Teach Your Players to be Aggressive in Short Game – George Wares

by George Wares : Head Coach - Central College
Originally published in Fastpitch Delivery Magazine

How often have we had a discussion as coaches after a game, and said "We just could not handle their pitcher."? If you are like us, probably more than you would like. In softball, unlike baseball, we have to face the other team's "ace" most of the time, including twice in one day some of the time. Can you imagine what would happen to baseball hitting coaches' philosophies if they had to face Cliff Lee every game? I would think the short game would become a much bigger part of their offensive package. That is what softball is – we have to face Cliff Lee every game. It is good to convince our players that they can hit and build their confidence in that aspect of the game, but if that is all we try to do on offense we will eventually run into that pitcher that makes us look pretty bad as a hitting coach.

Make hitting a part of your offensive package, not all of it. We can teach even the slowest player on our team to be at least an adequate baserunner. We can put pressure on our opponents and the "Ace" pitcher by our aggressiveness on offense. Sometimes even the threat of the steal helps us. If you have a reputation as a team that will run, how often do you see the coach or catcher on the other team call a pitchout? Let's say the pitchout is followed by a pitch out of the strike zone; your hitter at the plate is instantly a better hitter because of the 2-0 count. Now look at your options: 1) Hit away. That .270 hitter just became a .350 hitter because of the count being in her favor. 2) Hit and run. 3) Slap and run. 4) Bunt and run. 5) Straight steal. And we can add many more to the list. The more options we give our offense, the more effective and confident your players will be and the more pressure we put on the opponent's defense. A relaxed offensive player is a good offensive player, and when we give our players more options than just hit, hit, hit, she becomes more relaxed and thus better at the plate.

BASERUNNING
As stated before and will be stated many times again, players must believe in what you as a coach are trying to do. They must see the passion and belief you have in it, or it will not be as successful as you would like. Teach with great clarity what you expect from your baserunners and cover all situations often in practices. If our players are making constant baserunning mistakes, it is probably because we are not teaching them well. If possible, practice it daily, as much as you would hitting, defensive play, etc. Try to put your players in offensive situations in practice to help them learn what to do on the bases, depending on score, inning, etc.

OUT OF BOX
The first step is very important. We want our players to take as big a step as possible while maintaining balance. If the first step is too "long," the recovery to get back in balance slows us down. On the other hand, if the first step is too "short," our players also slow down. Once out of the box, be a sprinter. Teach your players correct running form. As all of us who coach or play it know, softball is a very quick game. That close play at first, whether called safe or out, is often the deciding moment in a game. If our players learn proper running technique and that helps them beat out an infield play on occasion, our chances for success obviously just went up.

ON AN INFIELD PLAY, have your runners use the right field foul pole as their "destination" target. We want them to go through first base full speed. If we say run to first, the natural outcome is that our players will slow down sometime before reaching first. Terms and phrases we use with players are very important. Using the phrase "run through the base" allows them to have a better understanding of going full speed through first. The player should stay tall when running and not look down to see the base. Anytime we get movement of our head we slow down. Do not have your player worry about touching the base. It will naturally happen in stride. When we teach "touch the base," we get these common mistakes: 1) Head drops. 2) Stutter steps before the bag, slowing us down. 3) Last second lunge, breaking our stride, trying to make sure we touch the bag. After running through first base, the players should turn toward the inside so they can see what is going on; thus the chance to "sneak" an extra base will be an option. If the player turns toward the foul line, the play is over.

ON A SINGLE TO LEFT FIELD, players should make the arc to the bag sooner than later. Again, we do not teach touch the base; this will happen. Once the "single" has happened, the hitter turned baserunner should be thinking double. The player should go farther around first than she is used to and be ready to advance to second at every opportunity. This is one of the ways that softball is so different than baseball – a base hit to left by baseball players are a stroll to first because they are never going to second. A base hit to left by softball players should be a spring to a spot well beyond first base, because they are thinking second. Aggressive, aggressive, aggressive. Let the players have the freedom to make mistakes. If you hold them back and constantly get upset when they try to stretch a single to double and get thrown out, this will not work.

ON A HIT IN THE GAP that most players and coaches would assume is a double, we need our players to think triple. As they get toward second and pick you up in the third base coaching box, they aren't looking for a "go sign," they are already going. They are only looking to see if you want to stop them at second. This is always our philosophy with the best example of this being a runner at second and a base hit to the outfield. So often the runner slows down, waiting to see if the coach will send her. We want our runners heading home on the base hit unless they see or hear a stop sign. It is amazing how much faster players become when we let them run.

JUMP OFF OF THE BASE
We still teach the straddle start with a "rocker" motion. We teach our players to leave with the back foot at the "12-o-clock" position of the pitcher. Whatever "method" you use to get off the base, teach your players to be overly aggressive in practice. Players tend to become very afraid to make mistakes in a game, usually because of us as coaches holding them back. Because of this we must be extremely aggressive in practice situations. Regardless of what method you use to teach the leadoff of the base, a usual flaw is a lack of consistency in the jump by the player. We need to sell our players that their jump needs to be the same all the time, regardless of what we have on offensively. We would like the opposing team to yell "she is gong" on every pitch, even when we are not running. I am amazed at how often we can "steal" a steal sign from the runner at first because of her ritual on the bag when running versus when not. Another very important point if you are going to be aggressive is to take your lead farther than you usually do. Does this open you up to being picked off, or doubled up on a hard line drive? Yes, but the rewards are greater than the possible shortcomings. Your players must understand that once they get an aggressive jump off the base, they need to buy into "get back as quick as they came;" that needs to be combined with teaching them how to properly dive back to the base, where they give the defense limited options to tag them out. I am sure a possible response now is "what about getting picked off and taking us out of an inning that we could score in?" First, if you are aggressive, your players will at times get picked off. Second, and I think this is very important, is that it is very easy during a certain part of the game to back the runner off by shortening her lead. This can also be done against that "great catcher" who has too good of an opportunity to take us out of an inning. However, it is much easier in all aspects of baserunning to go from aggressive to passive, as opposed to the other way.

JUMP OFF BASE AT SECOND AND THIRD
We teach the same jump as first; however, extend the lead even more at second, and obviously teach to your players to stay foul at third. Here again, the phrase "back as quick as you came" must be used often. At second and third, we teach players to go on contact on all ground balls. Yes, even on a ground ball right back to the pitcher we teach go. Yes, even on a ground ball right to third with our runner at second we teach go. Are we trying to get our runners thrown out? No, although early in our season it might look like it. We have to stay with the philosophy of getting our players to buy into being aggressive and putting pressure on the defense. What if we are in the bottom of the sixth down 2-0 and have a leadoff double? If we say nothing, our players will go on contact if a ground ball is hit even to the left side. But let's say we have our three through five hitters up. It is very easy for me to now give a "contact off" sign to the baserunner, and we go the more conservative and traditional way.

To reinforce the point: "IT IS MUCH EASIER TO TEACH PLAYERS TO BE OVERLY AGGRESSIVE AND TO BACK THEM OFF DURING CERTAIN GAME SITUATIONS THAN THE OTHER WAY AROUND." Because we use the contact way of running, we must constantly drill it; during practice time we must teach our players to pick up the ball as it gets to the hit zone of the teammate at the plate. We want our players to be able to yell out on the base: ground ball left side, line drive, pop up to the infield, etc.

Again, we get what we practice. Players are "hungry" to learn, and they desire to learn ways that take them out of their box a little bit. This all helps our team become a bigger threat to the defenses we face.

About the Author...

In 2007, Wares was inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Hall of Fame.

Wares has piloted the Dutch to national championships in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 2003 with national runner-up finishes in 1986 and 2001. His 22 NCAA playoff teams have finished in the national top five 12 times. The Dutch were third in the NCAA in 1990, 1994 and 1995, fourth in 1987 and 1989, and fifth in 1997. Central won or shared 10 Iowa Conference titles (1986, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009)

Wares and his assistants were named the NFCA Div. III coaching staff of the year in 2003, after taking regional honors in 2001.

In 2009 Wares was named co-winner of the Iowa Conference coach of the year award. He's won or shared the honor seven times (1990, 1993, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009).

Wares is in his second 3-year term on the NFCA Division III All-America Selection Committee, serving two years as chair.

A 1976 Central graduate, Wares spent seven years as girls' softball coach at NESCO High School in Zearing , Iowa , posting a 214-94 record and piloting three squads to state tournament berths. He was named all-area coach of the year three times.

Wares also served as a high school boys' basketball coach for 18 years, including seven at NESCO and 11 at Pella High School . He compiled a 259-106 career record, earning four state tournament berths, with two state runner-up finishes. He served for four seasons as an assistant men's basketball coach at Central.

A highly regarded motivational speaker, Wares received a master's degree in counseling from Iowa State University. He worked as an at-risk counselor at Pella High School and as an academic counselor at Central.

To contact Coach George Wares
Phone: (641) 628-5195
E-mail: waresg@central.edu