Conditioning Workouts for Fastpitch Softball

A great article containing tips and training workouts for fastpitch players
By Guest Author Bruce Smith

Sport specific conditioning or game speed practicing are not new concepts, but often overlooked is the unique fitness training needs of fastpitch position players. Softball athletes execute short explosive movements followed by time at rest, but each position has different amounts of rest time. Softball pitchers and catchers operate at a different frequency than either infielders or outfielders. This rest interval difference needs to be taken into consideration by their strength and conditioning program. Many athletes now have specifically tailored fitness programs. Taking this into consideration, here are three examples of a tailored fitness program.

The Power Hitters:
The power hitter's greatest asset is their ability to generate bat speed through the hitting zone. Power hitter's can hit for high average and/or home runs. Defensively, power players will typically play as the catcher, corner infielder, or right field. For this group, the fitness program emphasizes the lower and upper body and core strength development. Conditioning workouts put added emphasis on incorporating medicine ball plyometrics for trunk torque and power development and improving speed-endurance for under 40 yard conditioning.

The Speed Players:
The speed player is defined by her ability to accelerate quickly and maintain a high maximum running velocity. Offensively this group includes your slappers, single hitters and base stealers. Defensively, this group is usually your middle infielders and outfielders. Even though speed player's training emphasizes speed and agility, they can also be some of the strongest players on the team. Speed player's typical strengthening routine focuses on full body exercises like lunges and squats, with less of an emphasis on upper body strength. Agility is enhanced through cone drills, ladder drills, and short shuttles. Finally, the speed endurance targets acceleration and running distances of less than 40 yards through resistance sprints and form running.

The Pitchers:
Arguable, the pitcher is the most influential player that effects the game's outcome. Not only do they need to be pitch explosively, but they also must have the endurance to pitch multiple games per week with, potentially, long innings. Their lower body and core must be exceptionally strong and powerful while maintaining wide range of motion and flexibility. Like speed players, pitchers conditioning training focuses are full body workouts with a slightly greater emphasis on lower body strength. Pitchers also need to do extra grip strengthening work and as hip flexors and adductors to improve lower body mobility.

Final Training Considerations:
Off-season and in-season fitness training sessions have dramatically different emphasis. In the off-season, a strong emphasis is placed on muscle building and injury prevention. Conversely, in-season training is for injury prevention and maintenance.

While the majority of each groups training is essentially the same, the number of sets and repetitions differ depending of the areas of emphasis. All groups include full body strength training, injury prevention exercises, and strength endurance training. Over the course of a week, the athletes cover all the strength and conditioning development areas, but with varying amounts of time based on their emphasis.

Article Tags: Conditioning Workouts, Full Body, Lower Body

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Learn more about fastpitch softball conditioning from Softball at Youth-Athlete

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com


==============

Thanks to our sponsor:

=======================================
Derek Jeter Hurricane Hitting Machine
=======================================

HurricaneMachine.com - Links

---15 Reasons To Buy a Hurricane Trainer
---6 Questions Often Asked By Customers
---Message to Parents From Coach Nick
---Hurricane Hitting Machine Drills
---20-Minute Hurricane Batting Practice Workout
---Hurricane Hitting Machine Video Demo Clips

Baseball2u.com has a one of the internet's largest selections of baseball coaching and training dvds.


Hurricane Video

I Want to Play Fastpitch Softball and Need to Get in Shape

SoftballCoachingDIGEST.COM

By Brad Henks

I get asked quite often what kind of exercises to do to get in shape for softball. There are a lot of kids out there that want to play the game but have never played. I think this is great. Fastpitch Softball is one of the most exciting sports there is.

I see some kids that want to start at the high school level. Again, this is awesome. It may be a little tough if you have never played softball before to make your high school team though. It depends on several things, like how many kids are going out, how many teams your school has - Varsity, JV, C team, Freshman team, etc.

Some high schools are only able to field enough players for a varsity. Others only have a Varsity and JV. So in those cases it is hard to say, you may have a better chance there because they really need the players.

So, what kind of workouts are good to get in shape for the upcoming season? Well, you want to get some conditioning started now. If your season is 3-6 months away you have plenty of time to get into good shape. If you only have a couple months well, you better get going strong now.

There are several areas of strength and speed needed to play this game of Fastpitch Softball at an elite level. Probably the area you need to work on the most is your Core. That means work on your midsection, your upper body, your legs, your arm strength. Kind of sounds like your whole body doesn't it. It kind of is.

You will also need to get your throwing arm into throwing shape and get the mechanics sound. A strong, and mechanically sound throwing arm will keep you playing and off the injured reserve list.

Always start your workout with some good dynamic warmups. Stretching is fine but that is really what you should be doing at home and after practice to cool down. Dynamic warmups are moving basically stretches. You want to get your muscles warm before you stretch them or do any hard workout.

Warm muscles will be loose muscles and loose muscles will be quick, strong and healthy muscles. There are many resources available to find more information about dynamic warmups. I may write about that another time. Just do a search and you will find some good exercises to do.

Here are some good ones to get you started.

Arm Circles: Stand with your arms out to the side and make small circles, then medium, then large circles doing about 10 of each size, then reverse and go back down to small.

Torso Twist: Stand with arms out to side, and twist side to side about 10 times to warm up your lower back. Your back gets a lot of work playing softball.

Butt Kicks: Slowly jog forward kicking your feet up to your butt. Go about 20 feet, turn around and do them back to where you started.

High Knees: Raise your knees high as you slowly jog about 20 feet.
Power Skips: Skip forward as high as you can. This gets your nervous system kick started.
Carioca: This is old school but does a good job of twisting and getting your coordination working.

There are many more good ones but that should get you started.

To get yourself into shape for softball you need to work on your core. A really good exercise for that is to start on your stomach on the floor, raise up on your elbows and toes and hold that pose for about 30-60 seconds. Drop and rest about a minute, then repeat this 3-5 times. You will definitely feel this in the abs, shoulders and the back of your legs if you are doing it correct.

Other core work can be medicine ball where you are sitting on the floor with your knees bent. Grab the ball and hold it in front of you. Twist from side to side. Another good exercise with the medicine ball is to remain sitting, have a team mate toss the ball to you. Catch it and then toss it back. Do this standing as well for a different set of muscle work.

Pushups are great for working the upper body, arms and shoulders. Try some variations such as the Inch worm.To do this get into a push up position, slowly walk your feet up as far as you can, then walk your hands out until you are flat again. Repeat this across the room or until you can't go anymore. Then do one more.

The Marine style is a tough one. Start in an inverted pushup position with your butt in the air. Then lean forward over your hands and then back. Kind of a wave motion. This one will work your upper arms and shoulders.

Let's move on to your legs. Doing Squats is a great exercise to increase your leg strength. This will also help with running speed. Spend time on these and do them slowly and correctly.

Another is to stand with your back at a wall, slowly slide down until you are in a sitting position and extend your arms out in front of you. Hold this for 45-60 seconds. Rest and repeat three times. This is really good for Catchers and Pitchers. Again, these give good gains on running and stopping which is important in fastpitch softball.

Plyometrics drills are great too. Basically this is standing and jumping as high as you can. This is a great explosiveness drill. Fastpitch requires a great amount of explosive movements in every position and play. Stand near a wall and try to jump and touch the ceiling or a mark on the wall. Try to go higher with each jump.

If you have some strong boxes or cardio steps you can use them too. Stand flat footed in front of the step, jump up onto the step or box, then off the other side. Turn and jump back on the box and off the other side. Try to find taller boxes or steps as your strength increases. Try variations of this drill by standing sideways and jumping with one leg. Alternate legs and repeat.

Now let's work your throwing arm. The best way is to just play catch with a team mate. Grab your softball glove and let's get started.Start out with easy tosses close. Moving back as your arms get warmed up and loose. Gradually work up to full speed throws and as far distance apart as you can. Do this for 10-15 minutes then gradually cool down by working back closer together and easier tosses.

If you don't have a teammate to play catch with, you can use a batting cage, or pitching net to throw into. Another great thing is to hang an old blanket or tarp or old piece of carpet over a branch of a tree and throw into it. Start out slow, get warmed up and then move back and really let it all out. You can hang this in your garage on those rainy days or when the weather is bad.

Running short sprints is always good for softball conditioning. You will get really good at these the more you get into softball! Usually about 20 yard sprints is long enough. Remember, the bases are 60 feet apart so not much use sprinting a lot farther than that. Running ladder sprints is a good idea too. Run these until you don't think you can go anymore. Then run one more.

There are a lot of variations of these exercises and many many more drills and exercises that you can do. It is actually good to mix it up and do different ones every so often. That keeps the routine from getting boring and also works on different muscles and in different ways.

Now that we are done with our workout, let's stretch. You will get much better results from stretching now than at the beginning of your workout. Stretch your arms, shoulders, back, legs and your mind. Keep learning more about the game and exercises you can do.

Ok, so we worked on our Core, our Legs, our Throwing Arm, and our Sprints. That's a pretty good workout. Try to break these up and do a couple each day. Maybe do the core and legs, then the arms, core and sprints another day. Try to workout 3-4 days a week. You want to give your body time to rest and recover between workouts so give it a day off between workouts. If you follow this routine for the next 3 months you will be in good shape for fastpitch softball season.

Brad is a local softball enthusiast and has been involved in fastpitch softball and baseball for 20 years as a parent and coach. For more information on this subject and others please visit http://www.BuyFastpitchGloves.com for some of the best fastpitch softball gloves and related accessories.

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

============
our sponsors;


SoftballrUs.com/FastpitchSoftballSupply.com is the ultimate online fastpitch softball online store. SoftballrUs.com has Batting Trainers,Pitching Training, Training Bats,Defensive Training Equipment,Coaching DVDs & Books, Softball Pitching Machines, Softball Complete Net & Frame Batting Cage Packages, Batting Cage Nets, Protective Practice Screens and Nets, and BatAction Hitting Machines, and much, much more. Visit Softballrus.com now!