Archives

Season 5 in Review

July 27, 2009

A rough start led to a solid finish for the Black and Gold  in the Summer 2009 season. A core of players left, but newcomers and a couple familiar faces shined. The team matched the franchise record for most consecutive victories and set a new mark for consecutive unbeaten streak that will continue into the fall.

Season 4 in Review

April 25, 2009

An up-and-down season spoiled Team SWAT’s quest for a second consecutive championship.

A core of players returned, but lost focus midway through the season. Team SWAT averaged 17 runs a game, while allowing 11, but still lost 3 games and tied 1.

Why it was good: The franchise expanded its branding; the victories continued to come.

What’s next: The summer could be a re-building season, but there are several talented players waiting to don the Black and Gold.

Season 3 in Review

Feb. 10, 2009

It was a season of mostly highlights in Team SWAT’s third season.

The team completely re-vamped its lineup and the difference showed. Team SWAT averaged 19 runs a game, while allowing seven. Of the 11 regular players, only 3 hit below .500.

Why it was good: A core of committed players was established and will continue into the spring.

What’s next: We will wait to see which division we are placed in, but we look forward to further success.

Season 2 In Review

November 7, 2008

It was a season of mostly downs in Team SWAT’s second season season.

Eight of the team’s 10 losses were by mercy rule of 15 or more runs. Of the 12 players on the starting roster, only 5 made it to the end of the season.

Why it was good: A core of committed players was established, with relationships forged through adversity. Every starting male player who made it through the season hit at least one home run, showing the potential lying underneath.

What’s next: As we head into a league more suited for us, we look forward to success.

More hitting tips

Our friends at Sports Technique.com and Softball360.com have come up with some good videos on hitting techniques. Even though the hitters are hitting home runs, they all have good fundamentals.

The first one is how to rotate your hips to generate power:

The second is how to use your hands to swing through the ball:

8/11/2008

Countdown to the Fall Season

With less than a month before the Diocese of Orange Fall League starts, it’s time to lay a strong foundation for a successful season:

I grabbed the best of these tips from openfieldsoftball.net

Batters
• Always run the ball out
• Never swing at a 3-0 count
• Never throw your bat
• Get the runner in from 3rd

Infielders
• Keep your eye on the ball
• Keep your butt down
• Look the ball into the glove
• Have the ball before you throw

Outfielders
• Call for the ball
• Back up your teammates
• Hit your cutoff man
• Know where to throw
• Don’t hold the ball

With that, here’s another video on how to hit with a DeMarini bat:

Summer Series, Part 1-2

While we’re waiting for the next season to start, here’s the first of a series of installments of things to entertain and inform:

I found this on a wiki site- it’s a good read.

How to Play Slow Pitch Softball As a Team

As you may or may not know, softball is a team sport, and in order to play any team sport you should have a team game plan. Check out these ideas for creating a solid softball team with a winning attitude.

1. Develop your team philosophy, such as: “We do what we do best, all of the time.”
2. Be a role player and stick to it.
3. Know your limitations.
4. Experiment with hitting occasionally (maybe 15-25%) during practice, not in games! Find out what kind of pitches you like to hit, where you hit best, and learn to do it well. Being aggressive is important, but not so important that you end up swinging at pitches that you’re not good at hitting. Don’t be afraid to take a pitch. If being selective ultimately means a higher batting average, then striking out 1 or 2 times is surely acceptable. An out is an out (see section on “good out and bad outs”). It is very possible that your batting average may be poor due to swinging at too many pitches. Your hitting concept should be designed in a way that will maximize benefits to the team. Your hitting concept should be long run-oriented and should not be changing from game to game. A .650 hitter with 0 home runs may be just as good, or better, than a .500 hitter with 20 home runs.
5. How many guys do you know that get mad when they are walked? They mumble things like “pitcher’s chicken” and “afraid to pitch me, huh?”. A walk is, most of the time, as good as a hit. Almost never can it be said that a walk lacks merit. If the pitcher walks you intentionally, often you earned it somehow during or prior to the game (it’s called “respect”). If he walks you unintentionally then you still earned it. The team philosophy concerning hitting states to “hit pitches you are good at hitting” which are basically strikes. By neglecting to accept a walk by swinging at pitches outside the strike zone is contrary to the team philosophy.
6. Don’t hit balls where….
   • you stroke the ball without authority
   • you have difficulty positioning the ball consistently
   • you must telegraph where you are hitting (unless of course this is where you hit best).

   Never sacrifice the pure fundamentals of hitting (hitting line drives, being selective, and hitting where you hit best) just to become a place hitter. Conquer the former, then proceed with the latter.

Part 2

How to Play Slow-Pitch Softball, Part II

7. Keep your philosophy basically conservative. This is mostly dependent on the ability of the defensive team. Let’s take extra bases when we can, yet there is no reason we should not have faith that our own players will bat us in (if they are doing their job). Softball is a hitter’s game. If the team is hitting well, we should not have any problems running conservative bases. Aggressiveness on the base paths should be inversely related to how good the team is hitting. Let’s let the other team make the mistakes.

8. Observe the other team. Who has a strong arm? Who has an accurate arm? How well does the other team’s cutoff system seem to be working? How long is it taking them to get the ball in from the outfield.

9. Remember that as long as the ball is in the outfield nothing can be done to prevent runners from advancing. The quicker a ball returns to the infield, the sooner we can prevent such advancement.

10. The best pitchers are those who can throw a strike when they need to. An effective pitcher is often one who throws many balls, but has few walks. On the other hand, a pitcher who has no walks may be suspect of throwing too many strikes. This may suggest he is not challenging the hitters. Allowable limits for walks: 0 to 2 walks per game and walks with bases empty. Unallowable limits for walks: walking the 9th , 10th, or 11th batters, walks with 1st base occupied or walking in the winning run.

11. Keep the umpire on your side. Don’t ever argue with an umpire. It doesn’t do a bit of good. It only hurts you and the team. An umpire may consciously or even subconsciously get back at you and the team. And the umpire’s subconscious is a key factor for influencing. For example, when you are batting and the pitch is a marginal strike or ball, an umpire may unknowingly look for clues as to whether the pitch was a strike or not. The split second you decide you are not going to swing at the pitch, stop looking at it. If you watch the pitch all the way past the plate as if you possibly wanted to swing, you just told the umpire you thought the pitch was worth swinging at. If there was any doubt in the umpire’s mind about the pitch, there isn’t now because you just made up his mind. If you are one ball away from a walk with no strikes and the pitcher likes to throw deep, move up in the box. Some umpires call the pitch where it lands, others call where it crosses your body.

12. Observe the umpires and how they seem to make decisions. Take advantage of their faults. And don’t ever let them know when they make a bad call in our team’s favor. When they make a bad call against us, let them know. But be so subtle that no tension is created. Simply shake your head in awe and disbelief about how Mr. Umpire could possibly be so stupid. The more you argue, the angrier you get, the angrier the umpire gets, and the more embarrassed you teammates become. And this is totally contradictory to the team philosophy of maximizing our chances to win!

Bob Woldyk gives more tips on hitting by using your hands:

Season 1 In Review

It was a season of ups, downs and sideways plays in Team SWAT’s inaugural season.

After a tie and a tight loss to open the season, we came away with our first victory.

The victories kept coming, thanks to a big-homer from Mike H. and a game-winning walk by Dave V.

Along the way, everyone had a chance to show their talent.

The three-game winning streak came to an abrupt halt, as the team stumbled down the stretch, going 1-2 in its final three regular season games.

A 4th place finish meant taking on new rival the 8-Balls and then the top-seeded Free Agents. Team SWAT rose to the challenge, rallying for a 6-run deficit to win the 1st game before falling the second.

With pride and a chance to redeem itself from an earlier loss, Team SWAT defeated the Silver Bullets to take 3rd-place with a record of 6-4-1.

Why it was good: 14 people who had never played together as a team came together and beat established teams and came so-close to playing for the league title.

What’s next: Now that we’ve established a core, we build around that and continue our successful path.

No Comments Yet

No comments yet.

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI