Tonight I had my second night of double headers for softball. This last Friday was the start of the actual season again. Looking at last year’s team and comparing them to this year’s team seems unfair. This year, I am on a team that gets along great and is always striving to do their best and work their hardest. The past couple of years, a lot of the players have been relatively lazy and haven’t tried to play to their full potential, thus bringing the entire team down.

After losing both games to Hutchinson, we knew the West High games would be even more important to the team. Since this is coach’s first year as a coach in Kansas, she is still learning and knows very little about the city teams. Thankfully, the older girls who have played a few years have been able to help coach with knowing other teams, umps, and just general rules of the game. Read the rest of this entry »

As if my schedule wasn’t full enough, softball season came faster than I expected! After a month of conditioning, softball has started (excuse the pun) in full swing.

This year, unfortunately since its my senior season, will be a year of rebuilding. Not only do we have an extremely young team, we also have a new coach that is fairly new to Kansas. Even though we are only three days into the season, I must admit that I have learned so much more from this coach than I have from any other. This excites me because I know there are a bunch of small things I need to work on that will improve my game and I know this coach will help me make these improvements. We have focused on the fundamentals every day so far and even though it gets a little repetitive, it will really help not only the younger girls but also us older girls who could use a few days going over basics again.

I am extremely excited for this season. Not only because it is my senior season, but also because it’s a young team, which not only allows me to be a leader on the team, but the fact that they are so young will allow me to try and teach them softball. I believe if you are able to teach something, you know it extremely well. And considering how long I’ve been playing, I would hope I know a lot about softball! So as the season progresses, I hope coach can help build a strong, young team that can help get East High‘s softball program back on its feet.

Ever since last softball season ended I have been awaiting the start of my senior season. After our first couple of softball meetings, my least favorite part of softball came up: conditioning. When coach started discussing conditioning with us, you could hear each girl in the classroom let out a groan. Although conditioning may not be a very fun part of a sport, it’s a great way to not only get in shape before season, but allow for team bonds to form quickly.

Being in good shape before season is always a great thing. By getting yourself into shape before your sport’s season starts, you are able to then focus on learning more and working on skills related to your sport rather than spending time on exercises that are not related specifically to your sport. By getting into shape before the season actually starts, this will allow you to get off to a much quicker start when it comes to your season starting.

Also, conditioning with your teammates allows you to form team bonds in a quicker manner than just showing up to practice and finding it slightly awkward the first couple of practices. By conditioning early with your team, this will allow you to both get to know them and get a general idea of the skill level your other teammates are on. Also, those who show up to conditioning are normally the ones who are more serious about the sport and are extremely dedicated to making themselves better and the team better.

So if you are considering conditioning, do it! There are many benefits that can only help you as a player when you go through conditioing, both on a personal level and a whole different level with the rest of your teammates!