“The hard is what makes it great. If it were easy everybody would do it.” This quote by Rockford Peach Coach Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own pretty much sums it up. Whether it is slowpitch softball, fastpitch softball, or baseball, there are basic steps to surviving a tournament, especially a weekend all-nighter tournament. This sport is great and here is how you can be at the top of your game.

1. Stay in shape – Practice with the team and/or with stand alone training aids. You need to be in shape. Chances are that if you are signed up to be in an all-nighter, you have this part covered. Get the cardio working. It’s easier to leg out a homerun when your heart is in top condition. Breathing is good. Also, get in a few extra hits at the batting cage or team pitching machines.*

2. Stay hydrated — Don’t underestimate the power of H2O. Water should be your number one choice. Avoid energy drinks as long as possible; all that sodium can weigh you down in the heat of the day. Yes this is softball, but please limit your alcohol intake.

3. Eat right — Carb it up. Rice, pasta and other wheat based foods are good sources of carbohydrates to energize your body. Protein (meat and peanut butter) will help repair torn muscles. Milk products will keep your bones strong and avoid breaks or fractures. Avoid crash and burn sugars.

4. Stretch and warm Up — Take care of those muscles. They’ll be getting a work out around the clock. Take a slow jog around the field or park before your game. Throw with a partner to get your arm warmed up. Loosen your back with a few practice swings when you are on deck. You may even want to swing with two softball bats or a softball bat weight.

5. Be prepared — Pack a softball emergency kit: Biofreeze, ice packs, ace bandages, ibuprofen, antibacterial spray, hand sanitizer, and a change of clothes. As simple as it sounds, fresh dry socks can make a big difference in how you feel at your next game. Brick dust and dirt can infect sliders’ strawberries very fast. Keep the antibacterial spray and Biofreeze in your bat bag so you can use them immediately if needed.

6. Buddy system — In addition to setting the alarm clock, trade phone numbers with a teammate. You don’t want to be the reason your team had to forfeit a 4 AM game. Try to stay close to the ball park. If you wake up late, you don’t want a speeding ticket or worse, you don’t want to get into an accident trying to beat the coin toss.

7. Take care of your equipment — After each game take inventory of your softball equipment. You don’t want to start a game only to realize that you left your softball glove in the dugout at your last game. Make sure your softball bat can withstand the cold night temperatures. Even in the summer, nights can get pretty cold. Because cold weather can dent thin walled bats, it is recommend to limit use when temps are below 60 degrees. A bat sock or warmer may help with this.

Follow these steps and you will increase your chances to a fun-filled, injury free tournament. It isn’t easy being the best. It takes hard work, preparation, training and responsibility. Being the best is great. Train hard, use the right softball equipment, and enjoy your sport.

* Be aware that using your bat in a cage may nullify your softball bat warranty. Use with leather-covered balls only, not plastic or rubber cage balls.

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Eating carrots to develop good eye sight is sound advise. Unfortunately there is a little more to developing how your eyes move in relation to playing Baseball. Albeit there are many persons with natural ability use their eyes in tracking there target, still the normal reaction is to move the entire head and in the worst case, the entire body.

Sit for a moment and pick two objects 5 to 10 feet away from you about 6 to 10 feet apart. You should be able to comfortably see both at the same time. Now pick one to focus on. As quick as you can, turn your head to the second object and note the time it takes to select it. Now, start with your original target, hold your head still and move your eyes only to the second target.

Unless you have quick twitch muscles throughout your body like a Barry Bonds, you should have noticed that it takes much less time to move your eyes than it does your head. That is because your eyes can move up to 5 times faster than your neck.

The speed at which you tract a target relates to your brain how much information you gather about the target and the perceived speed of the target. Occasionally experts will discuss how great baseball hitters and fielders see the ball well enough to slow it down. By allowing your eyes to make the most of the movement you gather more information and the perceived speed slows down. You now have the information to react sooner, get into position quicker and let your developed eye – hand coordination complete the desired result.

Focus on the object, in our case a baseball, is easier and far more comfortable when you have given some time to teach your eyes what you expect of them. Active vision training is not difficult. As players progress and the speed increases, active vision is essential for the next phase, prediction.

When a pitcher hurls the ball at 90+ mph there is only a fraction of a second with which to pick up the ball and determine where to swing the bat. Some have theorized that the last two one hundredths of a second, when the ball meets the bat, even the best players cannot see that moment. So how do they hit it? The information presented by their vision helps their body predict where the ball will be. More information, better prediction, better batting average.

Baseball vision training does not have to be a grueling process. Simple exercises such as sitting still and tossing a ball in the air and catching it while keeping your head still is an excellent beginning. Then move on to standing with the baseball going higher. Mix it up with left to right movement bearing in mind to track the ball with your eyes only.

An advanced drill that is a lot of fun is to place a ball on three feet of string. Have your player lie flat on their back in a room where you can control the light. As a pendulum, swing the ball back and forth and give the catch command at which point your player grasps the ball quickly with both hands. To add difficulty, swing the ball then have your player close their eyes for a swing or two then give the command. Need more challenge, turn off the light and add a strobe light, laughter will ensue, but it really does work.

Vary the challenges of the drills and the speed of the strobe lights.

For those of the practical persuasion, visit a batting cage. Stand outside the net and mid length of the cage and have your player track the baseball from the machine to the plate. You can see how the longer flight to follow enables a longer task to work from.

Baseballs, batting cages, rain dripping off the gutter even house flies; the act of being still and letting your eyes do the work will develop the players vision. The more they see, the easier everything becomes.

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www.mavenvideo.com This short clip shows a drill that will help with the drop ball. It is featured in its entirety on, The Drills Video.

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As the coach of a tournament level youth fastpitch softball team, at the end of each season I am faced with the tough decisions about roster spots in regard to doing what is best for the team and what is best for the player. A typical roster will have 12 players however some may have 11 or as many as 13. This usually results in 6 players playing the bulk of the time and the other six players splitting time for the remaining three positions.

It has always been my position to try to retain all of my players from one year to the next. After all, I had invested a considerable amount of time in their development. However, a couple of years ago I was faced with a very unique situation. Mary had played for me since she was eight years old and now she was about to turn 12 years old. I was losing my starting 3rd baseman, due to her age, and I felt Mary had a great opportunity to step into the starting lineup as our 3rd baseman. As it turned out, Mary just couldn’t quite get it done at 3rd and was beaten out by another player. This put Mary back to the outfield and in the rotation of players that split innings.

I was very disappointed Mary couldn’t win the position and as the season went on I could tell that her love for fastpitch softball was diminishing. It just broke my heart to see her withdrawing from the sport. As the coach of a highly competitive softball team, I believe two of my primary responsibilities are to teach the girls the sport and to inspire their passion for the game.

Just to be clear, my team will play over 100 softball games each year. And Mary played in every game that she attended. As the season went on, it became evident that Mary was not going to beat out one of our top six players this season or the next season for that matter. So the question became, what to do about Mary?

Mary was just a great kid that got along with all of the other players and all of the coaches. Her parents were the kind of parents every coach dreams of having, always supportive, kind, constructive and attentive to their child. Understand that Mary was an outstanding ballplayer when compared to most girls that play softball, but on our team she was a small fish in a big pond. On almost any other team Mary would have been the big fish.

At the end of the season I decided to have a conversation with Mary’s father. Nothing I had to say came as a shock to him and he knew that I had Mary’s best interest in mind. I explained that I didn’t believe Mary could honestly compete for one of the top positions and that I thought she would spend another year of splitting time. I also explained that I thought she could go to almost any other team and immediately become the starter at almost any position she chose. I further explained that I thought if Mary played another year with us, she might be in danger of becoming so disenchanted with softball that she may give up before she made it to High School.

I left the decision with Mary and her dad. They were welcome to stay with us and I would be thrilled to have her back or I could suggest other teams for them and refer her to other coaches. Without a doubt it was a tough decision for them. After all, her friends were on this team, it was a winning team, we were the only coaches she had ever had, and there was the fear of the unknown.

As it turned out, I contacted three other teams about Mary and they all said they would take her in a heartbeat. So I gave Mary the list of teams and she chose which one she would most like to play with. That next season, Mary played shortstop and batted fourth in her new team’s lineup. She was easily the star player on her new team. She continues to play fastpitch softball and just recently told me how excited she is to be going out for her High School team this year.

What does this story have to do with your daughter? Is your daughter the Mary on her softball team? A very good player but just doesn’t seem to get enough playing time or at the position she would most like to play? It may be time to have an honest discussion with the coach. Don’t be defensive or get mad at the coach. Trust me, a good tongue lashing of the coach never produces more playing time for your daughter. Be very calm and be prepared to hear that your daughter is not the all-star that you believe she is. The information you are trying to ascertain is whether or not your daughter has a reasonable chance of competing for the position she wants to play. If the answer is no or not likely, then it may well be time to change teams.

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So you want to pitch faster? You can choose to focus only on strengthening your muscles, or you can take a smarter option and take a complete approach to your pitching.

But before I get misunderstood, I’m not discounting the importance of strengthening your muscles to be able to pitch faster. What I’m saying is that it’s not all there is to pitching. And becoming a smart pitcher means you can pitch more effectively with lesser effort.

Want to be a smart and efficient pitcher? Here are some tips I have for you:

Focus on the mechanics first. Many players focus too much on strength training to make them pitch faster. But nailing the mechanics before anything else should be your priority as a pitcher.

The proper pitching mechanics teaches you to throw the ball correctly. Throwing the ball correctly solves two problems: it teaches you how to throw the ball without exerting much effort, which at the same time minimizes your chance of injuries due to incorrect mechanics.

Do your warm-ups and stretches. How fun would it be to be able to pitch fast right out of the dugout? However, it doesn’t work that way. If you want to pitch fast, you must do your warm-ups and stretches first.

Why? Because doing these helps loosen your muscles which helps you pitch better and prevent injuries due to pulled muscles.

Keep yourself relaxed. While stretches and warm-ups help loosen your muscles, tension can cause a reverse effect. So try to keep yourself relaxed before every game. Try to breathe regularly, loosen muscles on your upper back, neck and shoulders. If listening to music helps, you can do that too. Improve the strength muscles involved in pitching. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not at all discounting the importance of strength training to improve your pitching speed. So work out your schedule to include training your muscles involved in pitching such as in your forearms, wrists and shoulders. Don’t forget accuracy. Although this isn’t exactly an advice on how you can pitch faster, I just thought I’d remind you to take the time to focus on your pitches’ accuracy as well. After all, pitching isn’t just about speed, but also on how well you can pitch inside or outside the strike zone. Vary your throws. An arsenal of different pitches is the bane of any batter out there. It keeps them guessing what you’ll be throwing them next, especially in tight games. So work on having different pitching techniques and don’t just focus on speed alone.

It takes more than just these short and quick tips on softball pitching to help you throw faster. It also takes a huge amount of time, training and practicing incessantly until you refine your technique. So work on them and at the same time take into consideration the tips I have for you here. And I’m pretty sure how they will positively affect your game will be evident soon enough.

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