Most softball players are now in the off-season. What should you with that time? 1) You recover and regenerate for a few weeks; heal all injuries and recharge the batteries (mentally and physically). Don’t jump right away into heavy training if at all possible. Give yourself some time off. 2) Work on the fundamentals – … Read more
This weekend, I spent part of it at the ballpark watching games since it was the playoffs of the local elite girls fastpitch league. There’s a coach that I’ve known quite a few years who reads my emails that came up to me to tell me that all the hype around all that “dynamic stuff” … Read more
Last year, I went to see the Phillys play in Philadelphia. Since the Expos left Montreal for Washington, I haven’t had the chance to watch a lot of pro baseball games live. I got there early. I wanted to obverse. Have you ever watched major league players prepare for a game? It’s a beauty to … Read more
This morning, I was giving a lecture to a group of young college students on how to work out. I started by talking about warm-ups. I asked them: “Why do you need to warm-up?” I got answers like… “Not to get injured” “To make your body warm” and many of the variations of both answers … Read more
You see it everywhere. It’s been done for years thinking it was good for them. It’s still being thought by many to be what the thing to do despite all of evidence pointing to the contrary. Softball is an “old-school” sport. It’s a very conservative sport. Things change slowwwwwwwwwwwly unlike other sports like track and … Read more
Do you “still” run around forever or do hours and hours of “slow-go” cardio on treadmills or stationary bikes? May I tell you something… we are in the 21st century! These practices are out of date for softball. They are what we call “old school” stuff that has since been replaced by much better practices. … Read more
ABDOMINAL TRAINING (aka core training)! We know that the trunk plays an important role in softball. More specifically, the trunk and the muscles of the abdominal region are responsible for (1) generating rotational power and (2) stabilizing the trunk which necessary to transfer a maximum amount of power from the lower body muscles to the … Read more
I have worked with and observed a lot of softball players over the years. I have come two main conclusions about most players: 1) They love the game and want to get better 2) They have serious deficiencies in their conditioning which hurts their game big time. A lot players will try to workout and … Read more
Looking to get fitter and improve your softball game? One word of advice to start with: picking a random training program off any fitness magazine or website is a big mistake because most of these programs are as far as you can be from being softball-specific. Most of these programs are either geared at bodybuilders who wants … Read more
Have you ever noticed that Kids dream all the time about what they want? I sure did. They have a phenomenal capacity to see themselves as successful, accomplishing extraordinary things. The theater of their mind features success stories about themselves every single day. We call it mental imagery or visualization or “daydreaming”. Whatever we call … Read more