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Guest post by Ken Krause, Life in the Fastpitch Lane blog

About once a year I like to tell the story of how the Discuss Fastpitch forum that we all love got started. I think just about everyone there will agree that it's a tremendous resource whether you're a rookie or a grizzled veteran. Yet it didn't come from nowhere. So gather 'round the Yule log kiddies and here this great and hoary tale.

Many years ago there was a similar resource call the Fastpitch Forum. It was run by a guy named Dr. Alan Ross out in California who had a daughter who played, and for several years it offered the finest discussions anywhere.

Once Alan's daughter graduated and stopped playing he lost interest, and the Fastpitch Forum was taken on by a couple of members who quickly let it slip into a sorry state. One in particular was the culprit, turning it into a forum for his political views, and soon it deteriorated to the point where nearly everyone left. Cue the sad music.

A few years later, one of the members of the old Fastpitch Forum thought it was time to give it another try. That person was Marc Dagenais.

Just in case you needed help choosing the perfect gift for the softball fans in your life, or needed help figuring out what cool softball gifts to put on your wish list, we've come up with a free Holiday Gift Guide full of cool softball stuff just for you.

Inside you find…

• softball stocking stuffer ideas
• softball pitching gift ideas
• softball hitting gift ideas
• softball catching gift ideas
• softball throwing gift ideas
• plus gift ideas softball fans can use in daily life!

Download your Free Softball Gift Guide here

Feel free to share this with others and pass these fun holiday ideas along!

Increase your speed for 2012!  Buy today and save 60%

Get My BreakThrough Speed and Agility for Softball DVD

This week's deal features my Breakthrough Speed and Agility System for Softball which was created for those who are serious about taking their game to the next level by improving their speed, agility, and quickness.

In this DVD, you’ll learn the secrets, advanced drills and exercises to…

• explode out of the batter’s box
• get better jumps
• steal more bases
• get to the ball more quickly
• and get more of those “oh-so-close” balls on defense!

$47 Value

Your Deal of the Week Price: $14.97

What softball parent wouldn't love a professionally designed poster or photo print of their child? Frenzy Designs can take photos you have and turn them into great looking one-of-a-kind posters of your daughter or your team. Frenzy Designs can also incorporate your team logo and colors into the poster for a wonderful way to capture and preserve memories.

You probably already have what you need with a bunch a great action shots or team celebrations and have intentions to do something with them. Do NOT let those meaningful photos go unused and never be seen by family and friends. Now you can take the workload off of yourself and let Frenzy help you create something memorable that the whole team will love.

These individual and team posters are great gift ideas for everyone, the whole team, the coaches, sponsor plaques, for their birthday, for Christmas, a senior surprise, grandparents, and a great family keepsake. Nothing lights up the face of a child, or even a parent, like seeing their image on a stylish poster that has been framed and mounted nicely giving it that "larger than life" appeal on the wall. Parents love to show off their children in a nice frame on their desk at the office or at home in the family sports room.  Makes a wonderful thank you gift for coaches and sponsors.

I hope you're enjoying all the giveaways we're bringing you this summer.  While we've done one for Got Bustos gear, an Insider Bat, and Ringor Cleats, we haven't really done one for Softball Performance.

Well, today we're going to change that!

Get $100 worth of softball training resources you need to raise your game to the next level.

• Throw harder
• Hit farther
• Run faster
• Increase your pitching speed
• Get more hits
• Earn more playing time
• and help your team win more games!

From DVDs to Pitching Books to Coaching Resources to Hitting Audios and more, Softball Performance helps you become more dominant on the diamond.

If you win this $100 Softball Performance Giveaway, you'll get to buy products from the following list:

THIS GIVEAWAY STARTS ON JULY 10TH AND ENDS ON JULY 17TH.

As promised, we continue the SP Summer of Giving with your chance to win a free pair of Ringor Fastpitch Cleats.

Ringor cleats are very popular among softball players, especially pitchers, and the ONLY cleat made specifically for softball. Any time I see softball players bring home cleats they bought on a tournament trips, it's always Ringor.  They have awesome colors to match just about any team out there.

Some models include RINGORs acclaimed Pro-Tec-Toes (PTT) for drag-toe protection so your softball pitching shoes last longer than the normal softball cleat. Pro-Tec-Toes are manufactured onto cleats during construction and are not a separate or added part like most pitching toe protection.

Ringor has quite a selection when it comes to softball cleats offering, not only a variety of colors, but cool options like

• low cuts
• mid-cuts
• wide fit
• metals
• non-metals
• scotch-guard
• weather shield
• flex point technology
• and more!

This Giveaway is CLOSED.

Congratulations to our winner, Madison from Minford, OH!

During the remainder of June you have a chance to win a super cool prize pack from GotBustos!

Crystl Bustos is a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and holds the world record for the most homeruns in an Olympic Series.  While well known for her tremendous hitting power, Crystl also has excellent defensive skills and can fill in the short stop position with the best of them!

She now dedicates a lot of her time passing on her knowledge and experience to young players all over the country.  In fact, she'll even be traveling to Hawaii in August for a 2-day clinic!

Now you have a chance to win some awesome GotBustos gear in this great prize pack from Crystl including:

• A Got Bustos? T shirt (design drawn by Crystl)
• A Got Bustos? visor
• A Got Bustos? can koozie
• A bungee-bat which comes highly recommended by Crystl to build swing strength and promote proper swing technique
• Headbands to keep you looking sharp on the field!

Total Value: $90

Enter to Win (no purchase necessary)

How to enter…

CLOSED

Winner: Karl K from North Olmsted, OH!

Our first giveaway of was a huge success!  I told you we'd be bringing you a lot of really great deals this summer and I wasn't kidding.

This week, starting today, you get

10% off any purchase at SoftballTools.com (no coupon code required)

AND all purchases made at SoftballTools.com between now and June 20th will automatically be entered to Win a FREE Insider Bat.

The Insider Bat has always been, and continues to be, one of the hottest selling training aids available at SoftballTools.com.

Any player can develop muscle memory for the proper grip, hand placement, and swing path with the help from the Insider Bat. It's unique design allows for only one way to make contact with the ball… with your hands inside the ball. Endorsed by pros and coaches of both baseball and softball, the Insider Bat is used by players of all ages.

Learning to work with the Insider Bat is a simple two step process. First get the proper grip.  Second starting swinging.

It's grip shape encourages proper knuckle alignment. Plus the angle of the "barrel" relative to your grip encourages you to stay inside the ball.

Our first giveaway of the summer was fantastic.  Thanks so much for participating and making it great!  We had 251 entries for this giveaway and I have the name of the lucky winner here for you.

BUT before I announce the winner, I want to let you know, even if it's not you, please don't stop reading.  I have some good news for you too.

That said, with no further ado…

the winner of our very first giveaway of the summer is…

Jim J!

His winning entry came from liking us on Facebook.  Congratulations Jim!!!!! We hope you enjoy the DVD.

If you're not Jim, Please Read On…

Last week many people told me that even if they didn't win the giveaway, they still wanted the DVD, so I decided to do something special as a thank you for participating in this giveaway.

The Good News If You're Not Jim J…
For the next 48 hours, you can grab the Making Things Happen DVD for just $14.97. That's a cool 50% off the listed price (must "add to cart" to see the discount). So even if you didn't win, you still get a nice deal today.

Yes, you heard right! We are doing our first FREE DVD GIVEAWAY of the summer. From now through June 13th, you can enter free for your chance to win a Making Things Happen DVD.

This DVD shows you how to…

• Drive your opponents crazy with an unconventional, aggressive style of play they are unused to seeing
• Create chaos and confusion offensively and defensively to frustrate your opponents and take them out of their game
• Make things happen in your favor on the softball field!

Coach Sean Cotter is well-known for his crazy softball tactics that drive opponents up the wall. Join Coach Marc Dagenais as he makes Coach Cotter to spill the beans on how to develop an aggressive offense that puts a lot of pressure on the defense and puts a lot of points up on the board.

Learn all about Coach Cotter’s unconventional offensive philosophy and the offensive strategies he uses to create chaos defensively and force his opponents to make a ton of errors. Turn your team into one that is always up-tempo, fun, and exciting to watch.

It's Day 5 of the Softball Performance 10th Anniversary Tour and today we're going to give you a peek into a cool event where you can see Marc Dagenais and a bunch of other great softball people live and in person!

It's the 2011 Softball Cruise Clinic and you still have a chance to get your spot on board. Watch this video from Fastpitch.tv featuring Angela Tincher to learn more about the event!

Enjoy…

Previous Stops Along the Softball Performance 10th Anniversary Tour…
Day 4 - Your Chance to Win some Very Cool Ringor Gear
Day 3 - Free Report for Softball Coaches on Reducing Parent Conflict
Day 2 - SoftballTeamTraining.com: simplest way to train your entire team on the field with little or no exercise equipment
Day 1 - SoftballTools.com: revolutionary softball training aids to raise your game

Thanks for joining us in this 10th Anniversary Tour of Softball Performance!

Today is Day 2 of the Tour and we'll be looking at a great new resource for coaches (and parents too). If you're a coach that wants to raise the performance of your team by increasing speed, agility, strength, power, and endurance, Softball Team Training is something you'll want to see.

• Maybe you don't have access to a gym
• Maybe you know how great core training is, but aren't sure how to go about implementing it with your team
• Maybe the only time you have to train your players is at practice on the field

Whatever the case may be, Softball Team Training can help you. It is the best (and simplest) way to train your entire team on the field without the need for a gym or lots of expensive equipment.

Not a coach? That's okay. The Softball Team Training program will show you how you can set up effective softball workouts right at home in your own backyard!

You may not realize it, but this year is SoftballPerformance.com's 10th Anniversary! So much has happened and changed over the past 10 years and Softball Performance is no longer just a single website, but rather a full network of useful softball websites designed to help you raise your game to the next level!

Over the past few months we have been working very hard to put together even more quality resources for you. Because the network has expanded and changed so much, and because we have recently added a number of new things, for the next few weeks, we are going to take you by the hand and give you a tour of the latest and greatest resources available to you in the Softball Performance Network.

Whether you are ready to make use of the new tools right now or not, you'll at least have a good idea what's there for you when the time comes.

Today will begin the first stop on our tour. It's actually a brand new site that I really think you'll like.

Two of the leading softball websites partner to deliver more top-notch resources to softball fans.

Quebec, Canada - Feb. 1, 2010 - Two of the biggest websites in softball partner up to create the biggest softball network to date.

Leading fastpitch softball resources website SoftballPerfomance.com welcomes AllAboutFastpitch.com to its network, further expanding the reach of the two websites that are already popular in various softball circles.

Meanwhile, All About Fastpitch owner Stacie Mahoe will work as the network’s Softball Manager.

Mahoe is one of the most recognized names in softball. She has been involved in the sport since age 9, beginning as a softball player, later on becoming a softball coach and parent. In 2004, she created All About Fastpitch and has gained thousands of followers since then.

As the network’s Softball Manager, Mahoe is tasked with ensuring that visitors and customers enjoy the high quality resources from the websites on an ongoing basis. Her experience in providing softball resources through text, podcasts, interviews, and video tips play an important role in this partnership, says Marc Dagenais, owner of Softball Performance.

I've got a quick announcement for those of you who are close to Cincinnati, Ohio.

I'll be presenting at the Ohio Hawks clinic on Saturday November 22nd, 2009 along with Howard Kobata (defensive skills), Bill Hillhouse (pitching), and Debbie Hartwig (hitting).

I would love to meet you there if you are close by. It should be a great clinic. We also do on-field instruction for the kids on the Sunday.

For more information:

http://www.ohiohawks.com/clinic and you can register for the clinic online.

It's fast approaching - the first ever softball cruise !!!

Yes, that's right, I'm talking about a softball cruise in the Caribbean for 7 days with Monica Abbott and myself!

My friend Reese Oslinker of Smooth Sailing Cruise has put this together - what a fantastic idea!

I'm really looking forward to it because (1) I have never done a cruise before, (2) It will be winter in Montreal, and (3) I will get to hang around softball fanatics for a week!

Would you care to join me and Olympic star pitcher Monica Abbott in February aboard the great MSC Poesia for a 7-day tour of the Caribbean?

You better hurry up because most of the cabins have been sold and there are only a couple left

Here are additional details:

Dates: Leaving Fort Lauderdale, FL on February 13th,  2010 for 7 days

Where: The Caribbean baby with stops in Key West, Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Nassau, Bahamas.

Presenters: Olympic star Pitcher Monica Abbott, Dave Paetkau (hitting expert) and your truly (Marc Dagenais, Softball Peak Performance Coach)

Who is it for? Female fastpitch players (age 10-17), their parents and coaches.

We received close to 100 softball poems overall. Their quality was outstanding. You will be able to see for yourself when we will publish a significant amount of them on the site within the next few weeks.

Because of the number of softball poems and their quality, I assigned the task of picking a winner to an independant judge. The judge is both a softball coach and an amazing writer.He took a couple of days to review them and has now made his choices.

Here is what he said about the softball poems when he reported back to me:

"Wow! This was really difficult. There were a lot of great poems in here. Everyone who entered should be commended for their heartfelt efforts."

So I would sincerely like to thank everybody who took the time to write a softball poem and submit it.  It was truly enjoyable to read them all.

Since the quality of the softball poems was so good, our judge made a suggestion:

"Because of the quality, I would like to see two winners — one in the player category, and one in the parent/adult/coach category."

Last year, I was talking to a softball player who I know very well. She absolutely loves softball and has also a great personality. Always smiling, polite, upbeat, and pleasant to be around.

She told me she was trying out for an elite 16U travel team in her area and that she was really nervous.

After talking to her for a while, I realized that she spend too much time focusing on others and not enough on her.

Comparing herself to the other players trying out made her even more nervous.

And you know what happens when you are too nervous?

Yes, you make more mistakes and don't perform as well.

Why add pressure and stress when you already have a lot of it?

You see, if you start comparing yourself to the other athletes that you are trying out with, it takes you away from your own game.

While it's not always easy to do, the only thing you want to focus on  yourself and what you control.

You don't control what others do. Don't pay much attention to what the others do and just do your own thing.