Softball Speed Drills to Reduce Home to First Time

Lots of softball players need to improve their home to first time and get faster on the basepaths. To do this, they need to work on a handful of different aspects of their training:

• Overall strength
• Hamstring, glute and hip strength
• Explosiveness
• Sprint technique

In today’s article, we’ll cover sprint mechanics and speed drills that softball players and coaches can implement to get faster on the field.

My Three Favorite Speed Drills for Softball

The video below covers three sprint technique drills:

• The Crab start
• The Hop-back start
• The Plank start

All three of these drills help to improve a few core sprint mechanics techniques:

• Reactivity and explosiveness – how fast force is applied to the ground
• Low body angle – keeping a forward lean so as to apply force backward, to propel the body forward

If, as a coach, you only improved these two aspects, that would account for a huge improvement in the average softball player’s speed on the field.

Are Plyometrics Useful for Softball Speed Training?

Plyometrics are explosive exercises that help teach the body to apply force to the ground quicker. Yes, plyometrics are important training tools for some athletes, but the keyword is some.

Most young athletes are not strong enough to benefit greatly from plyometric training. This is because plyometrics teach an athlete to apply force faster, but they don’t much help athletes who have little force to apply in general.

So, if you’re very strong, plyometrics can make your strong muscles faster, which makes YOU faster.

But if you’re weak or average in strength, learning to apply this low amount of force faster isn’t useful – weak or average-strength athletes need to spend their training time getting stronger first, so they have more strength to apply to the ground. This will make them faster even without plyometrics training.

Improve Your Sprint Speed Today with My Complete Program

If you’re a fastpitch coach or individual parent or player, and you want to get faster, consider my new speed and agility program. It includes:

• A full 8-week at-home sprint workout for players to take home
• Team workouts for use at practice, before or after games
• A full dynamic warm up program
• Sprint drills for improved sprint form
• Arm swing progression to improve arm mechanics in the sprint
• A detailed agility program with cone drills drawn and demonstrated
• Videos explaining and demonstrating every core concept and drill
• Much more