And we just keep going..! Two rainouts result in another week of the 2016 season. This Saturday Roef!, UVV, Sparks and Terrasvogels will play for the Golden League spot and the the National Title.
Meanwhile my 2017 season has started! I am doing more of the fun stuff that is out there besides softball and fitness, but not working out makes me restless and unhappy so I started with some fitness last Saturday and finished my third workout today.
As promised I would show you more of what I do during the winter, as the video shows you, I start with deadlifts. My week started with two sessions with the squat as main exercise because my hamstrings where kinda tight, today I was ready for the deadlift.
From experience I know not many softball players actually lift. We do have conditioning and strength ‘stuff’ on the field, but the gym is not a place we are found often. I always liked running and fitness but since I started lifting I got obviously stronger, but also faster.
And after last year a winter without the heavy weights you could definitely tell I got slower and pitched with less velocity.
So… now the actual deadlift! In my opinion the deadlift is the best exercise out there for softball pitchers. Leg drive is the base of pitching and the more power you can deliver from your legs, the more explosive your pitch can be. To get from strength to power you need speed (strength x speed = power). This is why you don’t lift the weight slowly and gradually, but you set and lift ‘fast’.
Looking closely at which movement the deadlifts is and which muscles are used you can see the relation to softball pitching (and sprinting). The weight you are pushing up is basically the weight you can push off the pitching mound.
Eva