Coaching the Pop-Up

Pop Up Communication - From Candrea on Coaching for ASA
I have been asked numerous times recently to discuss our approach to pop ups. Sounds like it should be a very simple approach to catch a simple pop up! Unfortunately, pop ups can be the cause of many sleepless nights when you have either very tentative outfielders or no communication has been successfully taught, practiced, and continued to be practiced throughout the entire season. Yes, we review our communication on a daily bases throughout the season. Communication is important to be successful in our game and also in life. At least my wife lets me know when I am not doing a very good job of communicating during my season. She often says that our marriage is sometimes on hold because of softball season!! 

On the softball field, the verbiage that we select to use should be meaningful and well thought out. It does not have to be fancy, but it must be used by everyone on the team. The easiest way to break down communication is for everyone to use their own language and cause confusion. A simple example would be "mine, mine, mine", "ball, ball, ball", I got it etc. All of these mean the same thing but used in a stressful moment with lots of crowd noise, could be a result in disaster. I would like to explain to you the communication that we use and whether you agree upon the wording that we use, it only matters that these words mean something to our players and are the only verbiage used in our system.


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