In today's video, I'm going to explain my three favorite speed drills
for softball players.
All right, so if you're new here, I'm coach
Dan Blewett and I'm a former pro pitcher
in my channel, you'll find videos on strength training arm care,
speed drills like this one throwing mindset, all that good stuff.
So if you're new here,
definitely consider subscribing and check out the links
below in the description, or you'll find my online courses for softball
and other videos related to this one.
So in today's video, we're going to cover speed drills for fast pitch
softball players.
And these are my three favorite ones that are more softball specific
and are going to address a couple of different things.
Number one. first step explosiveness.
Number two, low body angle, which I'll go into in a little bit.
Number three, a good arm
mechanics and number four, just a good explosive take off in general.
So one of the big things that players miss when they're trying to get faster
is their sprint form.
And these three drills are going to show you are really easy to implement at
practice if you're a coach
and if you're an individual player, it's really easy to do this in the backyard
or when you just go out and practice with your friends, your parents or whoever.
All right.
So this first drill is called the crab start,
and this drill works on a couple of different things the chief one being
getting your hips facing the direction that you need to run to.
So a lot of young players, they struggle when a ball is hit over their head,
whether an infielder outfielder, they struggle to take good first steps
without making a sort of banana route to the ball.
So the ideal is as soon as the ball's hit and you know, you have to go back on it,
you get your hips turned and in as exactly a straight line as you can.
So then you can run at full speed towards the ball
if your hips are not facing the way you're running.
You're going to run much slower than you otherwise would have.
So this crab start drill is one that's going to be really good
at helping players understand where their hips are going
so that they can take more efficient,
sharper routes going point A to point B in the game.
So let's check out my demonstration of the crab start,
which one of my favorite speed drills for softball players.
So the Crab Start teaches players to get their hips turned
in the direction that they're going as fast as they can.
So you'll see on the second one how I kind of have a little bit of a banana,
so I go out to the other side and the my roots, not as straight.
That's common.
And so this one teaches players to get their hips turned
before they start sprinting in their new direction.
All right.
So my second speed drill for softball that you can easily integrate into practice,
whether it's at home or at the field, is the sideways hop back drill.
And this is a drill
that works on two main things chiefly, no one is being reactive.
So you'll see, as I demonstrate, my fuel split
and my goal is as soon as my feet hit, I'm taking back off.
So that's reactive.
This right is like that hot lava ground.
As soon as your feet touch the hot lava, you got to get going.
Number two is low body angle because your feet will split in the air
as soon as you take off,
you're going to have this low body angle and low body angle is critical
because when you're accelerating, which is your first bunch of steps,
and in fact, even in like Olympic sprinters, it's their
first 40 or 50 yards , they're still accelerating.
So when you're trying
to accelerate your body, you have to push the ground away from you.
Too many young players, they immediately start running straight up and down.
And so they're pushing force down and up, which is better if you're jumping
rather than back to front, which is what you want if you're sprinting.
So let's check out the hot back drill.
So the sideways hop back is working on turning the hips
and being really reactive.
So as soon as the toes touch down, your athlete wants to be taking off
as fast as they can go.
So you're turning your hips 90 degrees, so they're going to turn all the way in
the air. And that's part of it, too.
And then the goal is to get again rocket off the ground
have as minimal ground contact time as possible and the feet should split
while in the air.
All right, so now that you understand a little bit more about body angle
and why it's so important because again, we want
to put force backwards into the ground to push our body away from it.
That's how you accelerate better.
Let's do one more speed drill here that works on that.
So this is the plank start, and this is a really easy drill.
You don't have to have a ton of upper body strength like you would
if you're on the ground doing a push up, that's a tougher sprint drill.
I use a variation, but the plank start is a great one.
And the reason I like to plank
start is because you're already again in that low body position.
And so when you know you blow the whistle or yell go or you snap your fingers
or whatever, players have to get going as quickly as they can.
And because they're already in that pushup position, that plank position,
they're immediately
going to have a couple, a couple of good, low body angle first steps.
So let's check out the plank start.
Low body angle is critical for getting a strong first couple steps.
So the plank start obviously keeps you low to the ground and it helps reinforce
that lower body angle.
So players should take a big step and keep their eyes down.
Looking for that lower body angle as they sprint,
they don't want to be standing up too early.
All right, so there you have it.
Those are three great sprint drills for softball players.
So if your coach, you can really easily integrate that into practice,
you know, do a couple of each one right after your dynamic warm up.
If you're a player and you want to get faster.
You need to be sprinting on your own time
so you can easily do these three drills as part of your sprint routine.
Working on ten yards, 20 yards, 30 yards, 40 yards, 60 yard dashes,
which are going to help you get better at that 20 yard that home the first time
that you really need to get down to be a well, recruited college player.
All right.
So if you enjoyed today's video, definitely subscribe.
Like the video? I'd really appreciate it.
And these three videos are from a package I made called pro routines.
So if your coach or your player and you want a full speed
and agility program, I have that package all together.
It goes way more in-depth than just these three drills.
It also includes warm up, dynamic, warm up flexibility,
mobility, starting pitcher routines, relief pitcher routines,
all these different routines that you would need
as a player to prepare and train and practice to be your best.
All right.
Thanks again for watching, and I'll see you here in the next video.