What's up softball players, I'm coach Dan Blewett in today's video,
we're going to cover what you should be doing to prepare for tryouts
or to make a new team here in pre-season.
All right,
so let's run down this list of things that I would be doing if I was still a player
trying to make a new team , whether it's my high school team,
I'm trying to make a new travel team.
Whatever it is, you need to be in good shape and you need to be ready to go
and you don't want to run into these issues
where your legs are cripplingly sore, your arm is crazy
sore, you're getting blisters all over your hands.
So obviously building up so you're ready to go is really important.
So first thing you need a build, you're throwing up to where you're playing.
Catch five days a week.
This doesn't mean you need to throw 100% as hard as you can every day.
I do not advocate that, but you should if you haven't.
Yeah, and you should have already know that it's February, you should start,
you know, three days a week, throwing maybe 50 to 100 throws.
And again, these are like 70%.
Just like playing catch, you can throw someone a line
you don't have to burn out every time,
then to four days a week, then to five days a week
and then up to a maximum of, I would say, six days a week.
So that's important just to build the throwing volume of your arm
and you should be practicing if you're a catcher, your throws
on Bonds', you're throwing your part time with your footwork down
to second base and third base, simulate the stuff you would do in a game.
Don't just have a lazy catch with your friends, your dad, your mom, whoever.
So make sure you simulate the types of throws you'll make in a game.
That means if you're a versatile player, do your outfield footwork, do your infield
footwork, do all the stuff that you could be asked to do in tryouts.
The next thing is I advocate to distance runs a week now.
Distance running isn't necessarily the best thing for softball players
because you're not really running distance
in a game, but it does serve to get your body in good condition.
You're going to have long practices, you're going to have repeated sprints,
you're going to be on your legs for a long time.
So having a base of cardiovascular conditioning and is getting your legs some
durability by just having some consistent running is going to be good for you.
So I would suggest two runs a week, 20 minutes or so is totally fine.
You don't have to go for any really long distance runs.
But I think two runs of 20 minutes a week leading up to pre-season to tryouts
is definitely a good thing to do.
The next thing is weightlifting.
Here's the thing if you're if you're a month from tryouts
and you haven't started lifting weights, you've missed the boat.
You should have started twelve weeks ago to try to get 16 weeks, four good months
under your belt to actually make some strength gains into trials.
Now that being said, if you are planning to say, OK,
I know I started late, but I'm going to come in, I'm
going to live during the season two and through the summer, then sure, start now.
You know, late is better than never.
But at the same time, if you jump in the weight room today
and try to get three weeks or four weeks under your belt before tryouts,
it's not really going to have much of an effect.
Now again, three weeks, four weeks, you might get a little something,
but it's not going to make a big difference.
So but I do always advocate we haven't started spring
training as a softball player,
and you feel like you're mentally ready to do it and really commit to it.
Then today is the best day to start.
But again, if you're only a month from tryouts, you've kind of missed
that window where you're going to get faster, really get bigger and stronger.
You're not going to get that much of a gain in a month.
But by the end of the season, if you still stay on it
twice a week, three times a week, then you'll make some good gains long term.
So again, late is better than never.
But weightlifting, you should have started that back into the fall.
The next thing is sprinting.
You are going to have to sprint your face off and tryouts.
We all know this.
So you should be getting in a dip in addition to your distance
runs some sprints every week, maybe 6:12 sprints .
Maybe it's just 1230 yard sprints,
you know, before your distance run is a warm up after your distance run
and make sure you warm up before you sprint.
But sprinting is really important to many players.
They don't want to go out in the cold.
They don't want to get their sprint again because sprinting is hard.
It's painful at times you get really out of breath,
but sprinting is going to have you, you know, doing those repeaters,
hunting down fly balls in the gap and looking good in practice
and turning in your best 20 yard time to impress your coaches that home .
The first time is important right at home.
The third time is important.
So if you're not,
if you don't have a good basic conditioning,
the distance running can help a little bit.
But actually sprinting is the only thing
that's going to really get you in shape to have a faster sprint.
And it just you can keep your legs underneath
you as you do a lot of sprinting in the early part of the season.
So if you're trying to make a team
or you want to be in good shape, make sure you're at least doing,
you know, ten to 15 sprints, even if they're sure that's totally fine.
Twice a week is a good place to start.
The next thing is your swings.
Obviously, you know, not every player is going to be hit,
but most players are going to hit.
So if you are a hitter, still, you're not like a pitcher only
then you need to get a lot of hitting reps.
And here's the thing
you need to work on developing a routine that means what do I do off the tee?
What kind of drills do I like to do?
That stuff you need to develop on your own by either watching other YouTube videos?
I'm sorry to say I don't have a lot of hitting stuff on my channel,
but there are some good ones on YouTube to just do some research
or working with the local hitting coach words with your friends.
See what they do? What do they like to do?
But here's the problem a lot of players get themselves in trouble
because it's like three weeks on the season,
so they try to go hit for two hours every day.
That's not good. You're going to have a ton of blisters.
You're going to be in. You're going to be really sore.
So the goal is just to get contact time with you're hitting every day, spend
20 minutes in the cage every day.
Go hit wiffle balls off the batting tee in your backyard every day for 20 minutes.
It doesn't have to be gigantic doses that are going to make you really sore
and your hands are covered in blisters and blisters are a big problem
because they'll take two or three weeks to go away.
You know, get 20 minutes of good work working every day.
Really focused, really good work, and then try to do that five days a week.
That's a great way to do it rather than having these huge
hitting sessions trying to make up for lost time.
And then the last thing is find someone who can hit you ground balls,
find someone who can hit you, fly balls and the same thing.
Get out there three or four days a week.
This is going to help you get your legs under you, you know, flagging down
30, 40, 50 fly balls, taking a ton of ground balls.
And my last piece of advice would be go to go find a tennis court
or a basketball court, or if you just have a
good chunk of concrete or you live in a cul de sac or whatever.
Bounce a tennis ball off a wall to yourself and field it.
It's the best way to get a ton of ground ball wraps
that are going to work on your hand-eye coordination, work on your smoothness,
work on the softness of your hands as an infielder.
It's one of the best things you can do.
You can give yourself a 200 ground balls
just throwing a tennis ball off the wall in 15 minutes.
It's one of the best things you can do to get tons of short hops.
You can charge them, you know, you could do all of it,
and I have videos all linked below on some of the things you can do
playing volleyball, but I highly recommend that it's going to get you in shape.
It's fun, it's engaging, and it's going to give you a ton of reps
working on your ground balls in your hands without needing someone to get a bat
and hit them to you.
Because that's, I think, the bottleneck for a lot of players,
and this is my last thing.
It's your career.
So if you don't feel like, Oh, I don't have a partner like
my dad can hit very good fly balls to me or my, you know,
my mom doesn't have time to practice whatever
you have to find a way to get better.
So even if you don't have a ton of people in your life
who maybe can practice with you or you can hit your really good fly balls
because those are hard to hit properly, that's not easy.
You know, you have to find ways to do this
on your own, whether it's finding a friend,
putting yourself out there and asking around you like, Hey,
I know it's
sometimes scary and you feel vulnerable, saying, Hey, can I practice with you guys?
Can I tag along
or asking someone that you don't know very well to go out and practice
and hit with you?
You've got to do it
because if you don't have someone else to practice with, it's tougher.
And if you don't have anyone to practice with, you've got to be creative.
And that's where the wall ball stuff comes in.
You know, going and finding a local batting cage
that maybe you can use for free, whatever, but just be resourceful.
Back in the day, a lot of ballplayers, they just like,
you know, kids used to play outside more
and we would just be running around baseball and softball players
just running around like doing baseball and softball stuff .
You found a place to just go throw a ball off the wall
where you found old net, you're just chucking a ball against
or you find a place to sort of make a place to,
you know, you put your batting batting
tee against this, you know, hitting in the net and whatever.
So be resourceful because it always comes down to you.
If you want to get better and you want to make the team
and you don't have someone to practice with you and help you along.
Then it's up to you to figure out how to get it done.
All right.
So thanks for watching.
I hope this was helpful, and I hope you have a great try out season.
Now it's a stressful time of year.
I hated trials myself, but again being really prepared
and putting in the work is going to help ease your mind,
make you confident because you know you did everything you could do.
All right. Thanks again for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.