Barrington, RI Lightning Girls Travel Softball

This was the 9th grade year for many of the players who started playing travel ball with the Lightning. They all contributed to the high school team. It was nice to see them all back together again.

17 INCHES" - you will not regret reading this an excellent article to read from beginning to end. Twenty years ago, in Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January, 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA's convention.
While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh, man, worth every penny of my airfare.”
Who is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter; I was just happy to be there.
In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate.
Seriously, I wondered, who is this guy? After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder exactly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage. Then, finally …
“You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck,” he said, his voice growing irascible. I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility. “I may be old, but I’m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.”
Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room. “Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?”
After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches?”, more of a question than answer.
“That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth’s day? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?” Another long pause.
“Seventeen inches?” a guess from another reluctant coach.
“That’s right,” said Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?” Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear. “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?”
“Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident.
“You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?”
“Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison.
“Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?”............“Seventeen inches!”
“RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues? “Seventeen inches!”
“SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “They send him to Pocatello !” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter. “What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. If you can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.'”
Pause. “Coaches… what do we do when your best player shows up late to practice? or when our team rules forbid facial hair and a guy shows up unshaven? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate? "

You can play on the best travel teams, with the best coaching and the best strategies. In the end it comes down to how bad do YOU want it. Put the work in you will get noticed.

https://mailchi.mp/clinthurdle/wooden-wednesday-xax5y2m6wn?e=6354960fc0

Wooden Wednesday! IT IS AMAZING HOW MUCH CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED IF NO ONE IS CONCERNED WHO GETS THE CREDIT. The idea that much can be accomplished with teamwork when no one is concerned with who gets the credit was a central theme in Coach Wooden's leadership and coaching style. Coach was adamant that you had to have gr...

What happens if you get 1 percent better each day?

https://puckermob.com/moblog/20-things-girls-who-grew-up-playing-softball-know-to-be-true/

20 Things Girls Who Grew Up Playing Softball Know To Be True Softball Memories Do you remember when that little girl you use to be first picked up a ball? You’ve loved it from the moment when you first threw the ball to your first catch in your glove. You loved the thrill it gave you, and you never quit. If you remember practicing for hours, pitching … Mo...

I listen in an interview with Aubree Murano , 2 time national champion at the University of Florida and catch for the USA Olympic team. As a tall lanky player she was told by a coach she would never play D1 softball. I think she and Patrick Mahoney probably feel the same way.

Applies to softball as well...

E+R=O An event + your response = the outcome. You can't change the event, but you can change your response which will change the outcome.

Some people think you shine under the bright lights, but the bright lights only reveal the work you do in the dark.

I highly recommend listening to The Dirt podcast. If you are a coach, player or a parent (aka underpaid Uber driver) it is worth a listen. It gives you great insight of what coaches are looking for and how players can start developing high standards to achieve their goals. https://www.spreaker.com/user/nfca/nfca-the-dirt-podcast-kate-drohan-201911

November 13 - 360° Leadership for Your Program | Kate Drohan | Northwestern University "The Dirt" NFCA Podcast - Weekly podcast facilitated by the NFCA featuring a member coach, expert in the field, or other entity who will provide insight to the sport on a different topic in each episode.

https://youtu.be/NVyUJxf3TPc

Check-In Speech given by Nick Saban at NSFC 2013 This is the last section from Nick Saban's 2013 Football Camp video. This is the speech Nick gave right after check-in to the guys.

https://www.allprodad.com/10-things-to-teach-your-kids-about-failure/?utm_term=playoftheday&utm_campaign=Play%20of%20the%20Day%20Daily%20Email&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=75395656&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8pbK_2bAuLOmFKacNMEgtNSdDCvoZvk8JZBSX-6ep8VLyeWj5o6Wkqc97x38VJZ0f849m4DlVP6cooFJ_4Nk2dHcksBg&_hsmi=75395656

10 Things to Teach Your Kids about Failure | All Pro Dad Learning how to handle failure is just as important as learning how to succeed. Here are 10 things to teach your kids about failure.

As your players keep moving up with whatever sport they are playing this would a good read to help them grow as playershttps://store.winnersunlimited.com/just-let-em-play-paperback

JUST LET 'EM PLAY (Paperback) - Dr Andew Jacobs SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST The world of youth and high school sports has grown tremendously during the past decade, and with this growth has come a flood of questions for everyone involved – from parents to players, and coaches to administrators. Questions such as, "Why would I want my child involved in sports?" "What is th...

Congratulations to the Barrington 12U Boys Little League team for winning the Division 2 State Title against Cranston West.Eight runs in the top of the sixth to win the game 10-7. Great Comeback! Good luck in the regional in Bristol, CT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx5W25V913U

mediocre people DONT LIKE HIGH ACHIEVERS COMPETITIVE EXCELLENCE

Inspiring Effort! Never gives up https://twitter.com/ComplexSports/status/1153492309415215105

Complex Sports on Twitter “Inspiring. Never give up. 🙏 (via IG/VinyardBrad) https://t.co/VDZyI5YK1p”

Great come from behind team with today. Contributions from everyone. Gritty win! Let’s get focused for tomorrow.

In football , as in anywhere else in life, your goals change as you move along. Outside circumstances can and all too often do adjust your plan. Rather than focusing on all the things I can’t control—variables that will change whether or not I want them to—I have to keep my mind on the opportunities I can control. That’s how I made it where I am now.

To focus on what truly matters, I have to always be self-aware, conscious of what drives me in what I do. I have to have the mindset of 'Whatever play is called, I’m gonna do it to the best of my ability.'

Power Phrases are important... I always say “Lock it in” to myself. I know I’m playing my best when I’m locked into what’s immediately in front of me, nothing else. Every time I get in the huddle, I repeat it to myself: “Lock it in. Lock it in.”

Your mind can do crazy things—when you’re an athlete, you realize how important that is. And that only gets harder when you get to the higher levels of the game. But if you keep control over your thoughts, taking things one play at a time, amazing things can happen.

At the end of the day, I play because I have a blast doing it—that’s part of my why. I tell my wife all the time: I wake up at 5 AM ready to go to work because I’ve got the best job in the world. The beauty of football is you’re never going to be perfect.

You’re always striving for that perfection, but you won’t make it every time.

If you don’t have that love for the game, if you can’t embrace failure as valuable because it makes you a better player, you’re not ever going to be the best you can be.

It won’t always feel good. People don’t understand; they watch what you do on Sundays and think that’s all there is to it. But there’s so much more that goes into your performance on game days. There will be a lot of nights where you’ve had a rough practice that leaves you feeling crushed. Or there will be times you’re just in a lot of pain; Man, my body doesn’t feel that great. But grit is such an important thing. You have to fight through the hurt, you have to persevere. Your best self is the one at the other end of that trail of grit. It would be a shame if you never knew that person.

Ultimately, that’s what it comes down to, not just in football but in every area of life:

Know yourself. Know what gets you to your best, highest level.

What keeps you motivated even when the struggle and discomfort make you wish you could curl into a ball. There will be a lot of trial and error, and you’ll have to stay committed—that’s why I still see Cindra each week. If you don’t keep your why in mind, you’ll have to start from square one again and again.

If you can keep building on your why as a foundation—if you never stop searching for what makes you the best version of yourself—you’ll take off beyond boundaries you never even knew were there. That’s what Beyond Grit is all about.

—ADAM THIELEN, Wide Receiver for the Minnesota Vikings

Kobe: “I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.”

Vince Lombardi: “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”

Michael Jordan: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Se backs happen. They only stay as setbacks if you do not learn and grow from them.

Interesting stats. For pitchers and hitters being down 0-1 vs being up 1-0. Also the importance of hard hit balls.

I would like to put to rest this discussion of a Fury monkey on our back. It’s simple, they have executed better then we have when we played them. Tomorrow is about mindset. For the players they next to expect a lot from themselves. As coaches we need to put the players in the correct situations to win and the rest will take care of itself.

Lightning Softball 12U bested Seekonk Warriors 12U in a high-scoring affair, 12-8!

Lightning Softball 12U fired up the offense in the first inning. An error scored one run for Lightning Softball 12U.

Lightning Softball 12U put up five runs in the third inning. The big inning was thanks to singles by Isys D and Aislinn M, a walk by Ruby C, a groundout by Lana A, and a double by Skyler W.

Seekonk Warriors 12U scored four runs in the third inning. The big inning for Seekonk Warriors 12U came thanks to walks by Paige and Madison and a groundout by Rego.

Libby M led things off in the pitcher's circle for Lightning Softball 12U. She lasted three innings, allowing one hit and five runs while striking out five.

Sarah was in the pitcher's circle for Seekonk Warriors 12U. She went four and two-thirds innings, allowing 12 runs on eight hits and striking out five.

Lightning Softball 12U hit one home run on the day. Ariana R had a homer in the first inning.

Maya E went 2-for-3 at the plate to lead Lightning Softball 12U in hits. Lightning Softball 12U didn't commit a single error in the field. Maya had the most chances in the field with seven. Kendall F led Lightning Softball 12U with four stolen bases, as they ran wild on the base paths with 14 stolen bases.

Sarah led Seekonk Warriors 12U with two hits in three at bats. Seekonk Warriors 12U stole 17 bases during the game as four players stole more than one. Madison led the way with five.

Lightning Softball 12U Takes Early Lead in Victory Over Fairhaven Firestorm!

Lightning Softball 12U grabbed an early lead on its way to a 14-10 victory over Fairhaven Firestorm on Saturday. Lightning Softball 12U scored on a single by Skyler W, a single by Ruby C, a stolen base by Skyler, and a stolen base by Ruby in the first inning.

There was plenty of action on the basepaths as Lightning Softball 12U collected six hits and Fairhaven had 8 hits.

Kendall F led things off in the pitcher's circle for Lightning Softball 12U. She allowed five hits and five runs over two innings, striking out one.

Ariana R led Lightning Softball 12U with two hits in two at bats. Lightning Softball 12U tore up the base paths, as eight players stole at least two bases. Ruby led the way with six.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK3tJmSyaWw

The Pursuit of Mastery | Jennie Finch As a forever athlete, the competitive fire never leaves Jennie Finch. Hustle, drive, passion, and a never lose attitude are what keeps her going. Mizuno + Je...

https://mailchi.mp/traintobeclutch/someone-that-didnt-meet-the-eye-test?e=daa1b8d82e

Someone that didn't meet "the eye test"... As a featherweight, 5’10 junior, he finally got the nod as the starting quarterback for his high school team. Coming from his 5’3 freshman height, he had grown but was still less than intimidating. According to his coach, "He loved the 49ers, but he also studied them...He was one of those kids w...