Coach Lewis,

​My name is --------- and I am attending the Headfirst Honor Roll Camp on 10/22-10/23. I am looking to study ------- and your softball program interests me as well. I have a ----- GPA and I have been playing softball for ten years. I play for ------ team, take hitting lessons from ---------, and play high school softball for ----------. I hope that you take a look at me this weekend, and I would love to hear from you. Thanks!
 
 
I spent the past weekend recruiting with Rhodes College Softball at the Headfirst Honor Roll Camp in DC. Leading up to the event I received about thirty emails exactly like the one you just read. After about 5 of the same email, they all start to blend together. Until I got this one. While it is somewhat silly and does not give me a lot of information about the player or her interest level in Rhodes, it caught my attention enough to want to meet her.  What little things can you do to stand out like this when there are thousands of softball players around the country doing the exact same things you are? 
 
Hi Coach Lewis,
 
My name is ----------, and I go to --------- High School. My plan is to study biology and wear wools socks to class while doing so. In --------- it is perpetually oven-temperature, so I am seeking a school like Rhodes where that is not always the case and my dream can become a reality. Knee-high socks are also fine by me, so long as they are accompanied by a bat and a glove. While said attire is being worn, I play left field and hit/slap on the left side.
      I will be at the Headfirst Honor Roll camp in DC this weekend, and I look forward to meeting you there. If you have any spots available for 2017's, please keep your eyes peeled for me. Even if you don't, I occasionally provide visual entertainment in the form of stellar dance moves and I'd love to talk to you all about it...or anything else possibly more relevant to your desired conversation for the scenario. See you this weekend!

I try to create the same expectations and environment for young pitchers that I do for college pitchers. It's never too early to start asking pitchers to take ownership of their actions! 

​​1. Developing intrinsic motivation
 
Being a pitcher means putting in more time than any other position on the field. Especially when you are young and first learning to pitch, because we all know the amount of practice it takes to actually learn how to throw strikes is insane. It takes a special kind of softball player to continue to do something over and over with little progress at first. This intrinsic motivation doesn’t just happen, it must be encouraged by coaches, parents, and even teammates. I try to give my young pitchers drills and activities that they can do WITHOUT a catcher at home to create correct muscle memory. At first, young pitchers need gentle reminders from parents (and myself!) that they need to be doing these drills to get better. The goal is that as they begin to do their drills more at home they realize that the drills truly are benefiting them and will want to continue to do them on their own. This in turn creates intrinsic motivation for young pitchers.
 
2. Responsibility
 
Developing responsibility at a young age is so important. It’s one of my favorite life lessons to teach as a coach. With my older pitchers, my expectations are obviously much higher than my younger pitchers. The expectations are still there though. It is your job to be prepared coming to a lesson. Water? Cleats? Glove? All things that YOU need to complete the lesson - not things that Mom or Dad need. Just like it is your job to be prepared for a weekend of games. It is not anyone’s job but your own to make sure you have enough to eat and drink, carry your equipment to and from the field, or talk to your coach when conversations need to occur.
 
3. Time Management
 
The time management I developed at a young age balancing school, softball, friends, and other activities is 100% the reason that I am as successful as I am balancing everything in my life as an adult. The precedent was set by my parents that if my homework wasn’t done there would be no practice that night. It only took one missed practice to guarantee it would never happen again. I quickly learned to manage my own time, which is something that benefited me all through college and still does today balancing a crazy schedule. Often times pitchers make excuses for why they couldn’t find time to work during the week. Prioritizing pitching in your schedule results in getting better - watching 8 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy does not. (Much like those 8 hours of Grey’s Anatomy will take away from your academic performance as well!)
 
4. Communication
 
I expect to talk to the pitcher, not the parent! This is easy with college pitchers with their parents generally being hours away from our bullpens. I encourage my younger pitchers to talk to me about their weekends. What worked, what didn’t, what we need to work on. I understand that this isn’t an easy thing to do at 10, 12, even 16 sometimes. The more you take ownership of your pitching performances and conversations about them the more you understand your style and what you need to work on! Another life lesson - parents are not always there to support you and answer for you, eventually we have to grow up! The support from your parents is amazing, but you need to talk about your own experiences to allow yourself to continue to grow…speak for yourself!
 
5. Self-Reflection
 
We should be evaluating ourselves after every weekend. What worked, what didn’t, what mentality did you have, what do you need to change before stepping on the mound again? The earlier pitchers start to evaluate themselves the better their softball IQ becomes. So often I ask my young pitchers how their weekend went or how they pitched at practice over the last week and they immediately look to their parents. I want to hear from YOU about how YOU pitched, you were the only one in the circle! Asking mom and dad for their opinions is important, but I want to know what you’re proud of, what you want to work on, or what’s been frustrating lately. The first step to getting better is knowing what you need to work on!
 
6. Discussions about WHY pitches are or aren’t working
 
It is so easy for me to sit on my bucket at a bullpen and spit out mechanical adjustments to make based on what I see you do. (It’s also quite boring to do that three or four hours straight, if I’m being honest.) With most of you we work for one hour a week, which compared to the amount of time in a week you play softball is almost nothing. In that one hour a week we have to figure out how to help you succeed ALL of the time, just not when I’m there helping you make adjustments. By talking through what you felt, how you moved, or how you spun the ball you can begin to understand your body more and make adjustments on your own without me. It is never too early to begin to understand your strengths, weaknesses, and what you need to focus on when there isn’t a coach there to tell you.
 
7. Giving Pitchers Ownership
 
I come into every bullpen I work with a plan (It’s part of my OCD pitcher personality, I just can’t help it). BUT that plan is always flexible. Pitchers learn more and get more out of a bullpen, no matter their age, when they feel ownership over what they are working on. It is their career and their success so after conversations at the beginning of bullpens I reevaluate what the focus of the bullpen should be. Sometimes it’s pretty spot on to what I had originally planned, and sometimes we pull something out of left field to work on. In the end, giving the pitcher ownership over what they think they need to work on creates an environment where they not only are excited to work but also feel they are working towards their goals.