF form. They also cover other sports besides baseball
and softball; soccer, running, and hockey might be of interest (But bowls and
cricket probably aren't).
For the U.S. version of the same stuff, look into the Centers for Disease Control site Baseball
and Softball Safety.
An additional look at pitching injuries, with a closer look at the old "How much should a softball pitcher pitch?" argument, see Trainer's Tips.
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Sport Stats Online
Did you know you could now post your local sports statistics online? InstaSports.com provides viewers with detailed stats for individual players, game-by-game, and season by season, and also gives you the power to view the data the way you desire it.
Mickey Sports Pack
Create colorful sport pictures with early elementary children. From Britain, some learning opportunities for students in Physical Education. Includes information and activities that contribute to lessons in Citizenship, History, and English.
Going for Gold!
In this activity, students begin with an exploration to locate information about specific Olympic athletes and events, then move on to a consideration of the Olympic movement; what it was and what it has become; and of the roles that sports and athletes play in our world.
New Grading and Attendance Program
"InteGrade Pro" is a teacher gradebook that runs on Macintosh and Windows personal computers. It integrates with administrative computers and does many different ways to report and calculate grades.
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Please let your colleagues know about PELINKS4U, and remember you can catch up on a year's worth of news in our Archives.
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