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 field.

There are "old belief" that holds no matter what.

What am I talking about?

STRETCHING!!! Yes, stretching.

Using Static Stretching to Warm-Up!

There is a belief that by that doing static stretching  exercises (a stretch where you hold a position without  moving for a given amount of time) prior to doing sport  or exercise helps prevent injuries.

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Do you "still" run around forever or do hours and hours of "slow-go" cardio on treadmills or stationary bikes?

May I tell you something… we are in the 21st century! These practices are out of date for softball.

They are what we call "old school" stuff that has since been replaced by much better practices.

For a very long time, an old classic in baseball and softball training has been to do a lot of aerobic conditioning, mostly in the form of distance running.

Aerobic conditioning is defined as any form of activity that is sustained for a certain amount of time with the intention of increasing endurance and the capacity of our cardiovascular system.

Too much aerobic conditioning in is a deadly softball mistake!

HOLY MOLLY! What an hectic day.

I spent the whole day yesterday answering emails and returning phone calls about our program design services.

I gotta tell ya - I am please to see that more and more realize that working out seriously with softball-specific program can do for them…

• Pitch faster and throw harder
• Swing the bat harder and hit the ball further
• Get better jumps off the bases
• Explode out of the batter's box
• Reach, stretch and get more of those "oh-so-close" balls
• Stay healthy and avoid injuries
• Be mentally tougher
• And so much more.

Now.. there is something I really want to talk about today:

ABDOMINAL TRAINING (aka core training)!

I have worked with and observed a lot of softball players over the years.

I have come two main conclusions about most players:

1) They love the game and want to get better

2) They have serious deficiencies in their conditioning which hurts their game big time.

A lot players will try to workout and coaches will try to implement some form of conditioning in their practices.

However, to be honest, most of what's done is useless or ineffective.

Why?

It's random. A couple of speed drills here. A couple of power exercises there. Add to this a set or two of push-ups and  sit-ups and you might have one of these "ramdom" workouts.

One word of advice to start with: picking a random  training program off any fitness magazine or website is a  big mistake because most of these programs are as far as you  can be from being softball-specific.

Most of these programs are either geared at bodybuilders  who wants to get bigger or at the general population who wants  to lose fat and tone up.

They are not designed to increase performance. Most likely,  any generic exercise program will be filled with  isolation exercises and non sport-specific exercises.

The same holds true for programs borrowed from other s ports. While a well-designed program for volleyball is  more likely to benefit to a softball player than a generic fitness program for the general population, it will not exactly match the specific needs of a softball player because  the demands of the game of softball are somewhat different from volleyball.

WOW! I just watched the Olympics Final and have witnessed  a major upset as Team USA was defeated by Japan in one  of the most surprising upsets in these Olympics.

That will be a huge disappointment for the young ladies  of the US Team considering the expectations and the fact that they have who worked incredibly hard probably just like all other softball olympians in the world as well.

We have to congrats Japan and their pitcher Yukiko Ueno  who threw 28 innings in 24 hours all by herself!

What does this mean for the sport of softball?

The olympics are going on. The summer season over.  The off-season has arrived. It's time to get back  to work to increase your strength, power, and  speed for next season.

To give you an incentive to get started NOW and to get  you started with your own customized, softball-specific  workout program - I am running a HUGE OLYMPIC special  on my personalized program design service.

The price is down by almost 50%! The special runs until  sunday midnight but the price will increase every day  at midnight!

This is to make sure YOU take action NOW! Too many people procrastinate way too long to get started with their off-season conditioning!

No more excuses!

Go to…

Have you ever noticed that Kids dream all the time about what they want? I sure did.

They have a phenomenal capacity to see themselves as  successful, accomplishing extraordinary things.

The theater of their mind features success stories  about themselves every single day.

We call it mental imagery or visualization or "daydreaming". Whatever we call it, it's a unique and powerful thing human beings are able to do.

Many success gurus will tell you that you have visualize yourself as successful before you can be.

Some would day this is just a bunch of B.S.

Yet, talk to any Olympians and they are going to tell you that they've seen themselves at the Olympics hundreds of time before they ever stepped foot in the athletes' village.

I've been pretty quiet over the last week because I've  spent all my time watching my girls at the Olympics and  putting the finishing touches to my brand new resource!

I've been telling you for the last 2-3 weeks that I was  cooking something for you - it's ready!

If you are a softball player or the parent of a young  softball who is going to attend tryouts soon, you'll  love this.

It's a Tryouts Peak Performance Kit.

It's designed to help any young softball players prepare themselves to deliver their absolute best performance at  their next tryouts and leave the coaches with a lasting  positive impression!

There is a saying - if you fail to prepare, prepare to  fail. It couldn't be more true for softball tryouts.

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 of criteria.

Most of the time, and with reason, the two main selection criteria are: 1) technical skills and 2) athletic talent.

However, all coaches agree that you have to factor in other variables to predict athletic success.

You should definitely keep that in mind when selecting athletes for your team.

One such variable is personality which includes coachability and character.