I bet that is a question that you ask yourself a lot, or at least once anyway. I know I used to think so myself, back in the day. Little did we know back then of all the advanced training necessary to be an Elite athlete.

Training like an Elite softball player is hard work but not that far off from what most of you are doing now. I don't claim to be an expert in the field, I'll leave that to guys like Marc Dagenais and Barry Lovelace;you can find out from those guys more of what you need to do.

Some things that the Elite Softball players do is use elite softball gear. They use the best softball gloves, the best bats, the best training gear and the best mental training they can get.

The best athletes, in any sport understand they need to begin with dynamic warmups to get the body warm and stretched. This gets the muscles moving and the nervous system firing early. There are many studies that show static stretching to be detrimental to an athletes performance if done before performance. It actually takes an hour or two for your muscles and nervous system to get back into form after static stretching. This is why elite athletes use dynamic warmup routines specific to their sport. Stretching is to be done after the workout or game, and at home.

Advanced softball players use advanced workout routines. They spend a lot of time building and strengthening the core of the body. You have to build your foundation first to have a strong house (your body is your house).

Muscle Endurance is another aspect of elite softball players. This ties in with the strong core - you have to be balanced. Build a strong balance on both sides of your body, don't train just one side. Pitchers must have exceptional balance, otherwise they won't throw consistent and they will hurt themselves. I see so many girls with sore or pulled muscles in the back and shoulders of the non-throwing side. This comes from being so strong on the throwing side and not training the other side that you try to balance yourself with untrained muscles and bones on the opposite side.

Fastpitch Softball is a very dynamic, quick twitch sport. There is not a lot of long distance running. Pitchers need to have explosive power and endurance to last 7 innings or so. Fielders need to be able to react to hot hit balls in the blink of an eye and continue doing so for several games in a row at times.

Work on one leg, one arm at a time strength exercises. Use free weights to do one leg bent over rows. This really strengthens the legs. Remember to do both sides.

Do pushups on those big exercise balls to work your stabilizer muscle groups in the shoulders and upper body. Try also pushups with your feet on the ball for a different set of muscles.

Explosive strength exercises such as squats, plyometrics, clean and jerk with weights are all great for elite softball play.

Advance hitting specific strength drills with a stick such as the hammer drill.

Work on speed and agility but focus on how to move more efficiently so you don't waste energy getting from place to place.

There are lots of things that elite softball players do to stay at the top of the game. They are coming up with new exercises all the time, but the emphasis is still on balance and core.

Now, if you want to know if you have the DNA to be an elite softball player check out this company - Atlas Sports Genetics - that does DNA testing of young kids to determine which sport they are best suited, genetically speaking, for. I don't know about you but this sounds like something out of the old cold war Russian programs.
There may be something to this, its up to you to decide.

Keepin' it Real...