Strength Exercises

Photo Courtesy of realsimple.com

Being a Pitcher can put a lot of strain on your arm and shoulder so being an active participant in the weight room is a very good idea. If any person does any type of strenuous activity in sports and does not have the sufficient amount of muscle to complete the act they will easily tear something. Some simple but very effective exercises to do in the weight room are as follows.

• Over the shoulder dumb bell lifts
• Single Arm Rows
• Side Shoulder Raises
• Upright Row with a weighted bar
• Bicep curls with a weighted bar
• One-Arm Dumbbell Triceps Curl
• Alternated Dumbbell Press

All of these exercises above vary in the spot on your body that you are training but it is also important to strengthen your core as well. Whether you are hitting, pitching, or playing in the field in the sport of softball or baseball, your core strength plays a huge factor. My advice would be to do a lot of sit ups and use a medicine ball. Always continue doing more sit ups every week. Being a pitcher is a lot of tough work but in the end all the hard work you put in will definitely pay off.

USA Olympic Softball Players Featured in ESPN's The Body Issue

Photo Courtesy of ESPN The Body Issue



At first glance many people may be very confused by this photo. It is not what you think, I promise! This photo is from ESPN's Annual magazine called The Body Issue. This magazine features athletes with little or no clothing at all. The purpose of this magazine is to try and break the mold of all the bodies we are used to seeing within the media. These women from the USA olympic softball team posed for the first issue in 2009. This magazine features not only lean in shape athletes but short stocky and heavy sumo wrestlers as well.

Jessica Mendoza is posing in this photo, she is the woman who is 8 months pregnant. When asked of her thoughts on the magazine and purpose of her being in the photo she said...

"I see this as almost groundbreaking and kind of changing the mold of what we see as beautiful," Mendoza said (you could hear her infant son burbling in the background).

"To be honest, I'm sick of working with young women, girls, teenagers, and they are constantly thinking they're too fat or too buff or too this. . . . They want to look like the Paris Hiltons of the world. It bothers me because it's so unrealistic. There are so many beautiful bodies out there. Athletes are not. And I just want every young girl to see their own body, or part of their body, in this issue."

Interview above courtesy of David Gibson, politicsdaily.com

Now it is up to you to decide whether you can appreciate what ESPN is doing with The Body Issue. Is it for the purpose they are portraying or are they just trying to make an extra buck by putting nude athletes in a magazine?

To have a Pitching Coach or not to....?

Photo Courtesy of softballtips.wordpress.com

There comes a time in every young girl's pitching career that she either thinks about getting a pitching coach or decides that she needs one. My best advice to give any girl out there is to make sure you have one. A pitching coach is a good tool to have but lessons with your pitching coach do not need to take place everyday. It would be great if both parties could contribute that much time but this would also get expensive. Having a pitching coach is a good idea because by having one you can allow yourself to grow as a pitcher. Your coach can see your habits and fix them, teach you new pitches, and also attend your games to see the different things you may do in a game compared to practice.

Some Tips to finding a good Pitching Coach are...

• Make sure they are a reliable credible person. It would be a good idea to have a girl instructing you that at least played college softball.
• Make sure they are friendly and like to engage with you.
• Also, if you feel they don't pay enough attention to your personal needs move on to someone else.

Softball - There's nothing soft about it!

Many people think that since the name of our game is softball, that our ball is actually soft. For those of you who have never touched a softball, I can assure you there is nothing soft about the ball we play with. Also people say baseball, softball…what’s the difference, there is none right? WRONG! There are many differences between the game we play and the game our brothers play and it’s definitely more than just the fact that our ball is highlighter yellow.

In baseball the bases are 90 feet apart where as in softball they are just 60 feet apart. In softball the pitching rubber is just 43 feet away in college at least and the pitching mound is baseball is 60 feet from the catcher. You may realize now that softball is a faster game than baseball. A lefty slapper in division 1 softball makes it down the line in about 2.7 seconds on average, that doesn’t give much time to mess around when a ground ball is hit in the infield where in baseball I’d like to say everyone seems to take their sweet time on making a simple play. Just shared a few differences in these two very different games, but which is better?

That is for you to decide!

Phases to Pitch Speed

There are 3 key things that need to happen when throwing your fastball to maintain your pitch speed.

• Explosive drive off the rubber
• Weight back on the downswing
• Pushback on the stride leg

When you want to have explosive drive off the rubber you really need to focus on "exploding" just like a sprinter does in track. It is how fast a pitcher comes off the rubber that really will tell you how fast her pitch is going to be. A lot of pitchers have been told the longer step they take the more velocity they will have. That is not true, the more explosive the harder you will throw.



When reaching back in the downswing it is crucial to reach toward second base. Although in this picture the pitcher isn't reaching back yet you can still see the conscious effort she is making by keeping her arm straight all the way through to keep good velocity. 

The last step is to finish with a good pushback resistance. Just as a batter does when they are batting a pitcher needs to keep her weight on her back leg to really be able to release and downswing successfully.

The Ultimate Act of Sportsmanship

An Inspiring Softball Story



Photo courtesy of seattletimes.nwsource.com

I came across this story a few years ago and it is a story that moved me so much when I read it so I think I should share it with everyone. Something remarkable happened in a softball game between Central Washington and Western Oregon, something Sara Tucholsky would never forget. She had never hit a homerun in all the years she played softball, but on this day she did. With two runners on she proceeded to take her run around the bases but as she ran over first base she realized that she had missed it. Being an honest player, she turned back to go and touch it but as she did her knee buckled and she fell to the ground in enourmous pain. None of her teammates were allowed to touch her as she would not get credited for the homerun, she would only be awarded a single.

In a moment of compassion, the first baseman from Central Washington decided to speak up. Mallory Holtman asked the umpire if her and another teammate from her team could carry her around the bases. After deliberation the umpires came to a decision that they agreed on. Mallory Holtman and the shortstop for Central Washington proceeded to carry Sara Tucholsky around the bases letting her good foot touch each base.

Western Oregon took the double header that day and Sara Tucholsky took her homerun. Although she was not able to finish her season due to the injury she took with her this great act beyond sportsmanship that these wonderful girls gave her. We all need to remember sometimes winning isn't everything, it is about just doing what is right.

Go ahead and see this wonderful story for yourself,

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