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Player's Corner - Improve your Softball Performance
Welcome to our Player's Corner. Designed with you in mind, this page provides tips and resources to help improve your softball performance. Always remember ~ have fun and play hard!
Practice Time vs. Game Time
Do you find that you make plays in practice, but during games you stress out and make errors?
Well, guess what? You must not be the only one because sports psychologists have written articles about this. Read one of my favorites at our articles page ("Dealing with Slumps" by Karlene Sugarman, M.A.)
*Improve game fielding performance* - Remember this phrase, "It's just a ground ball"
*Improve game hitting perfomance* - I refer again to our Hitting Tips page. It's a cool piece, plus you get to see a picture of Jennie Finch.
Playing Softball in College
College Recruiting Tips - Our page of FREE basic tips to help you get on the right track.
Also, read our information on What College Coaches have to say about Recruiting.
Student-Athlete Evaluation Form - Do you want to play at the college level? Find out if you're on track, academically and athletically, by filling out this Student-Athlete Evaluation form.
Money for college - Just in case you don't get a full ride, you'll want to know where else you can get money to pay for college.
Improve Athletic Skills
Vision - Never underestimate the importance of vision in this sport. To learn more about why you should train your vision, visit FastpitchVisionTraining.com. If you've already heard all about vision training and would like to try it for yourself, visit FastpitchVisionTraining.com.
Softball Drills - Visit our Softball Drills page for Hitting Tips, and other resources for improving your softball and athletic skill.
Increase Speed - College coaches prefer players that can get from home to first in under 3 seconds. What is your home to first speed? If you don't know, find out. Then set some goals to get to near that 3 second mark. If you're not a speedster, that's okay too. Set some goals so that you can get closer to that 3 second mark. If you are a speedster and you want to impress college coaches with your speed ~ set goals to get you below that 3 second mark (2.5-2.7). Even if you don't plan on playing in college, increasing speed and striving toward this 3 second mark will help improve your overall softball performance. Check out our Speed Drills page for tips on increasing speed and read this book excerpt on developing and improving running speed. Click on the image to the right for more information on Speed Experts - Improve speed in just 30 days.
Solidify basic fundamentals - with the year round playing of softball, we sometimes forget to go back to the basics every once in a while. As a player, you always need to get a little refresher every now and then. If your coach doesn't do it for you, do it for yourself. Concentrate of proper throwing technique during warm ups. When fielding ground balls during practice, emphasize proper footwork and proper fielding technique. Forget the "Hollywood" stuff for a bit and do drills CORRECTLY. I'm a firm believer in tee work for hitting. Again, if your coaches don't provide the opporunity to work off a tee, find a way to do so on your own time. Tee work help re-establish your contact point as well as improve pitch selection at the plate. Set the tee up at the edges of your strike zone and hit off the tee in those different locations. This will help you become familiar with where those boundries are and improve your discipline at the plate.
Get in the Zone - stop by our Articles Page and read "Peak Performance".
Attend clinics - If you have a chance to go to a "speed clinic", a "Bigger, Faster, Stronger" clinic, or any other type of athletic training clinic ~ take advantage of it. Go and learn as much as you can about how to improve your athleticism. This will only make your a better player and improve your softball performance. College coaches want athletes. Improving your athletic skill makes your a more valuable player to any coach, college or otherwise.
Set Goals - Use our Goal Setting Worksheet to set some personal goals for yourself. Post them in a place where you'll see them often! Maybe even post some Inspirational Quotes along with your goals to keep yourself focused and inspired!
Train Mentally Too - This game is not only physical. I'm sure you've heard coaches say that softball is "90% mental". What do you do to train mentally? Sign up for a free newsletter with ideas on how to get better with this aspect of your game or get at free coaching session at Peak Sports.
Recommended Resources
Improved Hitting for Girls Softball - Improve your hitting with this book. Get easy to understand explanations from Bobby Simpson of Higher Ground Softball.
Defensive Softball Drills - Improve your team's defensive performance with this book containing over 60 drills. Recommended by Sue Enquist, Head Softball Coach, UCLA.
Become a more powerful athlete
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