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.

Get in Shape for 2008

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How to Stay in Shape During Winter

Whew - I'm finally back from our family vacation and we had a blast. Part of our trip was spent in NJ were the weather was quite a bit cooler than here in Hawaii. You can tell that during this time of year, the weather is beginning to change. Summer weather is just about gone and winter weather is approaching. This is also about that time when I get questions like "How can I stay in shape during the winter?"

Well, don't forget, we have an article in our resident experts column called
Exercises to Keep You Strong and Powerful This Winter

So that's one place to start.

Other things you could incorporate are:
~ plyometric exercises
~ uphill fitness training (learn how to use the stairs in your house to get into great physical shape)
~ jumping rope (listen to music while you jump)
~ practice mechanics in a mirror with rolled up socks, nerf balls, a ball made of crunched up newspaper, or no ball as all

Another thing I recently found out about is the personalized softball-specific training program offered at Softball Performance. If you want to get into serious softball shape during this off season, this may be the route for you. You can get a brand-new, cutting-edge, totally personalized training program every month.

Get all the info at Softball Performance - > Performance Tools -> Conditioning Programs.

Hope you get into GREAT shape for next season!