What’s So Special About St. Patrick’s Day?

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Stacie Mahoe

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St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite days of the year, but not because it’s St. Patrick’s Day. I tell you the real reason tomorrow, but first, I’ll let you guess.

If you know the reason, or would like to take a guess, leave a comment below and you’ll be entered to win a FREE Softball Performance DVD. Winner will choose from one of the following…

4-Minute Dumbbell Workouts for Softball
The Pitching Velocity System
Breakthrough Speed and Agility for Softball
Power Training for Softball
Dynamic Warm-Up for Softball
Bat Speed and Hitting Power System
Softball Playground Workout

Hurry. You must leave a comment with your guess today because I’m giving you the answer tomorrow. Good luck!

How to Get on Base More Often

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Stacie Mahoe

If you want to get on base more often, start by running shorter, not longer.

Often times when coaches want you to run through the base better, they make you run farther than 60 feet. But that may not be the best idea.

You see, it doesn’t really matter if your coach makes you run 80 feet instead of 60 feet. If you always train to slow down at the end, you will ALWAYS slow down before your target no matter how far or close it is.

Excellence is a habit – so get in the habit of sprinting THROUGH any marker, goal, base or cone that is set for you, whether it’s 6 feet away or 60 feet away.

This habit is what will help you “get through the bag” more consistently at 1st base, put more pressure on the defense and get safe more often!

If you’re a coach, instead of making your players run farther, try shortening the distance and challenge them to run all the way through. After all, if they can’t consistently “run through the bag” at 30 feet, how do they expect to do it at 60 feet? Often times pointing this out to them is enough to get them focused on doing it right.

As they get better and better running all the way through the shorter distance, start adding more distance until they are running through any target you give them.

Always expect your player’s best speed all the way through ANY sprint you do, whether it’s a short spring or a longer spring, whether it’s their first sprint or their last sprint of the day. Notice I didn’t say “fastest” because the more your work them, they slower they may get, but they should always be giving their best – whatever it is they have at that time. Make them do it again if they don’t do it right. Help them create the good habit of going hard and giving their best ALL the way through to the end and beyond, just like you want them to do in a game – not only for baserunning but in every area of play!

A Typical College Freshman Mistake

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Stacie Mahoe

softball training Over winter break we had two college freshman (alumni from our high school team) come back home from their respective DI schools for winter break. Guess how much training they did over break….

Little to none!

How do I know?

Partially from what I saw during break
Partially from what I read on Facebook during winter break
But mostly because of what I read on Facebook now that they are back in school and training has again begun (they both admit that they probably should’ve done a bit more while they were on break)

I’m not saying all college freshman do this, but it’s a very easy mistake to make. You’ve just finished up your first college semester ever. It’s been crazy, busy, and hectic. There have been lots of adjustments to make, time away from friends, and time away from family. When you get to go home for Winter Break, it’s very easy to:

Do nothing but party with all the friends you haven’t seen in a while
Do nothing but spend time with and enjoy the company of your family
Do absolutely nothing because it’s the first time in months you don’t HAVE TO do anything

Now I’m not saying it’s wrong to enjoy your time at home. I’m certainly not saying it’s wrong to spend time with family, nor is it wrong to take a little bit of a breather and relax a bit. I actually think breaks or changes of pace are a good thing. However, as a college student-athlete, when you go back to school (especially for softball) you WILL go back to training. You’ve already worked so hard for months! Why take a 4 week break from everything and “throw away” any of what you’ve gained during your 1st semester? I’m not saying you have to keep up the same intensity and you don’t even need to do the same exact drills or exercises that you do in college, but at least do “something” to maintain the fitness level you’ve built up for yourself.

Some think that one “small” break won’t make much of a difference. Let me tell you, when you have a team of players who’ve been training for months then there’s a break then you all come back to train…it is VERY OBVIOUS who took a break and did nothing and who kept their conditioning up. Right now we’re going through conditioning with our team at the high school age level. It’s just pre-season, we aren’t really “allowed” to make conditioning “mandatory” and over break there are various reasons why student-athletes say they can’t make practice. Fine. But as a coach, even if a student-athlete has only missed just ONE week of practice, our coaching staff can tell, it is very obvious, which players have been diligent with their attendance and been there on a regular basis and which players have missed conditioning sessions.

So if you want to make the best impression possible on your coach, stay on top of your fitness level!

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P90X and Softball?

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Stacie Mahoe

I mentioned previously that many college athletes, including softball players, are using P90X to whip themselves into better shape during the off season. At the time I didn’t know much about the program, but now that I’ve been doing it for 9 weeks, I have more to share about it.

1. Is it softball specific? Honestly, I’m no expert in that area. I’m not a certified trainer and I’m guessing that it’s probably not as softball specific as other programs are.

2. Can Softball Players Benefit from It? I believe they can. In addition to the college athletes using it, I found out that a youth team in Texas is using P90X. Their coach reports that after about 7 weeks, they’ve all lost weight AND inches! Right now, my 12 -year old daughter is doing the workouts with us. I’ve included a video of her doing the plyometric workout below.

Why did I have her start doing it? Truthfully, because I thought she would die and I just wanted to see her try. But she didn’t really die. At least, not as much as I was dying (and I had already been doing the workouts for a couple weeks!). Since then, she’s just always jumped in and joined us. She’s not really in season right now, so this is keeping her active. She’s happy because she’s putting on weight (even though her shorts a falling off). She’s always smaller than her teammates, so anything that helps her get a little closer to them makes her happy. In addition to that, I’m pretty sure I’m seeing results in her pitching too.

But I have to say, one of the things I love the most about this program is how much my flexibility has improved because of all the stretching that’s done EVERY day. No other training program I’ve even been on has ever given me that. Increased flexibility can help ANY athlete. Plus P90X incorporates Yoga, which I hear that even pro baseball players and semi-pro football players are starting to use. Most say it helps reduce injury and some even say that they’ve seen improvements in speed from Yoga. Now I’m not sure about the speed part, but it certainly helps strength AND flexibility for sure. I can see how it would help reduce injury.

While P90X may not be THE most softball-specific workout, right now, with my oldest daughter at only age 12, I’m for anything that makes my kids more ATHLETIC ~ and P90X certainly does that.

3. Does it work? The question everyone has is, does that actually work? What are your results? I want to see pictures! Well, my husband and I just took and posted our 60-day pictures. You can check them out HERE and see for yourself.

Now for the video of my daughter doing plyos…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIxrFZvG8fA

College: Yet Another Reason You Should be on Twitter

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Stacie Mahoe

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve heard me talk about Twitter. Even if you haven’t, you’ve probably heard about Twitter through some other source. Many major news stations, radio stations, newspapers, celebrities, and softball people are ALL on Twitter.

Now you have another reason to jump into the fun – COLLEGE.

Earlier this week, ESPN published an article about how colleges and college coaches are tapping into social networks like Twitter and Facebook for recruiting and exposure.

Some coaches use Twitter as a way to allow fans and potential recruits to see what the program/coach is like. Others utilize it as a way to “stay in front” of a recruits face (and at the forefront of their minds) without breaking NCAA contact period rules. According to the article:

“Currently, the NCAA allows coaches to direct-message recruits from Twitter or send them a private message on Facebook.”

If you’re looking to attend college and play sports – this is HUGE!!!

Like me, there are coaches out there who prefer Twitter over Facebook “mostly because of the ease of posting.” Of course, there are others like my husband who prefer Facebook because there are more pictures and it’s similar to MySpace which he’s already familiar with. Twitter does have a different sort of layout/format and does take a little while to get used to, but once you do, you’ll love it!

The ESPN article also talks about why Twitter is so super popular:

“It’s the reason why USA Today worked. It’s the reason why people want to see the ticker on ESPN. [People] don’t want large bites. Give me a small bite; make it fast, I’ll see what it is, I’ll laugh and I’ll move on to something else.”

Another important point…

“The one thing I like is that it’s a little bit of an unobstructed view,” Calipari said. “They (fans/recruits) get to know what you are and how you are and how you think without someone telling them who you are, what you are and how you think.”

So you don’t have to take someone’s word for it. You have a way to judge for yourself what a program or coach is like. This is a very important part of choosing the right college for yourself or helping your child do so.

Signing up for Twitter is super easy…

1. Go to Twitter.com and click on the green Get Started – Join! button at the bottom of the screen.

2. Fill out the fields on the next page and click Create My Account

3. Choose the options you want on the following pages (add contacts from e-mail or follow suggested users) and you’re all done!

Once you’re in, here are some softball coaches you can follow…

…and you’ll probably also want to check out the other cool softball people I listed in this post and this post.

Happy Tweeting!

Skipping High School for the Pros?

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Stacie Mahoe

I know a baseball player on a fastpitch softball blog…seems kinda weird, but I thought this story was interesting and was curious to hear your thoughts on it!

If you follow baseball or read Sports Illustrated, then you’ve probably heard of Bryce Harper. I actually just heard of him for the first time this week via conversations that were going on over at Twitter.

Apparently an article recently came out that this young man will take a high school equivalency test and forgo his last two years in high school in hopes of entering the MLB draft earlier. He’s actually registered at a community college and will start taking classes in the fall as well as play baseball there next season. He then hopes to enter the draft in 2010 or 2011 since players become draft eligible at age 16 if they have already completed high school.

There are two main thoughts that run through my head when I think about this situation:
1. Provisions should be made for higher education (in case he blows his millions and has a career that’s prematurely shortened for whatever reason)
2. There no doubt will be others ambitious parents out there who think they should take this route with their kid even though their child is no where near the one in a million type prospect that Harper is

What do you think about Harper Leaving High School Early?

College Players Are Using P90X

Posted on May 24, 2009 by Stacie Mahoe

So I’ve heard that some strength coaches utilize P90X exercises in training athletes. I’ve even know some high school players using the P90X program as training to get themselves closer to DI fitness. However, I was still a bit surprised when I recently saw a few status updates on Facebook by DI college players saying that they are/will be using this program to stay in tip top during this off season.

Now, I have to say, I’ve never done the P90X program and I’ve never even really seen all the workouts included in the program so I can’t personally recommend it at this time. However, one day when I was working out using some of the exercises from Barry’s Core Power programs, I had someone ask me if all the stuff I do is from P90X. So I do know that there is some overlap.

I definitely wouldn’t recommend the workout to everybody because it is an “extreme” program (thus the name). However, if you are in good shape and do want to train like some college players are training, you may be interested in learning more about it. Definitely do your research before you try anything. All I know right now is…

1. Some of my family members tried it and loved it (and they weren’t even “elite” athletes) and

2. There ARE college players out there who are using it

Of course, price wise, P90X is not cheap. Barry’s Core Power program is certainly less costly and I think, for younger age levels especially, I would simply go with that. I don’t think it’s necessary to spend huge dollars on a workout program at the 10U/12U age level. Even if you are at a more elite level remember that Barry does also work with a few NPF players, so it’s not as if his programs are only for beginners. I also have personal experience with Barry’s Core Power workouts and I do think they are awesome!

But if you’re looking for more training ideas (so training doesn’t get boring) or a more “extreme” challenge, I’ll be checking out P90X soon. I’ll let you know what I think after I’ve had a chance to see it in action myself.

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