Miscellaneous

With the 2008 Olympics just around the corner. I thought you would like to understand better why softball isn't in the Olympics for 2012.

Hopefully, the International Softball Federation will be able to lobby hard enough to get us back in for 2016.

Golf will be a tough competitor tough…

Marc
"Your Softball Peak Performance Coach"

It's going to be tryouts season very soon and for most, their summer season had ended or the end is close. Many will be trying out to find a team for next year in the coming weeks.

A common problem is that many players have been carrying injuries for most of the season and injuries take time to heal. Most of  the time, you show up at tryouts a few weeks later and you're  still injured.

What should you do… tell or not tell the coach?

This is a big debate.

I've been talking to several coaches, elite softball athletes,  and also a sports psychologist over the last days and they were all unanimous in saying that you should definitely not hide an injury.

There are 2 reasons for this:

1) You don't want to make it worse by doing things that you shouldn't be doing. It will just take more time to heal.

2) Hiding an injury will just make you appear weaker than you really are because you will not be at 100% of your capacity.

This is a video of a young 8-year-old baseball player who shows a lot of guts, determination and courage by playing baseball with only 1 leg.

And he's catcher, probably one of the toughest positions in the sport. This is for any ball player that needs a little extra inspiration.

OUCH! It hurts so much just  watching this… I can't imagine the pain endured by this poor guy.  I can't imagine he actually volunteered for this!!!

Imagine a pitcher that gets hit by a line drive in the private parts… 

WARNING: It's mental torture for guys to watch this. Female will found that funny or have empathy for the guy.

Enjoy.

In this podcast, Marc Dagenais discusses the importance of sleep and how it affects performance. He shares two stories of elite teams he has worked with that may have suffered a great deal from lack of sleep due to a tough travel schedule. He emphasizes how much of an impact lack of sleep can have on softball players, how little value we give it, and discusses the false belief that we can easily make it up by sleeping in cars, on buses, or on planes.

To learn more about proper recovery, check out our recovery and regeneration tips.

You can listen or download the audio podcast below.

 

 Softball tips - How Sleeps Affects Performance [18:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (99)

I am finally back from Kitchener, Ontario where I was  helping the Canadian athletes prepare for the Olympic Games.

All the teams that were at the Tri-Nations Cup (Japan,  Australia, Canada) are now in Vancouver for the Canada Cup.

So, I flew back yesterday (and about 500 emails waiting to be read).

As I arrived, the first thing I did was to head to my mom's to  get my two cats (two 18-month-old females).

You see, since i was gone 10 days, I thought it would be a better thing to have them stay with my mom for that period  of time.

The other option was to leave them at my place with my mom visiting every few days to check on them. I opted for the first option of leaving them at her place.

That was the wrong decision.

My two cats spent the entire 10 days hidden in the basement and were unfindable. My mom looked for them repeatedly but couldn't find them (her basement is the best place for cats to play hide and seek).

First of all, just a quick reminder of some of the great  resources we have for you.

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Fastpitch Discussion Board

It's getting more popular everyday and it's fast becoming the place on the internet for intelligent and interesting fastpitch discussions. Register for a free account and join the discussions!

Facebook - Softball Tips and Trivia! Application

It's our brand new softball application. It's a trivia that test your knowledge of the game and tons of softball tips to help you improve your game. You can add it to your facebook profile with  a single click.

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I have now been in Southern Ontario for a few days working with the Canadian Olympic Team.

Yesterday and Today are days off for the athletes so there wasn't much going on in the last 48 hours.

However, I want to talk about the differences between this level of play and elite travel ball.

I am probably one of the very few that has had the chance to coach at every level of the game (little league, travel ball, college softball, international level, etc.).

See my bio for more details.

Marc Dagenais' Bio

As I told you a few days ago, I am presently in Kitchener in Southern Ontario at the Tri-Nations Cup where Canada, Venezuela, Japan and Australia are competing against each other in preparation for the Olympic Games

I have been here for 2 days working with the Canadian athletes helping them prepare for the China Games. All of the teams are staying at the same location so it allows to also observe what the other teams do outside of the ball field.

I can tell summarize everything that I have seen by this:

==> Little Details Do Matter a Lot <==

What I mean by that is that the best players on the planet don't take anything for granted.

They realize that little things and little details do matter when preparing for competition.

They don't left anything to chance. And that's true for ALL the teams.

Here what I mean by that:

• They watch what they eat
• They make sure their shoes shine
• They tuck in their uniforms
• They all have a bottle of water or Gatorade
• They sprint to get on and off the field

After months of development and testing - it's finally ready!

My new softball Facebook application is completed and has been officially launched.

The application is call: "Softball Tips and Trivia!" It was developed for all softball fans like you. It gives you the chance to test your knowledge of the game with a super softball trivia and it also provides you with great softball
tips to help you improve your game.

Challenge yourself with our softball trivia. Answer our  questions to find out how much you really know! The questions range from easy to difficult! You can even compete against  your friends and others and see how you rank! You can even  challenge your friends and see how they compare to you!

We also provide you with great softball tips to help  you improve your game. We have hundreds of tips for you  to discover. They are displayed on your profile.

For those of you who have a Facebook account, you can check the application out at:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=8888958051&ref=s

If you want to add me as a "friend" on facebook, you can do so by using he following email:  marc (at) softballperformance.com

When things are not going well at the plate, the first place we look is in the mechanics of the swing. The next thing we look at is the mental part (which is often the #1 problem). If things are still not working, then we look at other things. One of those things should be the vision.

That might sound like common sense but most athletes don't get their eyes checked or don't train their "eye muscles" to track the ball properly. These are two things you definitely want to do. Watch this video for more details on how to do it.

I just came across this pretty cool video. This "whiffle ball" pitcher is pretty amazing.  Could you hit it him??? See for yourself.

Many people are interested in the history of softball.  They want to know who invented softball, how it started and how it has evolved over the years. I have put together a few links for you to read more about the history of this wonderful sport.

Article #1 - History of Softball

Softball developed as a younger version of baseball. Softball was started by elements of other sports of which were boating, boxing and football. A boating club, a boxing glove and a football game were key parts in the very first game of softball.

Article #2 - How it Started

On Thanksgiving Day in 1887, Yale's football team claimed victory over Harvard. Of the many interested were those young men awaiting the outcome at the Farragut Boat Club in Chicago. Once the Yale's victory was announced and all bets were paid off, one of the young men happened to pick up a stray boxing glove, throwing it at another young man who hit it with a pole.

Article #3 - Softball History

Anybody that has ever walked or driven by a local softball field during a girls' fastpitch softball game has noticed all these funny softball cheers. These softball cheers are a big part of the game for these girls. It brings them together and they use it cheers themselves up or to tease the opposite team sometimes.

It's not something you see much in baseball. Actually, in baseball, there is a negative image associated with cheering, especially as the boys get a little older and out of childhood.

But why are girls cheering so much? Well I have my little theory on that. Check my youtube video below to see what I think.

 What do you think? You can post your comments below or contribute to the discussion on funny softball cheers on my softball forum.

I also added a collection of various funny softball cheers on my main site.

In this podcast, Marc Dagenais, interviews Robert Campbell, publisher of the nation's leading softball magazine - Softball Today. This interview is a follow-up to a previous post about the magazine's great fundraiser for softball teams. The post generated so much interest for the magazine and the fundraiser that Marc invited Robert to be a guest on his podcast. During their interview, Marc grills Robert on the the magazine, their unique bat reviews website and also their great fundraiser.

Here are the podcast's relevant links:

Softball Tips - A Great Fundraising Technique (my previous post about their great fundraiser)

Softball Today Magazine

Bat Reviews

You can listen or download the interview right below.

 

 Podcast #6 - An interview with Robert Campbell of Softball Today Magazine [17:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Last week, I was talking on the phone with Mike, one of my customers whose 16 years old daughter plays short stop  on a very competitive travel team.

Just like many young softball players, she eats, sleeps  and breath's softball and her dream is to play college ball. Her dad totally supports her and is very proud of her (I  could tell listening to him!).

During our conversation, I almost fell off my chair when  he told me how much money he will spend this year just  on softball.

A little over $6000.00!!! Wow! That's a lot of moolah…

That includes team fees, tournaments and travel expenses,  his own hotel and gas (gas alone is getting pretty expensive),  uniform, high-tech bat, cleats, hitting lessons, training  facilities fees, etc. When you add things up, that's one  heck of a bill to play softball which is suppose to be a  highly accessible sport.

Not anymore I guess.

So, I asked him if the team did any king of fundraising or  had sponsors to help off-set the cost of the season.