Videos

Over the years, more people have heard about dynamic warm-ups and how important they are. As a result, I've been asked more  and more about them and how to perform them.

So, I've ended up teaching the principles of dynamic warm-ups and  how to perform them to hundreds of softball coaches, players, and  teams in the past 10 years.

Since dynamic warm-ups have become more mainstream in recent years  and that people consider me an authority on the matter, I've also  started to receive tons of requests for a resource for coaches,  players, and teams on how to do and perform softball-specific  dynamic warm-ups.

I resisted doing so for a long time because I had so many other  projects I wanted to complete.

However, after much "arm-twisting" from the softball community,  using my intimate knowledge of the game of softball (which many trainers don't have) and my expertise in performance  enhancement, training and conditioning, I finally went to work and created a brand new dynamic warm-up protocol for softball that any coach, player or team can use to successfully prevent injuries and increase their performance!

And it's now available:

When you are interested in a topic, you buy just about everything you can find on the topic. Since I am quite interested in softball conditioning, I have bought just about every book, manuals, DVD, and resources I could on strength and conditioning for softball and baseball.

Since softball conditioning is one of my areas of expertise, I often get asked my opinion on various resources on the topic.

As a result, I have decided to do a review of one of the most popular books on the market  for softball training - The Ultimate Guide to Weight Training for Softball.

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.

Many young softball are scared of the ball. Fear of the ball is not so much a technical problem but a psychological problem.

It's the anticipation of "being hurt".  It's basic human nature to want to avoid pain at all cost.  It's definitely not an easy problem to get rid of but it's possible.

In this video, I am discussing a strategy that I've used successfully for years to help young softball players eliminate their fear of the ball.

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.

Don't do that! It's too wrong…

Check this video about swing training…

What's wrong with this exact training technique?

1) Impact on the small joints - the wrists and elbows are at a great risk of getting injured. The reason is there is no real absorption and the joints absorbs most of the impact. The impact is too great. It's like you are throwing your body into a wall without a protective mat. The type of injuries you get by doing this repetitively are tendonitis and bursitis - two overuse injuries that don't go away easily.

2) Way too much resistance to overcome - it defeats the purpose of training for strength and power. It's counter-productive.

3) Teaches bad mechanics - Whether fastpitch or slowpitch (slowpitch example in this case), because there is no room to go forward or through the tire,  you can see that the guy is forced to open up to get the bat through. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! It's reinforcing bad mechanics…

Let`s summarize… you`re likely to get injured, you develop poorer mechanics, and you don`t even get more power out of it!

So, is this a bad drill?  Perform this way, definitely.

[caption id="attachment_980" align="alignleft" width="259" caption="Decision training is the future of sport performance!"][/caption]

Did you know that most parents, coaches and instructors, despite all the best intentions in the world, are actually hurting the development of their kids/athletes?

You see, young softball players need to have good technical skills and know how to play the game to be successful on the field and develop as talented softball players. That's the job of parents (in the early stages), coaches and instructors to help them learn the skills and how to play the game.

Most will teach skills by demonstrating how to do it, emphasizing key elements, and help the kids learn and refine the skill by giving feedback and "telling" them what isn't correct and what to change.

That's this way of giving feedback that's the problem. Unfortunately, most parents, coaches, and instructors are giving feedback that way - mostly because that's how they also received feedback in their life. However, excellent studies in sports pedagogy has shown that this method of giving feedback (direct telling of what's wrong or needs to be changed) is actually detrimental to the long-term development of athletes (i.e. they never reach their full potential).

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.

This weekend, I was sitting in the bleachers watching a softball game during a tournament and a man came over and introduced himself.

He recognized the logo of my website on my jacket because he`s an avid reader of this newsletter.

He told me all about his daughter - 5'6, 15 years old, lefty,  throws 54-56 mph, has a decent change, trying to master the  drop and the rise, practices 3 times per week for about an  hour - and he said that he didn't think she had progressed over  the last couple months.

I suggested to him that they should go to a pitching coach.  He said that they can`t really afford it since the season cost  so much so he is sorta becoming a pitching instructor for his daughter reading books and watching tapes on pitching.

After talking to him for a while and questioning him on what he was doing with his daughter, it became clear that he wasn't  doing enough spin work.

I told him that I was pretty sure that's the reason he wasn't seeing much progresses lately.

You MUST practice spinning the ball.

In this video, I describe why staying loose at the plate is  important and how it can increase your hitting power. This is a complement to my previous post  How Staying Loose Can Increase Your Hitting Power .

I got quite a few people interested in the topic of how to increase pitching speed from yesterday's post.

So, here is a link to two more excellent softball pitching speed drills drills for you. They are video clips on youtube.

Softball Pitching Speed Drill #1 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKL56jCzluU

Softball Pitching Speed Drill #2 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnS2N-QUzj8

Just like any exercise or drill, you need to take action and do them to see the benefits.

For more speed and general softball pitching drills, pick up a copy of my "150 Softball Pitching Drills" at:

==> http://www.softballperformance.com/pitching/150-drills-ebook.html

Trust me, you'll never get bored again with that many pitching drills.

Train hard. Play hard. Have fun.

Who loves ya?

Marc
"Your Softball Peak Performance Coach"