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.

Participate in the conversation by leaving your comment below.

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.

Anyone else have feelings about this?

Specialists in personal development tell us that we  need to spend at least 5% of our income on our continuing  education to keep growing as people, increase our knowledge  and our skills set, and remain high-performing individuals  in society.

It has actually been shown that the most successful people  in the world in any domain are lifelong learners. They  spend  a lot more time than the average people developing  their skills and increasing their knowledge.

That means going to seminars, attending clinics, taking  courses and workshops, buying books and DVDs, reading  magazines and trade journals, becoming certified, etc.

Famous personal development speaker Jim Rome says that "poor people have big TVs, rich people have big  libraries."

The best coaches in the world are also lifelong learners.  Even if they are experts in their field, they still attend  conferences, take courses, read books, read articles, and  so on.

They know the value of continuing education and how important  it is to their success on the field.

Ask Mike Candrea and he'll tell you that he is always  looking for ways to become a better coach even though he  is considered by many to be the best softball coach on the  planet. That allows him to stay on top year after year.

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.

Ideas anyone?

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.

 

Let's talk more about this... can you do me a quick 30-second favor and leave a comment below?

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

What do you think? Please comment below to tell me.