What's up softball players. I'm Coach Dan Blewett. In today's
video, let's talk about the routines and the things that you
should do during your softball season.
Alright, so if you're new here, I'm Coach Dan Blewett. I do tons
of videos on softball, throwing mechanics on softball, throwing
drills, fielding footwork, strain training, arm care,
mindset, all that stuff. So if you're new here, definitely
subscribe. And check out some of my other videos, because I've
got lots of stuff for almost anything that you're looking to
learn. So today, let's talk about the things that you should
do on a weekly basis during your softball season. So first, let's
talk about routines for your major skill. So obviously, like
pitchers, I know you're going to pitch every week you're going to
have, you know, you're going to throw your bullpens, you're
going to play catch a lot like that's, that's a given, we don't
really talk about that too much. Same thing with hitting hitting
is fun, right? So I'm sure if you're watching this video,
you're going to the cage regularly. But the things that
get overlooked are your fielding routine, and your throwing
routine. So your throwing routine as far as your overhand
throwing mechanics. Obviously, I have tons of videos on throwing
mechanics here. But you should have some semblance of a
practice throwing routine. That's not just what you do to
get warmed before the game, which that's really, really,
really important. But you should have a couple of drills, whether
it's three, four or five, six drills that couple days a week
when you don't have practice, you're still working on your
craft as an overhand thrower, because everyone's goal should
be to get to 60 miles per hour. Before you know like your junior
year in high school. that's reasonable. I've seen almost
every girl who's very devoted and has some athleticism and
really works at it can get to that that 60 mile per hour mark
and that's a really good throwing velocity where you can
definitely play in college and be successful pretty much any
position with that velocity. So you should definitely have a
throwing routine in addition to your pitching or you're hitting
a routine. And the other one is your fielding routine, so
infielders, this should be you going to whether it's just like
the concrete wall on your back on your back patio or on a next
year school, like I'm sure after school, somewhere like schools
are jumping, you know, they're ginormous, there's brick walls
everywhere. They're made of cinder blocks typically. So
there's got to be someplace you'd go after school before you
get picked up or whatever. Take a tennis ball and bounce it off
yourself. And I have some drills I'll put in the description
below. wall wall is huge. So if you're an infielder, you should
be doing daily fielding stuff and it's so easy to do this with
just your hands, or you get one of those paddles, you could take
a ping pong paddle, chop off the handle, put some Velcro on the
back so you can make your own little paddle and just work on
your hands. So again, hitting and pitching is the fun stuff.
You know, obviously not everyone's a pitcher. But the
things that get overlooked again, are your throwing routine
and working on improving your throwing mechanics over time and
your fielding routine. That's a really important one. I don't
want to leave it outfielders. Same thing for you outfielders
work on your pro step footwork, work on drop steps, get someone
to throw balls over your shoulder. You can also do this
with a wallboard routine by bouncing it right before the
wall. So the hops up high, you can move back left, right work
on your footwork. And obviously get someone that you that you
know, to hit you fly balls as regularly as possible. There's
no way to get better at your judgment, and your reads and
your reactions without getting actual flyballs. The next one is
arm care. This is something that's not as overlooked in
baseball because baseball boys hurt their arms a lot because of
how hard they throw in the lighter baseball and softball
arm care is becoming more of a thing. But it's not so something
that I've seen that many players just do on their own until
basically they're hurt, or they're starting to hurt. And
then someone like me or a strength coach helps him with an
arm care routine. But if your arms not hurting yet, it
probably will someday because you saw players plays, sometimes
six games in a weekend, that's a lot of a lot of strain on your
shoulder. And overuse is a very, very big cause of injury and
pain. So an arm care routine, three days a week, 20 minutes,
it's not hard to do, I have again, I have videos for that on
my YouTube channel. Even if it's really simple, that's totally
fine, you get a couple exercise that you can do in front of the
TV, you can do it the field, Blackburn's are a great one, I
have the whole pull apart series where you take a simple band,
you stretch the band apart and pull your shoulder blades
together, extra rotations, all the stuff that you need to be
diligent with it and needs to be three days a week or more to
have a meaningful effect over time, it doesn't have to be a
half hour, there's a really big thing. But 15 or 20 minutes,
three times a week will make a very big difference not only for
your preventing arm pain, but also for increasing your
velocity because it's you strengthen these muscles in your
rotator cuff, you're gonna throw harder. The next one is strength
training. And again, I think strength training should be done
when you're ready to do it. Because it's a grind. You're
going to once you start strength training, you're not going to
stop until you basically you're done playing. So if you're 12
years old, and you're like I don't really feel like doing
that it's kind of intimidating. I don't want to do that. I'm
playing other sports. I like doing other things. You still
want to be a kid. That's totally fine. But once you're ready and
you feel like hey, I really want to be a better player. I'm
starting to see some other players who are more physical
than me, who can run fast or certainly hit the ball a lot
faster, I'm starting to get left behind I'm a little smaller,
might be sign for strength training, or if you're a little
bigger, you're 14 1516. But you've never done it yet. If
you're 15 year old and you haven't done strength training,
yet, you really want to play in college, you're just behind.
Unfortunately, everyone's doing it now. So it's starting to get
younger and younger. So really, I think if you're 14, and you've
never done strength training before, it's time to start,
because you're gonna get left behind, you'll have a couple
critical years to get physical, big and strong. So that you look
the part when a college coach comes to recruit a potential
college athlete, they don't want to see little girls, they want
to see essentially closer to grown women when they're on the
recruiting trail. So if you're not doing strength training,
yet, it might be time to consider it. Again, everyone's
situation is different. But strength training is a really
important piece of every high level players game. And lastly,
I'd say some sort of mental practice. And this doesn't have
to be again, a huge rigorous thing. But just like if you're
the field and have the luxury of time, just finding a spot by
yourself or use, lay on your back, stare up in the clouds, or
close your eyes and just get 510 minutes of quiet time and
visualization. I think that's huge. Again, it doesn't have to
be this whole dedicated thing, I had a big mental practice that I
started when I was 2425. And I would have been ready for that
when I was younger. But when I did finally sit down to do it,
it made such a meaningful impact on my career, it allowed me to
stay more calm under pressure, it allowed me to handle bad
situations where I was stressed, it allowed me to handle slumps a
lot better. It just, it just did a lot of positive sort of
rewiring my brain, even if it's just five minutes just to get
away from your teammates, get away from your cell phone, get
away from screens for a little bit. Having some sort of mental
price of the field. Or just like part of your daily ritual on
game day, I just think is really, really important. And
it's it's good in this society where you're always sort of on,
you're always by your screens and your phone and all that
stuff. And it's good just to disconnect even if it's a couple
of minutes, a couple of days a week. All right. So hopefully
this helps. I think it's sometimes important. Just do one
of these sort of checkup videos where I just remind you like
these are the things that all the high level players tend to
do that are really valuable because sometimes you can Oh
yeah, I've been doing a lot of hitting and I've been crushing
it pitching. I've been crushing the weight room, but I haven't
done a fielding practice on my own in a while. So hopefully
this jog at least just like one thing that you can kick back
into your routine and have a really great productive season.
All right. So thanks again for watching. Be sure to check out
the description below where you'll find some of the videos I
alluded to my online courses, all that other stuff. Thanks
again for watching, and I'll see you here in the next video.