Making Things Happen – Short-Game Skills and Aggressive Baserunning

Today, I was in NY State with my good friend Sean Cotter. Sean is the Head Softball Coach at Plattsburgh State University,  one of the best NCAA Division III softball program in the country. Sean is very well-known for driving his opponents crazy with a very aggressive style of play. And I mean really aggressive. … Read more

Softball Pitching – The Bucket Dad Syndrome

There is a disease that often goes undiagnosed. Pitching (and other skills too) is very technical. It takes a lot of hours to learn, master, and refine the various technical elements of pitching if you include all of the pitches. It’s very easy to confuse pitchers. All you have to do is to give them … Read more

Softball Training – What is the off-season for?

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

Dynamic Warm-ups – Why Change?

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

Softball Training – Why Do You Warm-up?

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

Softball Training – Are You Still Using Static Stretching for Warm-Ups?

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

Softball Tryouts Tips – Going Beyong Skills and Talent When Selecting Athletes

Identifying talent and predicting the future success of an athlete is as reliable as the weather forecast for next week. In other words, not reliable at all. Despite years of research, there are only a handful of true predictors of athletic success that have been identified. When selecting their team, coaches will use a variety … Read more

Coaching Youth Softball – Why Do People Do It?

Unlike sports like swimming, figure skating, tennis, or gymnastics, softball is a volunteer-driven sport.  This means that most people involve in youth  softball are volunteers and aren’t there for financial gains. In most cases, it’s actually costing them money. People get into coaching youth softball for various reasons. Some are former baseball or softball players … Read more