“High school ball offers you lots of opportunities to work on your game and helps you prepare for summer travel ball,’” believes Cathi Aradi, who has helped thousands of players and parents better understand the recruiting process through her clinics, consulting work and book “Preparing to Play Softball at the Collegiate Level 2013 Edition,” considered the No. 1 book covering high school fastpitch softball.

In this article, talks how you can make the high school softball season a great individual and team experience and help prepare you for many of the same ups and downs you’ll face in college.

 

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Making the Most of your High School Season

High school ball offers you lots of opportunities to work on your game and helps you prepare for summer travel ball.  Major league baseball players go to spring training for a good reason.  They work on their skills, get back into playing shape, and concentrate on picking up the rhythm of the game again in preparation for the long season ahead.

Yet, I often get emails from athletes who are having a hard time with high school softball.  They don’t get along with the coach or the coach doesn’t teach them the way their travel ball coach does or they aren’t playing up to their potential and so on.

While I probably hear more from the players with problematic high school situations than from those whose coaches are committed to helping them learn and grow, the fact remains that for many players, high school ball just isn’t all they would like it to be.

Whatever your situation–positive or negative–use it and learn from it, and most importantly, always do your very best.

If you’re lucky enough to make a college softball team, things may not always be rosy there either!  There will be times you are tired or injured, have a big paper due, haven’t done your laundry for three weeks, and your coach isn’t starting you because you’re not hitting the ball.  And you may find yourself thinking, “I really miss high school ball. It was so easy.”

Whenever you’re playing, you need to be working on the weaker areas of your game.  High school softball is the perfect time to do this because you are practicing almost every day, and you play opponents with varying levels of skill and experience.  If your school league pitchers are slow compared to the hard throwers you see in summer ball, don’t excuse your low batting average by saying, “I can’t hit slow pitching.”

Develop some DISCIPLINE!  Use these slower pitchers to practice hitting change-ups. Many college pitchers have very good change-ups, and this can be a killer strike-out pitch for someone who also throws a 65 mph fastball.

I hate to see outstanding travel ball players kick back during high school ball.  The player who excels when facing tough competition, then plays poorly against weaker teams may be demonstrating a lack of discipline and motivation and she almost certainly has trouble maintaining the consistency of her game.  This doesn’t bode well for a successful collegiate career.

If you’re lucky enough to play for a great high school coach, ask him to work with you to improve specific aspects of your game.  If your high school team isn’t one that’s committed to being the best it can be, then set your own personal goals for the season.  If your coach turns everyone loose after an easy 75-minute practice, ask if you can stay for extra batting or take more ground balls.

If the pitching in your league is slow, become the best slow ball hitter in the league. (Just be sure to take that extra batting practice after school with the pitching machine set on high. You don’t want to lose your ability to hit a good fastball either!)

Players who choose to give up their summers and who travel long hours to practice and play with a strong travel team may have a hard time working with players who are playing softball mainly for social reasons.  There’s nothing wrong with either choice. But it’s important that both types of players work together to help the high school team succeed.

The smart high school coach encourages all of his or her other players to strive to be the best they can be for the good of the team.  Even though some of the players may not want to compete beyond high school–and statistically-speaking, the vast majority of high school players won’t play in college–they should still be expected to work hard.

Their individual goals might be to make All-League or to win the conference title rather than to develop skills that will impress a college coach, but the harder everyone works, the more the team will improve. Working hard, doing the best you can, giving 100%, and striving for excellence should be factors that motivate any athlete in any situation.

Whatever your reasons for playing high school ball, understand that it’s always more fun to win than to lose.  It’s always more fun to get a hit than to strike out, and it’s always more fun to go home at the end of the day knowing you did your best.   If every player on the team comes to the field with this attitude, not only will she do better, but the whole team will benefit!

 

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Catharine Aradi has been a recruiting consultant for over 20 years, and she is considered by many college coaches to be one of the best recruiting resources in the nation. Through her book, Preparing to Play Softball at the Collegiate Level, her clinics and her consulting work, she has helped thousands of college-bound players gain that “competitive edge” during the college search process. Cathi is an active member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Assoc., (which also publishes her book), and she works with players and schools around the country.

For more information, visit her web site at FastPitchRecruiting.com. If you have questions about recruiting, you can also post them directly to Cathi on her web site (click here). To order her book, you can call 502.409.4600 or go to NFCA books