Fading into a dive

Have you ever watched a softball game where a girl rips one to the outfield? Typically, one of two things happen in this situation: the outfielder runs up, not quite fast enough and the runner is easily safe at first, possibly even second. Or, the outfielder turns up the speed and without hesitation makes that diving catch! Those are the ESPN Top 10 plays we live for as fans of the sport.

So, can we teach athletes, specifically young athletes, to make those Top 10 plays? If so, how? In my six seasons of coaching a variety of age groups, I have found one common denominator standing in the way of these diving plays; fear. Kids are scared to sacrifice their bodies for the play that may make or break the outcome of the game.

How do we address this fear? Seriously, it's understandable that athletes value their body over a play. Yet as coaches, we preach for these players to give it their all to make the play. In my personal experience, both as a coach and a future behavior analyst, I have found one procedure in particular to help increase confidence and decrease injury when making these dives.

Fading.

A behavior analytic term that means, "a procedure for transferring stimulus control in which features of an antecedent stimulus (e.g., shape, size, position, color) controlling a behavior gradually changed to a new stimulus while maintaining the current behavior; stimulus features can be faded in or faded out." (Cooper, et al. 2020)

Example: Teaching a child to write the letter A.

Step 1: Child traces a solid line of the letter A.

Step 2: Child traces a dotted line of the letter A.

Step 3: Child traces a faded line of the letter A.

Step 4: Child connects only dots to write the letter A.

Step 5: Child writes letter A independently.

Now that we know what a fading procedure is, I want to apply this to the world of softball. I'm sure this could be applied to many other sports or activities as well, but this post will only focus on increasing defensive dives on the softball field.

Example: Teaching athletes to dive for a ball.

Step 1: Have athletes on their knees practice diving side to side and out front, to catch a ball.

Step 2: Have athletes practice dives from their feet onto a slick surface such as a slip and slide or a piece of cardboard with baby powder on it.

Step 3: Have athletes dive using a large yoga ball to guide them to the ground as they catch the ball.

Step 4: Have athletes dive side to side at a short distance from their feet.

Step 5: Have athletes take a running start to dive for a ball 10 feet in front of them.

Step 6: Have the athletes take the field and give them balls to dive for, hit at half speed.

Step 7: Hit balls at full speed for athletes to dive for.

This is just one example of how I teach my athletes to dive for a ball. It is important that we are increasing athletes comfortability with their bodies hitting the ground. It is also important that we are checking their fundamentals when they do this, in order to prevent injury. For example, if athletes are putting their throwing hand down when they dive, they may injure their wrist. If athletes are bending their elbows when they make a forward dive, they are more likely to knock the wind out of themselves. Teaching the fundamental skills of dives should be done in step one and two to ensure athletes have a set of skills before attempting dives at full speed.

Most of all, I believe a fading procedure will increase an athletes confidence in making the play. We have to practice the plays we expect our athletes to make. If we have never addressed how to dive, we cannot expect girls to make ESPN Top 10 plays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N372o8ZCwQg

Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied Behavior Analysis