Practice Makes Perfect

Practice makes the master, they say. Anything you devote your life to needs effort. No one’s ever going to stand out at anything, either music, sports, a career, etc. without practicing. Softball is nothing different in this case.
Winning softball matches is not based on natural skills, but rather on a combination of team collaboration, a good knowledge of the insights of the game, and tons of tons of practices. There are many ways of creating an effective practice routine, but it might not be so easy to find the perfect one. In this article, we have gathered 5 tips to make the most out of your practice.

5 Tips to Create the Perfect Routine

Here are five tips to strengthen your abilities and increase your mental and physical toughness.

Time Matters!

As you probably know, time is essential in softball. It is the first thing we must take into account when elaborating our practice routine. We need to create a doable and effective plan. Nothing that’s not within our reach.
Set a specific time for the different activities you want to work on and stick to it. Try to make the most out of every session without forcing yourself to train excessive hours. Balance is what really matters.

2. Get Started with Warm-Ups

Warm-ups are, no doubt, one of the most important parts of any sport in general, and of softball in particular. It helps fire up the body to enable the player to perform at their fullest. But more often than you’d imagine, players forget about this step.
This, apart from unproductive, is very dangerous. Start training full-intensity without having previously prepared your body for that can cause serious muscular lesions.

3. Versatility is essential

It is true that depending on the position you’re playing, you’ll need to manage different game-specific moves. Softball pitchers might spend more time practicing pitching styles and techniques, while hitters would work more on their hit craft.
But it is a huge mistake to only focus on the game-specific moves related to your position in the field. In softball, it is essential for the players to manage all the roles, not only the one they have. Versatility might be the key to winning games.
Try to train and manage every position. This would be incredibly helpful, especially when it comes to substitutions.

4. Set your priorities

Technic exercises and practicing game-specific moves is essential in a softball practice, we agree on that. But there are many other factors to work on that are essential to improve your performance in the field.
Decision-making, focus, and agility are also very important to work on if you want to improve your skills. Pick softball drills that will heighten these areas.
It would be necessary to give about 80% of your practice time to work on these factors. Mastering them will not only reduce the mistakes during the game, but it will also increase the chances of your team of winning.

5. Take a rest!

It is essential to give the most of you during the practices and to stay consistent with them. But as important as this might be, it’s not as important as resting.
There’s no better player than a rested one.

So, remember, practice makes the master. There’s no success without some effort. Follow these tips and you’ll create an effective practice routine.