About that Catalyst 2

Well, I like it. It has a good feel to it when you swing. I like the balanced feel, so it works for me. I haven't hit much live with it, but I did let one of the high school players use it at her ASA practice one day. She seems to like it just fine and said that will be her season bat when high school starts up again.

Another player commented that it doesn't even feel like a 25 oz. This player normally uses a Rocket Tech that weighs less than 25 oz, but she also liked the way the Catalyst felt. The only thing is that she's on the taller side and the 33 inch looked short in her hands.

I like having a bat of my own to swing on a daily basis - good for the abs. ;)


Technorati Tags : Softball, Fastpitch, Bat, Sports

Why Oxygen is important when you run

Running Speed Training

When you run, your body needs oxygen. Without it, your muscles quickly go anaerobic and start to form painful areas of lactic acid that will cause pain and reduce your muscle's effectiveness. Breathing properly is an essential part of running, and a sure way to be able to outrun your opponent.

On the field, your athletes need to be able to outrun the other team to get or keep the ball, and often the key to this is just holding on a second longer than the other guy. Running properly allows you to breathe well, so that your body can get more oxygen with each breath. This oxygen advantage lets you go longer without cramping or tiring, and is essential in any sport.

Posture is the biggest part of breathing well--when you hunch over or lean back, you are impeding the flow of air into your lungs. You are effectively closing off part of your lung capacity, and you need to suck harder down a narrower windpipe. Standing tall lets you breath freely, and running with proper form allows you to make the most of your lungs.

This is just one of dozens of details that make up a complete understanding of speed training. All together, speed training is a comprehensive discipline that involves many different aspects of physiology. At Athlete's Acceleration, we offer the best speed training model on the market. Click here for more information.

Cindy Bristow Coaching Clinic in Hawaii

Cindy Bristow will be in Hawaii giving a coaches' clinic on July 8, 2006. She will cover topics such as:

Bunting
Teaching the slap
Basics for hitting power
How to get the most out of practice
Good practice drills
Dealing with players and problems
and much more.

If you'd like more information on this coaching clinic, here is a flyer you can download and print:
Cindy Bristow Flyer

Also, on that same day, Hawaii ASA is putting on a Recruiting Camp at Kapolei High School for high school age players. This is a 2-day event that will feature various speakers, an instructional workout, and a video taping day from which a video of the recruiting camp in DVD format of all the participating athletes which will
be made and mailed to each athlete. Approximately 100 DVD’s of the camp results, together with the athletic and academic resumes will be mailed out to various participating colleges throughout the country.

Here are some downloadable flyers for this camp as well as an application form:
Hawaii ASA Camp Quick Facts Sheet
Hawaii ASA Recruiting Camp Flyer
Hawaii ASA Recruiting Camp Application

I will also be there as a speaker on Saturday morning and will probably help out with the "on the field" portion of the day in the afternoon as well.

Don't miss out on this event!

Change of Interview Plans

We are still doing the Howard Kobata interview, but that one may be pushed back to August. We also have two more cool people to feature within the next two months.

Larry Ray - Assistant Coach at the University of Arizona (National Champions)

Denise Dahlberg - Former University of Hawaii player, currently with the Texas Thunder

So we will be doing interviews with all three of these people: Howard Kobata, Larry Ray, and Denise Dahlberg. I'm not exactly sure when each one will be featured, but they will all have their interviews posted to the site by the end of August. If there are any questions you'd like me to ask any of these individuals, please e-mail them to me at allaboutfastpitch@hawaii.rr.com by Monday.

This month's featured interview is an interview with Dr. Glove. Click Here to read.

Interview with Howard Kobata

We are currently in the process of working with Mr. Howard Kobata for our July Fastpitch Interview. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Howard, you can take a look at his website www.softballskills.com for more information about who he is and what he is known for.

We'll be sure to let you know when the interview is ready.

Day in the life of a softball brother

Here's a picture of my son getting comfortable at a softball tournament. It would be a long day for all of us. Don't worry son, one day we'll all be at a football field or a baseball field cheering you on too.

Hey - don't eat those sunflower seeds!

Bought a Catalyst 2!

Woohoo! I just bought the Louisville Slugger Catalyst 2 (FP72C) - I can't wait for it to get here. Lots of our high school girls have the Rocket Tech or the Synergy - I wanted to bring in something different. Being a -8, this is definitely something different. It's coming in from the mainland though, so it'll be a few days before I actually have it in hand. Once I get a chance to personally swing it and take some BP with it, then I'll let you all know how I like it. I know there are some girls on our team that can swing a -8 and I'd like to see them give it a try. If nothing else, I'll have a cool bat to take BP with. This may even sway me to play some fastpitch this summer since every summer someone asks me and I always decline. We'll see.

One of the other coaches that works with the ASA teams I help with and also coaches the JV team just brought in a new Synergy (-9). So anyway, I just had to share. Other softball people are the only ones who'll be interested in this type of news. Can't wait to get it and see it because I have never seen this bat in person before. None of the local stores carry it. So I may be crazy for buying it, but there's just something about it - I'll let you know if it lives up to my expectations.

Motivation and Mental Toughness

That's the name of the new bonus that will be added to the Keeping Softball Fun package. This new bonus comes after the request from a number of our visitors for information on motivating athletes. Motivation and Mental Toughness will become the 3rd bonus in the Keeping Softball Fun package in the month of July.

All customers who have already purchased this package will have access to the bonus once it's ready. Buy now, in the month of June, and take advantage of the current price, $12.99, and still get Motivation and Mental Toughness in July. Because once that bonus is added, the price of the package will be increasing a little due to the added value. Buy today and save!

Baseball/Softball Emergency Room Visits

Wow! My husband was surfing the internet last night looking at statistics on dog bites or attacks. Well on one of the sites there is a chart showing Emergency Room incidents for children. Dog bites rank second on the list of common causes for emergency room injuries among children. What does that have to do with baseball/softball?

Baseball/softball was the number one thing on the list!

Check it out for yourself at
http://dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html#Childrenfrequentvictims

I guess that's part of why the face mask on helmets is such a big deal now?

Get 7 speed training secrets

Do you need help with speed training? You can get help with Complete Speed Training's 7 speed training secrets.

1. Go to Complete Speed Training.

2. Click on the button that best describes you (coach, athlete, parent, etc)

3. Scroll down and sign up to get FREE Speed Training Tips including 7 speed training secrets.

Candrea, Arizona win 7th WCWS Title

In a best of 3 series, Arizona defeats Northwestern in a 2 game sweep for the WCWS Championship. In the first game of the series, Northwestern committed errors that I never expected to see in the championship games. It seemed that Arizona's speed threw the Northwestern defense off kilter just enough to cause problems. There was a collision in the short-stop alley on a pop up (the ball drops), rushed throws by the 3rd baseman that get away at 1st, and mental errors like the CF jogging in after making the 2nd out on a fly ball. The Arizona baserunner easily gets from 2nd to 3rd tagging up on that play.

On top of all of that, Arizona's offense simply came to play on both nights. The top of the batting order was superb and talk about execution and "timely hits" with people in scoring position. Then on the other side, there was Northwestern, who failed to score even 1 run in the two games. Last night, twice they manage three straight hits and fail to push a run across the plate. In the 3rd inning, they had bases loaded, no outs, down by just one, the conference player of the year up to bat and still, nothing.

While not as exciting as last years 3 game series in which Michigan won the championship, I still enjoyed watching. There were tons of opportunities to talk with my 9-yr-old about the different situations and for her to learn from watching.
For example: why you clear the basepath as a 2nd baseman trying to turn the double, why it's more dangerous to dive head first into a base, and how pitchers don't just stand on the mound and watch the action. It also reminded me that even elite athletes make mistakes and I have to keep the game in perspective when working with 10U players. :)

Read about the series at ESPN or search Google news for "Arizona Softball" for more stories.

Technorati Tags: softball, Sports, entertainment, college

Thank goodness for DVR

With graduation and local softball tournaments going on, we've been quite busy these past few weekends. If it wasn't for DVR, I wouldn't be able to watch any of the NCAA Championship softball games going on. Boy there are some great games being played! Northwestern looks to be on a roll or the type of team that's just having that magical season, but Arizona is tough too! They seem like the kind of team that'll pull out that win when they need it.

Who do you think will win the Championship?

Who are you rooting for?

Technorati Tags: softball, Sports, Television, Entertainment

See the Pre-Wrap

Remember a few posts back I said I saw a Tennessee player with pre-wrap in her hair? Well, here's a picture of that on the Tennessee website. The orange band that's in the player's hair - I'm pretty sure that's pre-wrap. I also saw a Northwestern player with it in their hair as well. Click here to see the picture.

Here is one more picture where you can see it (same player) - click here.

I know our high school players have fun with that stuff - seems like even college players like it too. I was able to pick some up for our team at Pre-Wrap.com which is actually a business run by two youth soccer players. It's fun to wear, plus it's neat to be supporting a couple of young entrepreneurs. They also have a good variety of colors to choose from so their will probably be something that will match with your team.

Fastpitch Member Convention

Isn't that cool? No, don't worry, you're not missing an AllAboutFastpitch.com Member Convention, but isn't that a neat graphic?

This is really not softball related, but I just thought that you guys might be interested in creating interesting graphics like this for flyers, team handouts, team websites, etc. I was able to do this with a generator listed at The Generator Blog. You can do different kinds of signs, a newspaper snippet, a movie clapper image, and more. Hey, it's Friday, and Fridays are supposed to be fun, so go check it out!