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It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!
by Dave
Thursday, December 29, 2005
As the new year approaches like a runaway train, I can't help but think it's almost softball season! Maybe I'm jumping the gun a little but this is the time of year most seasonal injuries are prevented. It is time to start limbering up and getting ready for the spring.
Maybe it's cold out where you are and you haven't got much space in which to workout. But you don't need all that much space to do daily stretches or even to work on some strength drills.
As far as stretching goes, before you begin, check out these important stretching guidelines before starting. Stretching is not a "no pain, no gain" endeavor. You want to get into a daily habit of stretching long before the season starts to build up flexibility. If you are new to stretching, here is a great list of different stretches you can perform. If you are more advanced, think about the various stretches you typically do before your practices and games. All of these can be performed long before practice season begins. Create a simple routine and do these at least 5 times each week.
Some of the most important areas for softball players are lower back, legs, and arms/shoulders. To exercise your back, you really can combine certain strength skills with your stretching routine. Here are a few drills:
Back Stretches and Strength BuildingThere are a number of exercises for your back. Here are a few of my favorites:
While laying flat on your stomach, place your hands in the position you would use to perform a push up. Now while keeping your pelvis on the floor, push up lifting your head, shoulders, and chest off the ground. Don't push it too far at first - remember we're not looking for pain. Hold this position for twenty seconds and then go back to the floor. Do about ten to twenty repetitions. As you warm up, you can push further and further to stretch better while also improving your lower back strength. A variation of this stretching drill is to place your hands together on your butt and lift your head, etc. off the ground using your back muscles. You can allow your feet to leave the ground a little but the important thing is to use your back muscles to get your body off the ground.
Another exercise for the back is while lying flat on your stomach on the floor with your arms outstretched above your head, alternately lift am arm and opposite foot a few inches off the ground and hold for thirty seconds. You do your right arm and left leg and then your left arm and right leg. Hold each for thirty seconds and do 10 - 20 rep.s for each arm and leg combo.
Here is a more comprehensive list of back exercises you will find helpful. Keep in mind that while these exercises are specifically designed for folks with back problems, you can prevent these injuries and increase your strength by doing them. Softball involves a lot of sudden, jerking motions. Back injuries can wreck a career faster than anything else. Getting into a regular routine of stretching and strengthening your back is a great way to avoid a short career.
Leg Stretches and Strength BuildingStretching legs is a complicated matter because there are so many different muscles with so many different needs. Some of the muscles which are often injured playing softball are the hamstring, the quadricep and calf muscles. If you've ever injured your hamstring, you really ought to work on increasing flexibility and strength as these have a tendency to be recurrent injuries. The standard toe touch is an excellent exercise for the hamstring. These can be performed standing or while sitting on a floor. Again, don't stretch until pain sets in. What you want is to feel the stretch but not let it hurt. the hamstrings stretch out pretty rapidly and you will be able to reach further and further through the course of repetitions. Reach as far as you feel comfortable going without feeling pain, then hold it for 10 - 15 seconds. Do 10 rep.s and then move onto other exercises. After your have exercised the legs and other parts of your body, come back to toe touches and do another round of 10 rep.s, followed by stretching the quadriceps.
Quadricep stretching is very similar to hamstring stretches just in the opposite direction. But because you can't very well reach over your head and touch your heels, you must do these while laying down. Here is a good description of quad stretching including a small diagram. Agains do these to the point of feeling the stretch but before pain and hold for 10 - 15 seconds. Do 5 - 10 repetitions and repeat the drill before or after your hamstring stretches (twice during each session).
The calf muscles are easy to stretch by standing with a wall a few feet in front of you. Put your hands on the wall and lean in towards it. Now reach back with one foot and bend your foot by placing pressure on the heel. Standing straight places the foot at a 90 degree angle. The object of this stretch is to decrease that angle so as to cause the calf muscles to stretch to the point you can feel it. This is a low impact exercise. You don't want to feel pain anywhere around the joints in your foot. Stretch the calf of one foot for 15 - 20 seconds then switch to the other foot. 5 - 10 rep.s should do it.
Once you have adequately stretched your hamstring, quad and calf muscles, the next thing to do is work on strengthening your legs. Catchers in particular need to work leg strengthening exercises long before the season. While standing straight with your arms at your side, use only your leg muscles to get into a catcher's squat. Hold the position for ten seconds and then stand slowly while maintaining good body posture. Rest for s few seconds and then repeat this 20 times. Once you've gotten used to doing this daily, you should increase the rep.s. After you've done this exercise for a week or two, you can add to it by doing leg drives stright up into the air and working on increasing your vertical jump. Do abnother 20 rep.s of jumping after doing the squat to stand. Catchers in particular should maintain 20 rep.s or more of the squat to stand since this will help your endurance during the season. if you have trouble getting motivated to do these, just think of all those long games and double or triple headers when your legs were killing you. This is a great way to avoid leg pain during the season.
If the weather is decent or you have a place where you can run, after doing leg stretching and strengthening, you can do some sprints. I say sprints because softball is not really an endurance game. It is a game of lots of sprinting. Before you sprint, a couple hundred yard jog is a good way to warm up your legs even considering that you just stretched for fifteen minutes or so. Your sprints should be appropriate for the activity you will be doing in the season. Infielders can do very short sprints of ten to twenty yards, outfielders can do longer runs. And if you want to work on base running, obviously you can do thirty yard sprints. Start with longer distances like the thirty yard base running sprints and then move into your short bursting runs.
You don't need to wind yourself in this process. What you are after is explosiveness. If you have someone who can accompany you and bring a stop watch (hint: that ipod nano or possibly that cell phone your parents hocked their wedding rings in order to buy you for the holidays probably has a stop watch built into it), record your speed once a week or so to see that you are making some progress in increasing your speed. In any event, when you run sprints, you do want to feel some strain in your legs before stopping. You should run over a half hour period. Do at least 20 sprints at each distance and more if you have the time and are not feeling any strain. Again, think explosiveness. And after you finish your sprinting, do another brief jog to warm down your legs.
ArmsSome of the worst repetitive motion injuries in softball involve the arm and shoulder muscles. proper throwing mechanics can play the single most important role in avoiding these but stretching and strengthening can also play a role. If you;ve played even a single season of rec ball, You should already be familiar with the more common arm stretches. But I'll mention them briefly before going on.
While standing straight place your arms straight over your head. Now bend one arm back behind your head so that your elbow is pointing towards the sky and your hand is about touching the middle of your upper back. Now reach up with your other hand and grab hold of the elbow. Pull slowly on the elbow so that the hand of the bent arm moves down the back gradually. Stretch slowly and once you reach the point of feeling pull (not pain), hold for ten seconds. Now do the other arm similarly. Perform ten rep.s with each arm.
Now, again standing straight, this time have your arms at your sides. Reach across in front of yourself with one arm, then grab the back of your upper arm with the other hand. Pull with your hand so that the stretching arm goes past your other shoulder. Pull until you feel some slight strain and your shoulder rotates forwards. Hold for 15 seconds and then switch arms. Do ten rep.s.
Finally, stand with your arms oustretched so your palms are facing the same way as your face. if you are by yourself, reach backwards until you can feel some pull in your biceps, shoulders and a little tug in the center of your back. Hold for 15 seconds and repeat ten times. If you are stretching with a partner, have your partner stand behind you and firmly grasp your hands. Then they pull very slowly and stop when you tell them to. You must be very careful and do this slowly since the other person does not know when the stretching person is feeling pain. If you work with the same person all the time on this drill, she'll know when to stop after some practice. If you're working alone, do 15 rep.s. If you are working with a partner, repeat the stretch 3 times and then switch with her. Repeat five times.
I'm not a huge fan of weight training but I think I should say a little about it here before moving on. I know everybody talks about doing weight training for softball in order to increase strength to throw harder or hit the ball farther. But you can build strength by doing other sorts of exercise. I believe softball players should never do weight training without working with a professional trainer. In all cases, weight training is to be avoided by girls who have not yet entered puberty. The leading research I have seen suggests that two years after the onset of puberty is an approximate time to begin weight training. But please do so with extreme caution.
If you want to build strength for throwing, playing catch is unquestionably the best exercise. if you're stuck indoors, go down to the basement with a laundry basket filled with towels and throw into that. You don;t need to throw 60 or 100 feet in order to build throwing strength. Emphasize the wrist action and your throwing strength should improve. Get yourself a cushion on which to kneel and then go through the throwing motion until you get to the point where your arm is directly to your side and your hand is about in line with your head. Now perform the snap of your wrist you usually do right before releasing the ball. You are not throwing by using your arm at all. All action comes from your wrist. Do about 100 throws a couple times each week. I would be shocked if this didn't improve your throwing strength.
If what you are after is improving the strength behind your already perfect swing, weights are not your best approach. The only weight you need to work with is your standard issue softball bat. You don't even need a donut on the end of it. Merely swinging a bat say 100 times a couple times a week will improve your strength. If you have a batting tee and a place to use it, go ahead. if you have a space say in the basement where you can hit soft tosses, do that. The point is to really swing a bat 100 times a couple times each week and this should do the trick of strengthening your swing.
Also, anything you can do to improve your wrist strength will help you. If swinging just isn't enough, take a seat, and bring your bat with you. Now holding your bat in your hands with your arms resting on your thighs, extend your wrists so the bat is hanging past your knees. Now perform a "curl" using only your wrists until the bat is above your wrists. repeat 20 times and do this as often as you like. You should feel your forearms flexing as you do it and if you want more strain, do more than 20 rep.s. If you prefer, you can take a weighted ball and perform wrist curls this way. The point is to stress your forearms. And this should strengthen your wrists as much as you really need.
Other Exercises With Specific Positions In MindPitchers can similarly strengthen their arms in order to gain some speed on their pitches. Take a look back at building strength for throwing a few paragraphs up. Do essentially the same thing but this time isolate the wrist in an underhand throwing motion. Doing a lot of this sort of drill should make your pitching improve quite a bit.
Pitchers don't get that much of their speed from their arms or wrists. The real momentum behind a pitch comes from the legs and lower back. The same exercises for the back apply to all positions so take a look up at the beginning of this article for back exercises. Also the sprint running is a good help for pitchers. But to really add to the routine in order to improve pitching, find a good place where you can leap several feet forward. Now run through your pitching motion and place an emphasis on the leg drive aspect. You can craft your opwn exercise for strengthening your legs and tourso for pitching just by taking a good look at your natural pitching motion. If you are able toi mark the floor, make things interesting by seeing if you can increase your leg drive distance over a month or two. As you do this leg isolation drill, do not simply skip the other parts of your pitching motion. Keeping everything in sync is as important ot good pitching as improving strength. Keep your motion intact.
Pitchers should realize that when doing pitching drills, it is important to fully open shoulders and hips and then close them. Any stretches and rills you can do to improve your tourso flexibility will help with your pitching motion and speed. When you do back stretching and strengthening keep the demands of pitching in mind. And when you do leg drive drills or any sort of strengthening, always make sure to work out your lower back too.
Catchers can benefit from similar exercises as pitchers although with modifications. If you take a look at the leg exercise described several paragraphs up, think about the squat to stand drill for a second. A good modification to that for catchers is to add a twist to throwing position as you rise to standing position. Now for added benefit, make a slow throwing motion. If you can do this in front of a full length mirror a few times, I think you can see what the proper motion is.
As far as exercises for other fielders, the best things you can do are those which mimic your actual fielding moves. Outfielders can supplement their baserunning sprints with some sideways and drop-step sprints which are basically pretending to field fly balls. Remember that the more you run these sorts of sprints, the quieter your head should become. You cannot judge the arc of a fly ball while your head is bouncing around. one of your goals in performing outfield drills should be to keep your head still while achieving as good a speed as you can. Infielders can perform short quick bursts of running which are followed by a squat as if to field a ground ball. Whether you are an infielder or outfielder, you don't need to have live ball drills to improve your game. Simply having a partner who can point to a direction will improve your reaction speed.
ConclusionIt's your game we're talking about here. Ultimately you have to decide how much exercising you can fit into your busy schedule. Softball is a game of flexibility and explosive motion. If you do nothing else, get into a routine of doing sport specific stretches. Don't get uptight because somebody else is doing weights. You don't need that. if you insist on doing weights, do so only in the company of a professional trainer. Don't just start working with weights because your friend got a set for Christmas and she wants somebody to work out with.
If you are already involved with another sport like basketball, do not assume you are in shape and ready to play softball just because basketball practices are more intense or because your last day of practice is right before the first day of softball practice. You still need to do some work which is related to softball in order to prevent injuries. In fact many sports injuries occur when an otherwise well conditioned athlete changes from one sport to another.
Finally, I hope you achieve your goals this next season. If improving strength is one of these, I think you will find if you use your head and are dedicated to goal oriented exercising, you will accomplish what you set out to do. Enjoy your New Year's celebration.
Permanent Link: It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!
 
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