Today was an amazing day for Hawaii sports.  University of Hawaii baseball wins the WAC and makes it to post season.  Hawaii Pacific University’s softball team advances to the NCAA DII Softball Championship game.  AND the University of Hawaii Softball Team makes history by breaking Alabama’s win streak (yesterday), taking the #1 seed of the NCAA post-season down, and making it to their 1st ever WCWS in Oklahoma City!!!

If you missed it on TV for whatever reason…here’s the bottom of the 7th of the UH vs Alabama game.  Gotta love YouTube!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJvYE6oLgxc

So, not long ago, Coach Dan of BaseballStrength.com posted a video of these pushups on his blog.  I showed it to my daughter and husband and they just had to try it.  Like Coach Dan said, these are core, shoulders, and hips all in one push-up.  Nuts!

Of course, we didn’t have time until after we had done all our running around on this crazy hectic day, so the lighting isn’t the best, but here’s their first try at these crazy pushups, plus some other family fun push-up stuff.

Before this year I had no idea so many different kinds of push-ups existed.  These are one of the coolest I’ve seen (not the ones with multiple people…the ones shown with just one person in the picture).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlHex_CK9xU

The New Year is time for resolutions and plans for the upcoming year. With that in mind, here are 3 of my favorite, very simple, yet quite effective goal setting tips to help you make 2009 the best year possible.

I’ve put up some of the Sportskool videos up at www.MyFastpitchWorld.com. However, those aren’t the ONLY fastpitch videos there. Other members have uploaded videos with useful information as well. These videos are all free to view and becoming a member at www.MyFastpitchWorld.com is also free.

One of my favorites is the one I just added on fielding (from sportskool).

Some of you may know how I feel about doing the “alligator.” The long and short of it is that I don’t care for it. The reason is because of the very issue Mike Candrea warns against in the video – improper positioning of the throwing hand.
I’ve seen TOO many young player jam their throwing hand fingers because they aren’t getting their hand into the correct position for this technique.

Of course, after voicing my opinion and saying that I use a different technique, I’ve had people ask me what the alternative is. Needless to say, it’s not always easy to put softball techniques into words. Sooooo, the reason I like this video is because it shows the “other” technique which is the one I, personally, prefer. It’s not more “right” it’s just my preference. Like I said, I just see too many not using the proper hand positioning for “securing the ball” with the “alligator.” Many players DO use this technique with success (as you will see in this video I’ve added to Fastpitch World), but if you do use it, or if you do teach it – make sure to emphasize proper positioning of the throwing hand!!!!

Actually, if you look at the picture I found to include here – this is an example of the fielder who is NOT doing the “alligator.” Her hands do not form the top and bottom jaw of an “alligator” getting ready to chomp on the ball.

Here’s one of those videos I was talking about.

If you want to learn about how to run bases or learn about how to teach baserunning. This is a video you have to see.

Baserunning is such a tough skill to teach. A good baserunner is such an asset to the team. In this video, Mike Candrea explains that you don’t necessarily have to be the quickest on the team to be a good baserunner. Knowing what to do in different situations and how to properly maneuver around the bases, though, are very important.

Of course, the cool thing about this video is being able to see demonstrations!

Watch the baserunning video here…