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?

1. Partially from what I saw during break
2. Partially from what I read on Facebook during winter break
3. 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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Got a late start with conditioning?  Not sure what to do or where to start?  Try this simple 21 Day Express Shape Up Program.

Help yourself and enjoy the benefits of:

• Throwing harder
• Hitting the ball farther
• Stealing more bases
• Exploding out of the batter’s box
• Running down more balls in the field
• Reacting faster
• Staying healthy
• Avoiding Injury
• and so much more!

Start your 21-Day Express Shape Up Program today and enjoy more speed and power during your season!

———————————————————-

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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…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIxrFZvG8fA

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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…

AuburnSBCoach

coachjaymiller

UFCoachWalton

UACoachMurphy

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

Happy Tweeting!

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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?

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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.

If you’ve had experience with P90X what do you think of it as a training program for softball players?

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Hey – I have to tell you about this. I just got word from Barry Lovelace that he’s running a 3-day special on his Core Power Program.

Why is this important?

Because core training is very cool and in case you missed out on your opportunity to get the program last time he offered a special, you have just 3 days to take advantage on this one.

Not only that, I’ve been doing some of these core training exercises and, I have to tell you, I LOVE them! And so do the players I work with…and so do my kids. My kids are 12, 9, 7, 4, and 18 months and they ALL try to copy the workouts when I’m doing them. Yes, even the 18 month old. She sees us doing planks and push-ups and she tries to copy us. It’s so cute! Anyway – the point is, one of the best things about core training is that it’s so much FUN.

It’s one of the only types of workouts I never had to push players (or my kids) to do. They just jump in and start. Not to mention the numerous benefits of training your core.

Here Are 7 Great Reasons to do Core Training

1.  The core is comprised of nearly 30 different muscles that basically wrap around your body in the area between your hips and rib cage. This area connects your upper and lower body so it can
function as one (which means more power and quickness). …crunches ain’t gonna do the job.

2.  Hitting and Pitching power comes from the core….The core is fundamental to all body movement. You hardly make a movement without engaging your core whether it be walking up the stairs or bending down to pick something up.

3. Hitting Posture? Pitching Posture?…A strong core provides balance and stability, a necessity in athletic movement.

4. Your core is the basis for all athletic movement. When you hit, throw, twist, swing or run you are relying on core strength to transfer power.

5. A strong core reduces your chances of low back injury which is quite common, especially in softball players and pitchers.

6. Your core includes both abdominal muscles and lower back muscles..front side core muscles don’t do the job.

7. If your core is weak, your movements will be weak and you will not reach your full athletic potential = no power or velocity

Get more information on how to train your core and see some sample exercises as well, check out Barry’s Core Power Program Today!

Oh, and one more thing. If you pick up Barry’s program, you can get ONE full month of Fastpitch Assistant (Practice help/drills/tips/ideas) for FREE as a special bonus.

So if you’ve been thinking about getting practice help through Fastpitch Assistant – this is your chance to check it out for one month without having to pay anything, plus get Barry’s Core Training Program at a special price, AND a total of $197 in bonuses. That’s a lotta cool stuff when you take advantage of Barry’s special at http://tr.im/corepowerprogram now.

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Speed Training Workouts
By Latif Thomas

Every coach and athlete wants to experience faster speeds, but that does not mean they are doing effective speed training workouts at their practices. Somewhere along the way, many coaches, at every level, began combining speed work and conditioning training as the foundation of their speed development. The result of this has been highly conditioned athletes who compete in sports where the demand of the sport does not require a significant percentage of the conditioning that has been developed.

That being said, the required changes likely only involve making minor modifications in your training philosophy. In this article I will cover acceleration development. Many programs neglect acceleration development even though it is the foundation of any program designed to improve speed. You can’t run at your true top speed if don’t have the ability to accelerate properly.

Success in most sports is based heavily on the ability to accelerate quickly and efficiently (Stacie’s Note: this is certainly true in fastpitch softball!!!) . This is because most sports primarily require short bursts of speed before the athlete stops, slows down or changes direction. The exception is track and field sprinters, where the acceleration portion of speed development is critical because it sets up the rest of the race. But even sports like soccer, traditionally trained using long slow runs and intervals, require a shift in emphasis to acceleration development. Success in these ‘endurance’ sports still depend on short periods of acceleration in order to get to a loose ball, breakaway from an opponent and get back on defense.

So there’s little point in doing speed training workouts if you haven’t first mastered the ability to accelerate. Here are some basic speed training workouts that you can do in order to improve the ability to accelerate. For our purposes we are talking about runs from 0 – 30 yards.

But before you begin, regardless of your sport or beliefs about training speed, there are some things you need to remember when it comes to acceleration development.

Full recovery between repetitions is required.
Full recovery means rest approximately one minute for every 10 yards that you run.
‘Don’t train speed every day.
The more force you apply to the ground, the faster you’ll pick up speed
Make sure that your feet land beneath the hips.
The heels should never touch the ground when doing speed work.
You run faster when you stay relaxed then when you strain.

I like to start the training season with short runs up hill because this forces athletes to really drive the foot down into the ground in order to gain momentum. The ability to apply force into the ground with each stride is the driving force (pun intended) behind getting faster. I like to use fairly steep hills, that way the requirements in steps 4-7 above really become more pronounced. When you don’t follow those criteria, it becomes extremely difficult to accelerate quickly.

10 x 20y uphill or on a flat surface from standing start. 2 minute rest.
10 x 30y uphill or on a flat surface from (push up down position, 3 point stance or seated). 3 minutes rest.

As you can see, speed training workouts themselves aren’t especially complicated or fancy. The results come from following the 7 rules I mentioned earlier, mastering technique by using speed drills and improving strength by lifting weights. In all, the key is to follow a comprehensive and complete speed training program that will not only teach you the types of workouts that improve speed but also the many other elements of training that compliment your speed work and develop overall athletic ability. By looking for short cuts and quick answers, you’ll see inconsistent and frustrating results. But when your speed training workouts fit into a well designed training plan, you’ll get results that you didn’t realize could occur so quickly and easily.

For more information about the most comprehensive speed development resource available anywhere, visit Complete Speed Training.

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As we head into the season and the time of year where we’re we have long tournament days, one thing that can suffer is our nutrition.  I know I’m completely guilty of this.  Softball season gets so crazy busy that home made meals often get replaced with the most convenient fast food available.  It’s probably not the most healthy choice and poor nutritional habits can not only hurt softball performance, but may end up becoming long term bad habits. So what are some of the things softball players should be aware of as far as diet and nutrition is concerned?

I’m going to share a short, but useful list of tips compiled by Patrick Beith, creator of Complete Speed Training.

Nutrition Tips for Athletes

By Patrick Beith

* Do not skip meals

* Eat 4-5 meals a day

* Eat breakfast everyday

* Eat most of your vegetables and fruit in raw form

* Try and eat all the colors in the crayon box (fruits & vegetables)

* Sufficient protein should be present in all meals (especially breakfast) to prevent extreme insulin fluctuations due to rapid digestion of carbohydrates

* Highly processed foods (such as sugars, oils, and flour) should be avoided in excess. They are not recognized by the body and make them difficult to process.

* Design your diet so that you receive a complete mix of all the nutrients everyday to promote recovery and restoration and to enhance your immune system function.

* Post workout nutrition can drastically reduce the time needed to recover. (this is something most athletes and coaches never pay attention to)

* The body is much more efficient in restoring carbohydrates 15 minutes after a strenuous workout. Carbohydrates are the primary fuel during exercise – needs to be restored by the body.

* Post workout drink: 1 gram of protein for every 3 grams of carbohydrate. (.3gm of protein/lb. of lean body weight)

* Drink approximately 64 oz. (8 glasses) of water daily. Bring a water bottle with you everywhere (especially practice).

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Now even if you can’t follow each and every guideline shown above, making a point to do 1-2 things you may not be doing now is a great step in the right direction.  Once those 1-2 things becomes a regular habit, add another, then another, then another and next thing you know, you’re nutritional habits have improved substantially which will probably also translate to better performance on the field.

If you liked these tips from Patrick Beith, you may also enjoy his free short report on Developing Dominant Speed. He also gives away 2 full hours of speed training video with tips, techniques and methods of developing the fastest athletes. Grab your copy of this report and speed training video tips free.

The other thing I wanted to mention is Patrick’s Speed Training Program. I happen to know that a number of softball players and teams are snatching this thing up. I can hardly believe it because we’re in this whole economic “recession” and this program is not cheap. However, it seems to be selling like hotcakes right now. Maybe it’s just the time of year (start up of season or a tax return present), but according e-mail correspondence I’ve had with Patrick, there are just so many more softball people picking up this program than in the past. Like I said, it’s a bit surprising given the economy and all. You’d figure there would be less people spending a decent chunk of money on this Speed Training Program. But for some reason that’s not the case. I haven’t seen it, but it must be one heck of a program!

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Just a quick note: if you’re looking for information the Core Power Clinic coming up this month in Hawaii or want something to pass out or forward to others, I just put up a new flyer with all the information including the registration form.

• You can print this flyer and hand it out to your team or anyone you know who may be interested
• You can save the flyer to your computer and forward it to others via e-mail.
• You can also just forward the link to the flyer to others via e-mail also.

If you’ve already turned in registration, PLEASE CONTACT ME (contact info on the flyer) to confirm that I received your information.

If you haven’t turned in your registration yet, there’s still time and there’s still room. Please call me as soon as possible to let you know you’re planning to attend so that I have an idea of how many athletes will be coming.

Remember, this clinic is good for baseball players and volleyball players as well as softball players. So if you know anyone playing those sports, let them know about the clinic.

I know there were some parents who were worried about cost – this clinic is only $5. It doesn’t get much better than that. You can’t go wrong!

If you have any questions whatsoever, please feel free to give me a call. I look forward to seeing you there. It’s gonna be a lot of fun!

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Wow, I almost forgot to tell you about all this stuff. As you may know we did our free “How to Get Softball Fit Fast” teleseminar last week. If you haven’t had a chance to listen in to that free call yet, listen in HERE.

In addition to getting in shape for the season, many players and coaches also want to increase speed. Speed can be a huge asset on the softball field! So if you’re looking to increase speed this year, here is a list of free resources to help you do that.

Speed Training E-Course
This e-mail course will help you:

• see the benefits of speed training
• learn about plyometrics – fundamentals and coaching cues
• understand how similar workouts relate differently to “speed” training
• get tips and drills for youth speed training
• know what to look for when choosing a speed training program

Free Teleseminar

***Find out the secrets of running a successful speed training program
***Outclass the competition with these ‘Speed Training Rules’
***Discover a simple method for retooling your speed training techniques

Free Report and Video

***2+ hours of Video showing you EXACTLY how to improve speed, power and sports performance
***Exclusive 35 page report exposing the Top 7 Training Secrets leading to superior speed
***Audio Interviews with Expert Coaches, Training Articles and Resources and much, much more

Try Complete Speed Training
I actually got permission to offer you Pat B’s Complete Speed Training system (and all 17 bonuses) for free for 30 days. Take a close look at exactly what the system has to offer BEFORE you ever have to pay a cent. CLICK HERE for the special offer.

Get fast – win more!

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