Level Up Softball

It’s always a good night for softball here in Hawaii! 🌄

Aloha to my Level Up Softball families! I am making a change to my schedule for the time being. From now on I will only be scheduling lessons on WEEKEND days. I won’t be doing lessons every weekend, but I am planning to do a few days a month.

I know this change is not great news for everyone, but I will work to accommodate to my students on weekend dates. With working full time & taking care of my son - I am needing to scale back on the amount of lessons I am taking on.

I will not be accepting any new students at the time in order to prioritize my current families. I will be following up with families by text message as well.

Mahalo! ☀️

Happy 15th birthday, Ivi! Hope you had an awesome day! 🎉

Aloha to my softball families! I will be OFF from softball lessons next week - we have family visiting Hawaii for the first time! ☀️

See you all the next week! 🥎

😂

Come on Chad 🤣🤣🤣

PLEASE LEAVE ME A REVIEW! ⭐️

2024 marks 8 years since I first started giving softball lessons. Level Up Softball grew from me giving softball lessons in my hometown to all over central Ohio to now Hawaii! I am beyond thankful for all the families who have trusted me to work with their daughters on their softball skills. This is my passion and I plan to continue working with softball girls for years to come. 🥎

With my husband being in the military - we will move to new areas in the future. Reviews are very helpful to keeping my lessons going in new areas. I kindly ask that if I worked with your daughter over the past few years if you could leave me a review - thank you in advance! 🙏🏼

Softball Sunday here on Oahu! Go Gigi! 🥎

Fall 2023 > March 2024! ⭐️

Check out the improved leg drive & glove control. This girl is only 8 years old & learning so quickly. Great work, Gigi! 💪🏼

November 2022 > March 2024! 💪🏼

Months & months of lessons - the improvement in strength, control, & mechanics is evident. From pushing the ball to whipping the ball! 🥎

Great work, Kailani! ✨

True statement! 💪🏼

After almost 3 months off after the birth of our first son & a trip back home to Ohio - I am happy to announce that I am back on island & ready to schedule lessons! ☀️

Text me to schedule your lesson! I am so excited to see my softball students! 🥎

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For my Ohio softball girls! 😁

‼️🥎🥎🥎🥎🥎🥎‼️
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12u Pitching Clinic with professional softball player and Ohio State Alumn, Shelby McCombs.
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This clinic is designed to help pitchers understand how to pitch to batters, working their movement pitches, and throwing with speed while incorporating mental toughness.
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STUDENTS PLEASE BRING A NOTEBOOK TO THIS CLINIC.
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LINK TO REGISTER IS IN COMMENTS!

👏🏼❤️

Check out Kailani’s awesome form here! The perfect WHIP! 👍🏼

Week 36 of pregnancy is here for me & this will be my last week of softball lessons for awhile. If you would like to squeeze one more lesson in - shoot me a text to get scheduled for this week. 🎉

I’ve watched many of my students play this fall & im very proud of all of the progress they have made - I can’t wait to see what spring brings. ☀️

Gizmo & Stormy came to softball today! 🥎

I’ll never forget it.

I was a high school freshman and we were in the middle of a heated basketball game with one of our rivals.

I was on the floor when I heard my coach yelling for me, “Mandy! Mandy!”

I heard him. But I was blatantly ignoring him.

On the third, “Mandy!” I turned away from the court to the bench and yelled “WHAT?!!?” My hands were in the air to signal I was annoyed.

This coach was not one to mess with. He knew basketball like the back of his hand and he DID NOT DEAL with disrespect. His face immediately got beet red and his eyes were bulging out of the sockets.

I heard the buzzer blaring for a sub and I knew I was coming out of the game.

I went to sit in an open seat at the top of the bench and he said, “no. You go take a seat at the end of the bench. And get comfortable.”

It was the first quarter and I didn’t play another second of that game.

During halftime he said to me, “if you ever talk to me like that again - if I ever hear you talking to a referee or another coach like that - you will be so far down on this bench you won’t even see the court.”

Noted.

After the game, he walked up to my Dad who was a long-time boys’ basketball coach. He wanted to explain why I was benched but my Dad cut him off. “You’re the coach. You don’t owe me any explanation when it comes to your team.”

I think about that moment a lot because I think we’ve drifted so far past that when it comes to teaching our kids about accountability.

In our house, if you’re not playing, that’s on you. Work harder so you leave no doubt (even if politics are involved).

You look cross-eyed at your coach, I hope you are benched.

You’re not focused in school? Benched.

You tear down a teammate? Benched.

Youth sports have changed so much…some days the stories I hear or see firsthand it’s like inmates running the asylum.

Coaches are too afraid to hold kids accountable because parents lobby to have them fired 🙄

And it’s sad because a lot of the parents are my generation…and come on, we know we learned and benefited the most from the teachers and coaches who pushed us the hardest and held us ACCOUNTABLE.

I love youth sports because it’s so much more than scores and records.

It teaches us teamwork, builds and reveals character, we learn to work through adversity…the list goes on and on.

There’s nothing wrong with coaches holding our children to higher standards by saying “that’s not how we behave here.”

I don’t know about you, but my kids need that because I’m trying like hell to make sure I’m not raising narcissistic, entitled and self-absorbed humans.

They’re going to make mistakes…
They’re going to have low-character days…
They’re still learning and growing…

I just hope every coach and teacher knows that I have their backs when they tell my kids: “nope. Take a seat.”

Forever grateful for Coach H for telling me to get comfortable on the bench. Nothing I could have done on that court that night could have overridden my disrespect.

In order for youth sports to do its job, parents need to stay out of it. Park the helicopter and stop hovering.

It’s the fighting through the adversity that will lead our kids to endless success. Truly.

Character > athletic ability

📸: that’s me in a good ole mid 90s polyester uniform. And yes, I’m chewing on it 🤷🏼‍♀️

I'll keep saying this until I'm blue in the face. Early specialisation is not the best way to create top athletes 😉

Pic: https://www.postregister.com/chronicle/sports/specialization-of-sports-not-best-answer/article_102098dd-b11a-581b-b22e-3820f5f6fc59.html

Further reading:
https://www.ais.gov.au/position_statements/content/sport-specialisation-in-young-athletes

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6805068/

https://www.amssm.org/News-Release-Article.php?NewsID=69

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130423172601.htm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6350152/