Softball Coaching Bible - National Fastpitch Coaches Association

The Softball Coaching Bible

by National Fastpitch Coaches Association

NEW, 360 pages

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About The Softball Coaching Bible

Now, for the first time in the sport of fastpitch softball, you can learn from successful coaches and apply their approaches to your own program. In The Softball Coaching Bible, 28 of the top U.S. coaches share their principles, insights, strategies, methods, and experiences to help you enhance the experience and development of your own athletes.

Developed in cooperation with the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA), The Softball Coaching Bible was written by the greatest assembly of college and high school softball coaches ever. The text provides the finer points of coaching softball, presented in an engaging manner that makes the contents easy to apply to your own ball club. The topics range from teaching the best skills and drills to subjects rarely written about, such as developing responsible athletes and building character and loyalty in players.

Find out how Mike Candrea develops productive hitters at the University of Arizona, and follow the advice of Fresno State University’s Margie Wright for competing in tournaments and playoffs. This landmark work covers all the bases, from recruiting players to attracting fans. The Softball Coaching Bible also contains information on professional development: moving through the coaching ranks, making use of other coaches and professional organizations, avoiding coaching burnout, and attending and running camps and clinics. Chapter after chapter, this book provides the game plan for building a winning program.

The Softball Coaching Bible is filled with insights and expert advice to help you learn and grow. Soak it up, enjoy the stories, and discover the wisdom of the sport’s finest mentors.

About NFCA

The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) is the sport's leading professional growth organization for coaches at all competitive levels of play. The NFCA has more than 4,000 members, most of whom are high school, travel-team, and collegiate coaches.

The NFCA provides a forum for discussing matters of interest to its members and works to formulate guiding principles, standards, and policies for conducting competitive fastpitch softball programs for girls and women. It recognizes outstanding members through its Victory Club and Coach of the Year awards programs, in addition to All-Region, All-American, and Scholar-Athlete awards programs for members' college and high school players. All members receive the association's newspaper, Fastpitch Delivery, and enjoy discounts on softball coaching clinics, videos, and books. They also have access to the NFCA job bank, camp network, and other professional networking opportunities.

The NFCA headquarters are located in Columbia, Missouri, where executive director Lacy Lee Baker and her husband, University of Missouri head softball coach Jay Miller, and their daughter, Nikki, also reside.

About Softball

Softball is played between 2 teams on a large field, with nine players from one team on the field at a time. The field is usually composed of a dirt or brickdust infield which contains the quadrilateral shape and running areas, and a grass outfield. However, the field also can consist of all dirt, grass, artificial turf, or, in areas such as New York City, asphalt . There are 4 bases on the infield (first base, second base, third base,and home plate); the bases are arranged in a square and are typically 45 to 65 feet (13,7 to 19,8 meters) apart. Near the center of this square is the pitcher's circle, and within the circle is the "rubber", a small flat rectangular area. The object of the game is to score more runs (points) than the other team by batting (hitting) a ball into play and running around the bases, touching each one in succession. The ball is a sphere of light material, covered with leather or synthetic material. It is 10 to 12 inches (or rarely, 16 inches) (28 to 30.5 centimeters) in circumference. The game is officiated by one or more neutral umpires. Players and umpires are generally free to ask for a brief stoppage at any time when the ball is not in play, or immediately following a play once its outcome is clear.

The game is played in a series of innings, usually seven. Youth leagues sometimes have 6 innings. An inning is one series of both teams playing offense and defense. Each inning is divided into a top half and a bottom half indicating which team is playing which role. The offense bats and attempts to score runs, while the defense occupies the field and attempts to record outs in a variety of ways. After the defense records 3 outs, the half inning is over and the teams switch roles.

To start play, the offense sends a batter to home plate. The batting order must be fixed at the start of the game, and players may not bat out of turn. The defense's pitcher stands atop the rubber and throws the ball towards home plate using an underhanded motion. The batter attempts to hit the pitched ball with a bat, a long, round, smooth stick made of wood, metal or composite. A pitch must cross within a small area known as the strike zone, which is determined by the umpire behind home plate, and primarily ranges from the knees to just below the shoulders the ball must cross over the plate, and it must be within a certain height restriction. A pitch which does not cross the strike zone is a ball, and if the batter reaches 4 balls, the batter is awarded the first base. A pitch which crosses the strike zone is a strike, and a batter who reaches 3 strikes is out (a strikeout), and the next batter in the order comes to bat. A strike is also recorded on any pitch that the batter swings at and misses entirely, and also on a pitch that is hit foul (out of play), a foul ball may or may not result in a strikeout dependent upon what association and local league rules. However, bunting a foul ball does result in a strikeout. Bunting is not allowed and results in an out in some associations and leagues.

The batter attempts to swing the bat and hit the ball fair (into the field of play). After a successful hit the batter becomes a baserunner (or runner) and must run to first base. The defense attempts to field the ball and may throw the ball freely between players, so one player can field the ball while another moves to a position to put out the runner. The defense can tag the runner, by touching the runner with the ball while the runner is not on a base. The defense can also touch first base while in possession of the ball; in this case it is sufficient to beat the batter to first base and an actual tag of the batter is unnecessary. A runner is said to be thrown out when the play involves two or more defensive players. Runners generally cannot be put out when touching a base, but only one runner may occupy a base at any time and runners may not pass each other. When a ball is batted into play, runners generally must attempt to advance if there are no open bases behind them; for example, a runner on first base must run to second base if the batter puts the ball in play. In such a situation, the defense can throw to the base that the lead runner is attempting to take (a force out), and the defense can then also throw to the previous base. This can result in a multiple-out play: a double play is two outs, while a triple play, a very rare occurrence, is three outs. Runners with an open base behind them are not forced to advance and do so at their own risk; the defense must tag such runners directly to put them out rather than tagging the base.

A ball which is hit in the air and caught before hitting the ground is an immediate out, regardless of whether the ball would have landed fair or foul. A fly ball is a ball hit high and deep, a pop fly is a ball hit high but short, and a line drive is a ball hit close to the horizontal. In any such situation, runners must remain on their bases until the ball is touched by a defensive player or hits the ground. If a runner leaves the base before a fly ball, pop fly, or line drive is touched or contacts the ground, the defense can throw the ball to that base, and if the base is tagged before the runner returns, the runner is out as well, resulting in a double play. If the runner remains on the base until the ball is touched, or returns to the base after the catch but before the defense can put him out, he is said to tag up and may attempt to advance to the next base at his own risk. If there are less than two batters out and runners on 1st and 2nd bases and the batter hits a pop fly in the infield, the batter is automatically out to prevent unfair play by the fielders. Unfair play may result from infielders deliberately dropping the ball to try and achieve a double play. This rule is called the infield fly rule.

Offensive strategy is fairly straight forward, revolving around hitting the ball to let the batter reach base safely and to advance the base runners towards home plate to score runs. Defensive strategy can be more complex, with particular situations calling for different positioning and tactical decision making. For both sides, there can be a trade-off between outs and runs: the offense can sacrifice a batter to advance runners, while the defense may allow a runner to score if the remaining runners can be put out in a double play.

The Softball Coaching Bible