RUNNING FOR MORE
SPEED, MORE POWER
The paragraphs below are pulled from a much longer article titled “Is Running the Best Workout for Softball Players?” by Carly Schonberg (carly@fastpitchpower.com) posted at Gary Leland’s Fastpitch.TV @ www.Fastpitch.TV. Please CLICK HERE for the full story.
“Sustained slow to moderately paced running—which is what you get when you jog for miles— does not improve strength, stability, flexibility, speed, or power. Additionally, hitting the ground repeatedly with poor posture and leg alignment can lead to shin, knee, hip, and back pain...
“WHAT PHYSICAL CAPACITIES ACTUALLY CONTRIBUTE TO SPEED AND POWER? Your running speed, as well as your pitching, hitting, and throwing power, come from how hard you can push off the ground with your legs. WHEN YOU'RE SPRINTING AROUND THE BASES OR RUNNING DOWN A FLY BALL, your feet are pushing off the ground one at a time. WHEN YOU PITCH, you're pushing with one leg off the pitching rubber. WHEN YOU HIT, your swing is initiated by a quick push in your back leg. WHEN YOU THROW, you set your foot on your throwing side and push off of it to initiate the throwing motion.
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| Wesley Wolverine freshman #4 P/ UT Abbey Mayse (Cecilton, MD). |
“THE MORE FORCE YOU APPLY TO THE GROUND THROUGH YOUR LEGS AND FEET, THE FASTER AND FARTHER YOU'LL PROPEL YOURSELF. When you're sprinting, you want to use that energy to keep moving forward as powerfully as possible. When pitching and hitting, you want to collect all that force and then use a strong, stable front leg and core to redirect the energy into your bat or pitching arm.
“HOW DO YOU PUSH HARDER INTO THE GROUND? By making your legs stronger. Specifically, you need tremendous strength in your gluteal muscles and tremendous stability in your hips and core for each of softball's required skills/components that long-distance running does not address. So what's the most effective way to make your legs stronger? Exercises like squats, dead lifts, lunges, step-ups, and jumping activities are a good choice...
“ATHLETES CAN BEGIN DOING THESE EXERCISES USING JUST THEIR OWN BODY WEIGHT and gradually increase with weights as they become stronger, ALWAYS WITH SUPERVISION for proper form. If you must run, run on hills. In contrast to running with low resistance on flat ground, you will need to push hard and use your gluteal and abdominal muscles to stabilize your hips and core—strengths which, as I mentioned above, are necessary for softball skills.
“LONG DISTANCE RUNNING DOES HAVE ONE NOTABLE BENEFIT: cardiovascular endurance. Endurance is absolutely necessary for overall fitness, and running has long been the most popular choice for achieving this because it's easy and free.
“HOWEVER, RUNNING IS NOT THE ONLY WAY TO ACHIEVE CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE. Performing the above-mentioned exercises in rapid circuits (never sacrificing form!) will provide you with a great cardio workout, one that can be even more challenging than running. It's also more efficient than running and weight training separately, because you're working on both strength and endurance at the same time, all the while constantly developing softball-specific physical abilities.”
