Summary
In this episode, Russell and Lacie Ham are joined by Coach Kate, Lacie's first pitching coach. They discuss Coach Kate's softball journey, her coaching career, and her business, Three60Softball. They also talk about coaching different age groups, the challenges of parenting and coaching, and the importance of keeping softball fun. Coach Kate shares her advice for parents and emphasizes the need for honesty, hard work, and consistency. The episode concludes with contact information for Coach Kate and a discussion on the most influential person in her life and the importance of character traits and core values.
Takeaways
- Coaching and parenting in softball require a balance of pushing players to improve while keeping the game fun and enjoyable.
- Consistency, hard work, and honesty are important character traits in softball and in life.
- Parents should encourage their children to practice regularly and not rely solely on lessons or team practices.
- Coaches and parents should communicate and be on the same page to avoid confusing young players.
- It is important to let players fail and learn from their mistakes, while also providing support and encouragement.
Check out Coach Kate [Three60 Softball]
A couple of years ago, as a family, we created family core values. One of them is, "We face challenges with optimism while displaying a growth mindset." We wanted to tell our story so others, who relate, can navigate through these challenges better. Contributing to our Podcast will show we're on the right track and we're making a difference to those who have similar stories. Buy Us A Coffee
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[00:00:00] The kids need to be doing something every day.
[00:00:02] I mean, even if it's 20 minutes, so...
[00:00:04] But then the other one is the parents who tell me that their nine-year-old isn't begging them to practice,
[00:00:11] so they're not going to push their kid to go out.
[00:00:14] And I don't know about you guys.
[00:00:16] There are some kids that are the one percent of kids that will beg their parents or they'll go out on their own,
[00:00:21] but a lot of kids won't.
[00:00:22] My parents had to make me go out and practice. And I always tell them as long as they're not complaining while they're
[00:00:27] out practicing, like of course when it was 100 degrees in July, I wanted to sit on my couch after
[00:00:31] school in the hair condition. I didn't want to go practice. My parents made me, so when these
[00:00:35] parents are like my nine-year-old is begging me to practice, I try to remind them they're okay.
[00:00:40] Of course they want to do other things, but if you see potential in them, you need to push them. Hello and welcome to Catching You, a dad and
[00:00:48] daughter softball journey. I'm Rusty, a dad who's been in the dugout and on the
[00:00:53] sidelines. And I'm Lacey, the daughter whose journey through softball has been
[00:00:57] filled with incredible wins, tough losses, and so many lessons both on and off the
[00:01:01] field. For the past 16 years we've navigated the highs and lows
[00:01:05] of softball together from the local fields to national tournaments and everything in between.
[00:01:10] From the challenges of recruitment during COVID to the mental and emotional roller coaster that
[00:01:14] comes with being a student athlete, we'll be sharing the perspectives of both a parent and
[00:01:19] athlete in first-hand experience of the impact of sports on mental health and the importance of support from the sidelines.
[00:01:27] Welcome back everybody to Catching You.
[00:01:29] I'm your co-host Rusty Ham.
[00:01:31] I'm with my daughter, co-other co-host Lacey Ham.
[00:01:34] Lacey, say hi.
[00:01:36] Hi everyone.
[00:01:37] And we have our first guest appearance, Coach Kate.
[00:01:42] Coach Kate was Lacey's very first pitching coach.
[00:01:50] I say, hi, Kate.
[00:01:51] How are you?
[00:01:52] I am good.
[00:01:53] So, Kate, we're just again, this podcast is about, you know, Lacey and myself as
[00:01:59] a father, our journey through her softball career.
[00:02:03] And this kind of tells a little bit about yourself, like maybe where you grew up, you know, what colleges or high school did you
[00:02:08] do attend? What college did you attend? Then, you know,
[00:02:11] what are you doing now as far as, you know, something,
[00:02:14] what are you doing now that's related to softball?
[00:02:18] Okay. I'm Kate Yasgill or I'm Kate Tiffany now,
[00:02:21] because I got married two years ago, but, um,
[00:02:24] I played at Marietta Valley
[00:02:26] girls softball growing up and I think Lacey was there too, right?
[00:02:30] Yeah.
[00:02:31] I heard right.
[00:02:32] And then I, high school, I played for Marietta Valley for two years and then I transferred
[00:02:38] to Vista Marietta High School, which was fun.
[00:02:42] And then I, I don't know, I've been on a lot of different travel
[00:02:46] well teams, Baba's. I know. Hey, Gordon's me out there. I forget the other
[00:02:52] questions. Um, I went to University of Georgia and I was there a couple years
[00:02:59] and I transferred to Georgia state my last year and I ended up coming home. But
[00:03:02] now I am coaching full-time and I think it was meant to be.
[00:03:09] I love coaching so much.
[00:03:10] So this is like what I should have been doing from forever.
[00:03:15] I couldn't coach in college like they can now, but I had to wait until I was out of college.
[00:03:20] But the best thing ever, the best job I could ever have.
[00:03:24] Yeah.
[00:03:25] Lacey, you get into that, right?
[00:03:26] You're starting to coach some, some girls.
[00:03:28] And I'm you, I think you might have some questions regarding that.
[00:03:32] Yeah.
[00:03:33] So you were at GSA, right?
[00:03:35] So what was Lacey?
[00:03:37] You went to our rival school, Marietta Valley night.
[00:03:42] I coached on Mesa too.
[00:03:43] I forgot to mention.
[00:03:44] That's right.
[00:03:44] You were a coach at Mesa.
[00:03:46] Um, when you transferred to Vista, did you play with the Romero sisters?
[00:03:49] And though,
[00:03:50] No, they're younger.
[00:03:50] I'm old.
[00:03:51] Their dad is the assistant coach.
[00:03:54] Oh yeah.
[00:03:54] I mean, yeah.
[00:03:57] Those girls.
[00:03:58] Yes.
[00:03:59] Um, those girls are obviously, we know how great they are, but I remember
[00:04:04] playing varsity softball and they were really young and their dad would
[00:04:07] have them come out and do fielding.
[00:04:09] What that's more like, what are these little kids doing practicing with this?
[00:04:12] But they were so good.
[00:04:13] Obviously they were good from a young age.
[00:04:16] It's crazy.
[00:04:17] So I kind of like practice with them.
[00:04:20] That's cool.
[00:04:21] Um, yeah, thanks for coming on.
[00:04:23] I appreciate it.
[00:04:24] Uh, yeah, we're just going to, just a random conversation about when the girls are young
[00:04:33] and how to treat them. I think, Lace, you have some questions regarding that.
[00:04:38] Then I'll ask you some parent questions.
[00:04:40] Because if you've listened to some of the episodes, I was after you,
[00:04:46] Kate, um, and when she started, yeah, she started like, you know, practicing a lot.
[00:04:51] I, I was not, I was not a good father.
[00:04:52] I was throwing the ball back as hard as I could to her.
[00:04:55] And I was moping and, you know, hate your spots, lace, you know, so I didn't do a very
[00:05:00] good job as far as a parent until she came to me crying one day.
[00:05:09] Um, and then maybe you can touch upon the parent aspect. Lace, what, uh, I don't know.
[00:05:12] Would you have any memories of coach Kate? I know it was super, you were super young.
[00:05:16] How old were you again?
[00:05:18] Uh, uh, seven, eight.
[00:05:22] I was like, I've seen you pictures.
[00:05:31] Like, yeah, there's a little, there's, there's like, she sent me a video of me in like, uh, socks with like fire on them from sweet heat.
[00:05:35] And um, like my untucked shirt, my visor and my hair's down.
[00:05:40] Um, but yeah, I mean, I just remember pitching sunglasses.
[00:05:47] Uh, we pitched in that really crappy bullpen at Mesa, but yeah, I mean,
[00:05:54] very, very young.
[00:05:55] So I just remember working on mechanics a lot.
[00:05:59] That's pretty much the basis.
[00:06:01] Lacey, you didn't know this, but you were one of her first clients
[00:06:06] other than Autumn P. Really? Was it one lesson you said? Yeah, I think it was one lesson.
[00:06:16] My mom knew her mom from work or something. You know, funny similar with Lacey, isn't
[00:06:20] that how it happened? Yep. Because I was teaching at Mesa, right? At the times.
[00:06:28] No.
[00:06:30] Well, let me get started. So what your full-time coach now, you didn't really necessarily have
[00:06:37] like a business name. What is your, what's the business name? What's it called?
[00:06:44] 360 softball.
[00:06:45] Yeah.
[00:06:45] So what did define, what does that mean?
[00:06:48] Like, what does that mean to you or why, why did, how did you
[00:06:50] come up with 360 softball?
[00:06:51] So I came up with that with the to grow.
[00:06:55] So the end game goal is to have 360, everything available for these girls,
[00:06:59] like to have a family community where they can have hitting, pitching,
[00:07:03] fielding, mental game work.
[00:07:05] Uh, I even, I've brought in a nutritionist to school tutoring.
[00:07:09] Like my dream is to have everything under one roof, 360, everything.
[00:07:14] So the girls can come hang out, get working, do schoolwork.
[00:07:17] And you know, I want them to not want to leave.
[00:07:19] I want them to softball all the time.
[00:07:22] You know, that that was, that's the plan. I'm slowly getting there.
[00:07:26] Yeah, you just didn't you just put in like bullpens and like, man, that looked like a lot of work.
[00:07:33] Oh, well, yeah, I'm still working on it. My father-in-law's down there working on it right now.
[00:07:39] Oh, really?
[00:07:40] Lots of money and lots of time. I mean, I made big moves. I sold my first house to buy this land just for softball for my business.
[00:07:47] No, it's pretty crazy.
[00:07:49] Yeah, I was looking at some of the pictures and like, that's a huge charge.
[00:07:54] I don't know if it's back here.
[00:07:56] It's just one half acres.
[00:07:58] Is it still an area like Marietta Metaphy area?
[00:08:01] Right off, got in, I'll start Urbundi.
[00:08:04] I'm right in the middle between the three.
[00:08:05] So I can't go too far.
[00:08:08] I've got too many girls around here.
[00:08:10] That's right.
[00:08:12] Um, so lace, you're, you coach now, right?
[00:08:17] You're coaching little girls.
[00:08:19] What are the, what are the eight ranges?
[00:08:23] What are the eight ranges typically with you, Elise?
[00:08:27] I think my youngest would be eight years old. And then my oldest one is a junior in high school
[00:08:39] right now. So I range from eight to high school when my lessons.
[00:08:45] So I range from eight to high school when my lessons so.
[00:08:47] Yeah. Thanks.
[00:08:47] I think, Kate, you said you're super young to some college girls.
[00:08:53] Don't you think you do some college girls as well?
[00:08:55] Yeah, I have some college girls too.
[00:08:56] Yeah.
[00:08:57] Not very many yet.
[00:08:58] I've got my ones that have been with me from the beginning are like juniors now.
[00:09:01] So they'll be in college before we know it.
[00:09:03] Oh, wow.
[00:09:04] Yeah.
[00:09:07] Okay, Lace, you have anything you want to ask your old,
[00:09:12] your first, very first pitching coach?
[00:09:16] Yeah, I think my first one I said was,
[00:09:20] if you can remember what our lessons were like
[00:09:22] or what sort of developments I made,
[00:09:26] like strengths or weaknesses.
[00:09:28] But I know it was a long time ago.
[00:09:29] So just like he has like a little, a little like rec ball playing pitcher.
[00:09:36] That was a long time ago.
[00:09:38] Um, I knew all that you were really good and you were really young and like,
[00:09:42] I would, you know, I brag about you a lot.
[00:09:44] I have like videos and pictures from like your wreck ball games and
[00:09:48] stuff. And I should remember like, you know, when I, you poached, so when you have a young
[00:09:54] girl and you're like, this girl is going to be a good pitcher. So, I mean, I know I'm
[00:09:58] a cyclical for mechanics, so I'm sure we were probably focusing on that the most. And then I remember it was funny.
[00:10:06] I watched one of your other shows and you talked about the change up and how I was
[00:10:10] like obsessed with that and I was like, Oh, that hasn't changed.
[00:10:13] One of my students like, Oh, lazy on her podcast.
[00:10:17] That's the change up even back then.
[00:10:19] But it's true.
[00:10:19] Even in college it's important.
[00:10:21] So yeah, I guess I just remember you stood out for sure.
[00:10:24] And I'm always bummed when a young girl like is so good.
[00:10:27] And then of course I wasn't really full time coaching then.
[00:10:30] And you guys move on and like, Oh, they're going to be so good.
[00:10:33] I want them to be like my, my student forever.
[00:10:38] People have to grow.
[00:10:39] Yeah.
[00:10:40] Like, yes, I kind of remember that.
[00:10:42] I mean, definitely remember the bullpen.
[00:10:44] That was why I coached there because I could use, I mean, I loved coaching there,
[00:10:49] but I like to use our facilities, you know, even though it wasn't the best,
[00:10:53] it was better than going to Cal Oaks, you know?
[00:10:57] Well, yeah.
[00:10:57] 13 years ago, Kate, we were not very good.
[00:11:03] You can tell, you can tell when a girl's.
[00:11:06] Yeah.
[00:11:06] Well, let know, Lacey was pretty good, but the high school team was
[00:11:10] absolutely horrible.
[00:11:11] I just, we made not have, we may not have won a game.
[00:11:14] I I'm pretty sure that, uh, we didn't win again.
[00:11:18] I was going to ask Lacey cause you said one year girl, or you have
[00:11:20] girls that are up to like junior in high school.
[00:11:23] That was hard for me, coach, because we were so close in age. I was wondering if it, you know, for you is that,
[00:11:31] but I mean, you guys are really close in age, a junior in high school and a senior in your
[00:11:35] senior, right? Yeah. She's a junior. Oh, you're a junior. Yeah. It's not hard.
[00:11:47] It's weird because my brother is a senior in high school.
[00:11:51] So I see them as like kind of like little siblings.
[00:11:57] Does that make sense?
[00:12:00] Yeah.
[00:12:00] So like the junior in high school,
[00:12:01] she's younger than my little brother.
[00:12:03] So like I still see them as like my student in my lesson and like someone that, or I know
[00:12:11] that they look up to me in a sort of way.
[00:12:15] And I think the closest in age kind of helps a little bit like for like relatableness and
[00:12:21] like developing like a good relationship and like kind of fun and bantering back and forth, talking about
[00:12:28] high school. They could even come to my games still if they wanted to. So I've had some
[00:12:34] girls come to my games. So I really just liked having that close relationship with them.
[00:12:40] It's so crazy, but with the eight-year-olds and hearing them when they were born is just
[00:12:44] out of... I don't know.
[00:12:47] I don't like it.
[00:12:47] You feel like not older than you.
[00:12:52] Yeah.
[00:12:53] Well, I think it was great for me because I'm coaching a team that was different in one-on-one lessons as far as the age difference.
[00:13:01] That was hard for me.
[00:13:02] Right now, obviously I'm old.
[00:13:04] I feel like I hit a certain age where like some of these girls, it's different.
[00:13:08] But good.
[00:13:09] I'm glad you guys, I mean that fence, you can't relate.
[00:13:13] Yeah.
[00:13:14] You're, you're, you just stuck with lessons, right?
[00:13:16] You never really coached like travel ball teams, right?
[00:13:20] Or did you try to coach any travel ball teams?
[00:13:22] And then.
[00:13:23] After high school, I always said, I will never coach another team.
[00:13:26] I did three years at Mesa.
[00:13:28] I'm sorry.
[00:13:28] Those teenagers and the parents, it was so hard for me.
[00:13:32] But I have this girl that's 10 and when she was five or six, she started
[00:13:37] with me and I promised her when she wants to travel ball, I would coach her.
[00:13:40] Okay.
[00:13:41] I didn't think she was going to travel at nine years old.
[00:13:43] So, so I have, they give me a hard time all the time. I just don't think I can do another team. It was so hard.
[00:14:05] And how, I mean, when Lacey cried at the kitchen table,
[00:14:07] cause I was not acting appropriate, right?
[00:14:10] And she finally said, dad, that's this is enough.
[00:14:16] Can you touch upon some, we call, I call the pet peeves earlier, but what are some of your, if we want to use today's terms, your
[00:14:21] ex of parents and I don't want you, I don't want this to be like a,
[00:14:24] you know, bash parents, you know,
[00:14:27] no, go for it. But, um, but what are some like, like, maybe sort of advice for
[00:14:33] someone like me, who's not, you know, you know, at least she's not hitting her
[00:14:38] spots. So I'm like, moping and then but I have really bad body language or I'm, I
[00:14:43] roll back to her because, you know, if her change up, you know, wasn't, you know, she didn't hit her change
[00:14:48] up. So I just roll it back to her instead of throwing it back to her. What are some
[00:14:51] of your ex or some maybe some advice?
[00:14:54] So I can think of a couple of them. Let's see if I can remember them. So one is like
[00:15:02] I had mentioned, like the magic lesson, which I'm sure Lacey can really do coaching.
[00:15:07] Some of these parents will bring their kids to like one lesson a week and their kid won't practice.
[00:15:11] And they're like, why is my kid not advancing?
[00:15:13] Obviously you're not doing your job.
[00:15:15] I would be charging a lot more if there was magic lesson or the parents that bring them like in
[00:15:20] wreck ball, they'll bring them just one season start and they'll try to cram and the kid hasn't done anything in months. Um, but then that's one of mine. Then there's
[00:15:30] another one. The kids need to be doing something every day. I mean, even if it's 20 minutes.
[00:15:35] So, but then the other one is the parents who tell me that their nine year old isn't
[00:15:41] begging them to practice. So they're not not gonna push their kid to go out.
[00:15:45] And I don't know about you guys,
[00:15:46] but there are some kids that are the 1% of kids
[00:15:51] that will beg their parents or they'll go out on their own,
[00:15:53] but a lot of kids won't.
[00:15:54] And my parents had to make me go out and practice,
[00:15:56] and I would tell them as long as they're not complaining
[00:15:58] while they're out practicing,
[00:15:59] like of course when it was 100 degrees in July,
[00:16:01] I wanted to sit on my couch after school
[00:16:04] in the hair conditioner,
[00:16:04] I didn't want to go practice, but my parents made me.
[00:16:06] So when these parents are like, my nine year old isn't begging me to practice.
[00:16:10] I try to remember, like remind them they're a kid, you know, of course they want to do
[00:16:14] other things, but if you see potential in them, you need to push them.
[00:16:18] So they're like one extreme or the other.
[00:16:21] And then as far as like how you said how you kind of acted, I have some
[00:16:25] parents that my mom was super tough, but it breaks my heart when I see like, um, some
[00:16:31] kids scared to fail because their parents are so tough. And you know, as a coach, Lacey,
[00:16:38] like sometimes like, I don't care where the ball goes, just the road. Like I'm working
[00:16:42] on something mechanically and the ball might hit the roof of the cage. I don't care. But they'll look at their parents like they're not allowed
[00:16:47] to do that. And I have to be like, you got to just let them fail. But I'm worried that
[00:16:53] some of those kids are going to be the ones that don't continue playing and they're so
[00:16:57] talented. And I wish some parents would listen to me when I say like, just back off a little
[00:17:01] bit. But there's like one end of the spectrum to the other. Like, there's two extremes
[00:17:06] to some of these parents. But I think like you, I mean, they all
[00:17:09] figure it out as they go. But take your kids out to practice.
[00:17:14] If you see potential, push them and let them fail. Those would
[00:17:18] be like my biggest my advice for my ex.
[00:17:21] Yeah, so yeah, it was important that she opened up, right? She went to mom first and said,
[00:17:25] hey, you know, dad is, I can't handle this, right? You know, because she wants to, she's competitive.
[00:17:33] I mean, she's more competitive than me. She's like her mom, she's competitive. And so she would
[00:17:38] always ask me to go out. And again, that's why we call it Catching You podcast because I would
[00:17:42] always catch her. But then there was this time where she's like, this suck.
[00:17:48] I don't want to do this because he's, you know, she would throw it over the fence.
[00:17:52] Right now that I've dropped my head and I walked real slow and you know, and she's
[00:17:57] like, I'm not doing it on purpose.
[00:18:00] Yeah.
[00:18:01] I mean, anything else.
[00:18:02] It was no, go ahead.
[00:18:11] I, because yeah, I take a member like going out and asking and we'd be like, well,
[00:18:16] he had work or he got a little back late Brown.
[00:18:19] Um, I mean, at times you were still coaching basketball.
[00:18:26] So, uh, you had late practice and I'd just be waiting at home, like just with my glove in the living room. And I think I'm like kind of how you said, um, Coach Kate, like they want to be,
[00:18:32] they need to be begging to go out and perform. And then I asked some of my lessons, like
[00:18:38] after they come to my lesson and it's not going very well and they're getting all confused.
[00:18:42] Why am I doing so bad? And then I'm like, well, did you pitch during the week? And then they say, well, I did like last week,
[00:18:50] maybe one time with my dad. And I was like, okay. So, and then I asked like, do you want
[00:18:57] to continue to get better at pitching and continue working hard and being a... I even asked some... Kinda in the middle, 12-year-old,
[00:19:08] 14s, do you want to play in college? And then they say, yes, I want to play in college. I love
[00:19:15] Stanford. I love all these schools. I'm like, oh, you're going to have to go more than once a week.
[00:19:20] You're going to have to do it. It's like probably a requirement. Um, so yeah, just bring me back to begging my dad to go do spins at least.
[00:19:33] I always tell the girls like you get out what you put in, you know, if, if you don't,
[00:19:38] like it's more fun to be successful in a game than failing.
[00:19:41] You get out and you put in it's not like, It's not rocket science, I try to tell them.
[00:19:46] Really not.
[00:19:48] Right.
[00:19:51] Yes, there was I think a couple of episodes of the code that I talked about.
[00:19:57] A coach was saying that the nine-year-old,
[00:20:00] I think you may have commented on it, Coach Kate.
[00:20:04] The nine-year-old was crying after practice I think you may have commented on it, uh, coach Kate, you know, the nine-year-old was crying after
[00:20:06] practice because she didn't know who to listen to.
[00:20:08] And can you like maybe describe that?
[00:20:11] Cause I'm sure she's not the only one.
[00:20:13] I'm sure she, you know, when they start getting pitching coaches, it didn't
[00:20:16] happen with us cause, uh, you know, our coach was cool.
[00:20:20] He was like, okay, what are you guys working on?
[00:20:22] And he would always make fun of us.
[00:20:23] Cause Lacey, he thought, he thought Lacey had too many, too many, uh,
[00:20:29] grabs or too many pitches. What did he say? He used to say coach Chris.
[00:20:34] He's like, what is this grit number 72 or something like that?
[00:20:40] Yeah. Cause we were going, Hey, we know we have this new grip from the curveball.
[00:20:43] And he's like, he's like, just, just throw the curveball.
[00:20:46] Like, what about that nine year old, you know, cause she, again, she's not the
[00:20:53] only, what about that nine year old that's conflicted and you know, cause
[00:20:57] girls shouldn't be crying after practice, you know, because they have to choose.
[00:21:02] Like if their coach is telling them one thing and they're pitching coach.
[00:21:05] So yeah, that's hard because I mean, these kids just want to please
[00:21:10] their coaches and their parents.
[00:21:11] And you know, to me, I'm always like, that's a red flag from a coach.
[00:21:16] My biggest thing is if you're paying for any type of lesson, your parents are
[00:21:22] working hard and paying and you're working hard practicing,
[00:21:25] then your coach should be in communication with your pitching or hitting or whatever
[00:21:30] coach and, um, get on the same page.
[00:21:33] So we're saying the same things that we're not confusing the kid, but it's hard.
[00:21:37] I told my kids to like kind of smile and nod.
[00:21:40] Yeah, coach.
[00:21:41] And then know what I've told them and do what I've told them. But that's
[00:21:45] hard for a nine year old. Like, you know, that's a difficult situation. My I always
[00:21:50] tell the parents, talk to the coach, and some are more approachable than others. And I'm
[00:21:54] like, and tell them, you know, give them my information, get in contact or I'll do it.
[00:22:01] But I'll tell my girls if their coach is telling them something that they know they're not supposed to do that we don't work on, I tell them to
[00:22:08] blame me.
[00:22:08] I say, tell them that you got in so much trouble and I made you run for 30
[00:22:12] minutes as I put all the blame on me.
[00:22:14] That's okay.
[00:22:15] Like, I mean, it's so hard for these kids.
[00:22:17] They just want to do well, you know?
[00:22:20] Yeah.
[00:22:21] No, and then I know I think L you had some that you wanted to ask about,
[00:22:25] maybe kind of we can segue into that, like keeping it fun. Right? I think, again, not
[00:22:34] ever going to go D1, right? Not ever, you know, because I'm sure Coach Kate in the 13
[00:22:39] years, you've had a lot of girls not play anymore. You've had a lot of girls fall out of love of it because of one reason or the other.
[00:22:47] Maybe it could have been, you know, harsh parents or it could have been that coach.
[00:22:50] I don't know, Lace, what you asked me, you kind of shared what you wanted to ask her
[00:22:56] about that.
[00:22:57] Yeah, I said, like for, because you work with a lot of young girls, like how do you as a coach keep it
[00:23:07] simple and fun without putting too much pressure on them, but like also pushing them to be
[00:23:13] better?
[00:23:14] Mm-hmm. Like in lessons, I can tell I just try to do some kind of challenging game or
[00:23:22] like, you know, the little one, I'll add in running because I
[00:23:25] think running's fun for some reason when they're young. I try to remind them that it's, you
[00:23:30] know, to laugh. I'll tell them a joke and have fun or I'll have them tell me a joke.
[00:23:34] Like it's supposed to be a good time. It shouldn't be feel like a job, especially. I don't think
[00:23:40] it should ever. I know when we get to college, like my mom always said, it's a job. They're
[00:23:43] paying for your college. It's a job, but I mean, come on.
[00:23:47] It works more fun when you're having fun, you know?
[00:23:50] So I just try to keep it entertaining
[00:23:52] because I can tell when some of the kids are overthinking
[00:23:55] or just over it.
[00:23:57] So then we'll just do like pitch in France or the fast five.
[00:23:59] And they think that's a blast,
[00:24:01] even though it's a lot of hard work,
[00:24:03] but that's pretty much my go- plan or sometimes I was on my stereo.
[00:24:08] I'll be like, all these kids love Taylor Swift.
[00:24:11] I'm not a Swiftie, but I'll play some Taylor Swift for them and
[00:24:14] then they'll start singing and dancing and it's all good.
[00:24:16] They kind of forget and they just have a good time.
[00:24:20] So I'm sure most of the dads, I'm sure there's some moms out there that are caught.
[00:24:25] I think Emily stopped catching when you were 10 and less, but she got hit in the knee a
[00:24:30] couple times.
[00:24:31] But because I described my body language when she missed a spot, I would even have bad body
[00:24:39] language during her lessons.
[00:24:41] I'd be like, you know, shake them ahead and, and do stuff like that. Do you have like card set roles and parents like, or
[00:24:51] I wish I did. But I try it's hard because, you know, at the same time, I'm still running a
[00:24:58] business, but right, like the really hard situation, I try to have talks with parents, but
[00:25:04] it's usually the dad's the mom's like my mom would tough have talks with parents, but it's usually the dads, the
[00:25:06] moms, like my mom would have months to meet us, but it's usually the dads and the girls
[00:25:10] never want to disappoint their dad. And I'll like mention things and I always get the,
[00:25:15] yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, and then the next lesson they're doing the same thing again.
[00:25:18] And I just see their kid like holding in tears. And I, I feel like a lot of times it goes
[00:25:24] in one ear out the other
[00:25:27] I'm gonna have to I want to get more
[00:25:32] Strict with that. But like I said, I'm it's a fine line, you know
[00:25:39] Yeah, it's hard to find catchers right that are just willing to catch bullpen, right? They typically catch catchers just want to catch games They don't they're not big fans of catching both ends and I do sometimes I have catchers come, but some of these parents, like,
[00:25:49] it's interesting.
[00:25:50] They like don't want anyone else to catch their kid
[00:25:52] because they want to give their kid the luck.
[00:25:54] You know, this might learn a lot from the fairings for sure.
[00:26:00] Yeah, I mean, that's part of the reason why we're doing this, right?
[00:26:02] Is is we want that we want that we want more girls to enjoy the game and not fall out of
[00:26:09] love of it.
[00:26:10] Right.
[00:26:11] And you know, you said there's a fine line.
[00:26:13] All right.
[00:26:14] And you know, what is that line we have?
[00:26:16] It's pretty gray.
[00:26:17] We don't know.
[00:26:18] Right.
[00:26:19] Wow.
[00:26:20] Um, so yeah, pretty cool stuff.
[00:26:22] I know you got to get going here.
[00:26:28] Um, we got about, you have lessons, right? You have your full time, uh, business going on.
[00:26:30] You got to get, you got to get going here and get prepared.
[00:26:33] Um, if somebody, um, that's listening wants to reach out to you and maybe
[00:26:41] ask you a question, maybe personally, um, how, what's the best way to reach out to you and maybe ask you a question, maybe personally. What's the best way to reach out
[00:26:46] to you? And then I have a couple of questions at the end here.
[00:26:51] So just probably Instagram DM, it's 360 softball, but you spell out the three and then it's
[00:27:02] the number 60. Sometimes people get confused.
[00:27:04] Right. It's T- T H R E E.
[00:27:07] Yeah.
[00:27:07] And then also 360 softball.com.
[00:27:11] I have like a contact where they can send me anything on there and it'll
[00:27:15] shoot straight to my email, but, um, yeah, I mean, Instagram, I'm on there
[00:27:21] the most and then the website and email probably second and all my
[00:27:24] information is on their phone number and everything too. Right. Okay. Instagram, I'm on there the most. And then the website and email probably second and all my
[00:27:25] information is on their phone number and everything too.
[00:27:28] Right. Okay. And then I asked you kind of off camera. And I really appreciated this one,
[00:27:36] because not many people would say what you said. And I asked you who is the most
[00:27:42] influential person in your life? and how did they impact you?
[00:27:46] So can you tell her let's maybe end on that because I think that's pretty cool.
[00:27:50] That's what you said.
[00:27:52] Other I said my grandpa, right?
[00:27:56] My grandpa.
[00:27:57] So, um, he's not around anymore, but he, so he grew up playing men's fast, bitch, him and his,
[00:28:03] he was a catcher, him and his pitcher were in like the Hall of Fame playing men's fast pitch him and his he was a catcher him and his pitcher
[00:28:05] We're in like the Hall of Fame for men's fast, but no, I hope you only my mom played softball
[00:28:09] So everyone was in it
[00:28:10] But I was actually a catcher in a third baseman and we were messing around they had land in San Diego and we're playing and you
[00:28:16] Know like every kid hitched the ball and my grandpa's like, you know, he's like here you're gonna be a pitcher
[00:28:21] We're not doing this anymore. I apparently feel really fast and
[00:28:28] He though he like completely.
[00:28:31] And I'm not even sure.
[00:28:34] I mean, it was pretty good, but I wasn't like as good as I got with pitching. So I don't think I'd be where I am today.
[00:28:36] If he didn't decide I was going to be a pitcher when I was actually not
[00:28:39] till 12 years old is when I started.
[00:28:42] Oh, wow.
[00:28:43] Really?
[00:28:44] Yeah.
[00:28:44] So I was a catcher third basement until I was 12.
[00:28:47] And then things moved really fast.
[00:28:49] I met Bill Wendy's dad like shortly after
[00:28:52] and jumped into Travel Ball.
[00:28:53] And, but it was all because of my grandpa
[00:28:57] and he used to just take me out
[00:28:58] and he used to take me into the VFW
[00:29:00] and we'd go to the fields over there and pitch.
[00:29:03] And he went to all of my games.
[00:29:05] He randomly started calling me.
[00:29:08] He's like, can your nickname be right where he passed away?
[00:29:11] I was 16 around there and he's like,
[00:29:13] can I call you Peaches?
[00:29:15] I was like, that's really weird.
[00:29:16] Within six months, I got a full ride to Georgia.
[00:29:18] I was like, Georgia, Peach.
[00:29:20] Oh my gosh.
[00:29:21] Really weird things, but I would definitely not be where I am now if it wasn't for
[00:29:27] Grandpa in the backyard. Yeah, that's awesome. What's his what was his name?
[00:29:32] Dick Jones Richard Joe Richard Jones. Yeah, what what was your what was your did you call Papa? What'd you call him?
[00:29:41] It's grandpa. I have my only grandparents around here. My other ones were in Southern Illinois.
[00:29:46] So you have to do there.
[00:29:47] But yeah.
[00:29:50] Um, awesome.
[00:29:51] And then the last thing is I asked you about, cause we, uh, Lace and I and our
[00:29:56] family, we have family core values.
[00:29:58] Right.
[00:29:59] Um, so I kind of asked you a little bit, maybe like, uh, character traits, you
[00:30:03] know, someone that you, you look at someone and you're like, okay, that's, that's, you know, what, so
[00:30:09] what kind of character traits or kind of core values are you looking at for people?
[00:30:13] Typically,
[00:30:14] definitely honesty.
[00:30:16] That's huge and hardworking character traits.
[00:30:19] I mean, that's in not just soft one, like being a hard worker and dedicated
[00:30:24] to what you love.
[00:30:25] And, um, those are probably some of the, I don't remember what else I answered.
[00:30:30] Oh, you get consistency, hardworking and honesty, right?
[00:30:33] And I think
[00:30:34] consistency is huge.
[00:30:36] That's consistency is a big one and anything.
[00:30:40] Yeah.
[00:30:41] Well, good stuff.
[00:30:42] I appreciate it.
[00:30:43] Coach Kate, thank you for coming on being our first guest. This is awesome.
[00:30:47] Um, to our Catching You podcast. Um, also, so we got your, uh, info. If people want to reach out to you, I appreciate your time. I know you got to get out of here.
[00:30:59] Uh, Lace, thanks for hopping on. Uh, Lace, I love you. Coach Kate, I love you too. I love that you are her first ever pitching coach.
[00:31:08] Yes.
[00:31:09] I love you, right?
[00:31:10] I brag about it.
[00:31:11] So.
[00:31:12] Hopefully they maybe catch a good nugget or two out of it.
[00:31:16] Take care, guys.
[00:31:18] Thank you.