Softball Tips
Any person who plays softball can benefit from some good softball tips. Although the ball is larger and pitched underhand, there are many similarities between the games of baseball and softball, especially in the areas of fielding and hitting.
Among the best fielding softball tips you can get is to not wait for the ball to come to you. In softball the ball travels slower than it does in baseball so it is even more critical to aggressively play every ball that is hit to you. That means not waiting for the ball but actually running towards the ball to meet it and either fielding it off the ground as quickly as possible or catching it. If the ball is hit to the outfield, aggressively approaching the ball will allow you to get it back to the infield as quickly as possible so that no extra bases can be taken.
When it comes to softball--tips should include this big one: never ever take your eye off the ball. Just as in fielding, big mistakes can be made in hitting if you take your eye off the ball. You need to watch the ball from the moment it leaves the pitcher’s hand until you see your bat connect with the ball. Never take your eyes off it for one second or you will lose concentration so quickly that you will never be able to hit it.
In softball you need to have as quick a bat as you possibly can to hit the ball. This means that you should grip the bat as loosely as you can. If you grip the bat tight as in a death grip, you will lose movement and power. You can never be a truly good hitter if you hold your body in a tense position and this applies especially to how you grip your bat.
In any type of softball--tips should include this very important one: accelerate your bat speed when it connects with the ball. The tendency is to slow up once the bat and the ball connect. You must make the reverse of this happen--you must accelerate your bat into ball--even think in your head that you are hitting through the ball to get to something beyond it. When two objects collide with one another they slow down. The same is true of the bat and the softball. The last thing you want happening is for your bat to slow--so increase all your strength and momentum into the ball when the bat connects. Never lay off the ball at that point.
You will also get best results in softball as in baseball when you concentrate on hitting the ball on its lower half. This causes the ball to spin. It makes the ball carry farther and it also makes the ball harder to field should it be a grounder.
All of the really good softball players incorporate weightlifting into their training programs. You can make significant improvements in your hitting power with strength training. It doesn’t require living at the gym--in fact, thirty minutes three times a week is all you need as long as you concentrate on the major muscle groups.
Softball is one of the highest participant sports in the U.S. with close to 60 million players. The game is a lot of fun to play and if you take to heart a few softball tips, you can become an even better player.