Congratulations to Kamehameha!

Congratulations to the Kamehameha-Kapalama Varsity Softball team for winning this years DI Hawaii High School State Championship! I would post a link to the news story, but the game just ended so it's not up yet. But Kamehameha defeated Mililani 3-0 in tonight's State Championship game. Kamehameha allowed no runs throughout the tournament which reminds me of a phrase I like to tell a defense, "They (meaning the other team) can't win if they don't score."

Anyway - congratulations again to this year's State Champions. A link to the story and pictures will be posted at http://hhsaa.org/sports/softball.

Also - congratulations to Pac-Five for winning the DII championship tonight as well. It's an ILH sweep of the State Championship titles this year - wow!

Hawaii High School Championship Game

Right now I'm watching the Hawaii High School State Championship game in which my alma mater is currently up 2-0 in the bottom of the 6th inning. BUT, Miliani, from the OIA, has runners on 1st and 2nd with just 1 out and the meat of their line-up up. If you're watching the game via www.oc16.tv, let me know what you think of the game. Or if you're in Hawaii watching the game on TV, leave a comment on what you thought/think of the game.

Alright - now the bases are loaded with just 1 out and Mililani's biggest hitter up to bat. We'll see what happens.

Is That Too Much Pitching?

Wow I just read an article about a high school softball league who's state tournament is only 2 days long. Not only that, it's double elimination with 16 teams! So a team can play as many as 6 games in two days (up to 4 on the second day). Now, I've done this before (play 4 games in one day) and I have to admit that, by that last game, you do feel tired. And I'm not even a pitcher. I can only imagine what a pitcher feels like after having to pitch multiple games in a row. Now, in college, it's not so bad, most teams are equipped to have some kind of back up so that one pitcher does not have to pitch all the games. But in high school, it's different.

This article also talks about the mechanics of pitching and the stress or lack thereof on the shoulder. That's fine, but what about the rest of the body? The shoulder isn't the only part involved in pitching.

I'm just a bit surprised at the format of the tournament they talk about in the article because our state tournament here in Hawaii is only 12 teams, single elimination and it runs over the course of 4 days (and does include teams from outer islands who travel away from school to come and play). Now I'm not saying the girls are not capable of it. I'm sure lots of the girls LOVE playing that many games in a short period of time. I would have, but that doesn't mean it's the best way to do things.

In high school, the team I was on entered lots of pre-season tournaments where we played a number of games in a short period of time, but pre-season is very different from post-season. In pre-season, you're usually carrying extra players (those trying to make the team), you're doing lots of subsitutions (to give everyone a chance to see what they can do), and the "Big W" isn't all that important. In post season, it's a completely different story.

I just can't imagine why a state would run a 16 team double elimination state tournament in just two days. There's probably a logistical issue I'm not considering? But I would hope that, for the sake of the girls, they'd come up with a better way to run the tournament. What do you think? Read the article here, then leave me a comment below with your thoughts.

NCAA DI Regionals Continue Today

There were a few regional games played yesterday with the most "interesting" one being the Jacksonville State vs Florida State. It may not sound all that interesting, but it became the big story when Jacksonville chalked up their first NCAA DI Regional win in the opening game of the NCAA Softball Championships Tuscaloosa Regional. NCAA Sports has the story.

The majority of the Regionals begin today and all the match-ups are also available at NCAA Sports.

Hawaii will face Mississippi State today with Robinson as the starting pitcher.

But in other post-season softball, Robinson's sister just came out on the short end of a 2 hour and 45 minute game last night in Hawaii's High School State Tournament. Moanalua lost 1-0 to #2 seed Kamehameha in a 10 inning game at Rainbow Wahine Stadium last night. Read the full story here. Don't forget, tonight's State semi-final games will be broadcast live in Hawaii on OC16 and live via streaming video on the internet at http://www.oc16.tv/. The semi-final games begin at 5pm Hawaii Standard time which is 8pm on the West Coast.

Free Performance Program For You

Mr. Tom Hanson of www.GetSoftballConfidence.com has put together a free program for you called:

"How to Overcome Failure and Play as Well in Games as You Do in Practice"

Wouldn't that be great? Do you find yourself (or your players) performing great in practice when there's no pressure, but not quite so great in game situations when the play or hit really counts? Find out how you can take your success from practice field into game situations. After all, it doesn't do a whole lot of good if you can hit the ball out of the park in practice, but can't even tough it in the game. It doesn't matter much if you can throw every change-up just right in practice, but don't have any command over it in the game. And it can be very frustrating to field zillions of grounders in practice just fine (and follow it up with a great throw too), but miss the simple ground ball your team needed you to stop in the game.

This free program can help. It includes 5 Lessons which take you step-by-step through the fundamentals of the mental game. Get it now at
http://www.allaboutfastpitch.com/CoachingProgram.pdf

The other day I received an e-mail from a coach who asked for help because his team would often fall apart once errors were made in the game. That made me think of the title of this program "How to Overcome Failure..." Again, this program is designed to lead you through the fundamentals of the mental game which is what needs work if your team is unable to overcome mistakes.

There's no cost, no risk, nothing to lose, just knowledge and simple, helpful tools you can use to improve your softball performance.

Instantly download your free copy of this program at
http://www.allaboutfastpitch.com/CoachingProgram.pdf

After you've had a chance to go through this program, please let me know what you think my clicking on the "What do you think" link below an leaving me a comment.

Hawaii Gains Unlikely Berth to NCAA Tournament

Wow! I was hoping it would happen, but everyone was saying that the University of Hawaii softball team's only chance at post season was to win the WAC tournament. When they came up short in Friday night's game against Nevada, I thought their season was done.

However, if anyone had told me that Nanci Coolen, Coach Coolen's wife, believed they were going to make it, I would have immediately believed it too. I remember Nanci from when I was a freshman in college. I always did like her. She's played this game and she's been involved with softball for a long, long time. She's a former player, a woman, and a mother....so, of course, I trust her intuition. ;)

Anyway - Hawaii is in, but it won't be an easy road. They have just 1 true starting pitcher left and they're in a regional with some TOUGH competition. But I'm still going to have fun following their journey in the post season.

Read the story of their post season berth in Hawaii's Local Newspaper.

For more information on the 64 team DI field, visit the NCAA website.

Join Us in a Fastpitch Discussion

Yep, there's a new fastpitch forum up where you can go and get fastpitch softball questions answered, answer questions of others, or simply take part in the discussion going on.

Now, this is not a place to post your team announcements, this is not a place to advertise your softball product either. This is a place to do exactly what the site name suggests, Discuss Fastpitch.

This forum is not my forum, but I'm already registered there and look forward to seeing you there too. There is no cost to join. Registration is free - I'm already registered there, so go check it out and get your fastpitch questions answered for free at DiscussFastpitch.com. Hope to see you there.

Hawaii Softball Live Online Tonight

Hawaii High School games will be available for you to watch live via streaming video at http://www.oc16.tv/ - If you've never seen Hawaii High School softball...go check it out if. You'll see what I mean when I say that Hawaii High School softball is different from a lot of "high school" softball in most parts of the mainland US. Check it out tonight at http://www.oc16.tv/ - first game is at 5pm Hawaii Time (8pm West Coast).

These games are OIA semi-final games and the first game of the night features the #1 team in the West (Miliani) and the #2 team in the East (Kailua) who managed to take advantage of the opportunities they got yesterday and put the points they needed on the board to beat us 2-1. Congratulations to both teams for making it to this semi-final game.

The second game of the evening is the other semi-final which has the #1 team in the East (Moanalua) facing the #2 team in the West (Campbell). Congratulations to these two teams as well for making it to this semi-final game.

Both games should be pretty good, but my prediction is that the West team in each match up will come out ahead. But with sports, you never know, so we'll see what happens.

If you're in Hawaii and have OC16 - the games will be broadcast live on local tv. The first game begins at 5pm Hawaii Standard Time (8pm on the west coast).

After the broadcast at http://www.oc16.tv/, post a comment here and let me know what you think of the games.

Speed Training e-Book For You

Okay, I did get that e-book uploaded so that you can download it to your computer. There is no charge, no strings, and no credit card required. Simply click on the link and begin reading

The Complete Speed Training Report: Secrets to Dominant Speed in Every Athlete.

This report was created by Patrick Beith of Athlete's Acceleration who gave me permission to give this report away to you for free. Here are the few things you'll learn in this free 35 page report:

***7 secrets to dominant speed
***The importance of strength training
***How To develop explosive power in your athletes (a great asset for any softball player)
***3 Steps to improving agility (another important asset for softball players)
***Find out what one of the most widely ignored aspects in speed development is and what you can do to address this area in your own training
***The RIGHT way to use conditioning to improve speed

Click Here to download get this Free Speed Training Report now.

Softball Hula