Want to Impress Your Coach? Show Up Ready to Work

I've been talking to a lot of high school softball coaches lately, asking them what they look for in players. Naturally, I expected answers about talent—velocity, great movement, accuracy, maybe a devastating change-up.

And yes, coaches like all of those things. It turns out coaches are, in fact, fans of good softball players. But one thing keeps coming up that is much less exciting: Show up early and know how to get yourself ready.

Your coach doesn't want to hunt you down and say, "Where are your bands?" She doesn't want to remind you that perhaps now, five minutes before you're supposed to pitch, would be an excellent time to begin throwing.

She wants you to show up, know what you need to do, and do it. It's a tiny thing that somehow says an enormous amount about you.

If Practice Starts at 4:00, What Time Does Practice Start?

This feels like a trick question. It is not. If practice starts at 4:00, you should be ready to practice at 4:00. Walking into the facility at 3:59:47 technically means you are "there by 4:00." Congratulations. You have beaten the clock. You are also not ready to practice.

Arrive early enough to put your stuff down, find your glove, get your bands out, and start preparing your body. Then, when your coach says, "Let's go," you can actually go.

Pitchers, You Need Your Own Routine

This is particularly important for pitchers. Pitching asks a lot of your body, which means at some point you have to take some responsibility for learning how to prepare that body.

Your warm-up might include band work, dynamic or ballistic movements, shoulder and arm activation, lower-body activation, and a progression into throwing and pitching. I'm less concerned with whether your routine looks exactly like somebody else's and more concerned with whether you actually have one.

As you get older, you should start figuring out what your body needs. What gets your legs moving? What gets your arm feeling ready? How much throwing do you need before you feel comfortable pitching?

Your team coach can help you develop this, and your pitching instructor (that’s me) can help you develop this. But eventually, it needs to become your routine. Nobody should have to stand next to a high school pitcher saying, "Okay, now get your bands."

You Actually Need Two Routines

Once you have your carefully planned warm up routine set, expect it to get changed.

You need your ideal warm-up—the one you do when you arrive early, there's plenty of space, everything is running on time, and the softball universe has smiled upon you. And then you need the other one: your we-have-seven-minutes-and-this-is-the-only-patch-of-grass-available warm-up.

Maybe the previous game ran late. Maybe you don't have the space you expected. Maybe you're warming up somewhere that's less than ideal, or your coach suddenly needs you sooner than expected. That's why you need to know what you absolutely have to do to get your body ready. If you normally have 25 minutes, great. But what happens when you have 10? What happens when you have five?

A prepared pitcher doesn't need perfect circumstances. She knows how to adjust.

Which Brings Me to the Other Thing: Don't Complain

This may actually be as important as having the routine in the first place. Things are going to go wrong.

You may have to warm up on an uneven surface. You may not get the amount of time you wanted. The schedule may change, or your coach may suddenly tell you that you're pitching when you thought you weren't.

You are allowed to be annoyed by this internally. What you don't need to do is make your preparation everyone else's problem. Adjust, do what you can safely do, and get yourself ready.

Obviously, this does not mean pitching through an injury or doing something unsafe. That's a different issue. It means understanding that sports are unpredictable.

The ability to say, "Okay, this isn't what I expected, but I'll figure it out," is a skill. And coaches notice it.

Your Warm-Up Isn't Really About Your Warm-Up

Here's why I think coaches get so excited about something that seems so small. Your warm-up tells them a lot about what kind of player you are.

It shows independence because you know what you need to do. It shows commitment because you're willing to arrive early enough to do it. It shows maturity because your coach doesn't have to remind you about everything, and it shows adaptability because you can handle it when things don't go perfectly.

And perhaps most importantly, you're not creating another job for your coach.

Imagine being responsible for 15 or 20 high school softball players. Someone can't find her helmet. Someone else needs athletic tape. Two players are asking what time the bus leaves Saturday, somebody's parent has a question, the field needs to be set up, and the lineup needs to be finished.

And then there's you. You're already warming up. You have your bands. You're ready.

Guess which player is making her coach's life easier? And guess which kind of player coaches want more of?

So Before Your Season Starts...

Yes, work on your velocity, accuracy, change-up, movement pitches, and mechanics. But work on something else, too: Build your routine.

Know when you need to arrive and what you do first. Know what equipment you need, what your full warm-up looks like, and what your 5- or 10-minute version looks like.

And then here's the most important part: Do it without anyone asking you to. Show up early, get yourself ready, and when practice starts, be ready to work.

It might not be the flashiest way to impress your coach. But based on the coaches I've been talking to lately, it might be one of the easiest.