The Secrets to Ultimate Bat Speed
Top 10 Ingredients for a Winning Team
What’s the Best Bat Weight for You?
Softball Tricks And Tips
Here are some tips for warming up and cooling down:1. ALWAYS take your warm up seriously. The quality of your warm up will dictate the quality of your preformance in a game. If you goof off during warm-ups, you could injure yourself and your game.
2. Don’t just do the regular stretching. It has been proven that just holding your stetch will not prevent injury and does not stimulate your nervous system.
3. Do a dynamic warm-up. Do a warm-up that includes lots of movement. Such as: Knee highs, butt kicks, kariokes, lunges, defense slides, and elephant trunks.
4. Cool down. It is very important that you cool down after each practice and game. This will reduce the chance that you will pull, strain, or tear a muscle. This is the time to do the stretching where you hold the stretch. You could also do light jogging.
1. Take the right classes
– The NCAA is upping the number of English and Math classes required to participate in sports
– Let your school counselor help you along the way to decide which classes to take
– Try your best in school so that you can make the eligibility requirements2. Register with the NCAA
– If you register yourself as an amature athlete so that colleges know that you can play for them legally
3. Make A List
– Make a list of 200 school that you want to play for and research them
-Make three lists: one of the schools that you dream about, one of those that you could realistically get into, and one of the ones that are a fallback just in case
4. Create A Video
– This is the most important part
– Making a video of your skills allows you to show recruiters what you are made of
– Keep the video short and simple and do not use music in the background
– hire a videographer to help
5. First Contact
-Write a letter to the coach of the school that you want to play for. Include a contact number and email address
-Introduce who you are and why you want to play for them
-If you call the coach, make sure that it is you talking and not your parent
6. Go To A University Camp
– A university camp will get you noticed and help you at the same time
7. The Final Choice
-Think about the financial side while thinking about who you want to play for
– Also think about how much you will play
– Narrow it down to three and then decide
Errors are going to happen. It is just a part of the game. If none of us made errors we would be Cat Osterman. If you make an error during a game, get over it and get gritty. Keep your head up. If you get down on yourself you bring the whole team down. But the one thing that mostly losses softball games are errors. You can’t give the other team extra outs because they will take advantage of it.
Getting A Mental Edge Over The Pitcher
STUDY THE PITCHER:
Anything you can pick up about the pitcher prior to going into the box can help give you an advantage. Ask yourself the following questions: Does she always throw the first pitch as a strike? What pitch does she like to throw when she’s ahead in the count? Does she move the ball mostly in and out, or up and down? What’s her “bread and butter” pitch? Does she have a tendency to throw inside or outside? Up in the zone or down in the zone? Does she tip off any of her pitches by how she delivers or prepares to deliver?
Some pitchers look at the location of where they’ll throw their pitch after picking up the signal from the catcher. If you can pick up the movement of their eyes from the catcher’s signal to their target, you may be able to tell where the pitch will be thrown.KNOW THE SITUATION:
Know the count and adjust the strike zone to the count. If your behind in the count, widen the strike zone. If your ahead, make your strike zone smaller.
HAVE CONFIDENCE:
If you tell yourself that you will dominate the pitcher, then you will. It’s all about determination and confidence.
Softball is a mental game. The more of a mental edge that you have over the other players the better.
How To Make A High School Team
WHAT HIGH SCHOOL COACHES LOOK FOR IN SELECTING PLAYERS
1.) Show off your talent to your coaches by doing the following ALL THE TIME
When You Jog to warm up – finish first
When You Stretch do it best
When You Play Catch, throw to a target and hit it every time.
When You Play Catch, catch or block the bad throw, keep it front of you.
When You are doing a drill do it perfect every time. –
Go hard all of the time, NEVER walk in practice or on a field.
As a batter/runner – run to first as though it matters if your safe.2.) Correct Mechanics
work on proper technique
The player who catches 70% of her flies with TWO HANDS will get the position, EVERY TIME, over the player that catches 100% of her flies with ONE HAND.
3.) Practice HARD, because you play the way you practice.
4.) Persistence is more important than talent – a hard worker is easily spotted.
5.) It doesn’t take talent to hustle.
6.) Don’t Wear your hat backwards.
7.) Maintain Eye Contact with all adults when they speak to you.
8.) Body language SCREAMS – it never whispers.
9.) Be PASSIONATE about your teammates.
10.) NEVER argue with an umpire.
11.) Help your team win whether you play or not.
12.) Be as diligent on defense as you are on offense.
13.) Know the situation on defense.
14.) Sacrifice Bunting will get you noticed – learn to bunt.
15.) Answer Adults with Yes Sir and No Mam – if you want respect yo have to give respect. UNDERSTAND THIS OR YOU’LL SOON BE OUT OF THE GAME
AGREE to let your coaches train you.
It is your coaches opinion of you that counts. He/She makes the lineup.
The ONLY thing that coaches owe you is HONESTY.
Life is not fair, regardless of what some people want you to think. Accept were you are at, and work hard at were you want go.
Don’t let ANYONE make an excuse for you.
Your parents love you, BUT they don’t know more than your coaches about softball.
WHO ARE YOU?
Character means doing the right thing when no ones around.
Softball reveals character, it doesn’t build it.
Who you are today is a result of who you were in the past. Fill your past with smart work and good decisions and you will MAXIMIZE your potential.
Work on your game every day of the year. The girl who beat you out for the starting position did.
Balance makes Champions. If you focus on just hitting and ignore the defensive part of your game you will never become a complete player.
Don’t cut classes – this activity demonstrates immaturity and lack of commitment.
Maintain Grades that keep you eligible. There is a reason that Student comes first in Student Athlete.
Set High standards along with knowing the steps to attain them.
Don’t tell people what you are worth – PROVE it to them.* IT TAKES MORE THAN BEING A GREAT ATHLETE TO MAKE A HIGH SCHOOL TEAM *
Running is a big part of any sport. So knowing the correct form of running is important. When running it is important to bring your knees up and pump your arms up and down. If you pump your arms from ear to hip you will get more power. You also want to run on the balls of your feet when running sprints. When running long distance run from heel to ball. Some drills that you can do to improve technique are: high knees and butt kicks.
SPRINTING: This drill is for conditioning and control.Player set-upA catcher stands between first and second base with a discard bucket. The rest of the team stands between third base and home with gloves.Ball set-upPlace three balls on the first baseline, spacing them a few feet apart. Do the same on the second baseline. Place 5 balls in the center of the field, vertically between catcher and player.DrillThis drill should be run one player at a time. The player sprints to any ball on the field, and throws it to the catcher. (If the throw is not good, the ball is replaced by another player for a second try.) They then sprint back to where they started, and go after another ball. This goes on until all of the balls are in the bucket. This drill should be tiring, and should be run at a sprint. Time the players if they need motivation. The other players on the team should be cheering on the runner.BELT: Resistance Drills Equipment required: A belt and a short length of rope (about 10-12 feet long).Put the belt around the waist of a runner and tie the rope to the back of the belt. Have another player grasp the rope and stand behind the runner with the rope taut. Have the runner lean forward while the other player holds the rope to keep her from falling. The proper running position is at about a 5-10 degree angle off vertical with her feet pointing forward, the back foot about 6 inches behind and 6 inches to the right (or left) of the lead foot. With the help of the rope holder, have the runner get into her running position and when she is, say “GO”.The runner runs about 10 yards with the rope holder applying resistance. You do not want too much resistance, just enough to keep the runner in the proper running position. Do this 2 times then have the runner “free” sprint over the same distance while the rope holder is putting on the belt. Then switch positions.
SPEED AND QUICKNESS BUILDING DRILL: Vertical Leap Drills: Equipment required: 2 lengths of rope (about 15-20 feet long).1. Static Jump: Have two players hope the rope LOOSELY in their hands at a height of the jumper’s knees. From a stationary position facing the rope, have the jumper, jump over the rope using her hands and legs to propel her over it. If she does hit the rope, instruct the holders to drop it. Next raise the rope to half way through the thigh. Then to the top of the thigh. Do this twice.2. One Step Jump: Have the holders hold the rope at knee height and have the jumper take a step and jump over the rope with both feet (jump rope style). Raise the rope to half way through the thigh and to the top of the thigh.3. Two Rope Jump: Have two sets of players hold two ropes. The first one is at the jumpers knees. The second rope is at mid thigh. Have the jumper stand inbetween the ropes and stretch out her arms. This is the distance between the two ropes. The jumper faces the first rope and takes a step and jumps over the first rope and immediately upon landing, she jumps over the second rope without taking a step. Do this twice. This drill improves vertical leap which is directly related to speed and quickness.4. Lines on The Field: Equipment Required: Strips of cloth, small pieces of wood or chalk to make marks on the field (outfield). Have an area of about 60 feet to run in. Make lines (like hash marks) on the field indicating where players feet should be hitting as they leave the base or batters box. The first 10 feet should be short, but getting longer as they build up speed. Place a marker at about the halfway point and tell the players that when they reach the marker to focus on pumping their arms faster. This drill will teach the proper way of defeating inertia by taking short steps at first and then pumping their arms to reach optimum speed.NOTE: Watch for the proper arm position of 90 degree bend in the elbows. The hands go from chest to pocket. KEEP THE HANDS OUTSIDE THE EYES. Also, there is a direct correlation between the speed of the arms and the speed of the feet. As an instructional demonstration, have the players try to run slowly while pumping their arms as fast as they can. It doesn’t work!!! The runner runs about 10 yards with the rope holder applying resistance. You do not want too much resistance, just enough to keep the runner in the proper running position. Do this 2 times then have the runner “free” sprint over the same distance while the rope holder is putting on the belt. Then switch positions.