Softball players are powerful overhead athletes and should be trained accordingly. However in order to be powerful you must be strong.A comprehensive off-season strength and conditioning program should incorporate power, strength, proper movement, arm care, and injury prevention. An off-season training program for softball players should develop the athlete as a whole and prepare the athlete for the unique requirements of the sport of softball.
Strength
For youth and high school athletes strength training is as important as proper movement. Youth and high school athletes benefit tremendously from strength training because it teaches them how to create tension throughout their whole body with correct timing, on top of making them stronger, more athletic, and resilient. Being able to create tension at the right time directly correlates to sprinting, hitting, throwing, and fielding. Creating tension is achieved through compound movements with or without external loads (i.e. pushups, chin-ups, dead-bugs, squats and deadlifts). Most of these of these movements are performed in what is called the sagittal plane, it is very important that a softball player master compounds movements in the sagittal plane before training with external load in the frontal and transverse plane. Softball players live in the frontal and transverse planes during the season so it is also a good idea not to train them early in the off season to restore proper movement and address any imbalances that may have occurred during the season. As the program progressing lateral and rotational movements should be incorporated into the strength and power components of the training sessions.
Strength gains for youths are achieved through repetition and consistency. Set ranges should be between 2 to 4 sets and rep ranges for strength will be between 6 and 10 depending on the exercises. Bilateral movements will be performed in the first circuit, unless it’s an arm care or activation filler. Unilateral (single leg) movements should be performed after bilateral movements
Strength circuits should include lower body, upper body, core, and arm care exercises. Lower body and safe core training are extremely important for the softball athlete. The lower body and core produce and transfer force to the upper body for hitting and throwing. Lower body strength is imperative for fast and powerful athletes. The core should be trained to produce force, transfer force, and resist force.
Strength Exercises
Core Exercises
Power/Explosiveness
Power is listed after strength here, but power exercises should be performed before strength exercises in the workout. Power is mentioned after strength because in order for an athlete to be powerful they must be strong, the stronger an athlete is the more force they can produce. Power exercises are performed before strength exercises because power exercises are more demanding on the central nervous system and anaerobic energy system. Improving power in athletes will make them faster and more explosive. Being powerful means an athlete has the ability to produce a maximal amount of force in a minimal time. Softball players must be powerful athletes. Power should be trained via plyometrics, medicine ball work, and explosive lifts. Power should also be trained in all planes of motion, especially the frontal and transverse, to produce a greater carry over to softball.
Rotational Power Exercises
Lateral Power
Speed/Agility/Athletic Movement
Acceleration, lateral quickness, and proper athletic movement are vital attributes a softball player must master. These attributes can be taught and can be continually improved. This is where mastering the basics comes into play. When any softball player picked up a ball for the first time, their form was subpar to say the least. When an athlete is asked to sprint 20 yards with proper arm action, knee drive, and hip extension their form will also be suspect. Sprinting is a skill and it is advantageous for any athlete to begin training for speed at an early age. However, an athlete must be strong to be fast. As mentioned above, being strong allows an athlete to produce more force. When an athlete is sprinting, they are producing a significant amount of force into the ground to push them forward. An athlete without a strength and power base will not be fast or may plateau at a certain level. Speed training for softball athletes should focus primarily on acceleration; top end speed is very rarely reached in the sport of softball. Improving acceleration will improve base running, base stealing, time out of the batter’s box, and the time it takes an outfielder to get to the ball. Acceleration training should include acceleration mechanics, start drills, resisted start drills, reaction start drills, and sled training.
Lateral movement and proper athletic movement is primarily about skill acquisition and an athlete understanding proper biomechanics, joint angles, and controlling their center of gravity. Another key component of mastering these movements is being able to decelerate properly. Athleticism is not just how fast an athlete is, but how well they can accelerate, decelerate, reaccelerate, and change direction. Drills should be implemented to master these basics skills and progressed accordingly to work on lateral explosiveness and reaction.
Energy System Development (Conditioning)
Softball is completely an anaerobic based sport. On average, plays last no more than 7 seconds and rarely exceed 10 seconds, which the means the predominant energy system for softball is the ATP-PCr system (anaerobic). Softball requires energy from the ATP-PCr system between 80 to 95% of the time and 5 to 20% from the glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation (aerobic). With that being said, it is important to condition the athlete based on the demands of the sport. An aerobic base may be important to establish early in the off season, but it should not be the focus of conditioning for softball players. Using long, slow, distance training for a softball player will train the athlete to become slower because slow twitch fibers will be more predominant. Because softball is a power sport, we want them to have more fast-twitch fibers, conditioning should be done to preserve fast twitch while improving their anaerobic and aerobic capacity. This is accomplished by short intense work sessions and longer rest sessions (i.e. tempo runs, bike sprints, interval sprints, shuffle intervals). The short intense work sessions make the ATP-PCr system work really hard and the longer rest allows for the athlete to have enough energy to complete the next round. This type of conditioning has been proven to be just as effective in increasing an athlete’s aerobic capacity as endurance training but, it is more conducive and has a better carry over to the sport of softball.
Other components that make up a comprehensive softball training program are a proper warm up, arm care and position specific considerations.
If you are an athlete interested in getting stronger and becoming a better softball player or a parent who would like their daughter to get stronger, faster, and reduce their risk of injury then you must enroll in our Softball Combination Training. The program in 8 weeks compromised of one hour of hitting and one hour of strength training 2x/ week. You may find more information by the following the link below.
Contact Design Yourself Strong at 845-750-3456 or designyourselfstrong@gmail.com for more information or to enroll.
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