This document is the senior speech of Amber Herrington about her experience becoming a hitting instructor. [1] Herrington struggled as a right-handed hitter and switched to left-handed hitting on the advice of her coach, which improved her game. [2] She chose to become a hitting instructor for her senior project and worked with Chance Cain to teach a student, Brooke, how to bunt and slap from the left side. [3] Herrington learned about patience, time management, and adapting to different learning styles through this experience.

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Amber Herrington
Chance Cain
Advanced Grammar and Composition
12 March 2012
Senior Speech
“I heard that you were switching to the left side. It’s a little too late in the game to do
that though, but I don’t want to discourage you to try.” Imagine hearing these words from your
coach at the end of your sophomore year. Would you sit there and let his words hurt your game
or would you fight and work hard to prove your coach wrong? Well I for one took this to heart
and for the next few months I put my all into becoming a left-handed hitter. Softball was my life
and still is my life, because of this I always wanted to be the one who stood out on the field for
the great things I can do. I was originally a right-handed hitter and was going through a horrible
slump. So I knew that by changing my hitting I would not only improve my game tremendously,
but I could earn a whole new position on my team as well as respect from my coach. I
accomplished this goal that season starting number two in the line-up and finishing the season
with one of the highest batting averages on my team, .398. Now I want to help change someone
else’s life the same way my hitting instructor and assistant coach Chance Cain, helped me. That
is why my topic for my senior project is a hitting instructor. In order for me to make this
decision though I had to do some research. As for my research paper, I chose to look into some
of the most common sports related injuries and how I can prevent them. As a hitting instructor it
is my job to be familiar with the types of injuries that my students can receive if not trained
correctly and if they do get injured, how to help them recuperate properly. I would like to have a
better understanding of these common injuries so that I can help prevent my students from being

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injured in any way allowing me to be a more effective hitting instructor. The research that I
found made me more aware of the main injuries that I should be watching out for such as knee
injuries, fractures, overuse injuries, or even concussions. Now I’m going to tell you about the
process I followed in choosing my facilitator.
I took my time when trying to think about who to choose as my facilitator and in the end
I chose Chance Cain. Some of the qualities that I was looking for in my facilitator were
someone who has given hitting lessons before and also knew how to reach out to the student. By
this I mean someone who was excellent in explaining the steps of hitting in a matter that was
easy for the student to understand and I found all of these qualities in Coach Cain. I met my
facilitator three years ago when he became the assistant coach for the Creekview Grizzlies
softball team. I still did not know him that well until he became my hitting instructor later that
year. Coach Cain played for the St Louis Minor league baseball team for three years and went
on to coach for Cherokee Pride and Atlanta Vipers softball teams. Throughout his years of
coaching softball, Coach Cain was assistant coach at Cherokee, Sequoyah, and also Creekview.
He is currently head coach of the Creekview softball team. Now I am going to tell you the steps
in the process that I took to accomplish my product.
For my first step I chose to meet with my facilitator about our first lesson with Brooke.
On this day we decided that starting with sacrifice bunts would be the most basic form to begin
with. The next step and probably the most difficult was finding a day that worked for Brooke,
her father, Coach Cain and I. We were faced with the hard task of figuring out a day that did not
interrupt school, work or other extracurricular activities which in my case was softball and
gymnastics for Brooke. But we eventually did find a solution which consisted of meeting on
Wednesday’s as well as certain weekends. As far as meeting spots go, we all decided that my

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house or Coach Cain’s hitting facilities would be two of the most convenient places. One
problem that we faced in this case was that certain days depending on everyone’s schedule, my
house would be most convenient and other days Coach Cain’s facilities were preferred. Our
solution was that on Wednesday’s we would meet at Coach Cain’s hitting facilities and on the
weekends we would meet at my house where we had easy access to hitting cages if needed that
day.
The third step was to have my first lesson with Brooke. On this day Coach Cain and I
discovered that Brooke had never been taught to bunt before which casued a problem because we
believed that that day would serve as a review day almost. We could correct her posture if
needed and go from there. But instead we changed plans and began teaching her how to sacrifice
bunt from the left side rather than the right so that she would not get confused with her form.
This continued until the second lesson where we found another problem which was her foot
work. Since she was so young, what we had originally taught her for a sacrifice bunt was too
difficult so our solution was to simply change her foot work. This small step seemed to help
Brooke out tremendously and allowed her to have a better idea of what she was trying to do. As
far as the fourth step goes I began teaching Brooke how to slap. This term is commonly used in
fast pitch softball and although it may sound like I am teaching Brooke how to slap someone, it
is the complete opposite. Having a slapper in the lineup is one of the best things for a team
because a slapper has a better chance to get on base due to their great speed. Slapping is
basically hitting from the left side except it has a little bit of footwork added in to allow the
person to get a few steps closer to first base. In softball these small steps mean everything. The
following steps consisted of working on the fundamentals with Brooke and repeating some of the
steps so that her muscle memory would kick in. During one of our lessons we encountered a

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problem with the weather. One day the weather got so bad that I knew it would not be safe to
drive out on the roads. Therefore, since Brooke us my neighbor, we simply held the lesson in
my house. This day served as a purpose of working on perfecting her foot work which she still
struggled on a little. We took advantage of and worked on fundamentals by using a sock and
cones. Another problem we encountered was that Brooke had not been practicing at home since
her first lesson which slowed down the process for her to learn how to slap from the left side.
The only solution we had was to tell Brooke that she needs to be practicing at home and then we
would go from there. Now I will explain to you what I learned throughout my steps of the senior
project as well as what I learned from this experience.
This senior project has been a great learning experience for me. I now have a better
understanding of what it takes to be a hitting instructor. I have learned that I have more patience
that I thought I ever did because sometimes things get frustrating when you do not obtain the
results you expected to. In order to be an effective hitting instructor one must understand that
time is of the essence. I learned that finding days to coordinate with everyone’s schedules can be
difficult at times. But on a positive note, I did learn that by having good time management,
anything can get accomplished. Teaching someone to switch from the right side of the batter’s
box to the left side is something that can take several months and even years to perfect. I was
very surprised to see what hard work and dedication Brooke gave in becoming a slapper. I was
even more surprised when I realized how quickly she picked up. This allowed me to realize that
every person learns from different perspectives. Meaning that I as the instructor, I should always
be open minded to allow improvement in my students. As far as communication skills go, I used
e-mail and phone skills which were the most convenient ways to keep in touch with Coach Cain
and Kevin (Brooke’s father). I also learned that I am very interested in pursuing a career in

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Sports Medicine or as a part time coach. I feel that being in the field of athletics is something
that I am most interested in and I can benefit off of the most. I will be going to Reinhardt
University to pursue an education in Sports Medicine. I realize my love for softball so as I am
also playing softball for Reinhardt, I will be learning how to help other athletes that are injured.
I also wish to keep being a hitting instructor part time until I finish college. I believe that by
learning more about how to keep my students safe I will be a more affective instructor. Thank
you all for your time, are there any questions?