Speed Work

I am amazed at how many players show up for tryouts with beautiful swings, they can throw the ball on a rope, but they run like they have never had a single speed workout. I had several girls in the last two days who showed up for tryouts and we shaved a significant amount of time of their 60' and 240' just by teaching them how to run. Sometimes at a tryout all things will be equal and it might come down to the 60' time. Even if your DD is not fast, some speed training will make her faster than what she is and will make her look a lot more athletic at tryouts.



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55dad said:

I am amazed at how many players show up for tryouts with beautiful swings, they can throw the ball on a rope, but they run like they have never had a single speed workout. I had several girls in the last two days who showed up for tryouts and we shaved a significant amount of time of their 60' and 240' just by teaching them how to run. Sometimes at a tryout all things will be equal and it might come down to the 60' time. Even if your DD is not fast, some speed training will make her faster than what she is and will make her look a lot more athletic at tryouts.



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Hover boards and electronic devices kill athleticism

55dad said:

I am amazed at how many players show up for tryouts with beautiful swings, they can throw the ball on a rope, but they run like they have never had a single speed workout. I had several girls in the last two days who showed up for tryouts and we shaved a significant amount of time of their 60' and 240' just by teaching them how to run. Sometimes at a tryout all things will be equal and it might come down to the 60' time. Even if your DD is not fast, some speed training will make her faster than what she is and will make her look a lot more athletic at tryouts.



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I'm open to resources you may have that help to focus on speed training. Good point, btw.

55dad said:

I am amazed at how many players show up for tryouts with beautiful swings, they can throw the ball on a rope, but they run like they have never had a single speed workout. I had several girls in the last two days who showed up for tryouts and we shaved a significant amount of time of their 60' and 240' just by teaching them how to run. Sometimes at a tryout all things will be equal and it might come down to the 60' time. Even if your DD is not fast, some speed training will make her faster than what she is and will make her look a lot more athletic at tryouts.



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I can say from experience that many kids who play Softball, even at elite levels don't run...
As an athlete running is critical to the overall conditioning and muscle building required for all aspect of the game.
Three years ago I overheard a coach at a tournament comment that bigger girls play softball because they don't have to run. We have one of these so called bigger girls in our program who can outrun every other kid.

Our 10U team did an agility class over the winter. That stuff makes a big difference IMO. We'll probably incorporate it into our regular practices this year.

You can teach speed, to a certain extent. Way back in high school.... we had a offensive lineman, slowest guy on the team. Over the summer he worked on his speed, mostly plyometrics. He became the fastest guy on the team and the starting 230lbs tailback. It was an amazing transformation. Kid was a beast.

So Cal Seth said:

I'm open to resources you may have that help to focus on speed training. Good point, btw.

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You could start with a quick Google search on some topics such as:

- speed and agility training
- sprinting mechanics
- plyometrics
- weight training for speed and agility

There are a whole lot of good ideas out there. Your local high school track coach can probably help some. My DD was fast and got faster after working on some things with a good track coach. She really worked on lengthening her stride and the difference is significant.

Fixing some mechanical things such as getting the arms pumping correctly and getting good knee drive can quickly increase speed.

Some girls like to leap too high in the air on each stride and others actually run side to side while running forward or get their arms out in front of them swinging almost sideways while they run. If you can get them focusing all their momentum in one direction they can have some fairly easy gains in speed.

I could go on and on!



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grcsftbll said:

Our 10U team did an agility class over the winter. That stuff makes a big difference IMO. We'll probably incorporate it into our regular practices this year.

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We incorporated it into practice. We told all the girls that we can't make them all fast but we can make them all faster. If that means every player beats out 1-2 more groundballs over the course of the season and maybe gets to 1-2 more balls in the field, that can make a huge difference for a team.

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