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Welcome to SoftballPickles.com. Hi, I'm Buck Seymour. My family and I consider Fastpitch Softball our passion, and as a consequence, created and designed this site specifically geared to youth softball parents, coaches, and players. Throughout this site, you will find timely news, great softball articles, softball tips and drills , cool fastpitch softball links, athletic scholarship information, softball videos, and of course, the dugout. Our softball blog will keep you up to date on changes and additions to our site. We trust that our site will always have room for improvement, so we ask you, and encourage you to write in with your ideas and suggestions. Please, grab your favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy your stay. It's a pleasure having you with us.
Coaching Youth Softball – Are They Early or Late Maturers?
I have been watching younger players’ practices, and I have also been hearing that some middle school coaches and summer coaches of players under 12 have been having tryouts and cutting players from their teams. I don’t think any middle school player should be cut from the school team. If you have too many, then maybe have a fifth-sixth grade team and a seventh-eighth grade team. Some summer coaches, even with 10 and under teams, seem to care only about wins and the very coordinated/talented players, rather than developing players...more
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Long ago, Jake Gaither spoke to a graduate class I attended at Florida State. A very colorful, very wise, and very successful football coach at Florida A&M University, he certainly did not disappoint us that evening. When asked what he looked for in a player, he replied, “I like them agile, mobile, and hostile.” To get the right effect, let each of those words end with a sound like the word style. After some thought, I realized that, properly defined and applied, these qualities can help all of us. A dictionary and thesaurus tell me that agile can mean ready to act, alert, or swift. Mobile means movable, portable…what I would say about someone willing to change a strategy or method when necessary. Hostile can certainly have some negative meanings, but it also means aggressive and smart aggressiveness has helped many an athlete and a multitude of people in other areas. Coach Gaither, thanks for the words of wisdom that we still can use today.
Many folks have asked me how we came up with the name, "Softball Pickles." You may be wondering the same thing, so here it goes. One night, while sitting on the back deck at our home, My wife, DD, and I were making a list of possible domain names for the site. My DD would then go in the house, and check online to see if the names were available. At one point, she came outside, and enthusiastically shouted, "I've got it! You're going to love this.... SoftballPickles.Com." She was being her usually witty self and only joking, but my wife and I immediately looked at each other, and with raised eyebrows and a lightbulb above our heads, simultaneously shouted, "Hey"!! Well, the rest is history. In the words of the famous Paul Harvey, "And now you know the rest of the story."
Pickles and Softball? Now, if you're not in the know, you may be wondering what fastpitch sofball has to do with pickles. According to Wikipedia, a pickle, also called a rundown (it gets this nickname from the game "Pickle-in-the-middle" where two people keep the ball away from another) or a hotbox, is a situation in the game of baseball/softball that occurs when the baserunner is stranded between two bases and is in jeopardy. When the baserunner attempts to advance to the next base, she is cut off by the defensive player who has a live ball and attempts to return to her previous base before being tagged out. As she is doing this, the defenseman throws the ball past the baserunner to the previous base, forcing her to reverse directions again. This is repeated until the runner is put out or the defense commits an error and allows the runner to reach a base safely.
Fastpitch softball year round? What ever happened to the traditional softball season? You know...in rec ball, when practices started the first week in April, and the season opened 2 weeks later. By the first week in June, the regular season was over and playoffs began. By July 1st, the all-star teams are playing. Three weeks later, we were packing away the Softball Equipment,
And then came Travel Ball. What Vacation? My DD (darling daughter) now plays travel ball. I coach her travel team, and my wife, the ultimate Softball Mom, handles all the logistics of a travel softball family. Reality has set in. Fastpitch Softball has become a year round venture for us. All-stars may have ended in July, but the weekend travel tournaments and practices on week nights continued. In September, Fall Ball Sunday double headers commenced. (I just love getting up at 5:00 am on Sundays...but anything for my DD!) By the first of November, Fall Ball has ended. Ahhh!!! Finally, a little R&R, and a chance to get reaquainted with the extended family during the holidays, in between the on-going pitching and hitting lessons of course.
Care to share? We are very interested in your family's softball stories and experiences. We want this site to be a "gathering place" so to speak, for fastpitch softball families. You can read about our family's entire softball evolution by clicking on the about us link. And when you're finished, please feel free to "share your experiences" with us. We'd love to publish them on our site for the benefit of our extended softball family. In the spirit our our DD's favorite game, I enthusiastically proclaim, Play ball!!
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But, then the New Year arrives!! Just in time to begin indoor winter workouts and a 8-week hitting league. Oh, did I also mention twice-a-week pitching lessons? Are you feeling my pain yet? If so, you understand that it is a good pain. We wouldn't have it any other way, would we? Fastpitch Softball has become our passion...a way of life. That's why you are here. That's why I created this site. For Softball Junkies like you and me and our DD's.
