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 – mostly hitting and pitching. These two critical skills need a lot of work and take time to learn, refine and master. It’s time to fix some faulty mechanics, learn new pitches, or change your technique.
3) Get in great softball shape. After a few weeks off, pick up some dumbbells and make sure you start preparing your body for next season. Your goal is to get stronger, faster, more explosive, more flexible, develop more stamina and prevent injuries.
4) Get more functional – look and move more like an athlete. It’s a big part of conditioning but it’s also improving the little things like your basic posture, your overall body flexibility, working on your muscular imbalances and so on.
And you know the best way to become more functional? Go through a functional dynamic warm-up before each practice, each workout, each training training session.