Enjoying Softball in Mattoon Illinois

Mattoon is very fortunate to have a very supportive community when it come to girls’ softball. The following is a brief guide about the sport of softball and how things progress in the Mattoon Community.

Mattoon Girls Softball Association (MGSA) is the entry level organization for girls who would like to learn about fastpitch softball. Girls from a 30-mile radius are invited to join in the registration process during the month of March. Girls from 6-14 years old may register to play in a season that is held from late May to the end of June.

There are four divisions of recreational play. 8 & Under is for players 6-8 years old. 10 & Under for girls 9-10 years old. 12 & Under for girls 11-12 years old. While 14 & Under is offered there is seldom enough players to form these teams. The age is determined by the date of birth before December 31st of the year before.

The MGSA is not governed by the city council. It has a lease agreement with the City of Mattoon for the Roundhouse Complex. There is a board of directors, commissioners and executive director. This board meets monthly from August to May.

The MGSA is affiliated with Babe Ruth Softball, While the organization follows Babe Ruth rules, there are some supplemental rules for each age group. The MGSA also has a policy that each child must play at least two innings every game and must be allowed to start a game every other game. There are six innings or an hour and half time limit for the games. The 8U’s use a pitching machine. The 10U’s pitch until there is four balls and then the coach will pitch.

Player fees are charged, however no child is turned away and fee waivers can be obtained. Players must provide their own athletic shoes (cleats preferred), long socks and gloves. Gloves must be large enough for the ball. It is recommended that each child have a batting helmet with a face mask. The league does not provide pants, shorts, visors, socks, or hats.

Girls attend a clinic in early April. Coaches evaluate players and then a draft is held. Girls unable to attend the clinic are put into a blind draft at the end of the regular draft. Sometimes late registration is allowed and coaches are assigned late registrations based on draft number, and number of girls on the team. There is a maximum number allowed on each team. It could take a couple of weeks to be placed on a team when you register late. People who register on time should not be penalized by people who register late and taking up a spot by someone who has registered on time.

Coaches are selected by filling out an application. Many coaches have previous years experience, some are brand new and learning too. There are available resources to help “new” coaches. Coaches will be provided with bats, balls and catching equipment.

Umpires are selected on experience, and on seniority. Many have been with the league for many years. These umpires even though they are young also do tournaments. They must be at least 14 years old.

While there is no active fund-raising directly involved, each team is required to work the concession stand when assigned. This is one source of revenue for the MGSA. The player fees are used to help defray the cost of insurance, team shirts, umpire and registration cost. Sponsor fees also help with these cost and the cost of equipment such as ball, bats, etc.

Picture nights are usually held around the first of June. A league tournament is held the last week of June for the 10U and 12U.

There is an all-star team and a tournament team that is picked from the league players. The all-star game is usually held in early July is for any player in the league that does not make the tournament team or play “travel ball”. There is no all-star game for the 8U division. Each coach picks four to five girls from their team. These teams may be picked by other players or the coach on the team.

There is a tryout for the tournament team. Players must come from the league and played in over half of the games. Coaches may also recommend players. The coach must have also coached in the league. This is only for 12U and 10U. Players must provided birth certificates.

Tournaments, Travel Teams, Middle School, and High School Teams

The MGSA and local travel teams are very proud of our facilities. We consider them one of the best in the state. With this in mind, the community frequently hosts “softball tournaments”. Teams that participate in these tournaments compete at all different levels and may come from all over the state as well as the United States. Mattoon host over eight tournaments a year from the college level to 10U. Softball organizations hosts these tournaments with the permission of the MGSA, Park Department and the City of Mattoon. These organization are charged a small fee for the use of the facility. This goes to the MGSA. The concession stand revenue, entry fees etc. go to the host organizations. These local organizations also help with the up keep and improvements at the complex. This all benefits the young players of the MGSA.

The Middle School and High School Team is organized by the Mattoon School District. The MGSA is very proud to have them call the Roundhouse Complex their home! Many of the girls started by playing ball in the MGSA and have excelled enough to play at the middle and high school levels. In its first year in 2005 the middle school placed second at the IESA state tournament. The high school team has many IHSA regional and sectional wins. The concession stand is maintained and ran by the MGSA which keeps the profits.

Travel teams or summer teams are independent of the MGSA. You will find however that many of the same people are involved. These teams may be independent or part of larger organizations. Currently there are two: the Mattoon Pride and the Mattoon Cobras. These organization are governed by their own boards and have teams in 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U, 18U. This is the next level for many of the players in the MGSA who want to improve their play or play more competitively. These teams practice and play games on certain nights at the Roundhouse Complex based on rules set by the MGSA.

Travel team members usually pay a fee to participate. These teams travel around the state and often attend tournaments out of state. Playing time is not guaranteed and is at the discretion of the coaches. Tryouts are held at the end of their seasons usually in late August or players may be invited to be on the team. Many of the teams hold practices year round.

A Few Facts For The Lesser Experienced

by Dave at http://www.girls-softball.com
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

I keep running into the same set of general questions asked by people new to the sport of softball, yet familiar with baseball. So I thought I would publish some useful facts for those with less experience.

Organizations
Basically in softball you have Little League, Babe Ruth, PONY, ASA and variations on these. Little League is not the gold standard in softball that it is in youth baseball, up to 12 years. ASA and PONY are the most important organizations. Little League seems to get more press and TV coverage but serious softball players compete in ASA and PONY tournaments. In the serious softball world, the Little League World Series is not looked upon as a high level of competition. The PONY Nationals, for example, are viewed as a much higher level.

Field of Play
The field of play for softball is flat, no raised mound, and has a “skin” (dirt) infield. The reason softball is played on a skin field is because it is essentially a faster game than baseball. Grass slows down the speed of ground balls. Bases are placed 60 feet apart regardless of the age group playing. There may be instances when a recreational league makes the bases closer for learning purposes but I have not encountered this in practice.
The pitcher’s area is flat. There is no raised mound because pitchers throw underhand as opposed to overhand in baseball. The raised mound in baseball is used to provide the pitcher with an advantage - he gets to throw downhill at the batter. Playing softball on a field with a raised mound provides a disadvantage to the pitcher. You often see recreational leagues which play softball on baseball fields and, as a result, they have raised mounds. But a serious softball organization will provide for flat pitching areas on its softball fields.
The pitcher’s plate is two feet wide and placed 35, 40, or 43 feet, depending on age of players, from the back corner of homeplate. Generally 43 feet is used for NCAA and international play. Florida is now experimenting with 43 feet at the high school level. 40 feet is used for ages 11 and up in all other play including most high school ball. Girls aged 10 and under pitch from 35 feet. This is true for all the leagues mentioned above.
Normally first base is a little different than its counterpart in baseball. Softball makes used of a “safety base” at first which looks like two bases put together. One base is placed in the normal position, the other (which is typically red-orange) sits next to it but in foul territory just at the end of the runner’s box. On an infield ground ball, the batter running to first must step on this orange base located in foul ground. The base in fair territory is the firstbaseman’s domain. If a runner is legging out an infield hit but steps on the inside base, she can be called out for not stepping on the base before the first baseman receives the throw. But this seldom happens. If the ball is hit into the outfield, the safety base is ignored. The runner makes use of the part of the safety base located in fair territory.

Ball
The ball is yellow with red lacing. It is not white. There are two primary sizes of balls, 11 inch and 12 inch. Depending on the league or organization, a 12 inch ball is generally used for ages 11 and up, while an 11 inch one is used for ages 10 and younger. Little League, however, uses an 11 inch ball until age 12. Little League World Series Tournament play (aged 11 - 12) uses an 11 inch ball. PONY and ASA use a 12 inch ball at this age level. Some recreational leagues, even good ones, will make use of a ten inch, spongy, white ball in order to avoid injury. This is typically used at young ages like 8 - 9 and younger.

Pitching
The accepted style of pitching is referred to as “windmill” in which the pitcher steps off the plate towards the batter while moving her arm in a full circle, or near full circle, motion and releasing the ball at her hip. Often people new to the game make the mistake of thinking the pitcher is making multiple rotations of her arm. This is not allowed. You cannot swing your arm in a circle over and over and then release the ball. Only one 360 degree circle is permitted.
Windmill is the accepted norm of pitching in softball. The “modified fastpitch” in which the pitcher raises arm backwards like a bowler, but with the hand slightly above the shoulder, was once acceptable but it is no longer used in serious play. The reasons for this are that windmill is faster, puts more movement on the ball, and is a far more deceptive motion to the batter. Pitchers who use modified fastpitch in serious competition, in the rare cases it is used, get hammered by batters.
Windmill is the accepted norm of pitching in softball. A plain vanilla underhand pitch is no more accepted in serious softball than it is in any level of baseball. No parent would ever tell their son to throw underhand in order to make batters put the ball into play. Many inexperienced parents and coaches in recreational softball encourage girls to throw straight underhand in order to “get it over.” This is a mistake which harms the pitcher and fails to teach batters to face windmill pitching. There is no logical progression of moving from underhand pitching to windmill. Batters who face underhand pitching become frightened and cannot adjust when they face windmillers. Encouraging any use of a pitching method besides windmill is bad for the sport, bad for those being encouraged to use it, and bad for those against whom they use it.
It is difficult to master windmill pitching in terms of control. It can take more than a year before a girl throws consecutive strikes but even when a windmill pitcher cannot find the plate, nobody involved with serious softball even thinks “maybe she should just throw regular underhand.” Encouraging a girl to throw underhand only delays the time when she will need to learn the windmill form. Learning other motions can actually be a hindrance to learning windmill. Aside from the stark differences in physical motion and release point, which are extreme, a girl who has convinced herself that she is a good pitcher but who throws regular underhand or modified fastpitch will quickly become totally frustrated when trying to change to windmill.
Learning to pitch faster is better than learning to throw strikes. A pitcher who tries to learn only to throw strikes will modify her motion and end up bending her arm or learning other bad habits from which she may not recover. If your daughter cannot throw strikes and the coach “corrects” her to make her throw strikes, tell the coach your daughter will no longer be pitching for the team. Then practice with her until she can throw hard strikes. There is no other way to go about this.
Pitch speeds vary but here are some general guidelines with the caveat that pitch speed alone does not make the pitcher. Good pitchers at the 12U level will pitch around 45-55 mph. Few throw 55, some throw low 50s and many are in the range of 45-50. At 14U the speed increases to 50-60. Again, few actually throw 60 and many are in the low 50s. In high school, a quality pitcher will throw in the low 60s all the way up to world class speeds which range up to around 65-70 mph. Yet many effective high school pitchers throw in the high 50s. The trick to successful pitching is mixing up speeds and movement and hitting spots which are “holes” in the batter’s swing. A complete discussion of this is well beyond this article’s scope.
Pitchers throw more varied kinds of pitches than baseball pitchers do. Typically you will see fastballs, changeups, curves, screwballs, rise balls, and drop balls. At ages 12 and under, most pitchers will throw a fastball, changeup and something that bends. Some pitchers have more than three pitchers at this age but very, very few have mastery over more than two. As girls move up in age and experience they get mastery over a couple pitches but should still learn others since in high school and tournament play, you are likely to see the same batters over and over again. You need something new to fool them before they get you figured out.

Batting
Because softball pitch speeds are relatively high when combined with the close proximity of the pitcher to the batter, there is little time to adjust a swing once started. Even in high school, softball batters frequently have less time to react to a pitch than do major league baseball players. For this reason, softball swings are shorter than baseball swings. I suppose a “proper” baseball swing is probably shorter than what one typically sees. But softball fanatics try, with greater persistence, to shorten girls swings.
The nob of the bat should face the expected impact point of the swing. First base is a decent proxy for this - so nob of the bat should face first. The back elbow should not be cocked back. I think you know what I mean if I say the way you dads were taught to hit a baseball is wrong for your darling daughter’s softball instruction. Do not pull their back arm back and up before they swing when you are showing them. This lengthens the swing. It is a mistake. The elbows should be in a position where you can place a pole on your daughter’s biceps and it will not fall to one side or the other.
The batter’s step is a timing mechanism and a device for shifting the weight back 60-40, then forwards 40-60. It does not provide forward motion in and of itself which is then converted into bat speed. No lunging forward, please. Leave that particular method for the old man’s recreational softball league’s annual homerun derby. Home runs are sometimes hit in girls fastpitch softball but these are the result of good mechanics, solid contact, and good timing. Softball is a fast, strategic, “small ball” game. Good contact is the key.

Baserunning
Base runners in college and high school as well as high level age group competition are allowed to leave the base once the ball is clearly out of the pitcher’s hand. Once the pitcher receives the ball back within the pitcher’s circle, all runners must immediately move towards a base. The runner may advance by stealing the next base or she may return to the base from which she came. But she may not dance around trying to encourage the pitcher to make a throw. Once the pitcher has received the ball within the circle and is moving towards the pitcher’s plate, runners must make an instant decision which base they will move to. If they do not, they should be called out by an umpire. In recreational leagues, this is seldom enforced. In Little League Tournament and higher play, this is usually enforced.
There are a couple of methods taught to base runners in terms of how to stand on the base. Most high level competitors put their push-off foot on the side of the base facing their running direction and the other foot in back of them while facing the direction they will run. The idea is to start your running while the pitcher is in motion but not step off the base until the ball is released. Your strongest step is your first step and anything you can do to make it stronger and in perfect timing with the pitcher’s release is a good thing to do. Sometimes you will see baseball refugee coaches who encourage girls to stand like a baseball-player-leading-off-base with one foot on the base and the other towards the next base. I think this is wrong for a very simple reason. You never see world class runners standing like this. You always see such runners with the foot they will step with first in back of the other. The best advice I can give to base runners is to use the base as a device to push off from by stepping over it with the first step foot and pushing off the base with the planted foot.
The same other general rules apply to softball baserunning which apply to baseball. A runner who overruns first base is considered to be on the bag unless and until she makes a move towards second at which time she is considered to be off the base until she safely returns to it. The turn to the left thing is a myth. There is no need to turn towards foul ground after overrunning first except that it is an excellent way to observe if the throw there is an overthrow. Umpires who don’t know the rules will sometimes call a tagged runner at first out because she turned towards the field rather than towards foul ground. But the rules do not say anything about that.

Other aspects of the game
The infield fly rule applies to most competitive softball games.
I haven’t made a study of it but I would swear the strike zone in softball is somewhat more generous (to the pitcher) than it is in baseball. Perhaps this has more to do with the size of the ball but batters should be taught to see the strike zone as larger than what we teach boys playing baseball. The umpires apparently do. The general rules for the strike zone are identical but in practice the umps call the corner and high and low more generously than in baseball.
I’m not certain what the rule in baseball is but in softball, a batter must make an effort to get out of the way of a pitch. You cannot simply stand there and take one for the team. The umpire should not award first base to a batter who is struck by a ball when she is trying to get hit as a means of getting on base.
Bunting is generally allowed. Some tournaments have their own rules regarding bunting but usually it is allowed and you may see it frequently over the course of several games. Sometimes you may see a batter begin running before the pitch reaches home and then take a short stabbing swing at the ball. This practice is called slap-hitting. Some levels prohibit slapping but off hand, I don’t know which ones do. Generally a batter must be in the batter’s box before, during, and just after a pitch is thrown. It is illegal to hit a ball when you are outside the batter’s box and the batter will be called out if that happens. Slappers usually practice stepping in such a manner that they are able to take two or one and a half steps timed just right to hit the ball while they are still in the box. This allows them to build up running momentum before putting the ball into play. A slap is not a bunt. A foul bunt with two strikes is a strikeout. A foul slap with two strikes is just a foul.
The primary objective difference between a slap and a bunt is that a bunt involves holding the bat in the strike zone during the pitch. If the bat remains in the strike zone and the pitch is not hit, a strike will be called regardless of where the ball passes the plate. In order to avoid this, the batter must remove the bat from the zone by pulling it back into her body. Slappers on the other hand avoid a swinging strike by not swinging. And once the pitch passes the plate, they are no longer prohibited from leaving the box so they will not be called out for leaving it at that time.