By: Adam Sarancik

Author of: Coaching Champions for Life

After 40+ years in coaching, certain things are automatic for me. One of those things is, from the moment a practice, training session, game or season is done, I immediately begin replaying it minute-by-minute in my mind. My entire focus is on whether I was better today than yesterday and how can I get better tomorrow. I know that if I am better tomorrow, our team will be better tomorrow.

This self-analysis occurs regardless of whether I thought the practice or training session went well or whether we won the game or the championship. I assume, and I have learned, we can always be better.

We must be better because our competition will be better. I must be better because my obligation as a teacher, role model, and mentor is to develop my players to be the best people, athletes, and players they can be regardless of the competition.

One of the axioms coaches stress to their players is to learn and dedicate themselves to the process. Good results are obtained from a consistent and strict adherence to the process. The same is true for good coaching. When I begin my self-reflection on how I can be better as a coach, I start with my coaching methodology.

Even if all of my goals for my team as people, athletes, and players were achieved, my mindset is, my standards and goals need to be raised. When doing this, I intensely scrutinize the details of my teaching and development process.

I have learned that I will typically be pleased with the results of my coaching if, on a daily basis, I ask myself the following questions to guide my process for the next day:

• Did I make our team better people?
• Did I use what I taught them about becoming a better people when I trained them to be better athletes?
• Did I use what I taught them about becoming better people and better athletes when I developed them to be better players?
• Did the players receive 20 + repetitions of their position fundamentals with game-like speed and intensity in a game-like situation?
• Did the players compete at every phase of the practice with significant outcome consequences?
• Did I teach every player using the appropriate learning modality, auditory, visual or kinesthetic?
• Did I train reaction as often as action?
• Did I train the mental side of the game as well as the physical?
• Did everyone attempt to "practice perfectly" at every phase of the practice while accepting failure as a necessary part of the improvement process?
• Was everyone committed to and held accountable for the TEAM getting better today?
• Did the execution of the practice plan in its flow and progression match its design?
• Was there a consistent high energy from beginning to end?
• Did our coaching staff push our players out of their comfort zone to be mentally and physically tougher?
• Did the practice end with a scrimmage or game simulation where the players demonstrated what they learned during practice without any comment or input from the coaches?
• Did someone new step up to demonstrate leadership skills?
• Could we have defeated our toughest competition today?
• Did we inspire others who observed us to be better in their own lives?
• Did I see our players and assistant coaches smile and laugh? Did they see me do the same?
• Were our players and coaches comfortable enough to share something from their heart during team meetings?
• Do the other teams in our youth program or league teach the same fundamentals and have the same mission, goals, systems, and methodology as our team?
• Was I better as a teacher, role model and mentor today than yesterday?
• Did everyone act excited to come back tomorrow?

If you can answer yes to each of these questions every day, you are executing championship practices and training sessions. More importantly, you are training Champions for Life.

Adam Sarancik is the author of three Amazon Top 100 Best Selling books:

• Coaching Champions for Life – The Process of Mentoring the Person, Athlete and Player
• Takeaway Quotes for Coaching Champions for Life
• A Ground Ball to Shortstop – How and Why Coaches See Their Game Differently Than Anyone Else.

  ]]> https://coachesinsider.com/softball/the-mantra-of-get-better-every-day-applies-first-to-coaching-10/feed/ 0 108790 https://coachesinsider.com/softball/hitting-tee-work-and-movement-resistance-with-shana-easley-colorado-state-univ/ https://coachesinsider.com/softball/hitting-tee-work-and-movement-resistance-with-shana-easley-colorado-state-univ/#comments Tue, 08 Jul 2025 15:00:42 +0000 https://coachesinsider.com/?p=98355 Watch as Coach Shana Easley discusses tee work and the use of resistance bands to work on the batter’s hands and stride. A partner will hold the bungee band back, so the hitter feels what their hands are doing as they go into their stride. The second part of this drill focuses on having the hitter make repeatable swings that look the same whether it is an inside or outside swing. The hitters then continue the tee work without the bungees repeating the same process.

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By: Jamy Bechler

Originally Published in: THE LEADERSHIP PLAYBOOK

It is not just enough to lead yourself effectively, you must also have a positive influence on others, John C. Maxwell says, "A leader without a follower is just someone taking a nice walk." If you are a captain or an upperclassman, this will be obvious. However, if you are a player that doesn't have any kind of positional leadership, then this might seem difficult to do. You understand that you have to lead yourself and you are committed to doing what is right. But, lead others? How are you supposed to do that?

Every player has close friends on their team. You might not be good friends with every one of your teammates, but you do have some close friendships. Those are going to be the people that you lead most effectively. We are influenced by people that we like and trust. You might not be able to influence every member of your team but you will be able to lead some of them. Those of the ones that you need to focus the majority of your attention on. Your positive (or negative) influence will be most evident among your circle of friends.

The first step to being a leader is to lead yourself. The next step is to lead others. In particular, those that you are closest to. If you are leading yourself the wrong way, then you will lead your friends the wrong way. You will either be the ringleader of bad choices or you will allow poor choices to be made while you remain quiet and approving of the actions.

Ultimately, you will become like the people that you hang out with the most and they will become like you. The ideal situation is that you and your friends are influencing each other in a positive way. If this is not the case, then the question becomes, who will have the most influence? Even in situations where a group of friends is not all positive influences, there is still some type of influence going on. Either you are influencing your friends positively or they are influencing you in a less than positive manner. You must lead others positively in order to have a chance to create their championship culture on your team that you desire. Granted, you can't do it by yourself.

You also can't lead everyone because you won't have a friendship or a strong connection with everyone on the team. Those you have the strongest connection with are the ones that you will be able to lead most effectively. You might say, "The team won't listen to me" and you might be right. However, your friends will listen to you. The wonderful thing about that is you just might be starting a chain reaction that ends up with the whole team.

Listening to you without them even knowing that. It is rare that a group of friends is completely self-contained and doesn't have strong relationships with others. For example, your three closest friends all probably have at least one other person that they are close to that you aren't as close with. This ripple effect is how your influence can eventually influence an entire team.