Advice from a softball legend who has done it all

Anyone who has trained younger athletes knows it comes with unique challenges and rewards.

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From around 15 years old and under, children require a specific type of external motivation, guidance, and encouragement that just isn’t needed for older teens and young adults.

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Coaches and parents of this age group will be familiar with the frustration of trying to get the balance “just right” to keep kids engaged in sports. 

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Push too hard and you risk putting them off sports for years to come. Don’t push hard enough and they can lose interest entirely.

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If you can get it right, however—training younger children can be one of the most rewarding experiences sport has to offer.

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Nothing beats the feeling of watching a youngster develop a love for the game you are so passionate about. Or seeing their physical and emotional capabilities grow and develop in that special way only sports can offer. 

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Learning how to work with kids on this level is a specialized skill that not many people in the world can teach.

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Fortunately, we found someone whose skills in training young athletes is perhaps only matched by her enthusiasm to teach others about this topic…

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Jennie Finch Has All Bases Covered  

It’s hard to overstate just how qualified Jennie Finch is when it comes to training the next generation of athletes.

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A talented child athlete herself, Jennie went on to become one of the most successful (and famous) softball players in history.

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Finch’s achievements in softball are astounding—they include:

• Winning the Women’s College World Series with the Arizona Wildcats in 2001 and being named Collegiate All-American
• Led the USA Olympic Softball team to a gold medal in 2004 and silver in 2008
• Shattered several NCAA records, including going 32 - 0 her junior season and racking up 60 consecutive wins
• Left college softball the career leader in strikeouts, shutouts, innings pitched, and was tied for no-hitters. Finch still retains a top-10 spot in several college softball all-time lists
• Inducted into the USA Softball Hall of Fame in 2016

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Universally credited with positively transforming softball for generations to come, Jennie Finch is renowned for promoting femininity in the sport, while being an absolutely fierce and tenacious competitor. She has an impeccable personal reputation, and is believed by many to be one of the best ever female role models in sport.

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Finch retired in 2010 to focus on her family. She already had one son, Ace (born in 2006), and has since had another son and daughter. Not that this seems to have slowed her down at all…

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Finch remains heavily involved in softball and as an ambassador for female athletes in general. She runs training camps across the U.S. and has her own softball academy in Flemington, New Jersey. She is also involved in several other business and philanthropic endeavors.

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We were fortunate enough to be able to secure an exclusive video interview with Jennie on one of her most passionate topics—training young athletes. 

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We’ve outlined the main takeaways from the video below, but do yourself a favor—if you are a coach or parent who wants to learn more on this topic, jump on the Versus website and sign up. You’ll get access to the full exclusive video interview with Jennie Finch, plus heaps of other amazing content and advice.

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Until then, here are Jennie Finch’s top tips on training the next generation of athletes.

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Intentional Coaching (and Parenting) Makes a Difference

When we asked Finch what makes a great coach, she had A LOT of ideas. Most of them centered around the theme of intentional coaching (and parenting). They’re all detailed in the video, but to narrow things down we’ve outlined our five favorites below.

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Each Individual is Different

This point includes one of our top quotes on coaching of all time. 

As she explains the importance of adapting coaching style to each individual athlete, Jennie states, “It’s tapping into greatness within them and [asking], how do I get that out?”. 

Now, if that's too fluffy and woo-woo for you, don’t worry—Finch is very practical and still lives in the real world. She goes on to explain that one of the most effective ways her father tapped into her greatness in high school was—wait for it…bribery!

Finch tells the story of her father promising to buy her a Guess watch if she threw two perfect games. She thought it was impossible. But two games later, she had that new watch.

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Put Away the Technology

Finch states that she sees learning how to manage technology as one of the biggest current challenges for young athletes, coaches, and parents. In particular, she is concerned about the temptation for kids to replace time on the field with time behind a screen.

Jennie’s advice—set limits and have times where the technology is put away. Most importantly, make sure to show kids how much better sports is in real life compared to watching someone else do it on a screen.

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Help Kids Set Goals

Older teens and adults know the importance of setting goals, but this is something younger kids will need help with. It doesn’t have to be complicated—just build out a bit of a plan for consistency with your young athletes, then help them mark off achievements as they go along. 

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Having a clear goal to work towards can be very useful for motivating children, but it must be age-appropriate. As a general rule, the younger the child, the shorter the timeframes for achieving goals should be.

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Create a Fun Atmosphere

One surefire way for a coach or parent to ruin sports for a child is to suck the fun out of playing. For younger athletes—first and foremost—the focus should be on developing a love for the game. Do this well and the drive to compete will take care of itself in due course.

Finch has an interesting approach to creating a fun atmosphere she calls “creating a game within the game”. She explains that coaches and parents can help children set mini-goals or challenges, like getting a certain number of hits in at practice, learning to throw a new type of pitch, or playing around with leading off and faking out the catcher.

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Celebrate Small Victories

This point comes back to the concept of children working in shorter timescales than adults. Regularly celebrating small victories can be a very powerful way to increase the motivation and participation of children in sports.

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Keep in mind that the celebrations don’t have to be big. It’s more the regularity and consistency that matters. Something like a regular post-game ritual, a small gift when an athlete performs particularly well at training or in a match—even just some sincere kind words here and there will go a long way to keeping young athletes engaged.

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Your Influence Is Impactful

Continuing her theme of intentionality, Finch urges coaches and parents to realize the full extent of their influence on young athletes. While it might be hard to see at the time, the adults involved at this pivotal stage really do lay the foundation for a lot of what will follow in later years.

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If young athletes learn that sport is a safe place where they can be themselves, test their capabilities, and grow as an individual, they are likely to continue on this path in the future. 

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Alternatively, if early experiences with sports are harsh and unforgiving—or teach children that their personal worth is tied to performance—they may grow to resent the push to be athletic and avoid sports in their later years.

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Finch’s advice is simple. She states, “Ultimately, I think it comes down to loving the athlete, loving your child, no matter what happens. And always being there for them no matter what”.

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To show what this might look like in practice, Finch explains that as a young athlete—no matter how hard her parents pushed her or what mistakes she might have made on the field—at the end of the day, “It was a hug and a kiss goodnight and I was Jennie the daughter, not Jennie the athlete”.

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Your Words Are Powerful

In the video, Finch exclaims with great emotion,

“Parents. Coaches. Your words are powerful. So powerful”.

To exemplify the point, she recalls a time when she was 14 years of age and a coach told her, “You're going to be on team USA one day”. Finch claims that she can still recall this exact moment with great clarity, because her response was to think, “Well if he can see that in me. If he believes that about me. I can believe it about myself”.

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Interestingly, Finch then goes on to say she later realized the coach told a whole lot of other players the same thing! So why did Finch internalize this message so deeply when presumably many of the other young athletes didn’t?

Well, our guess is that her parents had essentially “primed” Finch to be responsive to empowering statements like this, by regularly using similar words in their conversations together. 

Remember the earlier story about her Dad’s bribe to throw two perfect games? Well, bribery wasn’t the only coaching tactic being used there. Finch’s father was also clearly telling her that he believed she could throw two perfect games.

The power in the words of coaches and parents of young athletes doesn’t come from a positive comment here and there. The power of words lies in consistent and regular patterns of positive and empowering language. This allows young athletes to believe the big, bold statements like “I’m going to the Olympics one day”, that ultimately become the driving force behind them putting in the work to get there.

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They Have to Know That You Care

In her parting words of wisdom, Finch states, “Parents. Coaches. When it comes to leading the next generation, never underestimate the power of your influence. When an athlete knows you care—and knows you care way beyond the playing field—it’s everything”.

Notice she emphasizes leading, rather than training in the first sentence? 

Even though we asked Finch for her advice on training the next generation, she didn’t actually talk about training much at all. Finch’s approach to young athletes focuses on being a supportive leader to expose children to the joys of the game, rather than drilling them on the value of hard work and dedication to honing their skills. 

It’s not that these things aren’t important—but if a child doesn’t first develop a love for the game—they're never going to be able to sustain the work required to reach an elite level.

And to her second point about the importance of an athlete knowing that you care… 

This is the currency that allows parents and coaches to push young athletes to work hard.

Finch mentions her father throughout the video. In most cases, she’s referring to instances where he was pushing her quite hard to give her all and strive for lofty goals. She even describes his approach as “tough love” in one segment. 

However, what Finch makes abundantly clear, is that her father was only able to do this—to push her so hard to achieve—because she always knew deep down she was loved and cared for because of who she was as a person, not just as an athlete.

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Related Articles:

• How to Battle Fear and Anxiety
• The Power of Routines
• The Real Payoff of Playing Sports
• How to Set Goals in Sports

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