Back to the Softball Tips
- Make your health a priority. The body is an amazing machine and if you give your body a chance to become very healthy, you will benefit from it more than you can ever imagine. You will feel amazing, be full of energy and pretty much unstoppable. Treat your body like the most important thing in the world. It you take care of your body, it will take care of you. Make your health a priority will be reflected in your daily choices and actions (i.e. washing your hand, drinking water instead of soda, etc.) and this can make a big difference in your performance and your ability to achieve your dreams.
- Commit to getting pain free once and for all. How on earth can you live your passion and perform as a human being if you’re in pain? Pain is insidious because we are so skilled at adapting to and working around it. Don’t live with pain; seek qualified therapists to help you get rid of it. The investment is often worthwhile. Also, many chronic injuries that develop over time can be prevented simply by listening to your body, which will send warning signals well in advance. Preventative therapies like chiropractic, deep-tissue massage, yoga and acupuncture are among the best ways to “tune in to” your body and create a more resilient physique.
- Listen to your body. Don’t ignore pain. Pain is the alarm system of your body. I know that elite softball players are suppose to be “tough” but ignoring pain is not being “tough”, it’s being stupid. It will affect your game if you don’t look after it right away. Better to catch problems early than suffer from them later. Injuries take forever to go away. If don’t want them, don’t welcome them in the first place!
- Build your “Performance Team”. All of the world’s best athletes have a group of specialists that looks after them. A performance team should be comprised of least your coaches (team coaches, pitching and/or hitting instructor), a physician and a physical therapist. Welcome additions to a performance team would be a sport psychologist, a strength and conditioning coach, a chiropractor and a massage therapist.
- Buy quality cleats and running shoes. You will be spending so much time in your cleats and in your running shoe training that you want to have quality. It’s not time to try to save money here. Investing money in good cleats and good running shoes can really help preventing injuries. A lot of lower body injuries can be attributed to poor footwear.
- Get your eyes checked. It is surprising how many people don’t know they need glasses or corrective lenses until they actually try them on. If you can’t see well, don’t expect to hit well.
- Take great care of your throwing arm. Arm or shoulder injuries are tricky, take a lot of time to heal and can really hinder your ability to perform. Warm-up properly, apply ice after heavy use, and stretch. At the first sign of pain, seek immediate treatments.
- Ask a qualified therapist or trainer to complete a functional assessment on you and follow their recommendations. In a functional assessment, the therapist or the trainer will look at your posture and test your flexibility, your mobility and the strength of your stabilizers and postural muscles. Then, they should be able to give you specific exercises and stretches to do to help fix the problems. Every athlete has some form of weaknesses and correcting will help you prevent injuries and increase performance.