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

Free Speed Training E-Book

I just received permission from Athletes Acceleration to give away The Complete Speed Training Report e-book to you for FREE. No strings attached. I'll have the download link ready for you this week.

This 35 page report covers:

***7 Secrets to Dominant Speed
***Importance of strength training
***Using plyometrics to build explosiveness
***3 steps for agility training
***The RIGHT way to use conditioning to improve speed
***and more

So stay tuned here at the blog for more information. I'll be posting the link where you can download this resource later this week!

Don't Assume They Know It

I think there's something that amazes me every time I watch a softball game. The other weekend it was my oldest daughter. No, she didn't amaze me with her unbelievable talent, LOL. It was something else. She was pitching that day. You know how sometimes during an umpire timeout the pitcher rolls grounders to her infield to keep them on their toes and keep them from getting bored? Well, I guess my daughter has seen other pitchers do this, so during a break in the action during her game, she rolled a grounder to each of her infielders. I know, not that amazing. But the thing was.....it was a rainy day. The ground was WET!

My daughter has to be the only pitcher on the face of this earth that I know of that purposefully rolls the ball she's going to pitch on the ground when it's wet (and not just once either). When play resumed, guess what happened. She walked the next batter on 5 pitches. *sigh*

I discussed this with her after the game and let her know that if the ball ever feels too slippery, she is allowed to ask the umpire for another ball. Of course, I also advised her that she probably shouldn't roll grounders to her teammates to pass time if the ground is moist.

Fun 8U Moments

Here are the pictures I promised in my last post. It's from the first game of the season for my two daughters who play 8U. They were all excited because it was their first game and they had just gotten their new helmets, uniforms, bags, and jackets. They hadn't seen their uniform jerseys until that day, so at the end of this post I'll tell you what they told me about their uniform after I got home from my game that day.

But first, there are the pictures...

Two sisters at the field early on a Saturday morning




Big smile from my 8-year-old


Hmmm...looks like my 6-year-old is giving signals LOL


When I got home from my game that day, my girls were already out of their uniform. I hadn't seen it yet because they got it right before the game. So after I got home the both wanted to show my their uniform. My 8-year-old goes,

"Mom! You wanna see our jerseys?"

Before I could finish the word "Yes" she's off and running to go get her jersey.

My 6-year-old runs after her while she yells out, "Oh yeah! You wanna see our jerseys? They're so (now I'm waiting for her to say cool! or awesome! or something, but she says) preeettyyy!" *sigh*

I have a feeling that one will be choosing a bat based on color and appearance some time in the future. LOL

Use Your iPhone to Count Pitches

Wow, I just learned something new today! You can use your iPhone to count pitches. Of all the things an iPhone can do, I probably think this one is the coolest. LOL

I don't have an iPhone (my husband has one though), but I thought some of you out there might have one and be able to utilize iPitch.

This is what iPitch does:

• Displays total pitches.
• Displays total strikes and balls.
• Displays percentage of strikes thrown.
• Tracks up to 5 pitchers.
• Select your pitch mark, and it will flash red once it is reached.

Kinda cool huh? Learn more at ipitch.us.

I'm Not Ready

As I've said before, I'm so glad to have 8U softball in my life for now. It's always so refreshing to see the excitement of the players at this age! This past weekend, two of my daughters participated in their first 8U games of the season (I'll share a few pictures later this week).

Just a few weeks back I mentioned a few Sue Enquist Video clips. In one of them she talks about how preparing for a game helps take away anxiety and nervousness. I had just talked to the high school players I coach about this topic not long ago as well. So I found it quite interesting when, on the way to school on Friday morning (the day before my daughters first games), out of the blue my 6-year-old says,

"Mom, I'm not ready."

"Not ready for what?" I ask her (we weren't even on the subject of softball, we were just listening to music, riding in the car).

"For my game tomorrow," she says.

I didn't know what to say. My first thought was that it was obviously bugging her if she was thinking about it when we weren't even in a softball setting. Then I immediately began wondering what it was that was making her feel like she wasn't ready. I just couldn't imagine what would be going through a 6-year-old's mind to make her think that she wasn't prepared enough for her first game of the season.

All I could think of to tell her was that she'd been doing lots of practicing in all these weeks leading and that I was sure she would do fine. I was just surprised that she would give any thought to whether or not she was "ready."

She ended up doing quite well though. She played outfield so she didn't have any action on defense, but out of the 3 times she went up to bat she got on base twice. I have no idea if she got on on actual hits or on errors because I wasn't able to make the game since I had a game of my own. My husband was there, but he didn't exactly give me all those types of details. He said she was 2-3, but he's not exactly a "real" scorekeeper and I don't even know if he knows all the rules about how to figure out hitting stats and such. I imagine there was some kind of error along the way in at least one of those plays, but it doesn't really matter. My husband did take a bunch of pictures for me so that I could "see" some of that day so I was happy about that.

This weekend, my game doesn't overlap with theirs so I'll be able to watch be there this time. I can't wait!