Making the Most Out of Your Softball Training

Making the Most Out of Your Softball Training
By Marc Dagenais

Training is a significant part of any athlete. If you want to become a better softball player, then you have to train your body well with different drills and exercises. All of these activities work together to help you meet the demands that playing the game on the field requires.

But just like a lot of things, there's a good form of training, and then there's the bad one. Good training is one that helps improve your performance and achieve your fitness goals without wasting any of your time and energy. On the other hand, bad training is ineffective and worse, can lead you to injuries.

That's why I came up with these softball tips to help you make the most out of your training.

Have a Consistent Schedule and Stick with It

It doesn't matter if you're going through a well-designed program if you're not going to stick with it for the long haul.

The key to having an effective training is by having a schedule and faithfully following that schedule. Planning what you have to do for every day of the week would be a good start.

Another important thing here is that you should make time for your training. Some athletes prefer to train during the morning, while others would rather do it after school or work. But what's important is that you try to fit in your training into your schedule.

Make Your Training Varied

If you've been training for a long time, you're probably familiar with the term plateau when it comes to training. This is the point where you already achieved your highest fitness level for a certain form of training and you can no longer go any further.

The trouble with plateau is that you eventually get burned out if you keep on doing it and no longer see any more results from the activity you're doing.

To prevent that from happening, you should change your training programs regularly. I recommend that you change it every 3-6 weeks. This will keep you and your body physically challenged. Thus, prevent the incidence of burn out when you're training.

Find a Training That's Softball Specific

There are a lot of workouts out there that are great when it comes to helping you lose your unwanted fat. However, they won't help you a lot in becoming a better softball player.

The reason for this is that softball has specific requirements that are different from other sports and activities. That's why you need a softball-specific type of training that will help you maximize your performance on the field.

Some of these softball specific types of training may include training your lateral motion, your shoulder strength and your batting mechanics.

So, if you really want a form of training that gives you specific results for your sport, then, look for softball-specific types of training.

I hope that the softball tips that I shared with you above will help you find types of training that will provide you with the biggest impact when it comes to your performance on the field.

Marc Dagenais is a Softball Peak Performance Coach that helps softball players turn their athletic talent into extraordinary performances and help coaches get more out of their players, turn their struggling team around or get an edge over their opponents. Visit us to sign-up to get our FREE softball pitching tips!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marc_Dagenais

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Four Little-Known Softball Training Secrets, PART 1

Four Little-Known Baseball/Softball Training Secrets, PART 1
By Steve Zawrotny
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Train for POWER
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Baseball and softball are not games of strength, but of EXPLOSIVE POWER. Just how strong do you have to be to pick up a 5 oz baseball, or a 30 oz bat? On the other hand, propelling that 5 oz ball 90+ mph, or hitting a ball 400+ feet with that 30 oz bat requires tremendous power - the ability to perform work. In this case, the work of playing baseball and softball at a high level.

In both games, while they can be slow in duration, the various activities that comprise a game are short and quick. Rarely does a play take longer than 6 or 7 seconds. There are exceptions, of course - an inside the park homer, or an extended rundown or "pickle." But, for the most part, things happen very quickly on the diamond.

Why does this matter to you?

Well, let me ask you this: how often have you heard coaches tell pitchers to condition themselves by running laps - Long, Slow Distance (LSD) training, or to spend a lot of time pedaling a bike?

If you've been around as long as I have, you've seen this a lot. Here's the problems: these coaches (and many players) incorrectly think that LSD (or aerobic) conditioning improves player performance. In fact, studies show the aerobic demands (the amount of oxygen needed by the body) of baseball and softball to be very low.

In fact, the oxygen uptake of a baseball pitcher (the most active position) is a low 45% of the maximum needed. Apparently the rest pitchers get between each pitch and in-between innings is sufficient to replenish the main energy system used.

Baseball and softball are considered to be "alactic anaerobic" sports in terms of the energy system utilized, with pitchers in both sports the busiest players on the field. What this means is that there is little to no lactic acid buildup as a result of this activity. That burning feeling you get when you lift weights really hard is a result of a buildup of lactic acid, a by-product of that (and other) short-term, intense types of exercise.

Have you ever heard of a ball player complaining of this problem?

Consider the baseball pitcher: it takes about 0.15 seconds from the time the front foot contacts the ground until the ball is released. Very little lactic acid can be built up in this short burst of activity. The primary source of fatigue in pitching is not metabolic, but neural. [1]

Again, why does this matter to you?

Because studies show that LSD training significantly detracts from power, strength, and speed development.

Reduce these characteristics, and you educe your ability to throw with high velocity, hit with power, and run at high speed. Look at the bodies of sprinters vs. marathoners. You don't have to be built like a sprinter to be successful as a ball player, but this illustrates how training affects one's body, conditioning, and hence, ability to perform.

Put another way: Train Slow, Perform Slow.

As mentioned earlier, aside from the game itself (which can be be long and slow) things happen quickly on the ball field. Playing softball and baseball requires high velocity, ballistic movements like throwing a fast, well located pitch, taking a hard swing at this high velocity pitch, and exploding out of the batter's box to sprint down the first base line.

So how should you train?

To augment the aforementioned activities, concentrate on developing power, flexibility, and speed. Weight lifting, plyometrics, flexibility, and short burst sprint interval training should form the basis of conditioning for baseball and softball players.

[1] Gambetta, V. A Big Windup. Training & Conditioning, p. 43 March 2003

Steve Zawrotny, MS, CSCS 405.373.3253 steve@baseballfit.com FREE REPORT: "Harmful Resistance Exercises Baseball/Softball Players Should Avoid" VISIT: http://www.BaseballFit.com
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Softball Training Drills - Directional Cross-Over Step

http://www.softballperformance.com Softball Peak Performance Coach Marc Dagenais demonstrates a softball drills on how to change the angle of your body to accelerate in any direction on your right or left.

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Softball for Beginners : How to Hit a Softball

Posted on Youtube by expertvillage
Learn tips and techniques for hitting a softball with expert softball tips in...
expertvillage | February 17, 2008
Learn tips and techniques for hitting a softball with expert softball tips in this free sports instruction video clip.

Expert: Juan Carlos Landaverde
Bio: Juan Carlos Landeverde has played baseball and softball since he was 5 years old.
Filmmaker: Devin Boddie


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