Teams that communicate effectively are creating a very clear cut advantage for themselves. There is no doubt that a team that communicates is going to come out ahead of a team that does not. When a defense is communicating well, the game starts to feel almost unfair.
Why unfair? Because we are now playing nine against one. Pretty strong odds!
Softball is a crazy game to begin with. When you are on defense you might spend 99.9% of the game waiting for nothing to happen. If you are an outfielder on a team with a dominant pitcher you may go games without seeing a ball hit to the same time zone that you’re in.
And them BOOM! The game is on the line and the ball is coming your way. How much better prepared are you to face this challenge when you have been communicating with your teammates and have stayed locked into the game?
The next level of the communication pyramid is the high school Level. You all remember high school, right? Your world was rocked because you went from being the cool oldest kid at the middle school to just another dumb freshman who can’t find their classrooms. But for the first time, someone actually asked you what classes you want to take. You are starting to be given more responsibilities
For some that is a cool thing, but for others…
Communication at this level takes a major step forward. Your team is ready to start taking real responsibility for their communication and they are willing to take their communication to a much higher level.
The high school level involves advanced communication. This means that the players are almost always talking about the game and situations that are taking place. They always communicate the number of outs, the count, and the primary defensive play. They may even talk about what has taken place earlier in the game and how it impacts their situation.
It probably sounds something like:
“One out! Runner at first. She is quick. Ground ball goes two, Fly ball goes two, base hit goes three!”
Starting to get pretty dang exciting if you ask me!
